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chrischarly

700 Blog Entries
6 Trips
5148 Photos

Trips:

Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Chris and Charly Down Under
Chris and Charly's African Adventure
Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
Chris and Charly's mini trip to The States
Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey

Shorthand link:

http://blogabond.com/chrischarly



Buddy List

Jason Kester
Jason Kester
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chris_j_knight78
chris_j_knight78



In search for a hang-over cure

Nadi, Fiji

Woke up at 3pm today feeling very delicate and finally managed to emerge from our rooms at 4pm in desperate need of some food. We were very late for our complimentary breakfast of over-cooked eggs and still the kitchen was closed for any other food, so, craving an Indian we prepared ourselves for the long walk up the road in the torrential rain to the closest open restaurant which luckily was serving Indian food. Feeling sorry for us, the manager of Wailoaloa kindly gave us a lift in her 4x4 and promised to pick us up once we’d eaten, which meant we wouldn’t have to sit and eat drenched. Food was amazing and the perfect hang-over cure and when we returned we briefly watched some of the staff play rugby in the rain before going straight back to our rooms to watch films on the laptop for hours.

permalink written by  chrischarly on April 1, 2012 from Nadi, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Chris meets the President's brother... and we all go drinking

Nadi, Fiji

After putting everything we had onto the spare bed last night as high tide was expected at 1am so although we had moved rooms, we still expected to wake up with a wet floor, but alas our room was dry and most of the flood water had disappeared.
But still most inbound and outbound flights are cancelled and the roads still closed, so we spent the morning and afternoon researching what to do when the sun finally makes an appearance. Chris soon hit the beer and got chatting to a few people at the bar including the President’s brother, completely wasted on a business trip also trapped here.
Many hours later of sat drinking at the bar, Chris, of course was very merry and some of the others staying here said they were going to ‘Smuggler’s Cove’ down the road for something to eat at 8pm as our place still wasn’t able to serve any food and famished we decided to join
them and stayed there for a few hours as it was a nice change of scenery. At around 10 or 11 we headed back to sit at the bar for one last drink before bed before a few other people staying here announced they were going to go to the local nightclub, ‘Ice’, so Chris and I joined them and had a great night dancing and drinking before getting a lift back and we finally staggered to our room at around 3 or 4am.

permalink written by  chrischarly on March 31, 2012 from Nadi, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Underwater

Nadi, Fiji


Outside our room
After hearing the rain on the roof through the night, we were hopeful of a nice clear day when we woke. We were wrong! The rain was pouring and our resort was underwater. We waded to the reception area through knee deep water and found out that more rain was forecast, the town was completely flooded and no transport was running.

The front entrance/exit
Looks like we might be here for a while! Taking it in our stride we had our free breakfast and then asked if we could stay another night. We could but we had to change rooms unless we wanted to be floating on the bed.

The restaurant
Luckily for us we got upgraded to a deluxe Villa, which was nice and big and had a kitchen, not that we could go anywhere to buy food. We moved in the pouring rain, and then settled in to watch some films on our laptop.

Chris wading through
After a while the power went off, so once we had run down our battery, we went back to the reception, the water had risen about another foot, which made it interesting. The bar was open but the kitchen was about a foot under water so no lunch. I had a beer and we munched on some bar snacks.

The restaurant underwater
We went back to the room and chilled some more before returning in the evening. The water had dropped a lot but the kitchen still wasn’t open. They were taking orders for fish and chips, and then going to buy them outside, we probably paid twice as much as it should have been, but at least we ate. We went back to the room and with power back on watched yet more movies before drifting off and dreaming about the pacific Sunshine!

permalink written by  chrischarly on March 30, 2012 from Nadi, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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OFF TO FIND SOME SUN!!!

Auckland, New Zealand


On the plane to Fiji
Had a quick coffee with Sam before she left to go to work and then Chris walked into town to post my diary home and change up some money into Fiji dollars. We then packed up, showered and waited for our shuttle bus to come and pick us up for a surprisingly cheap price.

Leaving NZ
I hate airport days as I always feel agitated until I know I am safely on the plane so when the shuttle but was running 5 minutes late I did start freaking out, but we got there easily and with time to spare to grab some lunch before getting on our Air New Zealand flight,
which, by the way was a nice change to the budget airlines as we had leg room and a T.V. so a nice 3-hour flight. We landed in Nadi at 6:24pm, cleared customs, collected our bags and walked around trying to find our pick-up to take us to the hotel we booked.
We couldn’t find them anywhere so we sat outside, waited and waited before finding another couple who were also waiting to be taken to Wailoaloa resort. After an hour, Chris went to the information desk and called them and still nothing. 1 hour, 45 minutes later someone eventually turned up after 3 more phone calls to pick the 4 of us up. Very irritating and not the perfect start to Fiji. But the resort was lovely and the room pretty nice for $55, so we had some dinner and went to bed.

permalink written by  chrischarly on March 29, 2012 from Auckland, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Hello Public Transport and Bye Down Under Blog...

