Back in the City of Churches

Well... I'm back in my wee home town of Adelaide! And have been for about 2 weeks now...

I spent my last night in NZ - Sunday night - watching Schindler's List, of all things, until 0130hr. Then up again at 0400hr to be at Auckland airport by 0500hr (thanks for the lift Jade [and thanks also for the lift offer Renée] - legends!) ready to catch my 0620hr plane direct to Adelaide. But when I arrived at the airport, wouldn't ya know it.. My flight was cancelled! I was put on another flight with a stopover in Melbourne, but that one was 2 hours late too... Then, after missing the connecting flight, the next flight to Adelaide was also delayed.. (sigh).

So to cut a long story short, I ended up arriving about 4.5 hours late into Adelaide, where my sister was waiting at the airport for me. I had told my ma that I'd be home the following Saturday, so it was no surprise that she was quite, well, surprised when she went to meet my sis for lunch and the both of us were there!

The past days since I got home have involved organising my photos (around 5,000 of them!), starting to upload them to the net (until my computer blew up), seeing my cousin and her new daughter, hangin' with my homies, my b'day on the Monday just gone, attempting to clean up my room (and still having no luck), and more recently, starting work back at my old job. So I'm able to start saving money again! Yay! And I've not been back for 2 weeks but I'm already beginning to plan my next expedition (I like that one Sandy!). It looks as though France will be the destination - plans for how I get there are still very much in their infancy though.

So all you folk over that side of the world, watch this space...

In the mean time, this will be my last post to this blog. I will try and write an entry every now and again into my new blog, "in the City of Churches", to keep you posted on what I'm getting upto over here in lil old Adelaide...

Photos:

1. Goodbye New Zealand! Qantas inflight entertainment

2. Bee (my sis) n I

3. Eeeeek!

4. Ryan and Carradean

5. Kate and those poor hugging balloon bears...

6. The boys

7. On the way home from my b'day/welcome home drinks - Bradtke, Tobias n me - well inebriated... What's with the fingers in the mouths guys?!?

Haere rā Tana, a e noho rā Aotearoa

Kia Ora campers! This will be the last time that I post to my blog from New Zealand. So I guess I'd better make the best of it...
I am in Auckland now. After a very long bus ride (about 12 hours) from Wellington - not to mention the crazy woman singing at the top of her voice and clapping the entire way, that's of course when she wasn't interrogating the bus driver about how many slutty girlfriends he had, telling him to hurry up and get to her stop, or trying to force-feed him chips - I arrived at about 2130hr Friday night and was absolutely exhausted! I am up here now, staying with "the flatmates", Jade, Paul, Renée, etc., again, until I fly out.
Back in Welly, Sash had a surge of money spending...ness a few days after I arrived when we bought a playstation and some games to keep ourselves entertained in the nighttimes (and Sash's lunch breaks).. I absolutely slaughtered Sash in all of them (especially Need for Speed - of course he will try blame it on the NOS and all those walls getting in the way)!
I met up with Amanda and Karin (and Amanda's bro over from the States) a few times for drinks before Karin left for home on Sunday. I also was able to meet up again with Pablo and Rob, Lou and Sarah, along with Amanda and Sash for some good times on my 'fuck-off drinks' night (thanks for that term Mel), Wednesday just gone. More pizza and pool at the hellish Hell's Pizza. More partying it up at Kitty's. More playstation. More hanging out with Sash, my Sri Lankan bro - who, I might add, did a damn fine job of cooking dinner for someone who doesn't really cook. More iStation photos. More organising stuff ready for my departure, including selling Tana - which I was having a hard time of until my last day in Welly when a guy offered me $900 for her... Yes!! Yes!! I'll take it!!! Gimme, gimme!!

So that's it.. My trip is fast coming to an end (I don't even know where the last 2 weeks in Wellington - my second home - went!).. The dream is over. Back to reality very soon. I tell you now, this truly has been an experience of a life-time for me.. well, so far. I have had some of the best times of my life up to this point over here, and I am so glad that I am fortunate enough in this world to be able to have done it, seen it, lived it, and met all the wicked people that I have. Not to mention my newfound respect for, and understanding of our South Pacific cousins.

I know it's cheating but I'm going to quote something I wrote in an email to my mom and sis a few weeks back:

I have mixed feelings about coming home.. I'm really excited to start the next chapter, see everyone again and all that jazz.. But at the same time I think I'm going to really miss this country. Everything about it has been just so amazing.. And even though I have been moving around for most of it, I can't help feeling that I am sort of leaving my home in a way. I guess once you've been in a place for so long, you get a little attached to say the least. So many great places and people that I wonder how long it will be before I see them all again, if at all??
I suppose that's in the nature of travelling though. Moving on is the name of the game. It's a big thing but I know once I'm back home I'll be able to focus on everything that I've done and experienced over here and look back in awe and amazement at these past 9 months of my life...

Will life ever be the same? I sincerely hope not...

Keep in touch guys and maybe, just maybe I'll see you again in the near future! Oh and if you're ever in Adelaide, look me up!

Until next time................

Mauri tu, mauri ora, mauri noho, mauri mate... Kia Ora!

Photos:

1. On the bus from WGTN to AKLD

2. Poor guy felt the need to jump from the Sky Tower - SkyJump, Auckland

3. Sash, Sarah, Lou, me, Rob, Amanda and beer at Kitty's on my last night out in Welly

4. Sash and I got lost and had to ask this guy for directions - John Plimmer and his dog, Plimmer steps, Welly
5. $900!!! Smells good!
6. A Michael Jackson moment.. Sha'mone! - Pablo's pad
7. My shoes by the end... I had to put them down

South via East

Monday hit and the guys had to head back to their Auckland homes ready for work, so I travelled in the opposite direction towards the eastern-most point of the mainland, East Cape. The bitter cold of morning drew me from my sleep the following day and I decided to start the walk up to the lighthouse around 0600hr with two guys also crazy enough to be up that early, Konstantin and Leo. We were the first 3 people in NZ and almost the first people in the world to see the sunrise that day. And it was actually one of the most spectacular sunrises I've seen over here too. Awesome!
From here, I drove south through the rugged, little-travelled terrain of the east coast to NZ's longest pier, measuring in at 550m, just south of Tolaga Bay.. It's bloody long! Then it was on to the world's eastern-most city, Gisborne. This is the place where Captain James Cook first landed in 1769 - and there are many Cook monuments and statues commemorating this fact (including one that they thought was a statue of Cook, but later discovered to be that of some other unknown captain... how embarrassing!) In the night time I met up with Leo again for a bit, then drove up Titirangi (Kaiti hill) to the (world's eastern-most) observatory to do some stargazing on a perfect clear night. For someone who's been so fascinated by the Universe and has studied astronomy and astrophysics at uni, I've done surprisingly little actual stargazing.
On my way down south again on Tuesday, I decided to take the coastal route towards Mahia Peninsula - an absolutely stunning, serene and windswept landform which was once an island but now forms part of the mainland due to a huge sand bar formation between them. It would be a fantastic place for a holiday home! Following this, I detoured inland to Lake Waikaremoana (Sea of Rippling Waters - and the waters were definitely rippling in the incredible wind there that day) in Te Urewera NP. Te Urewera is described as one of the country's most attractive parks, and the lake itself is certainly spectacular in its branching, asymmetric form. I took a few hours out to climb to the Pukenui summit overlooking the entire lake - yep, windy up there too! Another couple of hours later, at the end of the day, I had arrived in Nelson.
Nelson is known as NZ's Art Deco capital and it has been suggested that the city challenges Miami for the world title. It was devastated by an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale in 1931, leaving the entire Hawkes Bay area virtually flattened. The city and surrounding areas, including nearby Hastings, were rebuilt hurriedly within 2 years, during the peak of the Art Deco architectural design period, literally setting its history and character in stone. Nelson, like New Plymouth and many others, is a lovely place to spend some time just taking in the atmosphere and culture - the region is also a huge player in the wine production sector of NZ. I seem to take a particular liking to the towns with an art/cultural theme.. New Plymouth, Nelson, Wellington, Melbourne in Oz...
In the morning, I got to chatting with Melanie, a sweet as gal also using her vehicle as accommodation down by the shore. We hung out for most of the day, she showed me a new poi combination, and even caught up with Leo again for a few drinks and games of pool at the local - I won of course ;). On the way again Friday, Mel and I checked out the nearby towns of Hastings and Havelock North before parting ways and I headed up the area's highest point, Te Mata peak, for some awesome views over the entire Hawkes Bay area.
Taking a detour off the main highway took me through some more beautiful scenery - wildly undulating yellowed-grass fields, dairy and sheep farms, sleepy towns, winding roads, stock crossings, perfect country houses shaded from the sun by trees all the colours of autumn - to a place with the longest name in the world.. I can't be bothered writing it out, so I'll just put up a photo :) Get this though, it's a shortened version (!) of 'The Brow of a Hill Where Tamatea, the Man with the Big Knees, Who Slid, Climbed, and Swallowed Mountains, Known as Land Eater, Played his Flute to his Lover'! Nice name.. why can't they name a street or something after my big knees? Anyway, I was hoping to wind my way to a town called Masterton by that night, but petrol reserves were getting a little low so I cut back to a place called Dannevirke, on SH2.
Very early in the morning.. around 0700hr, I started my journey through the Tararua wind farm again towards "student city", Palmerston North (affectionately, Palmy) for a gander before driving down towards the southern tip of the North Island (east of Wellington), Cape Palliser, via Martinborough. Here, there is a seal colony, the town of Ngawi (known for using bulldozers to pull their fishing boats ashore), and an attractive lighthouse atop the headland overlooking a picturesque sweeping coastal landscape - and the biggest waves I've ever seen crashing directly onto the shore! From here it was the home stretch: stopping by the tree-sheltered shore of Lake Wairarapa, passing over the Rimutaka range, visiting Upper Hutt (Lower Hutt's northern counterpart), and finally... back to Wellington to party it up that night with Sash (my ex-flatmate), his mate Jesse, and Mel in my pub, Kitty's.
So there we are.. The travel part of my time here in Aotearoa is over.. That is sad in itself, but I am also relieved: it can be hard work sometimes going from place to place, always sleeping in a different bed or different location, and living generally in a state of unsettlement.
I'm staying with Sash here for basically the rest of my time in NZ before flying out the end of this month.. Then it's back home to good ol' Adelaide town for me!

Photos:
1. First to see the sunrise at East Cape
2. Konstantin, myself and Leo at the lighthouse
3. Good fishing out there...
4. Cook standing proud in Gisborne
5. Looking out towards Mahia Peninsula
6. Waikaremoana from a vantage point
7. Playing with fire, Nelson
8. Mel and I on Bluff Hill, Nelson
9. Looking over Hawkes Bay from Te Mata
10. Hmmmm.. anyone want a go a pronouncing it?
11. This picture sums up my experience of NZ roads..
12. From the lighthouse over Cape Palliser
13. Oh ok... Here's another shot of that sunrise...

fa-ka-ta-ne, fa-ka-ari

We'll begin with a short lesson in Māori pronunciation:

wh ≈ "f";

a ≈ "u" as in truck;

ao ≈ "ow" as in a cross between how and bowl.

