LIBBY GREENHALGH

      As we looked at her world map with me pointing out Easter Island to her, Jemima said “You’ll never fit on there you are too big, silly Libby.”  (Or words to that effect!) Well Jemima I have and I am here, on Easter Island. Though disappointing no Easter Bunnies or Eggs!!! The name is actually the second name given to the island by the Dutch because they landed on Easter Sunday- previously it was called something that translated to the navel of the earth! Santiago was a whirlwind and the trip here to Easter Island essentially felt like I was in a queue or going to a queue in between short naps over a period of 24 hours!!! Santiago is like London a bit more polluted and less people but still a big city and bustling. As you walked around the city it into different cultural influences and clearly different classes as with any city. I didn’t fall in love with it – though my hostel was amazing if you were to stay a while.  I see it more as a tran...

Marty McFly never eluded how tiring time travel is- but I guess watching him sleep would make for a fairly rubbish film! For only the second time on my life I did the closest thing you can do to time travel and crossed the date line from Auckland to Santiago. The 28th January is officially the longest day of the year sorry 21st of June you have nothing! Having returned from Queenstown to Auckland I have been staying with Chris, H, Harry and their newest addition Lily Belle - who I think is the spitting image of Chris and is super tall already! If you wonder what I have been up to - probably what I enjoy spending time with a very very good friend. My first day back was a trip to the hospital and my first view of exactly how big a break I had in my collar bone- its big! So nowt to be done there but wait and see. Anyway we have been busy getting up early (in my mind) to go down and see the Prada 72 cat launched that is no mean feat seeing that swing around on a crane and then man...

So the highlight of today was finding my sunnies at a hostel in Queenstown that I returned to- need not to have bought that slightly expensive pair of Oakleys doh! So I had an eventful trip to Queenstown. Left my hostel at 0630 with the alarm blaring after opening the wrong door....oops. Then ran to the bus stop...no bus...Ahhh bus goes from somewhere else. Got online and started running again. Then a car passes saying what bus are you catching, they are catching the same one but can't find it! I get a lift with them as trade for my knowledge. Catch bus pull out super duper pillow sleep for the whole trip. So I get to Queenstown and drop my bags off and decide to walk  to the top of the gondola. Stick in hand and over an hour later I was broken sweaty probably sunburnt but at the top! The rest of the day.....I was asleep....Machu pichu might break me! Also check out Mario the piano man. Amazing.

After acquiring a tubigrip for my knee this morning the world seems a better place and I am less fed up. I also acquired a walking stick and some new sunglasses and a superccol compressable pillow which I am really quite excited about as the pillows so far have been ruuuuuuuuuuubbbbbiiiiisssshhh. I have capped my day off with a dinner that is highly nutritional and while not quite pom bears in soup I think Tzaneen would approve! I am not sure I blogged yesterday mainly because I was feeling sorry for myself because it is not as though I didn’t do anything – just means you get double the value in one you lucky people.  I travelled many hundreds (maybe only 2) of kilometres to Te Anau (flowing waters ). The largest lake in the south island, the largest glacial lake in New Zealand and it has the greatest surface area- but Lake Taupo is the largest (calculate that one! I am thinking it must be volume related) Having arrived at 0930 I checked into my Youth Hostel. With eve...

Another  day another town- well an actual town. Queenstown. After my late night cloud spotting, sorry star gazing. Yes as you guessed it the cloud came out to spoil my star gazing. We did get to look at the moon, Jupiter and a couple of stars before it clouded over, using some very impressive telescopes. Apparently Lake Tekapo has one of the lowest light pollution and therefore has some fairly impressive telescopes. Including one with an 84 mega pixel camera. I also got a freebie (though I guess I paid for it in the tour) a solar powered red light- reduces light pollution and doesn’t give you light blindness. So after a gentle rise and the best night sleep yet! I spent the best part of 2 hours showering changing and packing. It is hard with only one arm! Following that I walked to The Church of the Good Shepherd – apparently the most photographed church in New Zealand which you can understand given the view. A stunning drive through what I would describe as the Shire...

hot springs My plans have somewhat changed in the last two days and possibly for the better! After a rather cold arrival to Lake Tekapo (which essentially means sleeping mat from what I can work out), I was woolly hat at the ready and there was only one thing to do. Hot Springs, hot springs! Hot they were - one of the pools I could only sit in for about 3-4 mins and before I had even got into the pool I had to pretty much step over a lady who had passed out! But it was a beautiful place to relax and a chance to let my broken wing float around. I then toddled home via the Thai (I can never turn down thai food- totally going to learn to make the dumplings as well) and collected my hot water bottle and wrapped up in bed for a chilly night in my room that would be called a shed back home! This morning I think I saw the best of this part of the world- but if you are afraid of flying I wouldn't recommend it! I took flight in a helicopter which felt like a gnat blowing around in...

Rangitoto on the way there What an eventful 24 hours in my life let alone travelling! So yesterday I set off  early - much to H's surprise who is generally itching to do something by the time I get up, despite being heavily pregnant! Off to Waiheke I went the island of vineyards and some pretty amazing scenery. So my plan was to catch a ferry, hire a bike (which I had supposedly booked), put the bike on the bus, cycle the western half of the island (the leaflet told me 3-4 hours offroad cycling- no worries), have lunch at a vineyard and maybe even go to the beach. However, the story goes....... Got off the ferry, no bike hire man in sight after a bit of to'ing and fro'ing it became apparent I had missed the bus and was unable to hire a bike- which in someways is fortunate. Turns out the route I planned to take is 70KM and would be more hilly than the eastern part if the Isle of Wight!!! my not so trusty stead So instead I hired a not so trusty yel...

