photos mark II

photos

New Years Eve

Hey All

Happy New Years Eve
It about midday here but we thought that we should get on and wish you all a happy new year early, our night is gonna start quite early...

The last few days have been pretty nice around Te Anau. Its a good place to spend new years because its got a quite a big tourist presence but it small enough for it not be overwhelming.

The last few days have been actioned packed. we arrived in Te Anau with no plans what-so-ever before new years. after 15 minutes in the Info site we had booked a scenic helicapopter ride and a day walk. It was a great deal, we got a 15 minute scenic flight of the Lake Te Anau area looking at some of the mountains around it. it was pretty scary how close the pilot got to some of mountains. we landed on top on a pretty high peak in the snow and had a goof around.

After the scenic flight we got dropped off at the Luxmore hut, the first hut on the Kepler Track. The track itself looked sensational to walk in full from the helicopter and the small bit we walked was just as good. We climbed mount Luxmore, had a look at some caves and then walked down to Brod Bay and got picked up by a water taxi. the only downside was we only had 5hrs to walk what was meant to be a 6 1/2 Hr segment. we got stressed on the way down and basically ran down the mountain.

For any one in the Holt family it looked very much like the time i needed a turd at the top of Machu Pichu, this time there wasnt any lines of tourists to jump.

We ended up getting to the beach 45 minutes early, which was ok cos our taxi rocked up right when we got there. it reinforced what i already knew: never trust National P)ark time signs designed to be a guide for old grannys with walking frames.


The day before yesterday we went on a day paddle on Milford Sound. The area is one of the most alien landscapes i have seen. the mountains plummet straight into the lake. it has heaps pf weird characteristics like having a 4m layer of fresh water on top of salt water and stuff like that which was all interesting. The tour itself wasnt great, it was good because of the landscape but i was let-down cos i was expecting to see the waterfalls etc up close but they were too far away to paddle to, apparently. we considered to make a break for it but we didn't know whether we could handle it, after all the guides almost didn't want us to paddle single kayaks, the noobs we are.

since, we had a sleep in day and checked into the hostel, its the best priced hostel ive seen for the facilities. then we did more sleeping, and i broke the bed. I'm too fat, good luck to me for training for canada.

So, we wish you a happy new year, stay safe all.

we just came back from buying grog. We bought tickets to a bar that at 1 am are putting everyone in the bar with a ticket onto buses and shipping them of to a "secret, unkno0wn location" where they have a bonfire, Djs, "Hangi" Music (what the hell is that?). Any Hoo its sounds awesome, we are excited.

Just Quickly:

Dad: well done for exposing the fake No. 1 Geelong Fan

Jemma: well done for giving Andrew 'Coulda Hit Em' Holt the back-up he needed

Mum: Where were you to take the punch this time HUH?

Peace Out.
Happy New Year
Out

Ailsa:
Darian: to answer ur question we'll be full on training as soon as we get home? for how long? forever. or at least until canada in july-august this year :) we are going hangliding as soon as i get home so look into it. also everytime i eat the last one of something i keep going EXTREME FEVER
im so lame. Sam: Her hummed renditions of Ode To Joy are getting just a tad old.

doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo

hehe the tom tom the pipers son song just came on the radio.. hahahaha

Over and Out Team

Stay Safe. Dont DO Drugs. Stay In School.

Love youse all

heya from te anau

hey guys,

just a quick post from te anau. internet is so expensive here.
we're about to catch a helicopter up over the mountains and land near mt luxmore on the kepler track where they leave us to walk out for the rest of the day. there's snow up on mt luxmore! then we catch a boat back to te anau. should be wicked.

then tomorrow we're going on a kayak into milford sound. sorry dad, we're not going to doubtful sound cos it costs over double what milford does for everything.

we're spending new yrs at a backpackers here which is on the lakefront. there are fireworks and stuff here and lots pubs even tho its a pretty small town.
so hope u all hav a happy new year if we dont talk 2 u before then.

love youse all
sam says"bye"

:)

Photos, Finally

Prawn World. For Matt












Ailsa's new backpack, it was the reccomended size.












Just before leaving on the water taxi













Morning Tea on Abel Tasman













The view from mid way on Abel Tasman walk














Walking on ice at Franz Josef













Rudolph and an elf he picked up on the glacier

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hello All.