And the Māori word, Pakeha:

Pakeha is the Māori name for any New Zealander not of Polynesian descent. The term is generally used by Māori and Pakeha alike, however some don't like it because they believe it has racist undertones; so much so that some now believe the word means 'white pig', however a more accurate translation would be 'white foreigner' or simply 'foreigner'. It dates back to when the Māori people first saw European explorers.

---

Now onto my story.. Whakatane (hence the joke that Australian comedian Peter Hellier made in during a performance over here: "I don't know what a 'tane' is but I'll give it a go..." - funny thing is, tane actually means man in Māori - good on ya Peter) is a nice town and the main focus of the eastern Bay of Plenty region. [The name stems from around 200 years ago when the warrior Toroa, along with family and a cargo of kumara, sailed into the estuary here. The men disembarked to greet the local leaders, leaving the women and children on the waka (canoe), but the tide turned and the waka drifted back out to sea. Toroa's daughter, Wairaka, cried out "E! Kia whakatane au i ahau!" ("Let me act as a man!") and then breaking traditional Māori tapu (something that is holy or sacred) that women should not steer waka, she took the paddle and brought the boat safely to shore.] The main attraction of the area is an island called Whakaari about 50km off the coast. White Island is its Pakeha name. This island is actually a volcano, the most active in NZ, with steam constantly bellowing from it's huge crater lake (which is where the Pakeha name came from) and almost non-stop rumblings (I have to say, I was a little disappointed that we didn't actually experience any of these rumblings while we were there - I guess our tour guides felt the opposite though).

For my time in Whakatane over the Queen's Birthday weekend, I stayed with Karen, who I met on the Milford Track, aswell as Jeff, Judy, Lauren and Dean (Jeff's mate). We all crashed on Karen's living room floor in our sleeping bags.. Sort of a grown-up sleep over - all that was missing was the pillow fights, although Jeff and Judy did come close to smothering each other with pillows! The booking for the trip to White Island was for the Saturday, but the weather took a turn for the worst and they cancelled the day's sailing. So we instead went for a pleasant walk on the Kohi Point Walkway through the local scenic reserve, passing some great lookouts and the location of Toi's Pa which is reputed the oldest pa (fortified site) in NZ.

Luckily, the weather for the next day was awesome so we were able to take the hour-and-a-half journey to the island. Like the Craters of the Moon (Lauren even commented that it seemed like we were standing on the moon) and the thermal areas around Rotorua, White Island was a very strange place to be. The roaring sound of steam vents grew as we walked towards the crater lake, which was created between 1981-83 following major eruption events - it is actually one of the most acidic lakes in the world with a pH of around 0 (the corrosive effects of the entire island are amazing: the guides' shoes and backpacks start falling apart after a few months, and the metal ladders and ramps used to reach the island from the boat are rusted after a similar period of time)! This was not the only notable event on the island, however. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mining for sulphur on the island was attempted. One day in September of 1914, part of the western crater rim collapsed and the 10 workers on the island at the time were killed in the resulting lahar, the only survivor being the camp cat named Peter the Great.

Celebrity watch: in May 2004, a Dino (the dinosaur) figurine was placed in front of one of the Geonet volcano webcams, but Geonet decided to leave it there as they assumed it would degrade before not too long in the volatile environment. Today, however, Dino is still there and more lively than ever (he's even become a bit of a celebrity in some circles)... I should know, I met the little fella!

Photos:

1. On the island, the old sulphur factory in foreground

2. The fumes were a little overwhelming.. Left to right: Dean, me, Jeff, Karen, Judy and Lauren

3. A statue of Wairaka stands in front of another, dormant volcano, Whale Island

4. No Jeff, we're not gonna cross there...

5. The rusted ladder and ramp.. installed recently

6. So this is what the inside of a volcano looks like...!

7. White Island - on the way

8. Fancy a dip? The crater lake

9. Arriving at the island

10. The celebrity

Relaxed, refreshed and reminisced

Wow! It's been ages since I last blogged! Guess I'm slack... what a revelation!

So, where were we? Oh yea, Hamilton... I spent just over 6 hours adding the last post to this blog in an internet cafe there.. Know what it cost me? $11! Awesome!

In the morning, I took off from Hamilton and headed north, past a few small country communities - including Te Aroha with its Mokena Geyser - before coming to the notable town of Paeroa.. There is a popular drink (lemon mixed with spring water from the area) in this country called L&P (Lemon and Paeroa - "World Famous in New Zealand since ages ago") which originated from this town.. and you can't half tell! If there was ever a town that based its entire existence on one piece of merchandise, or tried its hardest to capitalise on the one product to come out of it, this would be it - everywhere you look there are L&P flags, signs on buildings, even businesses with L&P incorporated into the title.. not to mention the two huge bottles of L&P that you can have a photo taken with (which, of course i did!)

After this, I soldiered on further north to the smallish, but very popular peninsula east of Auckland known as the Coromandel Peninsula. This place is a popular weekend getaway for Aucklanders and other kiwis alike mainly for its relaxed atmosphere and beautiful scenery. The first place you come to travelling up the west coast of this piece of land is Thames (in which I have stayed before with the French bodyguards, JC and Julien). I decided to stay here for a couple more nights. The remainder of that day, I was generally lazing around on the beach, trying to re-build my tan from scratch even though the days of quality tanning sunshine have long gone, and looking for interesting shells. The next day, however, was a little more active when I undertook a day-long tramp up to the dramatic Pinnacles (759m) in the Kauaeranga Valley overlooking Thames and its Firth. Near the top it became extremely muddy, extremely slippery, especially on the smooth metal bars that were installed to make it easier to climb to the peak. It was also extremely windy at the peak and the clouds refused to lift until I was about to start my descent again after having been up there for around an hour. I think that just the act of accomplishing a difficult task like this walk is what gives me the most satisfaction - not necessarily the view from the top. Born to tramp..?

Leaving Thames earlyish on the Sunday, heading west to the opposite shore of the Firth of Thames, I travelled along the coast back towards Auckland, through Manukau, to get a feel for the lifestyle in this tiny corner of the country - relaxed as always. After this, I looped back through Thames and followed the highway along the impressive, stony, shell-laden coast to the town after which the peninsula was named. Again, there was not much to do in Coromandel Town per se (apart from mussel farming), but like I said people don't come here for the fantastic shopping or entertainment facilities. In the morning, the weather was fine so I decided to go for a drive up to Fletcher Bay at the tip of the peninsula. On the way I attempted to find the beginning of a track which leads to the summit of Mt. Moehau, the Coromandel's highest point, but it turned out to be a little too well hidden, and so I continued on. The simple majesty and land's-end feel of Fletcher Bay and its surrounding areas reminded me very much of Cape Reinga. Just don't try and drive on the beach there, as I found out the hard way... I had to ask the nice local DOC officer to drag me out with his tractor! Oops..

After this ordeal, I took another road almost back up to the tip of the peninsula again, but this time along the eastern side, past the beautiful Port Charles to the end of the road at Stony Bay - 3 hours walk from Fletcher Bay. I took a short stroll about half way along this walkway before turning back to chill out at the (stony) beach for a bit longer. The majority of roads north of Coromandel Town are winding and unsealed which I am very used to, but for some reason they just seemed to stretch on forever here on my way back down. I sat up admiring the stars for most of this night.

Morning came and the road to my next destination was short but I had plans to visit a few places along the way so I left early. Turns out that Waiau Waterworks (a place recommended to me by Theresa) was closed that day and also another walkway was closed due to logging so that removed about a half a day of activities and I arrived in Whitianga well before lunchtime. Because the skies were again clear with the forecast not looking so good, I figured I'd take advantage and visit some of the fine beaches north of the town. All the beaches around the eastern side of the peninsula are really quite white, stretching and sandy, whereas the western beaches tend to be more black, stony and covered with driftwood. The eastern beaches of Otama and Opito definitely fall into the former category and I decided to go for a relax, dip and run along the first of these for a good few hours before heading back to Whitianga for the night. This town, in my opinion, is the most lively and interesting on the peninsula.

After watching the sunrise the following day on a very crisp morning I drove around the Whitianga Harbour to visit the huge limestone arch and lovely beach at Cathedral Cove, then onto a place known simply as Hot Water Beach. This beach has natural hot water springs which run down to the ocean. Within a few hours of low tide, you can go down and dig yourself a hole to make your own hot pool. Very cool. I met a couple of gals there, Daphne and Laura, who I met up with that night for dinner and drinks at the local bar. It was karaoke night. I don't do karaoke. Well, I thought I didn't.. I was somehow persuaded, not at all helped along by a few beers I'm sure, to get up there. I thought I'd go for a blast from the past and sing one of the songs I used to sing back in good old "Rizn" (my highschool band) days.. "It's been a while" by Staind. Shit, I haven't sung in front of people since I left my last band 2 years ago... But it was awesome fun (and Laura missed it)! Laura and another girl from her hostel got up there aswell to sing their hearts out to the classic, "I will survive".

Following another couple of hours of driving in the morning, I had left the Coromandel region and entered the Bay of Plenty region having arrived again in Tauranga where I was to spend the night. From there, I was on my way to Whakatane and the beginning of the final leg of my travels in Aotearoa...

Photos:

1. L&P&Me - Paeroa

2. The main form of transport in Thames

3. Almost at the top - The Pinnacles

4. Oh no, there's more???

5. Thames to Coromandel

6. That is Fletcher Bay

7. Ooops..

8. On Opito beach

9. Watching the sunrise in Whitianga... Brrrrr...

10. Cathedral Cove

11. Aaahhh, that's better... Hot Water Beach (that's Laura w the shovel, Daphne next to her)

12. I took this cool snap of the moon's reflection over Buffalo beach in Whitianga

13. I'm still amazed at how they did that in 1769!

Up High, Down Low

Well it's that time again where I fill you in on what I've been doing with my time (and more importantly, my fast-diminishing bank account) over here. To summarise: Another awesome and adventure-packed week!
From Auckland I took a little-travelled coastal route out towards Port Waikato and then onto Raglan to fix up a huge mistake - contrary to my blog title, I did infact forget my jandals in Raglan when I was there last! It was definitely a surprisingly stunning piece of back country (although, I'm not too sure why I'm surprised looking back at the rest of my trip). I guess it's the first time I realised that Autumn had hit.. The look of the landscape all over the country is really starting to get a boost with the green leaves of deciduous trees now turning bright yellow, orange, red and purple.. I found my flip-flops there and also saw a few familiar faces (although some of them didn't see mine.. Rob!) from the last time I was there. We all chowed down on a BBQ feast that night.. Mmmm.
Again taking the long way the next day (you hardly see anything good from the main roads and highways) along some rough - but scenically rewarding - dirt roads, I eventually ended up at a place called Waitomo, about an hour south of Hamilton. The entire Waitomo area is pitted with over 300 caves (which when you think about the fact that in Māori, wai means water and tomo means hole or shaft, it's fairly fitting). I was there for one thing.. caving! I've never done caving before, although I have had some experience rock climbing and abseiling from the indoor gyms so I figured I would give it a go the next day. It was a shame we couldn't take our cameras down into the caves with us, but just as well because there were points where we had to crawl on our stomachs through water in order to fit through some tight tunnels, and also had to abseil down waterfalls. Yaaaa-hoooo! What awesome fun, and the glow worms (Arachnocampa luminosa - check out their life cycle, very interesting!) providing the mood lighting made it all the more beautiful. While I enjoyed checking out this very well known cave, I don't think I'd want to be the one exploring a dark, slippery, seemingly infinitely winding cave for the first time.. Think I'll leave that up to the experts..
Onwards from here, further south past the west coast of lake Taupo to Tongariro National Park. It is here that the active volcanoes of Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu are situated in close proximity to each other. I've wanted to walk the Tongariro Crossing - classed as the finest one-day walk in NZ - ever since I got to chatting with the guys on the Milford Track about their experiences. The weather was looking up for the weekend and I decided to buy a hut pass so I could spend two days exploring the volcanoes. Before I ventured out onto the Crossing, I took in a few shorter walks around the Whakapapa Village, which is situated on the slopes of Ruapehu.
Saturday, the first day of the Crossing, I have to say, was one of the most gratifying and spectacular tramps I've done so far! The first hour and a half I spent climbing up some fairly steep rocky terrain which they call the devil's staircase. I was pretty tired after this but the views from the top were certainly wonderful. I waited at this rest-spot for the French girls to arrive because we had planned to walk the track together. Turns out they had different plans to myself so we ended up parting ways almost straight away. They continued on down the track and I took a side trip up to the summit of the dreaded Ngauruhoe (which is actually the mountain they used as Mt Doom in LOTR - but who takes notice of these things).

