The Great Wall Of China

No not the one that you can supposedly see from space, the firewall that prevents the Chinese people viewing anything the government doesn't wish them to on the Internet. I've recently found the The Adventures Of James Peel is apparently one of these such sites and it's proving very difficult to create new posts. I don't know what I've done to upset them but it's proving rather unhelpful. I can't get on Facebook, read my emails or view football results without a palaver.

But luckily for you , my 4 years university education has come up trumps once again and the great wall is being avoided. I still can't get pictures to upload but text should work just dandy.

Lets hope this works!

If it does, can you please let me know, via email, as I can't view the site to check myself.

Many Thanks,

James

Hong Kong Phewy

After 14 long hours sat in various airports in Australasia, we eventually arrived in Hong Kong to start the latest leg of the adventure. The second we stepped out of the beautifully air conditioned plane the humidity struck and since that point I've been steadily perspiring. I'm the Lynx advert "before" type at the best of times but in this weather I'd need more than a can of antiperspirant to keep my dry. Anyhow, after cursing about dampness for about 3 hours, we headed to the hostel we booked a few days previous. We had the address and a map but for the life of us couldn't find a so-called, Sincere House. We knew we were on the right road as the road signs were in English, but due to the fact neither Rory or I can understand Chinese pictographs, Sincere House was proving rather elusive. Eventually, after hiking through several 2nd hand phone stalls, we found the hostel and to our delight it was on the 14th floor. I can assure you this didn't help the sweating situation, but we eventually got checked in by a very helpful young lady and had a well deserved wash. Safe in the knowledge I was no long a nasal hindrance on the people of Hong Kong, we went out for some food and the old language barrier became a issue for a second time. Luckily they had a few pictures so we just pointed to something that looked reasonably edible and within 10 minutes we were armed with our chop sticks and rearing to go. Now, if you were on family fortunes and had to think of something that could prove impossibly difficult to pick up using two small sticks, noodles or rice would probably win you a car. I'm reasonably dexterous with the chop sticks, but my poor friend Rory spent about 45 minutes pushing various grains of rice, sweetcorn and noodles around a bowl before calling it a day. He's going to wilt if he doesn't pick it up soon.

Other than the minor annoyances mentioned above, which aren't really annoyances and generally keep things interesting, I thought Hong Kong was a really vibrant, interesting and surprisingly clean and well maintained city. I also found it's incredibly cheap for electrical goods. I've been in the market for a new SLR camera for some time now and due to the benefits of Australian tax back, this was an ideal time to splash out. So armed with my new camera and a bag full of sweaty unwashed clothing, its off to China tomorrow where things could get even more interesting and hopefully a little less sauna like.

A Day On The Piste

Yesterday a few of my companions from the bus suggested a days skiing in the mountains surrounding Queenstown. I've never been skiing before but I was up for learning and as an added incentive it was the first day of the Winter Games, which meant I could go and watch the Pro's flip about if I was struggling. As there were two of the party that required tuition and two that were semi-instructors, we paired off and made it a bit competitive. Team 1 consisted of Sophia and Mark, Mark being the learner, leaving Wally and I to make Team 2. We pencilled in a race at the end of the day between Mark and myself and decided the loosing team would have to buy the drinks that evening. So we eagerly headed off with our instructors and began our first lesson, putting skis on.
Mark was up the slope before me and was soon getting taught some basic turning and stopping techniques. Firstly Sophia had him practising on the flatter ground then before long he was gently on a slalom down the slope in her tracks. I also noticed a lot of the other learners were doing similar things at nice steady pace. Wally's teaching method was somewhat less conventional. He first advised me "To stop, point your toes together" then with a little shove he wished me good luck and I was on my way. It was a rather steep learning curve and as you can imagine, I was soon travelling at quite some speed in a limbo style formation towards a group of children. At the last moment danger was averted and I was saved from causing several deaths but I did learn from this experience and from that point onwards I kept it simple.
We had another hour on the nursery slopes before our tutors decided we were finally ready for the mountain. We jumped on the the ski lift, which was a comedy of errors in itself, and 5 minutes later we were at the summit. It turned out to be far stepper than I had imagined so I just plodded along at my own pace. After a few runs both Mark and I had developed our own styles. Mark liked the go-as-fast-as-you-can-then-crash-spectacularly method and I preferred the safer approach, keeping my speed below 2mph at all times. Mark was clearly the early favourite. Although he was never on his feet for than 20 seconds, I was so slow that by the time I'd caught up with him, he'd had ample time to get back up, re-attach his skis and start to build enough speed for his next tumble. However, by lunch time we had both improved tremendously and after a brief refreshment we were straight back on the slopes.
The last run was at 4pm so we jumped on the lifts 10 minutes before and I received my final briefing from coach Wally.  Considering my pace was still pretty poor we were really hoping the race would pan out in much the same way as the Tortoise beat the Hare in Aesop's fable, I just had to keep my speed steady and hope Mark tumbled. We finally arrived at the top and were under starters orders.
I made a good start and had the early lead but I could hear Wally screaming that Mark was catching up rapidly. About half way down Mark over took at tremendous speed and before long was motoring ahead. I just remembered the briefing and kept it slow and steady. With about 500m to go things went perfectly to plan and Mark was rolling around in the snow with his skis in the air. I took the opportunity while it was there and cruised past to take the victory. I don't like to gloat but after being called "Snail Boy" all day, it was nice to bathe in the glory while Wally and I sipped our prize.

Apologies

At last the company that register my domain name have managed to pull their lazy little fingers out and www.jamespeel.info is finally back online.

Thank you sincerely for your patience.

