Pete's Travelling

On 20th July 2006 Peter Hill wanted to see what life was like outside the Costa-Del-Tonbridge. So he set off on a round the world trip. Not too much was planned before hand. He had 7 plane tickets which arrived an left countries from different locations. The dates on the flights could be changed as much as he liked. Where he went between flights was not planned at all and he would decide on each given day where he would head. The first flight on 20th July took him from London to New York. The second plane ticket he had left from Los Angeles. The map below shows the route Peter took from New York to Los Angelas. He was joined in San Fransico by Laura Archer and Suzie Chilcraft was there for San Fransisco and L.A Click the links under the map for photos.

So once Peter has said goodbye to Suzie at L.A airport, Suzie flew back to England and Peter flew to Hawaii. Peter was never great at saving money and he did not have a lot with him when he left England on 20th July. All the money he had managed to save had run out during his 3 months in U.S.A. At this point on his trip the plan was to visit Hawaii and then Fiji but he was out of money. He had a working visa for New Zealand so he had to get there as soon as possible and find a job to get some money. So in one day Peter flew from L.A to Hawaii, then got the next flight from Hawaii to Fiji then finally a flight from Fiji to Auckland in New Zealand. Crossing the time barrier on the flights so he jumped from being 8 hours behind UK time to being 12 hours in front. He landed at Auckland rather tired and confused with what time/day it was and all the money he had was 5 NZ Dollars which is about £2 in UK money. He was in the airport on his own in a country where he knew no one with no food and no where to stay and not even enough money to leave the airport and get to the centre of Auckland. This was the kind of challenge Pete wanted on his trip. He managed to get out of the situation. Fast forward a few weeks and Peter had a place to stay, free accomodation (in exchange for working on reception in a Hostel). He had a job, working in a store called "The Warehouse" a large group of really good friends and even found himself a lady friend. Mercedes Santos from Argentina and he was having the best couple of months of the trip. He stayed in Auckland for a few months saving up some money again he really didn't want to leave Auckland where he had a great few months but he had to keeping moving on and there was the rest of New Zealand to see. So once enough money was saved it was time to move on. He managed to blag a spot on a backpackers tour bus for free by using his connections at the hostel. This bus took him around the north island. He then got a ferry over to the south island where he met up with Eliott Larner and Marina (2 good friends from he met in Auckland) the three of them had a fiat punto and went on a little road trip around the south island with many great stories from their time. Pete had to say good bye to them both though. He had his next flight to catch. He headed back up to Auckland and caught a plane to Sydney. For photos of New Zealand click the links below the map. There are also some movie's here: -

Pete was very sad to leave New zealand a country he loved but he had to move on so he arrived in Sydney, Australia. Pretty much all the money Peter had built up while working in Auckland was spent on his trips around the North and South Islands. He just about had enough for the trip from Sydney Airport into Sydney city centre and 2 nights in a hostel then he was out. He was in search of work again. This was not as easy as it was in New Zealand and he kept hitting stumbling blocks. The money ran out, it was a struggle to find food everyday and a place to sleep. It was a tough time but the kind of challenge Pete likes. He decided he had to leave Sydney in search of work. He got a couple of odd jobs and had enough money for a bus trip away but he went out for one last night in Sydney to celebrate moving on and he managed to spend all the money! So he had to stay another week and build up more money to pay for a bus trip to the little town called Mildura. There really is not a lot in Mildura apart from a hostel called Bev & Mick's. What a great place this is! Mildura is surrounded by farms and Bev & Micks help the backpackers find work doing fruitpicking etc.. Most importantly the hostel had its own bar. Avery lively bar full of backpackers. Pete had a great time at this hostel and made lots of good friends spent mostly getting rather drunk each night. He got a couple of jobs picking grapes and courgettes, this is very hard work for very little money but life back at the hostel was good. He soon landed on his feet and got a long ongoing job helping to install an automated watering system on an orange farm which paid pretty well. He started to build up some cash again. Soon it was time to move on and sadly leave Bev & Micks. he took a trip to Canberra with a couple of friends then set off on his own up to east coast of Australia. He stopped at a couple of places along the east coast and took trips to Frasier Island and sailing around the whitsunday islands. He also met up with Matt in Brisbane. Matt was the very first friend Pete met on this trip back in New York. Pete got quite a way up the east coast but then had to head back south to Melbourne to meet up with Mercedes who had come over to see Peter. After saying goodbye to Mercedes for the last time she went back to her Job in New Zealand and Pete had his next Flight to catch from Cairnes. Melbourne is quite a long way from Cairnes so Pete brought and extra plane ticket for a flight from Melbourne to Cairnes. He then left Australia on a flight from Cairnes to Singapore. Map and photos from Australia are below: -

Peter now had landed in Singapore. His final plane ticket he had left to use was from Bangkok back home to London. So now he had to find his way from Singapore through Malaysia into Thailand and up to Bangkok. Peter did not have a visa that allowed him to work in any of these countries so the money he had left (not a lot) had to last him the rest of the trip. He didn't do half the stuff he wanted to do on this leg of the trip because of the lack of money. It was just about surviving really, making sure he had enough for food every day a place to sleep and enought to pay for any transport in his quest for Bangkok. From Singapore Pete headed into Malysia and stopped at Kula Lumpar for a bit. After a couple more stops in Malysia Pete entered the final country of his trip, Thailand. Now on pretty much no money he had to get up to bangkok for his flight. He made it but the last week of his trip was spent on a budget of less that 20p a day for food and that eventually ran out. So the last 2 days of his year long trip Pete was living at Bangkok airport sleeping on a bench andwith no food. He even had to beg someone to give him £5 to pay his departure tax that Thailand charge when you leave the country so he could actually get on his flight but get on he did and after a 13 hour long plane journey he was back at heathrow airport having breakfast with his family in spoons exactly a year even down to the time and minute that he was there a year ago having breakfast before starting the trip. Now it was done. Many great friends, memories and stories were made on this trip but it was great to see the Costa-Del-Tonbridge gang again. Who had organised a fancy dress party for all things starting with P for Peter. Thanks guys. Photos and map from Asia below: -