I didn't realise what I was getting myself into when I started this climb but soon figured out that I probably should have been more prepared with climbing poles, etc., although I'm not sure if they would have actually helped on this perfectly symmetrical and steep cone.. Most of my time up the mountain was spent on all fours just trying not to tumble backwards as I slipped on the loose scoria that formed the cone's outer surface. I've never been so relieved to reach a destination as I was on that climb! The weather was absolutely pristine (better than forecast - but I've learnt to never trust the weather report in NZ anyway, as it's wrong about 95% of the time) with not a cloud in the sky, so I could see out to the horizon in every direction from the top of this 2287m high volcano. The crater was quite dramatic in itself with red and yellow hues, attributable to different chemicals in the rocks, and steam still venting from certain places. Going down was even more fun than the climb up.. I simply had to slide on my feet all the way down.. for 30 minutes straight! I was surprised my shoes were still in good condition (let alone still intact) after this marathon rock coasting session.

I was understandably well and truly stuffed by this point but had to push on as the day was also doing so. Another slippery climb over the highest point of the track (apart from the Ngauruhoe side-trip of course) and I reached the Emerald lakes - three lakes, bright emerald in colour, which have to be seen to be believed - just as the clouds started rolling in. From here I deviated from the track, through an eerie volcanic landscape, to get to Oturere hut where I was to spend the night playing Uno with a whole bunch of fellow trampers.

I was the first to awake in the morning out of the 20 or so people that spent the night in that hut. The clouds had persisted throughout the night and rain had slowly started to develop (unsurprisingly worse than forecast) so the rest of the 5 hour walk to the end of the track was fairly shitty - no pretty waterfalls or rivers to wade through this time, just rain and lots of it. I'm not complaining though, it was all worth it in the end for those views from Ngauruhoe!
After all this excitement I thought I'd have a relaxed drive on Monday through another day of hilly, green, red, rocky terrain.. and rain, to the large and good-charactered town of Wanganui on the west coast. The next day, moving on again to the Taranaki region, a little further north on the west coast, of which the main feature is the huge dormant volcano Mt. Taranaki. New Plymouth is the place to be on this coast and that's exactly where I stayed. Yesterday I drove up to the Plateau (a popular ski field on the slopes of the mountain) for a brilliant view of the topography of the volcano. I would have walked up to the summit of this one also but I've heard that people have started turning back due to ice on the track, so I thought better not. Also yesterday, I visited the tiny and noneventful town and republic of Whangamomona (the one which Lee noted as having elected a goat as their president, in her comment on one of my previous posts).

I managed to tie off a few loose ends yesterday and this morning, which have been hanging over my head for a while. I feel quite relieved (as you do). And now I am back in Hamilton. Passing through on my way to the Coromandel.


Photos:
1. The Mangapohue natural limestone bridge - on the way to Waitomo
2. Sexytime - Waitomo Caves
3. Taranaki Falls (I got a little wet) - Whakapapa
4. Psyching myself up for the big climb
5. Me and the girls
6. It begins...
7. Peering into the crater at the summit of Ngauruhoe
8. The view over Mt. Tongariro from Ngauruhoe
9. Steam vents...
10. The Emerald lakes.. Beautiful!
11. The next day!
12. Did I say relaxing in Wanganui? - "The Swing"
13. Autumn in the Virginia Lake Scenic Reserve - Wanganui
14. Mt. Taranaki

4 days, 3 islands

I've spent the last 4 days relaxing in the Hauraki gulf, to the northeast of Auckland, on 3 of the 47 islands that make up the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park. The first of these was Rangitoto, which I visited on Friday.
Rangitoto was born only about 600 years ago when lava started spewing out of the sea near another island, Motutapu, which was already inhabited by Māori. They watched as this newborn volcano erupted for several years a few hundred metres from their shore before eventually settling down to its extinct state that we see today. Today, the island is covered in lush green vegetation while the ground is still rugged made up predominantly of black solidified lava rocks. I bumped into two fellow Aussie girls and together we walked through some lava caves - very dark and I forgot my torch - then onto the summit to peer into the huge several-hundred-metre-wide crater that was left behind. I proceeded to walk across to the vastly dissimilar Motutapu island - mostly plains and grazing land - for some lunch on the beach. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable day out.
Saturday, I drove up the beautiful Whangaparaoa Peninsula half an hour north of AKL to catch the ferry to my next destination, the birdlife sanctuary Tiritiri Matangi. Our volunteer guide Yvonne was fantastic and we spent most of the day with her as she pointed out birds and explained how the island was transformed in around 10 years from a virtually barron land, following logging and grazing, to now with well over 200,000 trees covering the island. Birds and other animal life have now been reintroduced, and a group of scientists and volunteers constantly monitor animal populations, breeding habits, etc. Such a peaceful place and, like Ulva Island, bird songs can be heard constantly over the entire island. Again, another fantastic and relaxing day. Late afternoon, back on the mainland, I drove to the west coast again to see another beach, this time the secluded and stunning Piha beach with its distinctive centrepiece, the 101m tall Lion Rock, jutting out of the surf.
The third and final island in the gulf that I visited was a much more "touristy" island known as Waiheke. I borrowed a bike from Becs - another AKL flatmate - and spent two days here riding all over the island, checking out the beaches and sights. Only 30 minutes ferry ride from the hustle and bustle of Auckland, this island enjoys a very laid back way of life and is known in particular for its arty atmosphere with many artists and sculptors residing here and showing off their works all over the island. There are loads of permanent residents and plenty more holiday baches making it a relatively busy place, however, for an island of its size. While I was there the weather was not exactly the best, basically no sunlight for the entire time, but I still made use of the beaches anyway. I even slept on the beach in Oneroa bay - the problem with that is it pretty much pitch-black by 1800hr at this time of year so there's nothing to do after this time and so I pulled out my sleeping bag around 2030hr for an early night and subsequent early start the next day. A nice place overall, I can see why people enjoy Waiheke so much, but I guess I prefer something a little more secluded when I'm on an island like that.
And again I am up to date with the blogging aspect of my trip.. I'm moving on from AKL today, heading further south down the west coast. I've really enjoyed meeting the guys here in the flat and just generally enjoyed my time here. I think it's a shame that a lot of people only pass through this city in a day, coming to the conclusion that it's "just another big city." The thing is, as with most places (and anything for that matter), if you only take the time to explore, there is always more than meets the eye....

Photos:

1. On the ferry to Rangitoto

2. The landscape

3. The crater - a little too green don't you think?

4. Three Aussies in a lava cave

5. Relaxing on Tiritiri Matangi

6. This young man took quite an interest in the endangered Takahe

7. Birdwatch: A whitehead

8. Birdwatch again: A tui - very famous, very well known here in NZ...

9. On Lion rock at sunset

10. Oneroa bay at low tide

11. Havin' a ride on the beach - Waiheke island

12. The smallest horse ever.. Two questions: How? And why?

13. Birdwatch 3: A shag drying its wings in the sun

the City of Sails

Cast your minds back about 6 months ago.. Do you remember where you were? Well, I was back in the South Island in a place called Nelson. I visited the geographic centre of NZ there. I met a guy by the name of Jade on top of that hill. He was from Auckland. Somehow I recalled this fact on my way down from Awanui so I decided to give him a shout. And what do ya know.. I've been crashing at his flat for the past week and a half. How convenient - 15 minutes walk to the city centre, and with free off-street parking right next door too (it's very difficult to find non-metered parking spaces in this city), you can't go wrong! Awesome!
Friday night, the night I arrived, Jade took me to a going-home party for Theresa, a Swedish girl he knows, at a funky little club in town. Fun, fun... The next day, a lovely clear and sunny day, myself and a few of the guys from the flat Paul, Ricky and Renée played some frisby in a nearby park - ahh, the childhood years - before wandering the streets of AKL.
Sunday came, and what do all good people do on a Sunday? They go to church! That's exactly what Jade, Theresa, Melissa - one of Jade's mates - and I got upto. We all know I'm not a religious person in the slightest, but it was in fact quite an interesting service, and the sense of community in this particular church is really strong and great to see. Northgate Baptist Church, you've got my vote. Following this, I thought I'd go for a bit of a stroll... On four legs! We went back to Jade's parents' house for some lunch, a visit with some alpacas and then, sat avowedly a little uneasily atop one of their fine horses, a trot (and canter) around their rather large property surrounded by forested area. I've never ridden a horse before and I did enjoy myself, although when the other horses started to canter and mine followed suit on its own accord the self-assurance was not exactly flowing. Theresa even managed to get a jump in on her horse which was cool. We finished the night off in an Italian restaurant for a lovely plate of, you guessed it, pasta - the backpackers' choice, and my meal for almost every night of the past 8 months! Mmmmm.. Oh how I look forward to real meals when I finish up here!
Visiting art galleries, public gardens and just generally strolling around the city was what I got upto on a rather lazy Monday. Then Tuesday was a day for visiting some of the eastern shore beaches and then a place called Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World. With a real colony of sub-Antarctic penguins, stingray tank (which you could get into if you so wished!) and a moving walkway through a clear tube surrounded by an aquarium teeming with sharks and other creatures of the like, this was quite a neat up-close subaquatic experience. In the afternoon I met up with the French girls, Fan and Bene, for a yarn then another catch-up, this time with Nic. Man it's been a while... Was lovely having a coffee and a chat again, glad to see everything's going well up this way for her! Then back with the French girls for a drink at a very chic bar on Viaduct harbour a little later that night.
Zak, an American dude I met in Welly, came upto AKL on Wednesday so we caught up and went for a walk in the Winderholme NP about 30 minutes north of the city. I then went on that day to visit the stretching part of coastline known as Muriwai beach on the west coast, for a walk over the wave-pounded rock formations to the gannet colony situated there. In the nighttime I met up with Jeff, Judy and Lauren, who I met all those months ago on the Milford Track, for a drink.. A huge week of reminiscing!
Thursday was the day for checking out the acclaimed Auckland Zoo for some more wildlife spotting. The most impressive part of my visit was definitely the African animals' enclosure, Pridelands, and the nocturnal house in which I saw my first kiwi.. Yes that's right, in this entire time in NZ and in all the nature reserves that I've visited, the only kiwi I've seen has been in Auckland Zoo! Later on I ventured to the summit of Mt. Eden, one of some 48 extinct volcanoes that punctuate the Auckland region. Even later still I went with Ric to a beginners swing-dancing class.. Great fun, love the music! Then along with Renée, we checked out the brilliant voice of local musician Lauren Thomson at a pub on the harbourside.
And now for a brief detour, to the islands.......