Strange & The Beautiful

Since my last post things have only got even more impressive and New Zealand has now officially secured its position as the greatest place I've ever visited. The Stray bus I have been travelling with has been superb and so have the people travelling on it. I have partaken in numerous activities since being on the tour and I can't think of a single one I have not thoroughly enjoyed. Each day has provided me with something weirdly or wonderfully exciting.  I've witnessed things ranging from a rabbit being sheared on a medieval style torture rack to 2000ft snow peaked mountains shooting vertically out of the sea. I've taken part in a welly throwing competition, learnt the Haka and watched men hunt deer by jumping on them from helicopters. I've also been bitten by more sand flies than I care to remember but this really hasn't mattered as I've had so much to distract me from the itching that I'm almost happy to feed the little fellas.

The Extreme Adventures Of.........

Well things really have turned a little exciting in the last couple of days, I've had an action packed week to say the very least. For a start I learnt to surf. I'm certainly not renowned for my technical prowess, my sporting abilities tend to rely in clumsily hitting things as hard as possible, but I actually took to surfing relatively quickly. I did end up drinking a fair bit of sea water in the learning process but eventually I was standing and catching most waves. I don't think I'll be catching any tsunamis any time soon but I shall definitely be surfing again in the future given the chance. After that little experience I thought I'd keep the adrenalin pumping with a spot of white water rafting. A group of 6 of the people from the bus got kitted up in various wetsuits and buoyancy aides and after a quick lesson on death avoidance we went for a paddle. The Kaitiaki river is a grade 5 white water experience, I'm not sure what that really means but its bloody exciting. We started off learning the paddling basics backwards, forwards hold-on-tight & brace-here-comes-a-20ft-waterfall. So after an hour cruising through a selection of fast moving rapids it came to the big finale. I got myself all rehearsed and psyched up for the fall but it didn't do much good, as the raft went down it folded in two and I smacked my teeth on the persons helmet in front of me and split my lip open. It was well worth it though despite the fat lip and minor blood loss. Then finally just to top it all off I jumped out of a plane and done a gentle bit of skydiving. At 1500ft above lake Taupo, it seemed quite along way down. But after only 70 seconds of free-fall and 4 minutes of gleeful parachuting I managed to land safely. I got a DVD made of me doing it but until I figure a way of getting that on the website and editing out the expletives, you shall have to put up with the pictures from the ground. I've only been in New Zealand a few weeks now but I'm truly amazed by this country. The scenery, the people, the activities, the cultures and even just the fresh air are unlike anything I've witnessed or experienced before. I'm now chalking up a few stamps in the old passport from various places around the world but at the moment I'd have to say New Zealand is currently in pole position. Its a bit of a cliché and I know its been said a thousand times before, but I can clearly see why people call New Zealand the 8th wonder of the world. I'm off to the south island tomorrow and things are only meant to get better from there. I can hardly contain my excitement, something I only just about managed to whilst jumping from a plane in my borrowed overalls, so until then why not take a look at the photos.

On The Road Again

After a nice little trip from Melbourne to Auckland featuring one of the finest in-flight meals I've ever sampled (Smoked Salmon with buttered vegetables), I landed safely in New Zealand and the adventures are now back on track. My flight arrived quite late but luckily for me, my highly esteemed and much missed companion Rory had booked me a bed in his hostel so I made my way from the Airport and we were once again reunited. We popped out for a few drinks, had a bit of a catch up then I got to bed early in eager anticipation of what New Zealand had to offer.

Rory had already booked his ticket for the Stray bus, a bus which allows you to travel up and down New Zealand for a year and jump-on/jump-off whenever you wish. So the next morning I booked mine and together we spent the day looking at the various tacky tourist spots Auckland had to offer. I can't say I'm a massive fan of the place, I found it to be a bit of a dive, so with the promise of free food waiting for us at the hostel we swiftly headed back and placed our order. Over dinner we discussed our plans for the next few days and Rory told me about some of the activities he had been up to and how much he'd enjoyed them. He then informed me of his plans to get a job at Eaton Vale activity centre upon his return to England, but due to his complete lack of experience in the industry he would understand if they started him on something simple like manning the Tuck shop until he got trained up on the full 10 meter abseil. Safe in the Knowledge Rory's 3 years at university and his degree in Law wasn't going to waste, we finished up our food and packed for the bus leaving the next morning.

After a minor hiccup, that nearly stranded Rory in crappy Auckland, all was well so we placed our bags on the coach and away we went with a host of new travelling companions. We were pretty surprised when we bumped into one lad we met in Bangkok over 4 months ago, so we said hello to him and the rest of the bus, as we made our way to our first destination. As well as the simply amazing scenery outside, Rory and I were provided with some fascinating entertainment from two Essex girls sat adjacent to us who between them would struggle to beat Jade Goodie in a game of counting. We could hear their conversation, as could most people within a mile radius, and were unable to believe most things we heard. At one point we stopped at a Fruit and Veg stall for some refreshments and after everyone had got a few things together we jumped back on the bus. At this point I heard one of the girls say "Oh my God, right. Your meant to be on a on a diet. I can't believe we just stopped at a veg stall and you brought crisps!" This was followed by the justification - "Oh my God, right. They're like 100% potato and all vegetables are healthy and good for you". I'm sure there will be more to come from these Clowns, I'll keep you informed.

Technical Difficulties

If you're reading this you probably haven't been effected but I've only just been informed that the www.jamespeel.info link to the website has been faulty and not working for the last couple of weeks.

I'm trying to resolve the issue but it seems to be taking a little longer to fix than I had hoped. Until I do find a solution the The Adventures of James Peel will be available at www.james-peel.blogspot.com

So if you could forward this message to all your friends and family who no doubt read this page routinely, it would be greatly appreciated.

I apologise sincerely for the inconvenience,

Many Thanks,

James (Editor)