My 'Round the World' travels!: Wonderful Waiheke

My time on Waiheke Island will soon be coming to an end within the next week. Up until now it's been a great experience. My general cleaning and gardening skills have been maxed out -the OCD that I had with fluff, has now got even bigger with cat/dog hair added to my fluff list.

There's a spices cupboard which has been OCD'd by myself - all spices face the front, can be easily identified and are arranged in correct sizes. The place is completely unrecognisable, so much so, that both the owner and the dog walked into the glass doors as they had been cleaned so well by Audrey. One thing I didn't opt to do was to paint.

I would've helped, but in my lifetime have only painted once. My parents allowed me to paint our back porch walls at home years ago. Now, the porch is very small and I managed to make a complete hash of it and it was far too sore on my arms, so I left it with streaks everywhere and only managed one coat. Naturally, I gave up and someone else had to fix it after me. Was always slightly jealous of my siblings, Michael, Carla and Donna...they could paint, wallpaper, lay carpets, floors, (probably even build their own houses with their bare hands)so I moaned as I wanted to help paint somewhere. Needless to say, I was never asked again. I missed out on the 'creative housekeeping gene' that they seemed to inherit. So I didn't fancy destroying someone elses house.

Spent the weekend being shown around the island. Visited the islands richest house - my God, how the other half live - a mansion, with it's own beach on a secluded bay, with it's own cricket pitch that extends out to the sea. Got to meet one of NZ's top barristers - he was as down to earth as you could possibly get - standing in his mansion with green welly boots, smoking a cigarette and having a beer with the locals.

Friday night was cheap beer time at Alan's house - his living room is a bar and he brews his own beer for $2.50 a pint. Coupons can be bought, which resemble dollar bills, but are 'pint bills' and can be exchanged for a beer. His living room is busier than any bar I've been to on the island. Saturday night was a bit of a rough one - drinks in our new clean house first, then off to the Irish bar (yes, even this tiny island has an Irish bar - I don't think there's anywhere on the planet that doesn't have one), then another local bar in Oneroa village (with no-one in it but us lot) and back to Jerry's house for a bit of a session, so there were a few sore heads on Sunday.

So scrubbing duties are coming to an end shortly. I'm just about ready to make a move to my next destination of Oz a month earlier than originally planned, as I've done all I want to in NZ now and need a wee change. So it's back to the big smoke of Sydney - no doubt it hasn't changed much since I visited there back in 2005.

The plan is to stick around Sydney for a few days. Have managed to organise more 'Kim and Aggie duties' with a couple who live 25 mins outside of the CBD in a suburb called Peakhurst, for a couple of weeks (yippee free bed and food again - and yep, a complete gipsy). They've chooks/beehives and like to geocache??! Had to look that one up, but it's like a grown up version of hide and seek (!). Am thinking that the HelpX site that I stumbled across has been a great discovery. How easy it is to save on accommodation and food, travel all over the world with little costs and meeting the locals - you just can't beat it and it'll be my new way of travelling from now on.

Since Christmas is my favourite time of the year, have decided to splash out a bit (for an early birthday pressie also) so pre-booked a serviced apartment overlooking Darling Harbour over Xmas Eve until the 27th. Looking into a harbour cruise to have some yummy Christmas Day lunch before hitting Bondi beach in the afternoon with a few tinnies/barbeque. Yum, yum can just taste the turkey and stuffing now, but the pudding will never beat my mums.

Then the plan is to move up the east coast to Byron Bay, Brisbane, Fraser Island, the Gold Coast, Noosa, Katherine, Surfers Paradise, Darwin and Cairns. Looking forward to catching up with my Aussie friends I met in South America who are organising a bit of a party trip from Adelaide to 'The Rock'/Ayer's Rock/Uluru, so that should be great fun and they know how to throw a good session!