Auckland, New Zealand


On the bus to Auckland
Did a final tidy-up of the car and packed the rest of things before Rick came at 11am to collect his new car and give us $1500 cash. Will miss that little car! Katie, the manager of the campsite we were staying in kindly gave us a lift to the bus stop for our 4 hour journey to Auckland to meet up with Sam, a girl we met travelling in Borneo. The bus journey was pretty painless but no chance to keep yourself occupied reading books as he drove too fast around the tight corners so I felt a little sick. When we arrived in Auckland it was a bit of shock as it was pretty chaotic and busy as it was the last of rush-hour but we found a bus pretty easily to Sam’s although we did get off a couple of stops too early as Chris was a little keen. Then, just a short walk to Sam’s where we were delighted to take off our heavy backpacks as they are so crammed full of stuff and we are just not used to carrying them anymore! After a quick catch up with Sam we went for a few drinks at her local before eating some tasty food at a Mexican down the road before retiring to bed at 10pm as she unfortunately had to get up early for work. Super-comfy bed and it was nice to not shiver to sleep! This is the end now of ‘Chris and Charly Down Under’ as we are off to Fiji tomorrow for some much-needed Sunshine!

permalink written by  chrischarly on March 28, 2012 from Auckland, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly Down Under
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Car= sold, finally!

Whangarei, New Zealand


Walkway
We actually had a busy day today! Woke up at the crack of dawn (8am) and quickly got ready and drove to Whangarei as I had a doctor’s appointment. It took about 1 ½ hours to get there and I was in and out pretty quickly. We then had to do some shopping for the Pacific Islands, which included buying a new pair of shorts and swim shorts for Chris and a pair of trousers for myself as all mine have holes in! We then went and searched out some bargain snorkels and fins as well as some reef shoes for 4 months of snorkelling and a new day bag as ours has a gaping hole in, which Chris managed to get the guy to knock $25 off (with him thinking it was $15 as he couldn’t add up properly! Haha!) Then, just time for a quick hair-cut for me before driving back to seal the deal with the car sale. When we got back, Dick the owner of the campsite we’ve been staying in said he has another friend interested in buying the car and was coming to have a look at it in 5 minutes so we hurriedly emptied and tidied the car and he came, seemed interested, left and later text us offering us just $1300 for it. No way. So Chris replied saying he wanted $1700 followed by an hour’s wait before he responded with $1500 and not a penny more. So of course, Chris tried his luck one more chance and said $1600 and we would have a deal and we were in a stalemate with him for a few hours before Chris finally caved in and accepted $1500, cash and he sorts all the paperwork. So the dealer has some bad news! Oh well, he shouldn’t have messed us around! The rest of the afternoon consisted of us unpacking the contents of the van into our backpacks, involving many items to be thrown away to make this task possible. Then, at about 9pm we had 1 text and 1 email enquiring about the car! How irritating! Why couldn’t they have just asked us earlier or yesterday! But it is done now and I have had enough thinking of this car. So much hassle and stress, time to just enjoy our last couple of days in New Zealand now before going to Fiji!

permalink written by  chrischarly on March 27, 2012 from Whangarei, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly Down Under
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Another headache from trying to sell our van

Paihia, New Zealand


A bird
A few days ago we had an offer of $1500 for our car from a dealer just down the road where we are staying. Rubbish price, but it is now low season so no one is buying and the dealer is obviously clearly aware of this so is going to hold out and sell it in a few months when it is high season again so will more than double his money. Cheeky, but understandable and if I were in his position I would do the exact same.

A load of birds on a little island
So Chris went off to go and see him this morning as it is now our last option as no one else seems interested but he wanted to check it over as well, which is a pain. He found that the brake pads are seriously worn down and the bushes which affect the suspension need replacing and he is baffled as to how they ever passed the WOF. So, of course he haggled us down even further but luckily just to $1400 before having the cheek to ask us to leave him with enough petrol so he could run around in it. Yeah right, as if that is going to happen!

permalink written by  chrischarly on March 26, 2012 from Paihia, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly Down Under
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11+km walk

Waitangi, New Zealand


The walkway

Chris stood by Haruru Falls


A fish and chip restaurant

The beach

Somebody else called about the car today! So we excitedly rushed around tidying it and again he wasn’t interested and instead wanted something bigger. Not long ‘till we fly out now, so better get something sorted, quick. But it was a gorgeous day today so we went on a 11+km walk on the same track as the other day but to the end to Waitangi and back the road way. Which was great and gorgeous but exhausting, then had a tasty dinner before enjoying having the campsite to ourselves once again. It’s like our own private House.

permalink written by  chrischarly on March 25, 2012 from Waitangi, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly Down Under
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A load of rain, again.

Paihia, New Zealand

It poured and poured and poured with rain today, so we did nothing again.

permalink written by  chrischarly on March 24, 2012 from Paihia, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly Down Under
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Slim Chris!

Paihia, New Zealand


Slim Chris
As it wasn’t raining again today Chris decided to head off fishing and came back empty-handed, of course! Had someone interested in the car and so came to have a look at it, but unfortunately they wanted a manual. What a pain… But check out how much weight Chris has lost! We have been carrying this T-shirt around with us since Chris' mum brought it with her to Sri Lanka and now he can finally fit into it and comfortably! So proud of him! :)

permalink written by  chrischarly on March 23, 2012 from Paihia, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly Down Under
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