Photos:
1. Across the harbour from Auckland city
2. The view from the flat balcony
3. Hang on... I thought those guys split up?
4. Feeding the alpacas with Theresa
5. Looking very calm, very collected...
6. Me, Tess, Mel and Jade
7. Feeding the stingrays at Kelly Tarlton's
8. A whole colony!
9. The French gals
10. Read the fine print... A masterpiece! - Winderholme NP
11. Found these odd creatures on the balcony.. Ewww.. You should see them move!
12. A taste of home at the zoo
13. The kiwi! (the little fluffy thing in the middle)
14. Ric and Renée @ the gig

lower

Again it's been a week and a half since I last blogged.. I tell you, time is getting away from me faster and faster these days! OK, so what has happened since then? Lots! Here's the first few days...
I spent most of what was to be my final day in Awanui inside due to bad weather, venturing out only once to check out "Kauri Kingdom", a store selling all sorts of carvings from ancient (≈50,000 year old) kauri stumps recovered from a local swamp. The focal point was definitely the spiral staircase carved inside a 3 metre-wide Kauri trunk (possibly the only one in the world), which is used to reach the first floor of the store.
Shooting off the next morning past the pretty town and small but proud beachside community of Ahipara, I ventured south down the west coast of Northland. A few hours had passed when I came across the magnificently situated twin towns of Omapere and Opononi on the southern shore of the Hokianga Harbour - yes, pretty much every place I have visited in Northland is on the coast! I say 'magnificently situated' because of their proximity to the impressive sand dunes which lie across the clear aqua-coloured waters on the opposite side of the harbour.
I enjoyed lunch on the beach in Opononi, and then headed on my way further south, this time towards the Waipoua Kauri forest - which was proclaimed a forest sanctuary in 1952, saving it from certain destruction due to continued milling. In this dense jungle I came face-to-trunk with Te Matua Ngahere (The Father of the Forest), which is believed to have the largest diameter of any kauri tree in NZ at over 5 metres (absolutely massive!) and could also possibly be the oldest in NZ at around 2000 years old. That night I watched a resplendent sunset over Aranga beach before bunking down a little further south in Dargaville - a largish town that services the Northern Wairoa region, which is considered the "Kumara Capital" of NZ, producing two-thirds of the country's output of this sweet potato Kiwi icon.
Onwards and downwards on the Friday through more green pastures, more beaches, more of everything I've come to expect from New Zealand, stopping at Goat Island beach, near Leigh on the east coast, for a gander at the local aquatic life around this 547ha marine reserve. I was expecting to see some pretty cool fish and coral along the shoreline but it seems as though you need to go scuba diving around the actual island, 100 metres out, in order to come across these - unfortunately I had left my emergency scuba gear in my other pants pocket - the rocky beach and island were quite nice nonetheless. So after this there was not much left for me to do but head back to the place I had taken this detour from 9 days before... Auckland. This time to stay for a bit.

Photos:
1. The kauri spiral staircase
2. Ahipara coastline
3. The dunes at the "O" twins
4. That's a bloody big tree.. I'm actually standing about 10m in front of it! - Te Matua Ngahere
5. What a sight!
6. Goat Island
7. Found this odd fellow looking over someone's driveway entrance near Leigh..
8. It just goes on forever.. On the way to Auckland

Northland

In Awanui, a little village just north of Kaitaia and just south of the famous 90 Mile Beach, a man sits behind a computer in a local family's house, updating his blog before deciding to retire to the comfort of his caravan in the front yard. How did this come about? Read on..
Around 1500hr on Wednesday, I arrived in Auckland and bumped into someone strangely familiar.. Brian had finished his South Island section of his trip and flew into AKL that morning, hungover - could we expect anything else from a Scotsman? We met up for a coffee in the local Starbucks, plus had a brief catch-up session with Amandarin and Karin (they were passing through aswell), before shooting off north into that part of New Zealand known, not surprisingly, as Northland.
After a pleasant drive through the green rolling countryside (I've found pretty much all of the North Island and a large portion of the South consists of this type of landscape), we came to the end of our first day in a small town called Leigh on the east coast. Maybe it was the fact that the town seemed deserted, but we decided to instead head 11km north to a place the Lonely Planet book describes as a "secret paradise", Pakiri. And it was a beautiful beach so we decided to stay the night... on the beach... in our sleeping bags... brrrr... But great fun, we managed to get through a fair chunk of a New Woman's crossword puzzle (no, we didn't buy it!) before calling it a night and watching the stars, or rather the clouds obscuring the stars. I woke up a few times during the night, freezing, and managed to see a few satellites and shooting stars after the clouds had cleared, then the spectacular sunrise at about 15 of seven. And I now know why people use tents.. something else for the dew to form on.
We checked out NZ's only oil refinery - very informative - in Marsden the next day after a long and scenic drive along the coast, then onto Northland's "capital", Whangarei. There was not much to do there as such so we spent the last couple of sunlight hours visiting the Whangarei Falls and then driving out to the Whangarei Heads at the harbour entrance 35km away. It was actually quite a tiring day. Needless to say, the spa facilities in the Whangarei holiday park were fully utilised!
Friday held some swimming, football (soccer for the non-Europeans among us - must be all the English I'm hanging out with, I'm turning into one of them!) on the beach and other beach-related activities for us before finishing up in the Bay of Islands at the seaside town of Russell, NZ's oldest European settlement and former capital - equipped with NZ's oldest church, Christ Church (1847). Once described as "full of the refuse of society" by Charles Darwin, and later adopting the generous nickname of "Hell hole of the Pacific" due to the population largely comprising of fleeing convicts, whalers, prostitutes and drunk sailors, Russell is now a pretty and serene place which can (and does) justifiably call itself 'romantic'.
In the morning of Saturday we passed through Kawakawa, a seemingly normal town until you need to go to the loo.. The public toilets here, designed by Austrian-born artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, are decorated with ceramic mosaics, coloured bottles, wavy lines and are even equipped with grass and plants on the roof! Interesting. Then onto Paihia and Waitangi, across the bay from Russell. Waitangi is the historic place where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed (see my past post Taking over the world!). It was wonderful to see where it all happened, where the modern Aotearoa was born.
Kerikeri was the next stop for the night. Again, not much to do here.. apart from this time visiting NZ's oldest stone and wooden buildings. Ach! (Brian, that's for you) So many historic buildings, and yet none more than about 150 years old!
Speaking of Brian.. He was off the next day, back to Auckland to met a friend who flew in from Scotland, and so once again I became a lonely traveller. We said our goodbyes and I headed off further north, stopping along the way at a few scenic beaches, bays and coves - including the very secluded, very stunning Matauri Bay with its 17 Cavalli Islands scattered offshore - before eventually ending up in Mangonui (very different from Mt. Maunganui). It was in the fish and chip shop of this fishing port that I met a lovely local couple, Mike and Andrea, who after I chatted for a while with them offered me the bed in their disused caravan in the front yard of their Awanui house.
I spent a surprisingly comfortable night bayside in my car in Mangonui before driving up the jutting Karikari Peninsula in the morning for some more beautiful views over Matai Bay, with its twin coves, and Rangiputa beach. Awanui was the next destination and I again met Mike, Andrea and the rest of the family, this time at their home. They cleaned out and set up the caravan for me, and we even had dinner together. How nice! And how comfortable that caravan is!
And so we now have reached today's chapter.. I had a much needed lie in this morning then a little before midday I took Keita, Mike and Andrea's granddaughter, out for a drive up to the north-westernmost tip of NZ, Cape Reinga. On the way, we took a detour to the west coast to drive up 90 Mile Beach, literally. This beach is very popular in that you can drive along its entire length (which is technically more like 60 kilometres, but let's not get pedantic), although you might want to make sure the tide is way out before making this trip because cars have been known to get bogged and swallowed by the tides. Luckily, we arrived at low tide, but chose only to drive the first 20km (it loses its novelty a bit after that) before reverting back to the proper, impermeable road again.
Cape Reinga was great, there is a neat lighthouse there and it is also the exact place where the Tasman and Pacific Oceans meet, apparently sometimes causing 10m waves in stormy conditions. So now I can say I've been to the top and bottom of NZ! Cool. The weather was fantastic too so we could see the ocean stretching on for miles out north, but looking south we could see something a little out of place... Sand dunes... Hundreds of metres in height all across the top end of 90 Mile Beach. Now sand dunes are the last things you would expect to see in such a green and fertile country as this! So why not take advantage of the situation and whip out the old boogie board? And that's exactly what we did. Sliding down these sandy mountains was awesome fun, it was the climbing back up that was the killer.. I did eventually manage to persuade the apprehensive Keita to go for a bit of a slide on one of the smaller dunes too. After this short burst of energy expenditure, we visited a couple more beaches then headed back for a well deserved relax.

And here I am.

That concludes my story thus far. I hope everyone is well. Put a comment on here to let me know what you're all upto!

And Lee arrives back home very soon.. Awesome.. Can't wait to see and hear all about her amazing adventures in Ghana! And I'm sure mom can't either! ;)

Pictures coming soon.

Photos:
1. Sunrise at Pakiri
2. Football on the beach with Brian
3. Christ Church in Russell..
4. Felt a little weird going into the toilets with a camera, Kawakawa
5. In the meeting house at Waitangi - not sure what I was doing but I think Brian got a little scared
6. Onwards!!! In the 35m waka (canoe) at Waitangi
7. Big kids need their fun too! A circus in Paihia
8. Matauri bay, beautiful...
9. Some of my host family, Andrea and Keita, and me
10. My pad. Form an orderly queue ladies...
11. Cruising on 90 Mile Beach
12. Cape Reinga with the sand dunes in the background
13. Yeeehawww! Sandboarding!
14. Me in NZ, Spirits Bay
15. Now that's a letterbox if I ever saw one...

Surfin' USA!

