High point: Pacific Coast Highway 101
Low Point: Not being able to drive this road everyday
No point: Being anywhere else
What not to say at a border point: California border lady ‘’Do you have any fruit or vegetables on board Sir?’’, James ‘’No, only the three in the back.’’
Risk point: Getting 52 new troops in a game of Risk against Ben Battye. Surely that only happens once in a lifetime?
Wolf spot: one Read more →
High point: Collecting two very excited crew members from the airport; Route Master General Rob Poderoso and Ben ‘I’ve been to Vancouver before’ Battye, you may remember Ben’s hilarious blogs from stage 1 (no pressure Ben)
Low point: Being bumped off the Global News channel due to a gang shooting
No point: Using the lift. Someone was stuck in there for 5 hours!
Everywhere we go around the world we always receive the warmest reception from fire stations. From washing our clothes in Uluru fire station (while Steve sat in his boxer shorts) to organising FTFE press coverage across Asia in Chengdu. We’ve been well fed, watered and even given a bed for the night too many times to mention. The hospitality has been tremendous and Vancouver was no exception. As soon as the guys heard what we’re doing they welcomed us with open arms (and a large plate of pasta and garlic bread). Thank you to Captain Tookey and the guys at Vancouver Fire Department for the warm welcome.
High point: Saturday night is party night and the crew had a BBQ for us on the deck, in the rain, with Christmas songs playing. Wonderfully random.
No point: Wondering what’s for dinner, it’s rice and probably something with cabbage.
Low point: Eating stir fried kidney thinking it was going to be a mushroom.
Most random meal on board: Mushroom brulee/soufflé that tasted of fish. I’m not saying the two are related but, the day that was on the menu, was the only day I was sick.
Lessons learned: Avoid mushrooms, they are evil.
Best chat:
Amy “I saw I seagull earlier, I forgot to tell you.”
Steve “What really? That’s crazy.”
Amy “I know”.
High point: The Hoegh Beijing is 12 stories high!
Low point: Leaving the lovely Abela’s and beautiful NZ in a rush
No point: Steve talking to the Chinese crew in Chinglish, surely that makes him more difficult to understand!?
Sporting point: they have a basketball ring on deck, Steve is a very happy boy
Huge Fact : You can fit all the land in the entire world into the Pacific. It is that HUGE !!
As I write we have just boarded the Hoegh Beijing, our home for the next couple of weeks. We’re waiting to leave Auckland Port to cross the Pacific to Mexico. We need to leave the ship in Mexico and meet Martha in Grays Harbour on the west coast of the US. Due to the unprecedented nature of what we are doing, there are no USA customs procedures in place so attempting to disembark the ship in the USA could fail, the outcome; Martha is driven off the ship in the US… myself and Steve are stuck on the ship and head off towards Japan, not so cool! So Mexico for us, the USA for Martha. We have no real idea of where in Mexico we are getting off so fingers crossed it won’t be too nasty. A little adventure awaits. The good news… we still get to cross the Pacific and more importantly cross the date line and equator on board a ship! I believe there is a ceremony for both, wish us luck!
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Today we had three objectives; to find the FTFE antipode (very very important for completing our Guinness World Record attempt), to get some awesome footage of Auckland for the documentary, and last but not least, to find an outfit for the New Years Eve party theme ‘when I was 11’. How hard could it be? We met cameraman Dave Flynn http://www.inlikeflynn.co.nz bright and early to start our magical mystical tour of Auckland. Everyone leaves Auckland for the holidays (most people don’t go back to work until 17th January!) so we had the roads to ourselves, sweet as!
The first stop was St Heliers beach for a bit of posing then onto Michael Joeseph Savage Memorial Park, named after the first Prime Minster. The cricket set came out for the camera and the last test of 2010 commenced, girls v boys. The boys were taking it all a little bit too seriously as usual but the girls came up trumps, catching S. Moore out twice to hold the car park cricket test title for 2010. Nice one Povey! Everyone knows you’re only as good as your last game Steve Moore. At the park there was quite a lot of interest in the fire engine with people asking if they could take Martha’s picture and excited kids climbing all over her. Whilst Steve was being interviewed in front of the camera a women came over and interrupted, we all thought she wanted her picture taken with ‘celebrity’ Steve. No, she’d interrupted to ask him to take her picture, brilliant! Next we drove to Auckland Viaduct to film what felt like an episode of ‘Wish you were here’. As we strolled around the harbour gazing at restaurants and yachts longingly, Dave was never far behind. Read more →
Everyone knew today was going to be a sad day. We would be saying goodbye to two Follow That Fire Engine so solid crew members. Kate ‘Extreme’ Bartishel has been an FTFE ambassador from the beginning and Chris ‘Danger’ Hallward up-ed his game by securing press coverage for our arrival in Auckland, amazing. These are going to be some pretty big shoes to fill for the stage 7 crew. Some how waking up in tents in Margaret’s back garden seemed to ease the pain, as did our trip to Oliver’s bakery for some of the most dubious breakfasts of the expedition so far; fish pie, cold pizza or cheese and mince pie anyone?
Merry Christmas to everyone, I hope Santa has been good to you this year!
Being on the other side of the world at Christmas time feels funny. They don’t really do it like we do. If you didn’t know it was ‘the season to be jolly’ it might feel like any other summers day. All week we’d been trying to make ourselves feel Christmassy; tinsel in the cab, Christmas songs on the radio and even a little Christmas tree from the 2 dollar shop. Nothing seemed to be doing the trick. We still missed our family and friends, the cold, crazy Christmas shoppers and even brussel sprouts.
On Christmas day we decided to trade in the traditional turkey and trimmings to do Christmas how the kiwis do it.
High point: the climb up Franz Josef Glacier
Low point : soggy sandwiches
Small world point : the friend of one of the guys in the Franz Josef Experience Centre was driving Martha, the ambulance the crew met on stage two in Mongolia
Franz Josef is famous for its glacier which is 12km long, it descends from the Southern Alps to less than 300m above sea level. We decided to do a full day trek to explore what this incredible mass of ice has to offer… when in Rome and all that. The walk promised an “experience of the most spectacular glacier environment available to the general public anywhere in the world.”
High point: somewhere over a rainbow
Low point: rough seas
Ping pong point: being beaten by the Super yet again, but not as badly as Steve, is a massive achievement I feel
Last night we hit a 10 metre swell. Not being accustomed sailors, to us the Le Mans Express sounded like she was going to come apart at the seams. As she moaned and groaned the creaking noise was deafening. And on top of that our cabin had become part of some freaky rollercoaster ride. People pay good money to experience that ‘scream if you want to go faster’ feeling, so why wasn’t I enjoying the cabin being tilted all angles and nearly failing out of bed every 2 minutes? Was this really how it was all going to end… in a tin can still only somewhere off the coast of Australia? Please no!
It was light when the sea finally calmed down and we could get some zeds. As they say, worst things happen at sea.
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High point: not being sick
Low point: feeling sick
No point: playing ‘I spy’
Paul point: Steve has the same music taste as the Captain, they both have a love of the Beatles
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