We hope you all had a very merry christmas and are preparing for a happy new year.

Since we last spoke we have not only been pining over yuou but we have migrated south on the south island. The last, horribly spelt post we posted was from Greymouth. we dopnt like that place. we had a sensational camp site, until two twats set fire to their garbage next us and the tins they put in there started to blow up. so we moved which was annoying, especially after the wine.

A few more details on the Abel Tasman walk: we took a water taxi in and walked out one day. the scenery was beautiful, my walking partner was beautiful but unfortunaelt we cannot say the same about most of the many, many tourists walking there as well. despite the overcrowded-ness it was a great walk but the afternoon sea breeze canme in a tad too early and we didnt end up swimming at a beach, just lay in the sun.

Our migratory route took us down the western coast of the island past the glacier country. we visited both glaciers but unfortunately did not get the chance to go on guided walk because of a mystery foot injury ailsa sustained whilst simply existing. we fixed it quick though, we amputated it once we arriuved in queenstown. ailsa: my stoopid podiatrist is having xmas holidays, loser..we tried to call him.. i blame my orthotics..it feels like ive straineds something in my arch.. but its getting better i think....

poo bum tits none the less

after glacier country we trekked further south to Wanaka and had a day there for more christmas shopping etc etc. we both werent impressed by Wanaka, it was very crowded and touristy but was still really small so we felt a bit too cosy with the crowds. The wrost bit about wanaka was the wake up call we got from COUNCIL SECURITY. this bloked explained we were illegally camping and told us the cops werwe following him. we didnt beleive him but we space trucked down to queenstown at about 6.00am any way.

i now hand it over to my lovely assistant Alyssa...

not freakin funny SAMULE

sam got me one of those corny number plates for xmas with ALYSSA on it. hahaha

sooo now we've been in queenstown ever since and we'r loving it.. even more than the kaituna at rotorua..
the first day we bought more presents for each other, and walked around the town.. then we went food shopping and bought a feast for xmas and cheked into our hostel the flaming kiwi.
(we chose it cos it had a spa pool, even tho we didnt end up using it)
we played this wicked mini golf with lots of cool gimmicks and left my wallet there!!! we were a bit stressed out esp cos it was closed when we realised..and didnt open until boxing day.

we met a whole bunch of cool people in our hostel and it turned out everyone was doing a group xmas lunch together so we joined in. i think we'v wateched about 5 movies in the last 2 days..everyone was so buggered on xmas day after the previos party night (not us, we wanted to be up and at em on xmas) the hostel was really nice and small and heaps of the guys had been living there and working for a few months.. so it was sorta like a bg share house. there were mainly english and german ppl, we were the only australians..

our lunch turned out really well..everyone made a dish and it was pretty much all meat.. 2 turkeys, 3 chickens, pork, lamb etc etc we had a good feast. we found my wallet. by waking up the girl who worked at mini golf and it was there.. but she wasnt happy to be woken up on xmas day, oops..

the rest of the day was pretty slow, everyone was pretty tired and the pubs opened at 12 midnight. we didnt go out cos we wanted to save our energy for rafting which was thismorning and was wicked!!! we were in a raft with japanese and korean ppl (one of which was an ex korean special ops soldier :P) Sam: i double crossed him and now im on the most wanted list in Korea. I'll see you guys in ten years or so when i resurface from hiding.

so now we'r wandering around queenstown, we're going out tonight with the hostel ppl even tho we'r not staying there again.
next we'r headed to te anau for new yr and to go kayaking on milford sound..

and oh yeh prolly my best xmas pressie was finding out that the aus womens team can go to canada!!!! yay!!!!! and the aus under 21 mens team!!! :)

So, we bid you farewell from queenstown and will get in touch again fromTe Anau or beyond.

Over and Out

See Above for pictures.

OO i forgot, we had FERGBURGER. any one who is any one has tried a fergburger.

South Island, West Coast

Hey All

Firstly, sorry for the promise of phjotos and the failure to deliver. canmera ran out of battery, left in car etc etc.

we are safe and well, 2min internet left...

we are heading south to glaciers today.

We had a crap night in Greymouth because some pricks manged to set fire to our campsite and freaked us out a little to say the least.