Raglan is a small beachside community of about 3000 people, 48km west of Hamilton. It is world renowned for its surf beaches - in fact, Bruce Brown's classic 1964 film The Endless Summer about surfies roaming the world in search of the perfect wave features footage shot at Manu Bay, just west of Raglan. My plan was to visit this place, stay the night, watch some surfing and just generally hang out on the beach before taking off further north... As we all know, my plans are always changing and I actually ended up staying a week and a half! And what a fantastically relaxed week and a half!
I met up with Suze, her two new mates, sisters Lucy and Amy, and the rest of the Raglan crew that were soon to become my adoptive family. Pretty much straight away, we all cruised down to watch some surfing on the stunning and expansive black-sand Ngarunui beach. This is generally where all the beginners come to hone and show off their skills.
In the morning everyone, except for myself, went surfing. In fact it was a few of these guys' first time, but they all seemed to have heaps of fun and did really well - including standing up on their boards - I got a little envious.. So I decided, a little reluctantly, that Thursday was going to be my turn! I donned the wetsuit, picked a board and headed for the beach in the hostel car. Heading out into the waves, I didn't feel all that uncomfortable because I knew I'd only be staying in the shallows. I found a wave, caught it, and I stood up... First time of many! Gee, it's such good fun this surfing business.. Don't know why I didn't get into it before?!
Over the next few days I chilled in the hammocks at the wonderful Raglan Backpackers, taught myself to juggle 4 balls, searched for satellites and shooting stars almost every night, played a spot of tennis against Amy and Lucy, golf with the Raglan clan, kayaking once with Chris and Maike for cockles down the Opotoru river, and then a second time with Ames and Lucy a little further up where we spotted what I assume were trout jumping out of the water near our kayaks, trekked (or slipped, slid, rockclimbed and clambered if you will) to the top of extinct volcano Mt Karioi with Pam, found out my gearbox was stuffed and then got it fixed for $30 (awesome!), played a marathon session of twister, and attended a dress-up party in the nighttime for which we all decided to make masquerade-style masks.... Breathe in....
After getting in my last bit of surfing and being buried in the sand to keep the sandflies away (I think I got bitten no less than 50 times during my Raglan stint - I kid you not!) on Tuesday, we all took to the beach near the mouth of Raglan harbour for a bonfire - and of course toasting marshmallows - which lasted well into the night. What a brilliant way to end my time there!
Wednesday (25/4) was, as everyone knows, ANZAC Day and they held a touching, if a little unorganised, ceremony in the main street with bagpipes and even the resident donkey to represent the donkey "Murphy" used by Australian Private John Simpson in Gallipoli to carry more than 300 wounded men to safety over a period of 24 days before Simpson was killed by Turkish fire.
After the ceremony, I said goodbye to all who I had met, got in my car and headed north towards Auckland to meet up with a friend of mine...

Photos:
1. Me and "SurfBetty"
2. Rippin' it up on the world's smallest wave!
3. I think I've found my twin! Me and Lucy
4. At the masquerade party, from left: Lucy, Pam, Maike, Amy and Patrick.. That's an attractive fellow in the background!
5. Ngarunui beach
6. Beach bums: The Raglan clan
7. Negotiating the climb down a rock face on Mt. Karioi
8. Beach bums II: The Raglan clan revisited
9. When I asked for insect repellant this is not what I had in mind!
10. Bonfire on the beach.. Mmm, toasty..
11. Me, just before getting arrested for trespassing

The Road Trip

So myself and the Frenchies left Hamilton around lunchtime, stopping to check out a 7m waterfall over which they had gone earlier that week whilst white-water rafting - don't think I'm that keen... By the end of the day we had ended up a couple of hours northwest in Tauranga (adjacent to Mt. Maunganui where I spent NYE). We played a few games of pool (Kiwi rules - only a one-shot penalty when the white or opponent's ball is potted) and the guys tried to teach me some French: cela fait mille fois je te le répète!
On our way out in the morning, we thought we'd take a casual stroll up Mt. Maunganui, which boasts lovely views over the picturesque shoreline and nearby islands and the not-as-picturesque township. After some fish and chips on the beach, we headed further north to the quiet historical town of Thames in the Coromandel peninsula, detouring briefly to Opoutere for another sandy stint on the wide and serene (apart from the occasional motorbike) beach there. The Sunkist backpackers where we stayed in Thames was actually very nice, but I've never seen such high bunk beds in my life - and with no safety rails!!! Good old OH&S (or OSH over here) in action.
Saturday morning, we shot off early to get back to Hamilton for the boys' rugby match. The hot-air balloon festival was postponed that night due to bad weather, so after the guys left I took to the streets instead. It was this night I came across an interesting statue of a man in drag.. Turns out that the idea for the cult-classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show was born in the mind of its writer, Hamilton local Richard O'Brien, right there at the now-demolished Embassy theatre in the centre of town in the early 1970s. The random things we discover whilst wandering aimlessly!
I awoke at about 0630hr to the sound of the roaring burners of hot-air balloons flying overhead, obviously having a bit of fun before the big event that night. I had to wait around for that big event so I filled my Sunday with walking around the Hamilton Gardens - very nice - and visiting the Māori Queen's official residence, Tūrongo House at Tūrangawaewae marae in Ngāruawāhia: By the 1850s, the Māori people were feeling quite intimidated by the increased colonisation of their country by the British following the Treaty of Waitangi, and so around this time many tribal chiefs started what is known today at the Māori King Movement whereby they elect a particular chief into a symbolic role similar in status to the British monarch.
The balloon festival was quite cool, about 12 huge colourful balloons lit up in a field within the Waikato University.. including a big red inflatable dog! I thought they were going to go for a night flight, but I was sadly disappointed. The fireworks later on were pretty speccy too.
And then on to my next stop...

Photos:
1. Supermen at the base of the Mount
2. How's my hair? Julien on top of Mt. Maunganui
3. A giant bunny? Where's Donny?
4. Moi at the beach in Opoutere
5. A little high for my liking!
6. Julien (left) and JC posing as my rather inconspicuous bodyguards..
7. Oooooh! Ahhhhh!
8. It's just a jump to the left...

On the road again

Well I'm on the move again.. And how refreshing that is!!! I do miss Wellington - especially the wonderful people I've met there - but the thrill of experiencing new places, new faces, new pubs certainly acts to counteract that in some sense.. At the moment I am sitting in an internet café on Victoria Street, the main street of Hamilton, about 1½ hours south of Auckland.
Tuesday of last week, whilst still in Welly, I visited the political hub of the country - the Beehive, and parliament buildings. I guess you'll see from the photo why it's called the Beehive. After a bit of a tour through the buildings, I also sat in on question time which was quite interesting. For a while there I thought I was back in the playground with people calling each other names, yelling, laughing, talking over each other, even reading the newspaper whilst parliament was in session. I also bumped into a (very politically-minded) homeless man by the name of Ben, who (or whom... take a look at the Usage Note and tell me if you can figure it out?) I met when I first arrived in Welly. He was listening very carefully to the topics of discussion and attempted to explain to me that he sensed a shift in power and focus on the topic of equal opportunity for fathers within family structures - even though there wasn't anything remotely like that touched on during this session.. I wish him luck though in what he is trying to accomplish with his activistic pursuits against parliament and the church.
After taking many photos and saying ciao to everyone etc., I left early Thursday afternoon in the direction of Taupo. On the way, I stopped at the Tararua Wind Farm (reputedly the largest in the Southern Hemisphere).. Huge, huge!! Then onto the big lake itself. Lake Taupo is the biggest lake in New Zealand with a surface area of 616 sq.km and perimeter of just over 190km. It is actually a caldera - a crater formed by a massive volcanic eruption 26,500 years ago, the most recent eruption being 181 AD. Pretty scary stuff to realise this huge thing is still active!!!
The township of Taupo is a beautifully located centre on the north-eastern shore overlooking the magnificent lake with the still-active volcanoes Mounts Ruapehu (which you may have seen the news a little while ago with the recent lahar), Tongariro and Ngauruhoe in the distance on the southern side as a backdrop. By the time I had arrived, it was quite late so I did nothing the first night, just chilled out at the hostel. The next day, however, myself and Vicky - a gal from England (where else?) - visited a place called Craters of the Moon. Thermal activity in the area has caused the collapse of large areas of land creating a cratered effect over the landscape, and coupling that with the constant flow of steam seeping (and sometimes bellowing) from the ground it is a very eerie, almost alien, place to stand. Following that, I checked out the Huka Falls - another waterfall (although admittedly quite stunning) - and then trekked to the top of Mount Tauhara for some spectacular views over the lake and surrounding areas, always with the volcanoes in the background. It's a shame a camera can't capture the sensation along with an image.
The next day I didn't really get upto much apart from drinking with some American girls, Karin and Amanda(rin) - word association, it helps (I'm still quite bad with names) - and somehow ending up on the swings in a playground with them for a few hours on Saturday night. Easter came and I awoke to the smell of hot cross buns in the kitchen for everyone, how lovely! After the girls left to do a skydive, I cruised down to the Volcanic Activity Centre to brush up on my geothermal knowledge and then ended up out again that night with Suze, her friend Damian and Mel (from Welly).
Monday. Next stop. Rotorua. The eggy capital of NZ. There is so much geothermal activity going on around this large town that the smell of hydrogen sulphide is always lingering around every corner, hence its alias "Sulphur City". Despite this stigma, Rotorua happens to be the most popular place to visit in the North Island, and so is inevitably the most commercialised. The city itself is actually quite nice once you have accustomed yourself to the smell. The North Island is without a doubt more Māori-oriented than the South with most of the tribes inhabiting the warmer areas of the country, and Rotorua seems to be a hub for Māori cultural events and sights such as traditional carvings, dances, etc.
Just before I arrived in Rotorua, I took a slight detour to a little place they like to call Hobbiton (or its real name, Matamata). Here, I met up with Karin and Amanda again and we departed on a bus to a huge property owned by a local farmer about 20km from the centre of town. Rolling green pastures, lots of sheep.. And little hobbit holes! Yes, this was the field where they shot the Hobbiton village scenes used in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.. It was a bit of fun, we got to climb into Bilbo Baggins's house and took a few photos. Some of the stuff they did for this movie was amazing: for instance, cutting down a neighbouring farmer's huge oak tree, cutting it into small chunks, transporting it using an army truck to the movie set, reassembling it on set by bolting it back together and then after all of that, sticking on tens of thousands of individual leaves that were imported specially from Taiwan to match the type of tree as described in JRR Tolkien's books. Amazing! Why not just do it by computer???
Tuesday morning, I met up again with Vicky and we went to a place called Wai-o-Tapu Thermal Wonderland (very commercialised, yes) where we were able to watch a geyser erupt (helped along slightly by a soap-like substance as a catalyst to make sure it erupts at the right time, but still very natural in the way it actually does its thing), check out some more craters and other very interesting geothermal sights. Then onto more adrenalin-fuelled fun with Zorbing. This is a kiwi invention, basically just a big ball rolling down a hill.. With you inside! I decided to do the 'wet' zorb where they throw in some water for good measure - it's quite hard (make that impossible) to stand up after you've taken a few steps to get the thing rolling. Essentially just a big washing machine! Awesome fun, but quite short.. It's only 150m downhill. I did, however, score a free 'Zorbonaut' t-shirt and pair of board shorts to indicate my newly acquired qualification.. Yay me!! It is here that I met 2 French dudes by the names of Julien and Jean-Charles.
I finished off the day with a traditional Māori show and hangi. A very entertaining and informative night about how the Māori people used to live (and still do in some places) before European settlement. The hangi - a traditional way of cooking food, similar to that used during a luau in Hawaii, where they heat volcanic rocks until they are white-hot then bury them with the food in the ground for a few hours - was delicious, and the dances (including the haka and poi demonstations) and music performed throughout the night were fantastic! A thoroughly enjoyable, and tiring day!
Yesterday I walked around town looking at some more thermal sights including a steaming lake near the city centre, then drove with Julien and JC up this way to Hamilton. We managed to find a motel room for really a cheap price because the owners told us there was no power. Once they left, all we had to do was switch on the mains power inside and voila, there was light! Today, we start a two-day road trip around this area, maybe through the Coromandel and then back here to Hamilton on Saturday for a rugby match the boys are going to and a hot-air balloon festival in the night time.