I am afraid I am not feeling very witty ad interesting in my writing but here we go........So off I went for the day to see a bit more of the area of Auckland. I caught an early ferry over to Rangitoto and did the hike up to the top via the lave caves Like many people I hoped it would be an open crater with bubbling lava, a completely unrealistic expectation but aim high. However while the views are stunning the crater is all vegetated now no orange lava or dangerous fumes. But to fair  it is pretty impressive. As you walk up there are loads of Lava fields and bombs and then the further up you go the more vegetated it becomes. There are also some pretty cool lava caves that you walk through where molten lava would have flowed. Luckily I had my telephone torch which allowed me to explore these. Apparently Rangitoto was used as a lookout spot in the war in case of New Zealand being invaded by sea and a Radio and Radar station were on top of it- though there was never a threat....

Supposedly only 25 Celsius here but it feels as hot as it did in Sydney with the heat wave. Some might say I have not made the most of my time so far here in Auckland but I have been enjoying chilling out with H and little Harry while Chris has been working. Today we went over to Devonport and had brunch at Torpedo Bay and cruised around North Head - a fantastic viewing point - one of the many round Auckland city. While trying to get my bearings all I can work out is that Rangitoto Island is everywhere!!! Tomorrow we are going to head to a surf beach to the north of Auckland somewhere- not sure where, Chris and H are in charge. Tonight I am planning the rest of my time in New Zealand in particular my South Island trip

6 planes, few trains and taxi- one near miss and 4 countries and I now going to be still for a while. I made my 0615 paddle board but nearly missed my plane! Between an interesting backie on a scooter from Ali I had to g straight to the front of the check in queue to find myself checking in a t boarding time! Time for a quick wee and security checks and I was on the plane 27 mins later. Goodbye Sydney hello Auckland! So far we have been chilling as H is fit to bursting with baby and I  am really quite tired from my tour so far......so much so that even my camera battery told me it was exhausted and therefore I have failed on the photo front. So I am afraid you shall have to cope with more Sydney photos!!! It has been roasting here in Auckland as well but today I  braved a run! I must be mad...but I am missing my exercise. Hopeing off to Rangitoto tomorrow with a charged camera!

HOT HOT HOT Welcome to Sydney, I think  relatively rare occasion in terms of temperature. But I have had an amazing time thank you Ali and Chris for housing me and everyone else for looking after me you have made me feel totally at home. So I arrived yesterday and dropped my bags off at Ali's house which is spitting distance from Bondi beach so that is where I went and then home for  tea time and I headed home for a harbour a race. I cannot thank my friends enough for showing me a fabulous time here sailing in Sydney harbour and swimming on Bondi beach and tomorrow we are off paddle boarding before I catch my plane at 0915......watch this space for a missed plane

Had a lovely evening last night where we watched a movie outdoors (albeit a kids film) something I have always wanted to do. We met up with Jo and Dale's friends, Matt and Tracie and the little one Bella and with picnic and some bubbles settled in to sitting outside in shorts and t-shirt and watching a movie. Brilliant.. Noosa Bay today and I think the picture says it all. We awoke to some showery conditions and concerns that our beach day may be ruined- however a quick glance at the RADAR and off we went to as Dale puts it 'the dream' for where they would like to live Beautiful sunshine greeted us and we smashed the morning around in the sea Dale doing his best body surfing and Jo and I edging between staying waist deep and crashing under the waves. There was an incredibly strong rip and one point I was swimming away only to realise that when I looked at the beach I wasn't even moving.  After a little rest we moved fractionally inland and turned our hand...

At The Plough enjoying a beer  Well hello sunshine there you are......though it is now my second day in Brisbane and it is a little cloudy today- so I think Jo and Dale (and even slightly myself) are beginning think I am the source of the bad weather!!! So I landed yesterday at about lunch time and as I strolled off the plane looking for the sign for the baggage reclaim there was Jo. It seems here you can actually meet people at the gate which was awesome. So good to see some friendly faces.  Jo and Dale live in Cleveland just outside of Brisbane in a gorgeous flat with a bedroom just for Libby- well done on considering me when looking for accommodation folks! The flats have their own pool which so far seems to be mainly used by just us and some crazy kids obsessed with climbing Dale!!! So last night we took a trip into South Bank in Brisbane city and off we trundled onto the train. The ticket office was closed and no sign of a machine so we stepped onto the trai...

Surfing done...kind of alright  probably back to where I was last year. Need to a couple of weeks not 4 days! I did get down to the smallest board I ever have and nearly broke below the 7FT barrier (in length of board not size of wave).....go me!  So, stage one of my whirlwind tour complete.....do I wish I could stay longer.....if it stopped raining I probably would. But nothing is drying and I now have the fear surfing after cutting my lip- hey ho. Bali is as chilled as ever and many of the people here that I have met long to find a reason to stay. Personally I don't see it- I still love my creature comforts and home and the people here all seem so transient. Like they are lost, desperately hoping to find themselves here. Maybe I am just cynical. Had yet another awesome thunderstorm and torrential rain and heaven forbid I even got slightly cold! As you can see the drainage here is wonderful. To be fair in the space of half an hour the rain filled up a half pint glass! ...