well - here I go...
Got to Wellington airport at 4am - prob had 2-3 hrs sleep due to being too excited and noisy buggers in room next door, combination probably!
Had non eventfull flights apart from the 30 or so minute delay in Melbourne - dont know why Garuda was delayed as people and plane were there!
Garuda arerly good at looking after you thats for sure, loads of bintangs and everything else - is this why aussies like Garuda (lol).
VOA: wizzed through this in around 30-40min BUT my bags were pulled aside as they had scanned my hipflask of vodka and my bottle of wine - they were going to make a big deal out of it till I made a louder deal of it saying that I thought this was ok! They backed off pretty quick and I closed up my bags and went for a taxi.
Got to Patra Bali - got a room upgrade because my girl gve the lovely young LUCY a toy Kiwi - right on!!!!! Glad we bought a heap over...
Put bags in room and straight to the pool - my 10yr old was busting at the seams for a swim and it was lovely and hot - man I love Bali.
Went to the pool - M jumped in and I grabbed a cocktail - man life is hard!
Meet H with DVD's at reception - not all work so not very happy about that and couldnt get him on email while I was there so lost a bit of money on that one!
Had dinner at resort as couldnt be bothered with much else and I was starting to feel like crap with lack of sleep and to many vodkas on plane!
So next day I woke around 5am! You can always tell the ones with the biggest time difference as they are always the first into breakfast!
Buffet pretty good - no complaints, had anything and everything.
Found a driver (care of one of the guys who work at the Patra) for $300'000 for the day and went off to places like Bintang Supermarket and had a shop up of crap, different things you cant get in NZ and local fruit.
Went to Discovery Mall to find M's heelies (thanks to people on forum who helped us with this) - we had to go to the top floor and right at the back to this sportzy type shop and YEA found my girls shoes she wanted and paid about $30 NZ when they are around $100 here in NZ - a very happy mum and daughter!
Cant remember what we did for tea that night - bad aye! The days just all seem to roll intogether!
Next day was Waterbom - cool place.
I did the Smash Down and Boomerange ONCE and was happy with my efforts...
Did all the others as well a bit more - thougth I was going to drown on Smash Down and thought I had better loose some weight after going on Boomerange with M as we went WAY TOO HIGH for two girlies!!!!!
Thank bloody *** I wasnt wearing undies on that ride.......
M had a fantastic time as kids do - she was king of the bar (the one you sit on and knock people off) for ages and all the asian boys were funny trying to pull her off from below - that tuff little kiwi lass took some beating!
I hired one of those thingies you sit on/under and that was good as I let M have a free range while I sat an whatched.
M did the bungy thing too - basically it was a great day (secretly, I would rather have been out and about but I did promise M that this time she could go to Waterbom). M found yet another new asian friend at Waterbom and they have even emailed each other since being home - her english is not to hot but I am sure it will get better with practice - M and I were told that we now have family and Bali and they want us to stay with them next time or when ever! Her dad even said it again in his email to me - awesome people the Balinesse...
Next day it was time to go to the orphanages with Gusti (thanks Dennisc for the contact).
Gusti was just the bomb - hes even been to NZ for 3 months work about 5 years ago and couldnt stop raving about it.
I had gathered quite a hearty sum of money before I came over as well as some free kids clothes from Sallys and M's class room got on board with it all and donated one thing each from home they didnt want - so I ended up with heaps of things to TAKE to Bali (was great).
First stop of the day was to buy food for the two places I visited - bought up large and it felt great - I said to Gusti that I felt like Mrs Clause (I think he got it?).
Stopped on way as well to buy rice from local traders - Gusti checked all the bags out to make sure we got quality stuff - all very interesting to whatch!
Ok - now we are off again and the first orphanage was Gianyar - the handicapped one (I think this one is Gusti's fav).
Was greated warmly by kids and adults alike - M had bought chuppachups for everyone so that was a good ice breaker.
Then we moved inside for a chat - did some chatting (if you call it that) to the pregnant young lady that works there, had a good look around and then off we go again.
next stop is Tabanan to a Christian orphanage that had about 40 odd kids in a range of ages.
Wow - what a different place altogether!
This orphanage was clean, tidy and the kids didnt seem to lack for anything (glad I gave the money to handicapped orphanage).
I took pictures and video fotage for the people in NZ who have me money to take and for M's class at school to see how good they have it here in NZ.
It was a great day - two totaly different orphanages - couldnt beleave how different!
We both learnt loads and it was a great experience for M.
Ok - enough for now, I will be back with the next part sooooooooooon (as in a day or two)or when I am re-hydrated!!!
PS: who can tell me how to load or show pics???????