Anyways, this internet costs quite a bit so I'd better finish off and get back sometime soon to put photos up. I hope everyone had a brilliant Easter weekend!

Photos:
1. The Beehive and Parliament Buildings
2. How many fans do they need? And that's not half of them!!!
3. A good way to remember your wedding anniversary!
4. Craters of the Moon..
5. View from the top of Mt Tauhara - the volcanoes in the background (left-most)
6. Part of the Huka Falls
7. In the playground - Karin, Amandarin and myself (clockwise)
8. Me, Damian, Suze and Mel on a night out in Taupo
9. Indoor tornado? In the Volcanic Activity Centre
10. Do I look like a hobbit to you?
11. Two geysers
12. The Champagne Pools in Wai-o-Tapu
13. Vicky and I
14. Mud pools!!! Mmmm, cleansing!
15. Zorbonauts ready for take off!
16. Challenging our nominated chiefs at the Māori gathering
17. He's gone craaaazy! One of the kapa haka performers
18. The lake in Rotorua's Kuirau Park
19. Bloody big mosquito in Rotorua!

How do you get an elephant into a fridge?

So long Polytech! So long Wellington!

OK guys, I finished my last day of work at the Polytech forever on Friday... I have really enjoyed my time there, and met some great people! I'll be coming to visit everyone again I'm sure!!
Back to last Friday: Myself, Brian and two lovely French gals, Fanélie and Benedicte, got up at 0530hr to head to the top of Mt. Vic in time for the sunrise.. We donned our "running" gear and ran the massive hill to the lookout. 0624hr came and, as expected, the sun rose over the surrounding hills bringing warm sunlight into the valley and harbour below, where Wellington is situated. It was such a beautiful sight, I have not seen a sunrise in a such a long time.
I didn't particularly feel like going to work after that, and since Brian had finished on Tuesday I decided I'd call in sick and hang out with him and the girls instead. Later, we headed to the botanic gardens and sat admiring the view over the city for a good few hours.
Both Brian and the girls were leaving that Sunday so we decided to all get together at Pablo and Rob's place and cook a multicultural feast Friday night. Brian cooked haggis again, the girls brought wine and made lovely a entrée goat's cheese and paté on french-style bread. Myself being Australian couldn't really come up with anything truly Australian apart from shrimps on the barbie or pie floater, so I went with an old favourite of mine, cheese and chives baked potatoes (Thanks mum!). Everything was delicious, and later on the girls even made us all crêpes... Fantastique!! Out that night and on the piss to some of our favourite pubs including what has very quickly become my local, Irish pub Kitty O'Shea's.
The next day Brian and I walked upto Wellington's only wind turbine on top a hill in the suburb of Brooklyn. I'm not sure why there aren't more turbines in NZ's windiest city!?! Then out on the piss again Saturday night for Brian's last night and back into Kitty's for one last hurrah! We lost Brian just after 0500hr so we all decided to go to bed. At 0930hr, I was awoken by Brian who climbed up the ladder to my bunk and then proceeded to punch me right in the balls! Bastard!! I believe he was still quite drunk, as was I... Not to worry... I still was nice enough to take him to the Interislander ferry terminal that afternoon. You owe me a drink buddy!!! Hahaha.
Monday night was another fairwell with Melina, a gal from Germany, leaving for the South Island. So a BBQ was organised, but not before I was again woken from a rather nice sleep this time with Mel refusing to stop jumping on and poking me until I got out of bed. Can I not get a decent sleep in this hostel?!? :P
This Friday, I went to Pablo and Rob's flat for some drinks. Erica has just moved here from Adelaide, so she came over aswell and we had a good old yarn! It was really nice (and also a little weird) meeting up with someone I know from home over here in NZ.. Familiarity and all that jazz...
Saturday, I met up with Sash for our weekly joke exchanging session. Funny times, funny times... During this time were approached by a couple of people from Oxfam wanting to produce a 4-tier human pyramid to promote their cause (not sure how that works).. I thought I'd oblige by forming part of the base... The problem? They somehow only ended up with 7 people willing to participate, but decided to go ahead anyway. Needless to say, we looked a bit silly. Good to see Oxfam following their tasks though to completion...
A bit later on Wayne, Gaz (2 English dudes from the hostel) and I ventured to the Westpac Stadium to watch the Wellington Hurricanes and South African Bulls compete in the Rebel Sport Super 14 Rugby competition. The Hurricanes thrashed the Bulls 17-9. And what about the Hurricanes' theme song? "Hurricanes.... Hurricanes...." hehe, I guess you had to be there to find that funny!
A bunch of us went out Saturday night but just after midnight myself and Rob decided to chill out and instead hung out at the local coffee shop with the mostest, Espressoholic on Courtenay Place, with a flat white and chatted into the wee hours.
Rock climbing was on the agenda again for Sunday. Suze, Mike (Suze's workmate), Rob (a climbing virgin) and I gave it a crack this time. That was my exercise for the week right there!! That night all my hostel crew cooked up a storm on the BBQ. Wickid!
Today we played a bit of 2-on-2 basketball with a German guy name Phoenix whom we met on the court. Then I browsed, with a Swede named Hannes, the Museum of Wellington: City and Sea - Basically a detailed history of the windy city, including the story of the inter island ferry, Wahine, that sunk in the Wellington harbour on 10 April 1968, killing 51 people, after it was forced onto the rocks of Barrett Reef by 100mph winds.
Well that's my life up to date. Oh, one more thing, I'll be leaving Wellington on Thursday, heading to Taupo for Easter. After that, who knows where I'll be going, but this means I will now be starting my travels around the North Island!!! Yay!!! "Bout bloody time" I hear you say.. So next time you hear from me, I'll be somewhere else in Kiwi-land. That's quite sad, but I guess that's the nature of travelling. I'll have to make sure I finish off the actual touristy stuff here before I leave.. And lots of photos!!!!

In the mean time, here are a few photos depicting my antics in this post...

Photos:
1. Looking spunky at my desk on my last day at the Poly
2. On top on Mt.Vic with (from left) Fanélie, Brian, Benedicte and someone else
3. As morning breaks
4. Friday feast at Pablo's - Brian, Fanélie, Andre, Lou and Benedicte
5. On the piss in Kitty's - Friday night - Pablo, the girls and me
6. Me under the Brooklyn turbine.. In case you can't see the turbine, I'm indicating its location by pointing..
7. On the piss at Kitty's - Saturday night - Brian and me
8. Pablo and Rob! Hooo-ahhhh
9. Ah, drunken photos ey?
10. The semi-pyramid
11. Hurricanes fever! Paul, Wayne and Gaz!
12. Biggest hot chocolate ever...
13. Climbing the wall.. Headless?!
14. I found this post-it at the museum.. Cool!

More mayhem in Welly

Since the last time we spoke I have participated in a few activities which are either a little out of my comfort zone or just a little out of the ordinary for me. As an example, on Tuesday a couple of weeks ago Brian, myself, Pablo and Lou (Pablo’s flatmate) decided to go fishing off Oriental Parade. Oriental Bay, for those who don’t know, is the bay where the artificial beach against Wellington city has been created. Sufficed to say we didn’t catch anything.. In fact, we somehow managed to lose a hook amongst the seaweed!! There were a few fish around though – about the same size as the hook we were using.. Ah, fun times.. Later that night, Brian, being from Glasgow, cooked us a traditional Scottish haggis! Sheep’s lungs, hearts, kidney, liver all minced up with spices and then cooked inside a sheep’s stomach – essentially a sheep that’s been seasoned then turned inside out.. To be honest, that sounds utterly vile to me, but it was actually really tasty! Sort of like meatloaf. You have to try haggis if you haven’t already, you won’t regret it!!!
After a big night of partying on Friday night, I headed to Te Papa museum on Saturday to finish off the bottom 3 floors. On my way back I spotted a 65-year old deaf and mute man who was showing off his motorbike which he has ridden through 36 countries – a total of 235,600km! He was asking for donations to fund the next leg of his trip however, being the stingy backpacker that I am, I couldn’t spare a single cent.. Besides, you don’t see me asking strangers for petrol money so I can drive to Gisborne for the weekend now do you? :P
Sunday came and it was an absolutely marvellous day so Brian, Suze and I took Tana on a road trip to Martinborough, a couple of hours east of Welly, for some wine tasting and basking in the sun. We found some really nice Wairarapa wines and just had a generally relaxing (if not tiring) afternoon walking from winery to winery in this small country town.
The next Thursday I went indoor rock climbing with Sash and a couple of his mates. It’s been a couple of years since I’d done any sort of climbing (the last time being with Mikie back in Adelaide – how’s Melbourne treating you dude?) so I tired fairly quickly but still had a lot of fun. I’ll get back in there hopefully before I leave Wellington.
That Friday was another slightly out of character day for me in that I went sailing with Brian, Pablo and Lou. Again, those who know me know I’m not all the big on large bodies of water and this time we weren’t just floating in a sea kayak on a completely calm lake. This time there was wind, there was tipping of the boat, there were some very white knuckles holding onto the railings on the opposite side. And that was just in the first couple of minutes.. After that I became a little more comfortable with the way the boat (seemingly to me at the time) almost tipped onto its side as we raced along with about 10 others to win a bottle of rum. I ended up really enjoying the experience once I had learnt to trust the expertise of our skipper, Ken. We didn’t win the race, but got sufficiently wasted that night anyway..
After sluggishly awakening late morning, Brian and I made our way down to Queens Wharf to watch the annual Chinese Dragon Boat races that are held in the harbour to coincide with the Chinese New Year. Teams from regions all over the country came to compete and they seemed to enjoy themselves – I think we were a bit too hung over to pay attention to which team was which so we instead just walked around the surrounding stalls and festivities. Later in the night there were a bunch of circus performers doing trapeze, rope and fire acts – they accidentally messed up one of the stunts and one of the guys burnt himself on the flaming rope.. Ouch! The mistake aside, it was fascinating to watch their mastery of their acrobatic skills.
A few hangovers and some unspeakable nights later, we arrive at this weekend just gone.. Saturday brought wind, rain, St. Paddy and SummerSet to Wellington. Big St. Paddy’s celebrations going on all day all over the country, people out drinking from 10am – I could only imagine what it would have been like for Adam and Eva in Scotland!!! SummerSet was a concert held in the Basin Reserve near my Adelaide Road flat. From 3pm to 11pm, there were DJs from NZ and the UK, along with locals Shapeshifter and Fat Freddy’s Drop pumping out their own style of drum‘n’bass and dub, respectively. An awesome day was had with a lot of crazy dancing to top it all off.
Back at work today in what will soon be my last week at the Polytech before my contract expires and I am again unemployed. I’m actually really looking forward to not having to work and just chilling out (having said that, I’m quite chilled out here at the Poly anyway – I’m currently competing in a table tennis championship, and losing quite respectively I feel)! It’s getting to that point where I’m ready to move on from Wellington because not only is work finishing, but a few people that I’ve come to enjoy spending time with at the hostel are now leaving very soon too - Brian is also leaving on Sunday, for the South Island.

