Final Post

So, Im going to catch a plane tomorrow (4 planes actually...) back to AOTEAROA! 6 and a half months later Im very glad to be going home. No more hostels. No more uncomfortable beds. No more manky showers! All these things are very exciting. And I can't wait to see everyone. I leave with no regrets. I feel sure I made the most of this overseas experience. The first of many hopefully. I have Maddy as my inspiration. 42 countries in her 21 years. Not too shabby. This trip has bumped me to 20 countries in 20 years. If I live to be 192 I will see them all! There really is no better way to learn about the world than to see it. This trip has been AMAZING. I met such excellent people. Lots and lots of wonderful people. Who I definitely have not seen the last of. Glasgow was a fantastic city. Yes, it was all rather excellent.

But, home time!!! Whooohoooo! There really is nowhere better in the world than New Zealand. I leave on Tuesday 13.00GMT and arrive in NZ at noon on Thursday. Wednesday completely disappears thanks to the vagaries of the date lines. So for Christchurch folk reading this - come visit me on Friday. Hopefully I will have recovered sufficiently by then to converse with you in a vaguely upright position. Mum said she would provide mini spring rolls! And I intend to brew a very large pot of tea :) There may even be cake. I should be at Kowhai Tce alllll day.

And Dunedinites - I will see you Saturday!!! Whooohoooooooo! And thanks to the lovely Rachel Chin and the residents of Haddon Place I will definitely see all of you on Thursday night! And there will be plenty of onion dip and chocolate fish (not together......necessarily).

Oh and Bethy - see you on Saturday too. You useless Timaru visiting individual.

See all you kiwi folk very sooooon!

xx

IRELAND

Because Maddy and I are too young to hire a car- goddammit - we took a tour around Ireland. Although some of the tour group were complete knob heads we had a good time and got to see a lot of cool stuff. I have loaded lots of photos. We just saw so many awesome things that I couldn't choose.
Pretty. It was a fishing cottage used by monks some ridiculously long time ago. Inside is a hole in the floor for fishing. Clever monks.

How picturesque. One of many miscellaneous castles we passed on our travels.

Ireland has very dramatic landscapes. This used to be the ocean floor in prehistoric times.

Beach.

Green
Baby cow!

Frolicking in the Irish countryside

Gingers in Ireland!

Galway - Galway is magical.

The most incredible Irish band ever. They really were spectacular.
The Cliffs of Moher! Beautiful. Used to film the Cliffs of Insanity in the Princess Bride and ALSO to film the exterior shots of the cave scene in the 6th Harry Potter film. Cooooool.


Cute pub in the village of Annascual.

Adorable teahouse in Dingle.
We went on a horse ride in Killarney! It ruled


We happened upon a carnival!!!

We went to Blarney Castle. It was so awesome. The castle is amazing. And you can properly explore the place.

Blarney Stone!Blarniki kissed the Blarney Stone! (Granny, I swear it was urine free.)

The fairy grotto at Blarney. IT RULED!

Goodbye useless change, hello Irish luck!

Drinking a Guinness at the storehouse. I pulled the pint myself! What a pro. Dad would have been so proud.

Ireland was awesome. An excellent finale!

Dublin and Drogheda

Yay for Ireland

Maddy is here. Maddy and Niki. Woohooo. For those unfortunate souls who haven't had the pleasure of meeting her, Maddy is my friend from Christchurch. We have been friends forever and shes about to go live in Spain and it worked out that I could make it to Ireland for my last week and she could for her first week....ANYWAY

Dublin rules

We only had one full day. Oh and also, another useful fact: Maddy and I were in an Irish band together in high school called Drogheda. We have medals to prove it.... oh yeah.

But yes. Dublin is an amazing city. Its huge (fecking expensive) and so alive and fun.

The night we arrived was catch-up night so we just roamed. We ended up at a burger place in Temple Bar and only realised once we had sat down that it was a New Zealand themed burger place. They served Steinlager and Mac's Gold and the tomato sauce was in bottles shaped like tomatoes.... epic fail gingers.

The next day we did a lot of history related things. It was awesome. Irish history is the best. We went and saw the General Post Office (GPO) which bore visible scars of the 1916 Easter Rising.

We went to Dublin Castle and got a really good tour for only 3.50! woohoo! It was cool. We learnt a lot.

Trinity College

St Patricks Cathedral

We had a picnic in St Stevens Green.

Molly Malone - Cockles and mussels anyone?

The Red Rose Cafe! It wasnt in a harbour.

AND we went to Kilmainham Gaol.

Recognise it? They filmed 'In The Name Of The Father' here. Excellent history and the tour was awesome. and only 2 euro! Maddy and I were particularly interested in the gaol because we used to sing a song together about one of the Easter Rising leaders who was gaoled there and executed there. The song is about how he was allowed to marry his girlfriend the night before his death. And we saw his cell and the place where he died and even saw a cell belonging to the girlfriend - Grace - who later got arrested for involvement in the Civil War.Joseph Plunkett's cell was the last one on the left.

As I mentioned, our band was called Drogheda, and Drogheda is actually a port town about an hour north of Dublin. Naturally we had to visit. Really all we wanted was this:

However, our twilight trip to Drogheda became all the more memorable thanks to Thomas - a 42 year old balding drunk man wearing a Mr Happy tshirt who insisted on buying us drinks in the first bar we had happened to wander into. In exchange for the free beer we had to listen to his life story. Twice - he seemed to forget which parts he had already told, and the details kept changing... oh boy... what a character.

We also witnessed a crime.

Oh and LOOK - this was in the windows of the town hall.

It reads: We have been sent to EXTERMINATE the recession. ....WTF?

So yes. Trip to Drogheda: TICK!

If had been day time we could also have visited Oliver Plunkett's severed head..... shame shame.

Oh the hilarity when Maddy is around.

Much manic laughter I can assure you. Its lovely to see her again.