The comeback tour!

Day 12 finds our travellers heading for a traditional Japanese breakfast in the hotel …. Verdict…. Nothing to write home about.  Next up we head to a tour of the Mt Fuji area and some classic Japanese scenery  Now organised tours in Japan all seem to have one thing in common no matter what they involve they always seem to involve a shrine/ temple. The first one or two are interesting but after that…. Well let’s just say our travellers patience / interest starts to wain! What is surprising about a lot of these holy places and in reality about most of Japan ….. it’s in need of refurbishment. It appears to your travellers eyes that Japan, the gem of 1980’s technological success perhaps hasn’t had such a successful time since then. Evidence of this is everywhere but perhaps most clearly in the metro / rail system where the ticket machines look very dated and tap and go doesn’t exist! Further evidence should any be needed exists with the taxis….. most wouldn’t be out of place in In...

Our intrepid travellers reach day 11 on this magical mystery tour of a trip and head off to Auckland Int apitpity hoping for no interventions from the weather gods! Success!!! The flight leaves as planned for the 12 hour flight up to Tokyo.  Dear reader I feel I must acknowledge at this point that your humble scribe on his comeback tour has refoubd his passion for travel even with the challenges thrown at this trip so far. Evidence of such findings can be observed in the fact that flying to NZ your scribe bing watched the entire series of “A long way home” and on this leg from Auckland to Tokyo the same with “Race across the world”. Dear reader to be very clear your scribe is not thinking of jumping on a motorbike (past efforts still have the ridicule of the moniker driving miss daisy rattling in one’s brain) nor travelling round the world in abject squalor on a stupidly low budget! And so as night falls our little tribe enter a new country for all of them. Customs had long queues ...

Now at this point on the trip We are scheduled to leave NZ and head up to Tokyo on a way home diversion! However before we leave NZ there is just enough time for our most senior member to carry out another act of (a) daring do (b) gravity testing (c) attempt to end up in just a “splat” ( delete as appropriate) with a bungee jump from the Auckland harbour bridge.  Now the Auckland harbour bridge is not like the Sydney harbour bridge, it’s lower and much less iconic. Still our most senior member had a desire to jump off it even though it was a mere 160ft high.  Surprisingly upon arrival at the jump location no one else was jumping so our vacant Explorer had the full attention of the jump staff leading him to attempt a running jump off the bridge. The untamed gambler not being impressed by the attempt describing it as a run and flop! Now dear reader this trip has been beset by weather issues and so our bands next message is from the tour company cancelling the our evening sailing...

Day 9 and our band is fully reunited for the last cricket of this trip… a one day international at the bay oval for a day / night game.  The bay oval whilst being a very picturesque location nestled at the south end of the bay is also, like most grounds in NZ pretty under developed (think grass banks rather than stands / seats). The cricket itself when it begins continues the pattern of our bands success watching as England meekly go down to a loss in a one sided match. Our most senior member commenting that the problem was team selection that had resulted in no Essex players taking part in the game for England  ….   The consolation prize was another cheese and port late night snack (where the hell did this “tradition” come from!?  Next up …. A day of travel as your band head back to the Northern hemisphere to Tokyo for something… different. 

Today is a red letter day in the middle of this trip… today the brothers grim have decided to undertake a combination of activities designed to maximise the chances of death or permanent injury with a very rapid Rapid rafting followed by a very high go ape type experience which reports say is about 4 times the height with multiple zip wires and death defying jumps / climbs Now dear readers will perhaps recall your humble scribe and heights are not happy bed fellows.  On the positive side a day of peace mooching around the smelliest city in the world is welcome! Daily blog closed!

Our band awake on day 7 in a place they weren’t supposed to be due to the impact of Mother Nature. However taking the best out of the situation we soon realise there are worse places to be than the very picturesque town of Picton which in the spring sun offered the start of what must be one of the most scenic channel crossings in the world through multiple islands and across the Cook Straits to Wellington.  Now as well as suffering from apocalyptic weather in the last few days NZ is also in the midst of a Measles outbreak and so our band were delighted to hear on the radio news that the outbreaks patient zero had been identified as having transmitted most of the virus whilst …. Yes you got it… whilst crossing the Cook Straits!! Fate tempted…… As it happens all of our band believe we had the standard UK measles vaccination jab as children so fingers crossed the travel gods are still not feeling vengeful towards our buffeted band! After an uneventful but scenically inspiring crossing...