The Misadventures of Craic and Doyle!

Hello again! Right, first to previous blog amendments!! Turns out we did have an incident with belongings, namely me (Doyle) breaking my sunglasses on the plane!! Whoops! Have a lovely new pair since though so all’s good.

So where did we leave you? Ah yes, it was our night at the match. The next morning we made our way to the Sky City bus terminal and boarded a bus for lakeside town of Rotorua. It is known as the tourist capital of New Zealand being the centre for Maori culture, adventure activities and thermal sites. So what did we do on our first day? Went to the supermarket ‘Pac n Save’, had a Thai curry for lunch, napped in the afternoon and watched the All Blacks in the hostel that evening. Very cultural altogether! Well the rugby part was anyway.

The next day we branched out and did the walking tour around the town as recommended in the Lonely Liar. It proved interesting as we saw a Maori village, Ohinemutu in which there was St Faith’s Anglican Church. It was an interesting building that fused Maori and Christian iconography including Jesus, dressed in Maori costume.He was carved into a window overlooking the lake in glass depicting him walking on the waters of Lake Rotorua. Our walk then took us to Kuirau Park which was a maze of steaming thermal ponds and interesting plantlife.

We continued sightseeing the next day, paying a visit to Whakarewarewa Thermal Village. This is an inhabited Maori village which effectively utilises the thermal field on which is situated. The hot water is used for cooking, bathing and heating. Tour guides are very important in this community and a large part of the exhibition is dedicated to those who expertly communicated Maori customs and culture over the years to visitors, including the first Maori woman to attend Oxford University. We saw a cultural performance which included the Haka, some singing and a poi performance. We ate some amazing sweetcorn that was cooked in one of the pools and it was DELISHIOUS!!!! That afternoon I went up to the Polynesian Spa, a collection of hot mineral outdoor pools. Craic didn’t join me as she had ‘been there, done that!’ In truth, she just couldn’t stand the smell anymore so we looked to our next destination.

The following day we took the hour long bus journey to Taupo by yet another lake and an area synonymous with adrenaline-filled activities. We wandered around in the lashings of rain the first day and so retired early to the hostel and had their chilli meal with a drink for 7.50! Bargain. We chatted to some of the hostellers including an Irish civil servant who was on his the second year of his travels due to the government incentivised career break scheme. The less said about that the better! We watched some beer pong which resulted in one of the finalists having to run out mid-shot to puke and her partner having to finish the game solo. Kinda glad we didn’t take part in that one!!

So the next day we decided to finally partake in an adrenaline-filled activity. Our activity of choice was the Rapids Jet on Waikato river. It’s basically a high-speed boat that tears up and down the river, over rapids and does a few 180 degree turns. It was nearly as hair-raising as a Chinese taxi journey and my hands were very much claws at the end after holding on furiously for half an hour!

On the final day in Taupo we planned on walking to the local landmark of Huka Falls but got sidetracked on the way by the Taupo Bungy! It’s the only cantilever (for all you architectural buffs out there who are reading i.e. Suzanne!) jump in the country. I was half-tempted but I had already made a sort-of agreement with Lucy to do the Auckland Bridge Bungy. So unfortunately we have no bungy tales to relate as yet.

Our first blog could be defined by a quest for cash, this time it was our quest for Wifi. It’s very hard to come by in the country, well for free anyway. Some of the unaccounted time above has been spent hanging around McDonalds or drinking copious amount in cafés that offer free Wifi with purchases. The lack of Wifi has meant that we haven’t been as consistent with the blog as we would have liked (yeah right I hear you saying) but it’s the truth!

Anyway as the Craic will soon be leaving we’ll be lashing out a few more blogs over the next few days so stay tuned!

Kuirau Park

Maori carving

Lucy taking part in a skirt-making demo!

Maori performance

The performance continues...

Hot stuff

We may have gone to an Irish pub....

Freaky black swans on Lake Rotorua.

Corn on the Cob! Yum!

Lenticular clouds in Taupo (nerd moment!)


Misprints in Goreme

The Misadventures of Craic and Doyle...

Due to popular demand we're going to muster together our collective creative powers and endeavour to write a highly entertaining, interesting blog about our joint travels. For those non-Calypsoites who may not be familiar with the Craic and the Doyle please let me explain...

Craic aka Lucy Craig had this name bestowed upon her due to her services to the craic i.e. having a lawf! (That and the misprint on her hot-air ballooning cerificate - see above!!)

I was christened Alfie on the very first day of the Odyssey. CJ (our leader) had never heard the name before and asked infront of everyone in his London accent 'Is it Ooowfee??' Well that was it - from then on I was Alfie. Doyle was later added due to my mild interest in a certain Irish comedy.....

Anyway Craic and Doyle's adventure started at gate C17 in Singapore airport on the evening of October 10th. After emotional goodbyes with the last of our fellow Odysseyers we boarded a plane for Auckland. This turned out to be no ordinary flight. This was budget long haul. So no food. Payment for any food or drink was only by credit card. Lucy had no credit card after the famous bag snatching incident and mine was blocked for no reason (well, maybe that I hadnt made a payment in a while. ) So we explained our situation to one of the air hostesses and were kindly given a small bottle of water - to share. We were in for a long flight.