I’ll try post a little more frequently in future just to keep you in the loop... And no Gabrielle, NZ hasn’t fallen in a hole – it probably just got a little drunk and slept in..

Photos:
1. Fishin wit da boyz
2. The motorcycle traveller pointing out his route across the globe to interested onlookers
3. Just read the description........ in the Te Papa museum
4. Brian, myself and Suze getting drunk off free wine in Martinborough! Yay!
5. Me after the first few moments of pure terror..
6. Da boyz again - Awesome fun!
7. Me (middle) and some randoms having a go at the circus ropes
8. The water feature in the centre of Cuba Street - pretty cool!

a huge week had

Last weekend kicked off a fairly big week for me which has been sadly absent recently and long overdue. Saturday, I caught up with Suze, a chick from Essex whom I met on my first night in Aotearoa. We had planned on meeting up in Qtown but for some reason that never eventuated, and now we'd even both been in Welly for a good few months before catching up! It was nice finally seeing her again..
The following day, Tom (a dude from work; coincidentally also from Essex) and I caught up for some sushi and to check out the botannic gardens. We found this (apparently famous) tree which you can climb up and sit on top of, which we did. I found a traffic cone somewhere along the way to the gardens and dragged it up the tree with me - ultimately becoming a makeshift megaphone for a couple of skater-boys, also up the tree, to make animal sounds much to the bewilderment, amusement and sometimes horror of unsuspecting passers-by.
Myself, Tom and couple of his buddies went to the cinema to watch The Good Shepherd on Tuesday night. I personally think it would make for a good DVD movie.. I kept almost falling asleep.. :P
On Courtenay Place (one of the main hubs of activity in Wellington), there is a games parlour which is where we ended up on Wednesday night. $10 for 3 hours unlimited arcade-style entertainment, including laser skirmish! I've never done any kind of skirmish before - it was a riot.. Might try my hand at paintballing, but I've heard that's a little more painful..
The next night there was a Motor-X type competition in the middle of the city when a narrow sidestreet was blocked off and a big 75ft jump set up. Myself, Brian (another dude from work; from Glasgow) and a couple of his mates, Rob and Pablo, went to check it out. There were some pretty daring stunts pulled off by the guys on motorbikes, very entertaining. And what night wouldn't be complete without having a photo taken with the Jim Beam girls?
This weekend just gone, Wellington was host to New Zealand's biggest free street festival, the Cuba Street Carnival (Cuba St being a slightly more alternative version of our Rundle Mall back home with a bunch more clubs and bars). Friday night there were short movies playing, including This is Spinal Tap - hilarious! Partying into the wee hours of the morning ensued.. On Saturday: Hundreds of stalls, plenty of street performers (including a man driving around in a toilet bowl!?!), a huge night illuminated parade and thousands of Real Hot Bitches! Now, before you call the People Against Sexism hotline, I must explain that there is a very fashionable, lycra-wearing dance troupe based in Wellington that call themselves the Real Hot Bitches. Basically a bunch of (mainly, athough not exclusively) 30-50-something women that get together on Saturdays to bust some moves in overly-flattering attire. Suze and I were luckily in the right place at the right time early on Saturday evening when the Bitches were attempting to organise the largest sychnronised dance routine the world has ever seen, out the front of a Courtenay Place bar called The Establishment.. Along with over 1700 other shameless participants, we helped break this world record by performing a cheesy dance routine to Bon Jovi's '84 classic, "Shot Through The Heart". Such fun being able to openly claim Hot Bitch status (not that I didn't already)!!! More partying into the wee hours of the morning ensued..
OK, so I've been staying in the Adelaide Road flat for 10 weeks.. Yesterday we had to be out.. After a marathon cleaning/packing session on Sunday, we all finally left around 2130hr. Sash and I grabbed a bite at Nando's after this and went on to play a few games of pool in the nearby pool lounge. By the time 2300hr came, I still hadn't found a place to stay for the night! Brian is staying in a hostel called Nomads (which is incidentally where I stayed in Melbourne when I decided on the date of my flight to New Zealand), and so I bunked down there for the night. Because Uni has just started back this week, almost all the hostels in Wellington are full of returning students so it's quite difficult to find a spare bed; I've only been able to book 3 more nights at Nomads since after that they're all booked out! I'm still not quite sure what I'm going to be doing, but I have been throwing around the idea of chucking in my job here at the Polytech in a couple of weeks time, and moving up to Taupo (the massive lake in the centre of the North Island) to find some bar work. Eh, only time will tell..

I'll get some photos up here for the last 2 posts soon.

Check these guys out: Flight of the Conchords. Sweet as bro!

Photos:
1. DJ's 21st (night out with guys from the flat): Me, Louise, Kelly, Jason, Sash and DJ - Anyone up for beer bowling?
2. View over the city from the top of that tree
3. "Daddy, what's that man doing?", "Just keep walking, son..."
4. Our team at work - Clockwise: Brian, Harry, Me, Sana, Tom and Brendan
5. Told you we met them.. with Rob and Brian
6. Covered in foam at the night parade - Suze, Tom, James and Me
7. Those are some Real Hot Bitches!
8. A float at the parade
9. Save time, just don't get up from your desk!
10. The painted man + Suze and me
11. That's me in the middle! ;)

12. Oh the things we do when we're drunk.. Brian and Pablo

Taking over the world!

I'm back in Wellington now, and back at work after spending this past weekend in the City of Churches. I was, of course, there for Lee's 21st/going away get up - and what a get up it was! Thousands of people were out on the town.. All of them out in force for Lee! Plus, I got to see my family and a whole bunch of my mates again which was great - not to mention my little furry friends, Jassie Grey and Billie! The big Saturday night was so much fun beginning with dinner at the Tap Inn and then onto First and the Stag to round the night off.. Think I was a little drunk - were you rubbing my upper thigh at some point Ryan?
Sunday came - Lee's actual birthday - and we spent a good deal of time down at Henley beach having breakfast at two in the afternoon after I awoke at midday. Gabrielle and Nick also came down for a coffee which was nice.
Gabby, Nick, Ma, a few of Lee's friends and myself went to the airport to see her off on the Monday.. I'm so proud of her! And frankly a little envious.. I mean Ghana, what an experience and huge culture shock!!! She's in Dubai now actually for a couple of days. Lee, try get on a desert safari!
Tuesday night, I went to see Mike and the Tweeds, and then my crew (you know who you are) came round for a few last beers. See you guys in Europe! And Bradtke, I'm sure you'll be able to see us in Europe from your desk.. Damn spy satellites!
Midday on Tuesday, and back at the airport this time for my farewell. It was just mum and I there which made it hard to leave, but it had to be done - the Polytech and the rest of the North Island was calling (not to mention my bags were already on the plane at this stage). Passing through Sydney on the way, I discovered that Sydney airport is the only one in the world that charges its passengers to travel between the domestic and international terminals.. Australia - always ahead of the competition!!
Going back in time a little: The Tuesday before I made the trip across the Tasman to Adelaide was Waitangi Day here in NZ. On the 6th of February, 1840, at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, representatives of the British Crown and about 43 Māori chiefs (later extended to over 500 after the document was taken around the rest of the country) signed what is New Zealand's founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi. Essentially it allowed British migrants to peacefully acquire land for settlement purposes and the Crown to set up a government. In return, the Crown were to actively protect Māori tribal authority over their lands, fisheries, forests, villages, treasures and culture and extend to them the status and rights of British citizens. The day was first officially commemorated in 1934 and has been a public holiday since 1974.
The weather was fantastic on Waitangi Day so a whole bunch of us from our flat and neighbouring flats went to New World (a semi-flash supermarket) and bought six 12-packs of beer and a few bottles of wine then cruised down to the beach. From 1100hr to about 1600hr we sat on the beach and I think we all got bloody burnt (which some of you maybe saw when I came back over the weekend). There was some traditional Māori music and dancing nearby, but we had our own jukebox when a random guy sat down with us and started playing 80's and 90's rock classics on his acoustic guitar. Later in the night, after a bit of a chill out, we played a 2-hour game of poker in one of the other flats.. I sucked (as expected) and was the second player out. Drinking from 1100hr (in the sun) right through to midnight really took it out of me, but was an awesome day nonetheless.
So I'm still looking for a flat, with just over a week to go 'til I have to be out.. My phone has also shit itself - the power switch has snapped completely off. I'll hopefully be borrowing one from a mate at work so I can be once again aurally (and orally) contactable - get your minds out of the gutter!

Gabrielle, can you send me that pic of the three of us from Saturday night?

Until then... Peace

Photos:

1. Lee at the airport

2. Lee and Tobias

3. The boys - Micah, Ryan, Me n Jubby

4. Should I be scared?

5. Me, Bee n Ma

6. Lee's B'day

7. And that's just her medication...

8. Who is that?!? - Waitangi Day

9. Pirates of the Wellington Harbour

Happy Birthday Ma!

xxx

...update

This morning at 0700hr, I drove Nic to the train station to catch the Overlander train. After a very decent last minute packing effort, a lot of stressing, selling her beloved Nigel (her car) for scrap, and a teary goodbye at the train station, she is now on her way to Auckland. The last 2 weeks have roused many emotions, in both of us, not the least being sadness. A sense of the exact opposite has also surfaced in that I did not expect to make a true friend on my travels here in Aotearoa. And a true friend she is - an absolute bloody legend... Keeping with traditional Aussie slanguage.
To clarify what has happened here... This whole decision for Nic to move came about essentially because our friendship was becoming quite strained. It's the classic case of spending just too much time together, and not really doing much with our spare time. I'm sure you can understand the disappointment I feel when realising that we could have most likely averted the whole issue by being sensible and spending more time as individuals. I guess this is simply another lesson that had to be learned. I definitely think this decision came at the right time, however, as we hadn't reached that point of no return where we hate each other, in fact we're not even close to that point which I'm very thankful for. We'll certainly be keeping in contact and I'll go up to visit sometime in the near future.
The past two weekends, we have gone out with a bunch of guys from our flat and had a blast! Last weekend was actually the first time we've all gone out together.. What have I been missing out on?! I guess I did have the excuse of trying to save money..
So the lease on this current flat runs out in 3 weeks time and after that I will need to find another room/flat to finish out my remaining days in Wellington. I have had offers from 3 of my flatties (Sash the Sri Lankan; Kelly the Aussie, and; Meenal the Fijian) to crash on their couch or in a spare room if I can't find a place immediately which is great. We'll see how it all goes, plus I might have the opportunity to extend my length of work for another month or so, who knows what's going to happen?!?

So that's current news up to date.

And what about this rumour? Well, sounds like most of you know about it anyway.. Word on the grapevine is that a B-grade celebrity will be gracing Adelaide with his presence over Lee's 21st weekend.

