Hello Everyone,

So sorry we haven’t blogged for ages it wasn’t just a ploy to get you all excited in anticipation for the next one it’s just we haven’t had time!

Well we last left you when we got back from our trip to Alice Spring and the great big rock in the middle of OZ. After the trip we flew back to Melbourne and went to the hostel we stayed at before called Hotel Discovery. We had about a week until our flight to Auckland in New Zealand so we tried to fit in as much as we could! One evening we went to the Myer bowl where the Melbourne Symphony Opera were putting on a free show they do this over the summer! Although it’s not really our choice of music it was free so we took advantage! The gates opened at 4 so we knew we had to get there early to secure a spot. Like we have said before the Australians know how to do outdoors and when the doors open at 4 they get there at 3.30 with the most amazing picnics. Not to be out done by the Australians again, great planning went into our picnic, choice of clothes we wore and what we were going to sit on! We thought we had finally cracked it when we got a great spot with a perfect view. We had blankets to sit on and blankets to wrap around us during the evening when it got cold, we had sandwiches, salads, bag of crisps, fruit and some chocolate oh and a cheeky glass of wine each. We were sitting there all smug nearly finishing our food when we hear corks popping all around us the Australians have only upped their game and bought champagne with them! We were devastated we thought we got it right, but no they were all sipping champers handing out the smoked salmon sandwiches, cheese and crackers! After admitting defeat we got on with watching the show which was brilliant, it was a midsummer night’s dream medley and the conduct was Benjamin Northey – who apparently is very up and coming! After a great evening we went back to our hostel to a very surprising evening with two strangers – its not what your thinking we can only wish! Well after falling asleep in our dive of a room we had to share with 6 other people, we were woken at 3 am to the security guard turning on our lights shouting to see everyone’s I.D. So there we were half asleep holding up our key cards. The reason for this was because two guys had managed to get into our room without a key and were sleeping on what they thought was two spare beds. They were in fact wrong the beds were taken and the poor girl who came into the room to get into bed was shocked to see a strange man in it! We couldn’t believe this had happened. We had to check our bags to make sure the guys had not stolen our passports or other valuables. We even heard the security guard say to one of the guys I have spoken to you about doing this – apparently he is a regular! So after that we were trying to get back to sleep, when another girl came into the room after a night out, the night was obviously a success as she had managed to bribe some guy back to the room. After stumbling in and turning the light on we had to hear them getting it on. They both then left the room making more noise as they went. We thought finally we can now get some sleep but no another girl comes back (the other girls friend), this girl had also brought a guy back with her! So after not 1 but 2 live shows that night, guess who makes a second appearance it’s only the security guard and this time he has brought back up with him! He comes in turns on the light and throws this guy out! So finally at 5am we are able to get some sleep! In the morning we were still annoyed, we understand in a dorm room we are always going to get people bringing other people back to the room but the girls didn’t even apologies to us. We were more annoyed that strangers could just get into our room so we went reception to say something, they were not at all helpful they didn’t apologies and said if we wanted to move rooms we would have to check out at 10am and then check into our new room at 2pm. This was not an option, we couldn’t hang around with our bags as we only had a couple of days left in Melbourne and we had plans, they did have lockers but they were really expensive so in the end we stayed one more night as we had paid for it and then moved hostels. We couldn’t do much as it is such a big hostel but we did write a review about it on one of the websites it started of with, WORD OF WARNING HOTEL DISCOVER: DO NOT STAY HERE! That made us a little bit happier! Smaller run hostel are so much better you meet more people and the people running it actually care if you have a nice stay!

While also in Melbourne we met up with one of Stephanie’s old school friends called Rohan who moved to Australia. It was really great to see him and was so good to go out with a local as they know the best places to eat and drink! We had a really great night in some great bars that we would have never have gone to, a lot of the good bars in Melbourne are hidden. The next day was a day full of fashion museums, pictures were taken and notes were written while I sat outside and listened to my iPod! We also went to the botanical gardens one evening to the outdoor cinema this was courtesy of the Sidwells as they gave us their tickets. The gardens were amazing and we had a great night the only downfall was that we took what we thought were chocolate raisins it turned out they were liquorice covered in chocolate it nearly ruined the night but the film was good, apart from half way through we screamed as some creature which ran past us, we were later informed by the Aussies next to us that it was a possum we got really excited that we had seen one, the group of Aussies just looked at us strangely and laughed! On our last day in Melbourne we met our friend Louise from the China trip for coffee as it was her birthday, it was great to see her one last time before we left. After getting back to the hostel we made food for the next two days as we didn’t know if we would get food on the plane and when we got to Auckland we had to wait 11 hours for our next flight to Queenstown, where we met up with our Nan! For those of you who don’t know our Nan was travelling with friends on a tour around New Zealand . It worked out that they had a free day in Queenstown so we booked the first flight down there.