Then just before take-off we heard a commotion up front. A passenger was shouting, ' I have to go to the toilet you bastards, I'm never flying Jetstar again!!' Things went quiet and we expected him to leg it to the jacks once the seatbelt signs turned off but no sign. Word soon got around the plane that the passenger had pooed and puked all over himself and wasn't allowed to the toilet. We thought of the pile of immodium we still had in our backpacks that could have proved useful. I was thankful we was sitting near the back as many passengers from the front were forced to move seat due to the smell. Luckily the flight wasn't fully booked so there were plenty of spare seats going. As I said, we were in for a long flight.

And then there was the cold. It was fecking freezing. Blankets were not going for free so I spent time fashioning some insulation from the in-flight magazine. Lucy tried to garner as much heat as possible from her scarf. But still we were not broken. Nothing could be worse than a night bus....

Anyway finally the little plane on the TV screen hovered over Auckland and the altitude clocked down steadily and we were there. We made our way by shuttle bus into the city centre and located our hotel. The City Lodge turned out to be the cleanest place we stayed in since leaving home. It turned out to be a tighly-run operation with rules and regulations posted everywhere, but with a comfy bed and a wide screen TV we couldn't complain.

We then had to locate some money to pay for the accommodation. Fun. So again, Lucy had no cards and no money and was waiting to set up a Western Union account so funds could be forwarded from home. My credit card card was blocked so it was down to my trusty ATM card to bring us the cash.

'You have exceeded your withdrawal limit for today.' Yikes. The day before I had paid cash for the obligatory outbound flight you must have prebooked going into NZ. Our brains tried to process time changes and zones and Lucy pointed out that after midnight at home I should be free to withdraw more cash. So at midday local time we legged it to an ATM and low and behold it dealt us the money! Who would've thought? Things were looking up! We paid our bill and headed back for a kip and didn't leave the room until about 2 the next day!!

When we did finally venture out we visited my friends, Serafine, Daniel and their daughter Robyn who had moved to Auckland from Ireland 3 weeks before. It was very surreal to see them so far from home but it made me feel at home at the same time. Their place is a lovely apartment off Ponsonby Road which is a cool area full of cafes, bars and op shops. We spent a few hours drinking tea and catching up and then hopped on a bus into town and went to an international food court. We reminisced on our travels and had some Vietnamese food. Fresh spring rolls and some pho - yum! After a walk down around the wharf and drooling over expensive yeachts, Lucy and I made our way to Father Ted's Irish bar where there was good live music and subtitled episodes of Ted. My kinda place....

So after another lie in the next day we went about some business. Lucy set up her Western Union account successfully so we went to blow some money in The Warehouse, a big store where you can pretty much buy anything. Very exciting. We paid another visit to the food court, this time having our best curry in ages! Then we went to the cinema and saw 'Midnight in Paris' as there was nothing else on.

On Friday we had to check out as the rugby weekend was looming and everything was booked up. Luckily Serafine and Dan let us move into their place and we got to sleep in Robyn's room which was the coolest room EVER!!! So after a day of shopping and checking out the Cloud which is the rugby fanzone down by the wharf we checked into Chez O'Brien and headed for more food courting and then a bit of a gals night out. We went to a cool pub on Ponsonby, literally on the corner of Serafine's road and listened to a great band that played funk, soul and rock. We bopped to the wee hours

On the first semi-final day we slept in and had a fantastic breakfast! After a great sleep, great brekkie and then a great shower I nearly felt like writing a review on Trip Advisor!! After stealing lots of Dan's music for my iPod we heading up to a restaurant on K Road where we met Sera's colleague, Penny, and later her uncle John arrived in from London for the rugby. He was bringing Dan to the match as he had received tickets from his friend Murray Mexted who we were told was an ex-All Black and basically really famous. We waved the lads off to the match and Lucy and I made our way down to the Cloud to take in the atmosphere.

As we were having a drink a south African girl started talking to us and offered us cheap tickets to the match. Immediately we declined as we were both watching our money and were still a bit sore about this being the semi final that should've seen Ireland beat, I mean play England. But after another few swigs of Heino and turning of the brain cogs we decided to go for it because when do you get to a semi final of a major tournament for the same price as going to Croker on a Sunday? So we went for one more (yes, only one!) and then got the shuttle bus to the stadium.

Our seats were on a makeshift extension to one of the stands and there was no canopy. So what did it decide to do the second we sat down? Rain. I very quickly began justifying to myself why the hell I was there. Even though the match wasn't great there was a good atmosphere seeing that the Wales coach is a Kiwi and the whole place was behind them. Jammy French feckers won as usual though.

After we met up with Dan and Uncle John and we were introduced to the great Murray Mexted. We finally realised his celebrity status as plenty of people were coming up shaking his hand and chatting. We felt a bit groupyish but went with the flow anyway. It was turning into a long night and we had an early bus to catch the next day so in a weird turn of events we went home early!!! Well 1am but still earlier than everyone else!

So that was our first week out on our own. We're still alive and all of our belongings are still intact. (There was an episode with Craic's Chanels but she found them again!) If you've read to this stage, fair play! You must be pretty bored or just trying to use up a few last minutes on your wifi voucher.