We love you'se all.

Hey All. Rest Day No. 1

Firstly, i'd like to thank my manager for giving me thius opportunity.

I'd also like to thank my family, i couldnt have done this without them.

But most of all i'd like to thank god, Respect home boy.

Shut up sam,.
this is just a quick hello from a Caravan park just outside of Abel Tasman. we are catching a boat into the park and walking out tomorrow.

The weather has been crapola. we had a nice stretch while we were kayaking and ironically the only nice days we've had we chose to get wet.

We chucked a left and headed south from Rotorua and Kaituna and headed for ruapehu. Unfortuntelt the weather wasnt good enough while we were there for us to climb it safely.

We got kinda bored of staring at the mountain longingly so we changed our ferry ticket and went to south island early.

We also changed our xmas/new year plans. we will be in te anau for new years and queenstown for xmas. because there is literally no accommodation left in queenstown for new years.

Any hoo. we currently reside in a cravan park in the very north of the south island waiting to walk some of the abel tasman. we are staying in accom mostly because we spilt oliove brine all over our bed so now we have to dry it and sleep on the side with milk spilt on it.

IN the next few days we are heading down through glacier sountry via franz joseph and fox.

Righto, here are some photos for our fans, your the best city we've ever played in, i swear.

New Zealand Crew over and out.

evil frowny hole and more

the first waterfall (4m) which is at the top left of the white water, then the evil frowny hole which is bottom left.
they dont look so big cos we're so far away at a lookout, but they were :)




the second waterfall, 7 m.. thats a raft that just went down it.. its a bit dark so u cant see the very top..




us about to go zorbing.. the zorb wrangler took the photo...yes we got inside that bubble thing with some water and rolled down a hill. :)

photos photos photos

the bottom hole at kaituna river. good for surfing, doing 360s and practising loops.

rotorua smells funny

Hey all. hello from new zealand blah de blah de blah.

lets get down to what you all want to know: sam is wearing a nice figure hugging pair of tan shorts with a revealing transformers t-shirt, a must have for all fine young men.
ailsa is wearing nothing at all, moving on...

first of all the most important news of all... we went down a 7metre waterfall today!!!!
It was half way down the run we did on the Kaituna River. Look it up all of you who are playing at home. more about it below...

since we last spoke we went caving. it was cool but not. the trip was slow because of the group size. not 'size' as in numbers but 'size' as in age. the skill to abseil seems to deteriorate with age like a fine vintage of milk, a lesson we also learnt at breakfast today. oh, again for all of you playing at home we went on a tour called 'Haggas Honking Holes' at Waitomo Caves. Dont let the name fool you, there was no honking.

Then we drove from just below hamilton to rotorua, where we went xmas shopping!!!! since then we hav sort of given each other half our presents cos we got too excited about them and cos we wanted to use them on the trip. so now we hav a set of boules (from sam to ailsa) and a book of card games (from ailsa to sam) so we dont hav to plaay Gin all the time. we were both heaps sore after our first workout morning.. i think we overdid it a bit.. so we found some hot springs way off in the countryside..at okoriore hotel.
Then we camped at a dead end that the kayaking guy told us about, right next to the kaituna river about 20kms out of rotorua.

we went to the kayaking place the next day for our lessons where we met kenny, the owner of the company, a dude who designs kayaks and apparently is pretty dam good and had this little tiny rodeo kayak for his kid, who was about 6.
we also met glen, our instructor, then went down to the river with all their gear. glen checked out our dodgy skills on flat water. Twas quite funny becuase he was teaching a range f strokes we didnt know, but apprently did they same thing as the ones we did...

for the rest of the day we ran the river. slowly. playing in any wave, eddy or hole we could find to get our skills up to scratch again before we ran the lower part of the river. the lower part of the river was very very scary, comprising of about a 4m waterfall followed closely by a 1 metre evil frowny hole over a weir, which you can get stuck in :( . Ailsa did get stuck in this evil frowny hole, and got thrashed around for a while. That was the first Grade 4 section of the river. that arvo we jumped in some smaller rodeo boats and played in the upper section of the river.