We got our bags and got ready to leave the hostel for the Airport. We had scheduled to arrive at the airport early just in case. It was a good job we did as half an hour later we were still waiting for the bus to take us to the airport, we then phoned the company to hear we had not been booked on! We were booked on another bus and told it would be there shortly, a few months ago we would have panicked about missing the plane but we have now come to accept the fact things will never run smoothly for us regarding transport!! We were finally on the plane and waving good bye to Australia . On the plane we got ready to tuck in to one of the four cheese sandwiches when we had a lovely surprise, the Quantas team served up some delicious food. We have decided Quantas is our favorite airline they were just lovely and the chocolate and Ice poles after dinner was the cherry on top! We arrived in Auckland at midnight in a very good mood walking through to get our bags we saw signs everywhere saying if you had food to either DECLARE OR DISPOSE. Due to the amount of cheese sandwhiches we had we didn’t want to throw them away so we thought, oh nice one we will just declare them and have them later. After queing for an hour to declare the cheese sandwiches the nasty man took our tupperware and threw away our beloved sandwiches we didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye. Understandably we were distraught I said to the man why didn’t the sign say just dispose, we wouldn’t have qued for an hour for nothing or we would have eaten the bloody sandwiches while we were queing. After that comment he then threw away our apples, I decided to keep quite after that as we had a couple packs of chocolate biscuits that if they got thrown away would have tipped us over the edge! So first impressions of New Zealand not so great! After setting up camp next to Hertz hire company with our beach mats and stolen blankets from the plane our mood was slowly turning sour as we could not sleep. Every time we closed our eyes we saw cheese sandwiches, the airport was also really busy as some flights were leaving at 6am. We decided to get a cup of tea, eat some biscuits and watch the arrivals. After 2 hours and a few tears from Stephanie later, she claims it was because she was tired but I know it was the man waiting to be reunited with his girlfriend holding a balloon and flowers! We went to the domestic terminal and waited for our flight we had a couple of hours sleep and boarded our flight to Queenstown.

We were so excited and couldn’t wait to see Nan ! After landing around lunchtime we got a bus which took us straight to Nans hotel which was amazing. We met Nan her two crazy friends Liz and Gloria and then the even crazier bus load that was with them on the tour! After some screams and lots of hugging later we all sat down with some wine and told each other all our news. We had such a great day with Nan and her friends we went into the town had dinner and then we went back to the hotel where we were allowed to stay in Nans room. Luckly for Nan she had two double beds in her room! The room was amazing with a great view of the Lake and the beds were so comfortable! The next day Nan went down to breakfast while we stayed in bed. Once we were all packed and ready Nan and the gang came back up with a breakfast buffet, they had all taken extra food for us! After saying another horrible goodbye the tour bus was off to terrorise another part of New Zealand!! We then went to Reavers Lodge accomadation a place we had researched and looked nice, we decided to walk there with our backpacks – big mistake, we will never learn! Queenstown is a ski resort with lots of hill and mountains. To get to Reavers lodge we had to walk up a huge hill – we nearly didn’t make it. Once we got to the reception we were panting like dogs and the guy on reception couldn’t understand us, after a little rest and some water we managed to get across we would like a room! All of the rooms in Reavers lodge are private with their own bathroom which works out cheaper then if we were to stay in a dorm room! The room is lovely it’s a studio apartment with a double bed up the top and a single bed below. We are staying there for 6 weeks but will probably stay there for the entire time we are in Queentown. It has a fridge, lots of space and we have just got a T.V from the Salvation Army! We loved that we could finally unpack and hang up our clothes! While handing out C.Vs and looking for jobs we joined a job agency called Add Staff who give you shifts here and there when they need you. The day we signed up they asked us to set up a function the following day. It was at Cornet peak which is on top of one of the mountains the view was amazing. The work was hard as there was so much to do, we were getting it ready for a business conference for people coming from different parts in Asia . After it was set up the people asked us to stay and be wine waitresses. This was also hard work especially when the men got drunk and sleazy! Some guys asked when we got off work and kept asking us to dance with them! At the end of the night a guy came up to Stephanie and asked her for her email address as she apparently had lots of fans outside who wanted it! We couldn’t stop laughing another girl got asked how much she was for the night she got really angry I told her I would have been flattered! Once we had packed up and finished our 15.5 hour shift with 2 ten minute breaks we were so tired after 4 months of not working we were really thrown in the deep end! The people we worked for were really nice and gave us 2 bottles of wine each at the end, they also told Add Staff that we were are really great help and they were very grateful!

During that week we both had a few interviews and to cut a long story short (this blog is huge!) we both have jobs. I work in a souvenir shop full time and Stephanie works in a fashion store part time and a restaurant part time! We both like our jobs and have already made friends from work and some people who are staying in Reavers lodge which is really great.

So let the saving commence!

Sorry its so long we will blog again soon and actually tell you what Queenstown is like!

Loads of love xxxxxxxxxxx