I have really enjoyed my time away but looking forward to getting home and seeing Sarah and catching up with friends and Family. Not so much looking forward to going back to work however, but guess i have to pay for my next trip somehow!

Highlights of my trip:

• Catching up with Matt and Kat in Dublin
• Road Tripping around Ireland
• Catching up with Chris in Whistler
• Snowboarding and Snowmobiling in Whistler!

When i reach Vancouver I am catching a bus up to Whistler to stay with Chris for a few weeks. While there i hope to get in a spot of snowboarding maybe some snowmobiling and what ever else takes my fancy.

The drive down the east coast took us through many small villages and along the rocky coast line, through Belfast and back to Dublin. We arrived back to the rental car depot around 2:30pm then caught a bus back to Matt and Kats apartment.

From my observations from the road trip i have decided that Ireland is a much older country than NZ with a lot of history and character. There are various landscapes which resemble parts of the NZ countryside.

• My Photo Gallery
• Matt’s Photo Gallery
• Matt’s blog summarising the road trip.

We decided we would stop in Ballymena for a bite to eat and a coffee. However we we sadly disappointed at the lack of quality cafes. We settled on one which seemed to be the best there was however it was not that stunning. We wandered back through the town then continued driving north.

We reached the northern coast at a town called Ballycastle. From here we followed the coast line to the west. At Carrick-A-Rede there are some impressive cliffs and islands just off the coast. One of these cliffs is connected to the mainland by rope bridge. Unfortunately however they take the bridge down in the winter. We still got a good look at the islands, beach and cliffs. Despite the ‘Authentic Irish Weather’ as Kat put it.

From Carrick-A-Rede we continued along the coast a little bit further to the Gaints Causeway which is an area of about 40,000 interlocking Basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal.

We then decided to visit the Old Bushmills Distillery where they make Old Bushmills Whiskey. We had a late lunch here before starting a tour of the distillery. The tour its self was interesting as we got to see how them make the whiskey in a real working distillery.

From here we continued on to Portrush where we are staying for the night. We checked into the guest house where we are staying then went out to find somewhere for dinner. We picked a restaurant called Coast which served pizzas and pastas mainly. This restaurant got extremely busy while we were them with people coming in and being told there was over an hour wait for a table. The food wasn’t bad and was quite well priced so we couldn’t complain.

We got back on the planned route and continued on to Clifton where we had lunch at Guys Pub. As the weather today was dull, windy and rainy (I’m told this is normal for Ireland) we continued driving and didn’t stop much. Preferring to view the country side from the warmth of the car.

We continued on through Westport and Castlebar until we reached Sligo which is where we are staying tonight. We had a walk around town which has I nice river running through it then went and found the B&B where we are staying tonight

After leaving the cliffs we drove up the coast through the Burren, which is basically a huge area just covered in rocks. It’s just amazing the size and volume of rocks in the area which just goes on for miles and miles.
We arrived in Galway and found the guesthouse where we were staying. After settling in we walked down into town to for a look around and to find somewhere for dinner. Galway is quite a nice mid sized Irish town with many narrow streets and old buildings which I’m beginning to realise is normal for towns in Ireland. We had dinner at a small pub, the meal was good and fairly well priced.

I then hopped onto an open top bus tour. This took me around various sites in the city with a commentary the whole way which gave me quite a bit of history about Dublin. The Georgian section of Dublin and the old buildings, church’s etc… give Dublin real character.

I got off the bus at the Guinness Storehouse and did a tour here. This explained the process that goes into making Ireland’s No. 1 beer. As part of this process I got to start a batch of Guinness, my batch is batch number 7302 (I think).

After admiring the 360 degree views of Dublin from the bar at the top of the Guinness factory I continued on the bus tour of Dublin and learned more about the history of Dublin and got to see some of the more popular sites around Dublin.

I hoped of the bus and caught the DART (Rail system) to the Google offices where I met up with Matt for lunch. Then Matt showed me around the offices and where he works. This is quite interesting. Although from all the toys and the laid back atmosphere in the office I’m not sure how much work gets done. Matt however assures me work is done.

The rest of the afternoon I spent wandering around the city admiring parks and taking in the scenery.

It started with my flight out of NZ from Auckland Airport. After saying good bye to those that came to see me off i went through to the departures area to the gate lounge. A few minutes latter it was paged over the intercom that my flight had been delayed by an hour due to engineering requirements. I walked around and went and got something to eat and a bottle of water for on the plane. Then finally an hour late they started boarding the plane. Once we were seated on the plane the captain announced that they just had to run some tests then the plane would depart…. an hour later we finally departed.

The first leg of the flight from Auckland to Los Angeles was fairly uneventful. I managed to get a little bit of sleep but not a lot.

When we arrived in LA where we had to get off the plane go through US immigration then move to a Transit Lounge. We waited here about 2hours then started boarding then departed for London.

This leg of the flight I was upgraded from economy to Premium Economy which meant i got better service, more room, better food and a few other bonuses! I managed to sleep a little on this leg too.

We arrived into Heathrow at 12:17 about 2hours later than scheduled due to the delay leaving Auckland. Then finally disembarked the plane at 12:40 This caused me a few problems problems as i had to catch my connecting flight to Dublin which departed at 1:25pm. I rushed down through Immigration (Managed to skip to front of queues) picked up my bagage then proceeded across to the other terminal where my flight to Dublin left from. I arrived at the check in desk just as they were making the final boarding call. But as it was a 10-15min walk from check-in desk to departure gate they told me I had missed the flight. Fortunately they rebooked me onto another flight that day. However this flight did not leave until 5pm-ish this meant more sitting around the Airport!

I finally arrived in Dublin at 7pm 18th Feb. Got off the plane and went through Immigration which consisted of a lady glancing at my passport and stamping it. Picked up my bags and went through customs (Consisted of and area of idle x-ray machine) to the arrivals area where i found Matt waiting to pick me up. Took a taxi back to his apartment had dinner then got some much needed sleep.