Photos:
1. Clockwise: Me, Kelly, Jason, Pip and Nic
2. Yannick (middle - remember the guys from down in Wanaka?) and I out with his mates
3. Give us a kiss, Love!
4. Kelly and Pip rippin' it up on the dancefloor
5. Sash, myself and Nic - clearly quite drunk
6. Look at those puppy eyes!!
7. Kelly and Nic

I've heard a rumour.....

the Good, the Bad and the Changing

The Big Day Out rocked!!! The bands were awesome, the atmosphere was great, the weather was quite nice - a little cloud, a little sun. I managed to escape the dreaded sunburn, Nic was not so lucky.. My favourite picks of the day would have to be Little Birdy, The Killers, Muse and (of course) Tool! We missed John Butler (coincided with Tool's set), Eskimo Joe (got there too late) and the Violent Femmes (too tired), but we did manage to hear "Blister in the Sun" playing somewhere in the distance as we left the stadium. It was a shame that The Butterfly Effect are only doing the Aussie BDOs, would have been great to see them. The only downside was that were too many people - this year it sold out 2 weeks in advance (the quickest selling Auckland BDO to date) with an attendance of around 44,000. I had not a sip of a single alcoholic beverage simply because the beer tent lines were too long, not to mention the requirement that you stay within a designated, fenced-off area whilst consuming the alcohol. Even so, it was still such a great day.. And now Nic can proudly say she is no longer a BDO- or Tool-virgin!!
So I hear Sydney BDO-goers ended up draping themselves in the Aussie flag.. Who didn't see that coming? Good on 'em though for getting on with it and just enjoying the music! A law to protect the flag? Bah-Humbug.
One week to go for our Adelaide viewers!

On a completely different note: I made a point recently of saying that my plans are always changing and tend to not come to fruition exactly as I would have thought. Here is another example. Nic will be moving out next Sunday, going up to Auckland to live with a bunch of friends she met in Australia a year ago... Now not even I saw that one coming, or maybe I did. I do wish them all the best and hope they have a ball, but where does that leave me now I hear you think? Well, I hope to complete the remainder of my contract with the Polytech, until the end of March, and then we'll just have to see what happens from then............

One thing I do know is that after having spent such a long time in each other's company virtually 24/7, it will be very difficult to see her go.

Photos:
1. Auckland city from the Sky Tower
2. The Sky Tower with an interesting sculpture in foreground
3. The Big Line Up
4. Rockin' out!
5. The patented Blue and Orange BDO stages
6. TOOL!!!

BDO coming soon!!!

In less than a week, Nic and I will be at the BDO in Auckland, rockin' it out with the best of them. We've taken the Thursday (18th) off work too for the long ≈8 hour drive up. And turns out the Monday afterwards is actually the Wellington Anniversary Holiday (each of the 12 regions of NZ has a public holiday celebrating its conception - although, these "regions" actually relate to the former provinces of 19th century New Zealand and are not related to districts or regions of the present day), so we get to relax, and get paid for doing so, after the drive back on Sunday - awesome!

Apart from that, not much new to report on.. More work, more attempting to save money..

Pics have been uploaded for the last post. Also, in case you didn't notice, there's now a map (inspired by Adam and Eva's) of places I've been in NZ. Of course it isn't everywhere I've been, but the main places (in chronological order) so you can see my general route. Some of the tags, for some reason, are nowhere near the places they are supposed to represent.. Interesting.. You'll probably want to click on the map and zoom in on NZ to be able to make out the places.

Again, if you're reading this, feel free to drop me a comment.. Just click on the "# people have had something to say." link below.

Photos:
1. Our temporary humble abode
2. The burbs
3. Bungy in the middle of the city - cnr Taranaki St and Courtenay Pl

Happy 2007!

First and foremost, I hope that everyone had an amazing Christmas and NYE, wherever you were celebrating! It was really nice hearing from everyone! We have had a great time here in NZ. Leading up to xmas was a bit hectic with trying to organise food, presents, what we were actually going to do, etc. But the actual day turned out to be quite nice. We had a champagne breakfast with croissants in the morning, then packed up all the food we had prepared earlier (well to be fair, Nic organised most of the food - including a few of her traditional xmas treats like stuffing balls and "pigs in blankets" [sausages wrapped in bacon.. mmmm the cholesterol] for lunch and treacle, sponge and custard for dessert - and delicious it all was...) and drove out to Rimutaki Forest Park on the eastern side of Wellington harbour for a picnic lunch. Cloudy was the forecast, but no rain - we did even get a few rays of sunlight through so we were happy about that! It was a great day and xmas spirits were made higher with our wearing of our authentic(ally purchased) santa hats. I made Glühwein (a German drink we were introduced to in Munich, similar to mulled wine) a little later on and we sat down to watch some xmas DVDs for the rest of the night.
The intermedial Christmas-NY week was pretty relaxed but we did manage to visit Te Papa Museum (6 floors!) and the Wellington Zoo which is celebrating its 50th year this year. We've watched plenty of DVDs and also quite a few movies at the cinemas, The Queen and The Holiday being the stand-outs so far.
For New Years we decided to drive almost the length of the North Island to a place called Mount Maunganui (or simply the Mount to the locals) on the northern shore, south-east of Auckland. This is where we heard that most of the youngins tend to go NYE - and boy were they youngins, most were still in their early teens.. On the drive up we again experienced 4 seasons in one day from roasting to freezing, sun to rain, even hail.. It was chilly at the Mount but it didn't rain too much which was good. The beach was where it was all happening and they had set up a little mini bar/club out there which is where we spent most of our time drinking. With about half and hour to go we stumbled down to the stage that was set up on the shoreline ready to count down to 2007.. Fun times.. Since we didn't decide to spend NYE at the Mount until the day before, all the accommodation was booked out so after all the celebrating was done we had to sleep in my car! I did bring my sleeping bag along, but I fell asleep before I got it out of the boot so I froze my tits off! Brrrrrr... Still a great night though.
So I'm back in Welly now and back at work today. No rest for the ugly as they say. Last night we went bowling in Wellington's only (very classy) bowling alley. I, of course, kicked arse again with strikes throughout and a perfect score of 300 - yeah right! Haven't been bowling in what feels like years so it was good fun.
I really have to tighten my buckle for the rest of the time here in Welly so I can save enough to fund the rest of my trip (and so my pants don't fall down). Xmas and NY cost a lot more than expected, so from now on no more spending.. The exception being the not-to-be-missed BDO in Auckland on the 19th. Tool are going to be there - Yeeeeehawwwww!

Well, that's my life up until this point → •

Pictures soon

Photos:
1. Pulling a traditional xmas cracker in front of the tree - I think this one had a beer-bottle opener inside!
2. That's the spirit!
3. A very festive house in Lower Hutt
4. Little guy at the zoo.. I just like the photo..
5. A Māori display inside Te Papa Museum
6. I doubt even beer goggles can help this poor fellow - Mt. Maunganui
7. Gettin' smashed...
8. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
9. Fireworks on the beach
10. Cool, calm and collected at the bowling alley - see the computer says I got a strike.. is that my lane??

Party Heaven!

Walking along the streets of any larger town in NZ, you are guaranteed to come across a store (including some convenience stores) selling what are known as "Party Pills". The many types of pills available (with names like Euphoria, Charge, Rapture, Blast, Nemi, Jump, ESP, Exodus and Frenzy) are considered herbal alternatives to the illegal "harder" drugs such as methamphetamine, speed, ecstasy, etc... The active ingredients, however, are benzylpiperazine (BZP, an amphetamine-like stimulant) and 3-trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine monohydrochloride (TFMPP, its effects alone being not well known), which are entirely synthetically produced. The funny thing is, some of these legal pills (also readily available on designated websites such as wickedhabits.co.nz) appear to be even stronger than those more common unacceptable drugs - I've heard stories of people not being able to sleep for a couple of days after taking just two of these "Herbal Highs"! In fact, researchers have shown that frequent and severe side effects - including seizures recorded at potentially fatal intensity - arise from the drug's use, and also that dependance is becoming an issue among some users. Even more concerning is that up until last year it was legal for those under the age of 18 to purchase them.

Only now is the Government beginning to take the issue seriously. They have been advised by a Cabinet committee to make illegal the sale of these drugs and give them a similar classification to cannibis. A final decision on whether a recommendation to ban BZP is to be made is not expected to be reached until at least March next year.

Annual industry sales are estimated at around $NZ24 million, with individual pills sold between $NZ1 and 20.

Party hard... while you still can!

www (Windy Wicked Wellington)

At the moment, I am sitting at my desk in He Wharekura-tini Kaihautu o Aotearoa - The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. Yes, I have found a temporary job working in data entry for their enrolments department. 'Enrolments Officer' is my official title. Pretty cruisy (but very tedious) stuff, they even have a table-tennis table, pool table and dartboard for us to amuse ourselves with.. Nic has also found a job working as a PA for the CEO of the Hutt City Council. What's more, Nic and I have now moved into a flat for a couple of months while we're working, just to save a little more money (and maybe lead a little more of a homely existence rather than sharing a room with 6 others and a kitchen with 30 others - in the last hostel here, Rowena's Lodge, this was quite a problem as there was only a total of about 6 forks and 1 decent-sized saucepan that didn't leak!) The flat we found, funnily enough, is on Adelaide Road. Our other flatmates (a Swede, a Canadian, a Sri Lankan, a Fijian, and another Australian - very multicultural!) seem pretty cool so should be a chilled time here in Welly.
It was great meeting up with Nic again when I arrived on the 30th. And what a great city Wellington is! Not sure what I find so alluring about it, maybe it's simply the fact that it is the closest thing that I've found to a city, as I know them, since arriving in NZ. Who knows. All I know is that Wellington is one of the windiest populated areas in New Zealand - it is almost impossible to get though an entire day without a breeze, if not strong-to-gale-force winds. The weather the past two weeks has been fantastic though, with minimal wind and maximum sun (although we had a bit of a downpour this morning, it's clearing up quite nicely)! Shame I'm stuck inside on a computer most of the day. The good thing about this time of year around NZ (especially in the South Island) is that it doesn't get truly dark until around 2200hr or later and it gets light well before 0530hr, so plenty of sunlight. Earthquakes are also a nice little addition to the character of this region, through which the Wellington faultline passes from Wellington city to Upper Hutt - in fact the New Zealand Parliament Building sits directly atop the faultline which, as one author points out, many people find no fault with. I have yet to experience an earthquake, but apparently this time of year is when they are most likely to occur so we'll just wait and see.
About a week after I arrived, Andrea passed though Wellington on her way up to Auckland for her flight back home, after having been away for about 11 months. We met up and had a necessary 'last pint', and again it was fantastic catching up with her.
Since I've been here, I haven't done much touristy stuff apart from heading to the lookout at the top of Mt Victoria, only about 300m in height. We have taken in a few films at the cinema too, including Borat - hilarious! I hope to do and see a lot more in the coming months. Our plan at the moment is to spend around 3 months or so here before taking off around the North Island. Again, plans seem to be changing all the time so that's not necessarily indicative of what will actually happen. An update will be in the works shortly after the Festive Season has ended.

Photos still coming.

Photos:
1. Tug-of-War at the Polytech's Xmas party. We lost :(
2. 0640hr, waiting to board the Bluebridge ferry to Wellington
3. Posing in the rain..
4. Why do I do these things?!?
5. A passenger taking in the fresh air and views
6. For Ryan
7. Floating balls.. well I never.. Wellington
8. Beach against the city.. Or is it a city against the beach?
9. The view over Welly from Mt Vic
10. Cute little guy loves sunbathing in the Polytech carpark