In order to calm our nerves after getting thrashings we went and saw BEE movie. i recommend it to any one.We got a bobble head so everything was OK. then this morning, this poor little bumble bee was stuck in one of our cups, and i (ailsa) got him out, then fed him some honey. he got a little straw thingy out (which i think was his mouth) and sucked a heap off my finger! it was very cute.. and then he flew off, alive and well. thus proving everything in Bee movie. it was a very special moment.

This morning we both over came our jitter and ran the whole river. from start to finish, including the two grade four sections, the second of which is the 7m water fall the river is famous for. i must say with a smile of joy, there were no incidents or bailings that run, except for a chunk out of ailsa's thumb which keeps looking at me funny.

So that is the story of our Rotarua experience thus far. STill to come in future episodes is zorbing, the thermal parks and then a trip down to Taupo.

I know we promised pictures but two things went agisnt us:
1) my camera is out of batteries and we didnt stay in accom so we couldn't charge it
2) Ailsa left her camera cord at home and not even the force will get my cord to work.

so we bid you farewell for now and will probably talk to yu form taupo or the south island.

from ailsa
Darian: i would like to get you a tiki neckalce cos i thought that u wanted one? would u prefer wood, bone or jade? or i dont hav to get u a tiki if u dont want..i'll find u something cooler if u'd prefer :) xxx also can u make sure mum knows how to look on here. thanks

from sam
Bruce: I would like to get you a pair of black lacey underpants. would you prefer L, XL or XXXL. I dont have to get you a pair of underpantsif you dont want..i'll find you something more revealing if you want.

from both of us
matt: prawnland awaits us..we're probasbly not goin luging here tho, we'll go in queenstown. I (sam) have been luging there before so it should give me a nice little advantage.

NZ crew over and out.

Shout Outs From NZ

I MISS THE SUN

hey all. sam typing, ails watching. we are in good health and currently reside in an I-site in a place called Otorohanga. it is on the weat coast of the north island. we have some time to kill before we go caving at the Waitomo Caves. should be cool. it was the best way we could think of to stay out of the rain.

The trip thus far:
- my bag didn't arrive. woot.
- we booked into the YHA at auckland, and woke up two men called pablo, probably.
- we woke up in high spirits, and got our car. it involved waiting at the YHA for 20min. then waiting in the front yard of the owner for 30min.
- we finally got the car, and found out it was the one the owners son had just backed into a wall, in front of us.
- we got the car, got some food, picked up the rest of our gear from the car man (stove etc etc). and soon realised we had shall we say: WAY TOO MUCH F******* CRAP. we have a swear jar, hence the ***** fest.
- we drove around outer Auckland until 11.00pm looking for a free campsite with shelter to sort the car in dry-ness.
-we got real grumpy, i broke the car, then once we sorted the car in a closed deli shelter, had cereal for dinner and managed to spill the milk throughout our mattress. mmmmm. so we had cookies for dinner, dipped in the mattress milk.

that is the story of our first day. during which we wondered what we had gotten into. At least we gave Murphy a good tummy laugh.

Sam signing off.

Hey, ailsa here..
after organising the car everything has picked up. we've made some wicked inventions for our cute little van, including curtains.. and we've also made a bush shower out of a bucket and a shower hose but we havnt used it yet cos its too blo9ody cold.

the bay of islands wasnt all that nice in the fog and rain but we got to see some awesome kauri trees including Tane Mahuta..look that up...
we saw the kawakawa xmas pageant, i dont reccommend it.
we rode on the kawakawa-opua train but got a good view of only the main street of kawakawa which we'd just walked down..(twasnt quite wat we expected)

now we're heading south towards rotorua, and are starting our adventure activities..caving kayaking, zorbing etc

we've been eating really well and we started our fitness regime thismorning :) the first morning it hasnt been pissing with rain.

we're staying in a caravan park in rotorua on the 12th..so we'll upload some pics then.

love youse all, hope ur having fun..REPLY and tell us wats happenin..!!!

ailsa..over and out.


P.S. Warehouse, Where Everyone Gets A Bargain

ailsa: (obviously)
I bought more gumboots!!! they're black with pink and other coloured spots :):):):)

sam:
I just wear my thongs, no puddle is too deep, no hill too wet and steep, thongs will prevail.

Ailsa and Sam, Grampians this year...

Just so you remeber what we look like, here's a photo of us in the Grampians in 2007.