OWEN AROUND THE WORLD: December 2006

The magnificent Lake Tekapo

I am now about as far away as I could possibly be from home in New Zealand, practically right on the other side of the world! I have been here for almost a week and its been great so far, despite a bit of a thermal shock as it is bloody cold here!

The rest of my time in Australia was amazing! Up in Brisbane I stayed with the Capewells who made my time there wonderful. The first thing they did was drop me off at the XXXX brewery which was pretty good, especially when they pile on the beers at the end, which set me up for a tasty BBQ when I got back to their house. The following day, after a luxurious breakfast and a good swim at Noosa beach they took me up to see the Australia Zoo founded by Steve Irwin which has to be the best zoo I have ever seen. The animals were in the most humane conditions (I say humane because it was alot better than some of the human housing I have seen on the trip!) and you could really get up close to them, even stroking and feeding the kangaroos which put me a bit of excitement for me! The crocodile show was intense as the zookeeper enticed the croc before jumping away at the last minute. 18 months ago the guy misjudged it and the croc got a taste of his ass, leaving the guy with 500 stitches, but it didn't get that out of hand this time! Graham taught me some Ozzie lingo and had some fascinating stories to tell about his work as a copper in Brisbane, such as drug busts which you could only really imagine being in a film. I also got to sample some very tasty Barramundi fish and an affogato, a great mix of espresso and vanilla ice cream which I highly recommend!

Back in Sydney, I had more good times with Christian and his family. After more exposure to the raucous Sydney nightlife, we went out on a boat in Middle Harbour with the Grants, who some of you might remember from the Lycee. The father used to be the football coach back in the glory days when I was the goalkeeper. I did some proper tourism too, strolling around the harbour and the Rocks where the first settlers arrived. I think Sydney is pretty damn far from home (its a 24h flight, almost 20000km) but what really blows my mind is to think that 200 years ago people were migrating out here by boat, to something completely unknown, with a 6 month journey at sea.

All in all I was definitely very nostalgic about leaving Australia. It is such a big place with so much to see and do that I definitely hope to go back... I guess the thing that hit me about Australia is the quality of life people have. The weather makes such a difference, and in Sydney, you see people commuting via ferry and very quickly you can be in a deserted spot out in the bush which is unheard of for such a big city in Europe...

Getting to Christchurch, NZ, I stayed with Gaspard who was living in Bristol last year and is Ben Court's cousin. It was great to catch up, although odd to see someone I was used to playing football with in Bristol outside my house on the other side of the world! Christchurch was a nice little town, and in a similar way to Australia it kind of seems like a mix of British and American influences... Sometimes I'd walk around and think that looks just like England, and other times the streets and shops could seem very American. It was a fun place, where I also got to meet up with the Argentinian Francisco who I travelled with in Vietnam. We went out one night to a club which had to have the worst dancing I have ever seen in the world, and I'm almost half way round it! It was shocking.

Since Christchurch I have been touring round the south Island, soaking up the stunning landscape (and the rain)! You might notice it from the photos, but despite the odd moment when the sun pops out, things are very cloudy here, and there is a fair bit of rain. The Lord of the Rings was set here, and the landscapes really are as spectacular as the film would have you believe. Incredible lakes, mountains and rainforest mix together to create the most amazing sights. Further south you have Milford Sound, a fiord carved out by glaciers with harsh steep cliffs diving into the water.

Queenstown is also bungy jumping central, and I ended up deciding to give it a go after lots of hesitation. They took as up to a gondola hanging over a massive valley/canyon, and there you just jumped out of this gondola at about 140m high. It was the strangest feeling ever to jump out into thin air that high up, totally against your natural instinct, and its pretty damn scary. Its difficult to describe what it feels like, it is just so crazy to be plunging down until eventually the rope kicks in and you, thankfully, start to slow down. I'm glad I did it, but won't race to do it again!

From Queenstown I hitchhiked up to the Franz Josef glacier which went well. A man called Brian Jackson picked me up for the 2nd part of the stretch and I really got lucky meeting him. He knew all sorts of stories about NZ dating back to settler times, his family having been one of the first to make it out here. He had also once worked as a tour bus driver so he knew all the different spots to show me on the drive up, so it ended up being like a personal tour, spruced up by other stories about his time spent as a journalist in Antartica and his work on NZ's hidden oil fields!

The east coast in covered in rainforest, and it can rain 6 metres a year here, which is quite a bit when you think that in grey rainy London it rains about half a metre! The vegetation is so different to anything I have seen before, and it really is quite overwhelming. It certainly overwhelmed the first settlers who arrived here and at certain spots you can wander into the rainforest to find old abandoned graves dating back to those first settlers. In Franz Josef, I managed to go for a hike on the glacier which was quite an experience. Its not cheap, but this place is so far away that with global warming kicking in, by the time I get the chance to come back there might not be a glacier left to see! From here I'll be heading up to Nelson where I'll be spending Xmas with Milly an old friend from school and her folks!