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

Goodbye South Island, Hellooooooooooo North Island...

According to Māori mythology, the legend Māui used the jaw-bone of his ancestress Muri-ranga-whenua as a fish-hook to haul a great fish up from the ocean. Māui left his brothers in charge of the fish while he went to fetch a priest to perform the appropriate ceremonies and prayers, but the brothers were greedy and started cutting it up before he had returned. Immediately, the fish began writhing in agony, causing it to break up into the mountains, cliffs and valleys that now form the North Island; the Wellington region at its head. And so here I am, standing jubilantly upon Te Upoko o Te Ika a Māui - "The Head of Māui's Fish".
I realise there has been somewhat of a delay between posts, but that's what I'm here to fix. Going back a couple of weeks, we (Nicole and I) did end up heading out to the Otago Peninsula the night I last blogged. But instead of Yellow-eyed Penguins, we actually saw the very small, very rare Blue Penguins coming ashore. They walked within a metre right past us and to their inland burrows where their month-old young were waiting anxiously (and noisily) for their nightly feed. It was quite calming to see these beautifully fragile creatures going about their business, completely unperturbed by the eyes of the many onlookers - filled with wonder - watching their every move.
We left early the next morning as there was a huge trip ahead of us - over 550km to Kaikoura, with a few points of interest along the way. The first of these stops was that damn "tallest tree". We found it! Turns out that last time we had missed the bluntly obvious gate signalling the entrance to the track and walked for 2 hours through someone's private farming land.. Whoops! It appears as if it's only the tallest tree in New Zealand though, not the entire Southern Hemisphere, but that's ok.. Another adjective maximised. It was (as expected) quite tall, 69.1m tall to be exact. Eucalyptus regnans is its genus, providing a strong boost to the Aussie male ego.
After this we passed by a spot wishfully named Shag Point. There were some more seals down this way, lounging around, and a beach where you could view the elusive Yellow-eyed Penguin. We were initially a little skeptical about seeing them, but eventually spotted two standing by their nest on the beach. Sneaking 50m or so amongst the shrubs brought me quite close to them before they spotted me and waddled back to the safety of their nest. Shag Point was also the site where an almost complete skeleton of a seven-metre long Elamosaurus, a member of the plesiosaur family, was found - a rare find.
Further up the east coast is a place called Moeraki, just south of Oamaru. It is on the Moeraki beach and shoreline that the very unusual and very interesting Moeraki Boulders are found. These rocks are known as septarian concretions. Basically, they are almost perfectly spherical formations of around 2 metre diameter, cemented in shape by calcite deposits with cracks lined by scalenohedral calcite crystals radiating outwards from the centre (called septaria). Maybe try Wikipedia for a more in-depth explanation. Did I mention very interesting?
I had planned to get to Christchurch's award-winning Antarctic Centre on the way through, but their opening times were different than advertised in the Lonely Planet book so we arrived a little too late. So onwards to Kaikoura. Kaikoura, the home of whale-watching I had visited when I first arrived in NZ, also proved to be a place where I could experience something I had never contemplated before. Sitting behind the instrument panel of a Cessna 150, something not dissimilar to the plane from which I skydived, I was taken up to cruising altitude over the Kaikoura Peninsula and then left to take over the controls.. I actually flew a plane! For half an hour I was the pilot of this 2-seater light plane, taking my first flying lesson. I now have 0.4 hours flying time towards my solo pilot's licence! Maybe if I can get some money together I might consider this... It's only about $NZ8,500 in total.
By about lunchtime we had reached Blenheim, NZ's main grape-growing region. We had a bit of a drive around the vineyards yet I recognised only one out of about 50 wineries that had grapes grown in the area. This was Nobilo. And Lee, I found out that Stepping Stone is actually a South Australian wine, from Padthaway, not NZ as you suggested. Good to see all those years of wine marketing going to good use ;)
By the end of the day I had reached Picton after having dropped Nicole off at her friend's house in Blenheim. Picton is quite a nice town, and is the gateway to the South Island as the ferry across Cook Strait (between the North and South Islands) arrives here from Wellington. There was not much to do especially as the weather was not crash hot, but I did meet some great people, including a funny and very chatty German (yes, they are all funny and chatty!!) named Christoph and we shared photos and stories of our South Island experiences. Turns out Christoph had bumped into another German guy that I had also met for only a day a couple of months ago, very odd. And because I had never caught this German guy's name, we had to figure this all out by description. Small world.. But I guess more accurately, small country!
In the morning, I drove Tana into the vehicle holding bay of the Bluebridge ferry and said my goodbyes to the South Island. Three hours later, following a very relaxed journey across Cook Strait, I had arrived in Wellington just before midday.

Photos to follow, along with another post.

Photos:
1. Freak hail storm in Dunedin
2. Standing on top of.. Huh? - "The Pyramids", Otago Peninsula
3. View from Mount Cargill, Dunedin
4. Nicole looking up at the million-year-old Organ Pipes. What is that in her bag?
5. Bloody huge! NZ's tallest tree.. Phew, finally found it!
6. Their eyes really are yellow!
7. The Moeraki Boulders
8. Cubby house..
9. Brilliant sky over the Kaikoura region
10. Eerie trees, on the way to Kaikoura
11. Top Gun!
12. Cessna 150 - the plane they would have you believe I flew
13. The plane I actually flew...
14. I love those signs, they have them all over the country: this one and many others like it..