Couples adventure round New Zealand, Australia and Canada

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2010-01-23T10:07:00.000+13:00

So, we're back in the UK. After 30 hours of driving, flying and hanging around airports, we are back on solid ground in the Northern Hemisphere, ready to give reality (and jobs) a go.

It was so cold when we got in at 6.25am. There we were, dressed head to toe in our warmest clothing, complete with woolly hats and scarves, and the gust of air from outside just crystellised us. There was snow covering everything we saw on the way back from the airport. It was a lovely dawn, with pale blue and pink whorls of cloud hanging over everything, and the orange sun creeping up over the frosted hills. But cold, very cold.

However, despite the insanely freezing air, we are rallying our spirits and preparing to move, settle in and make some money, and then, get on travelling again!

We want to head to Canada, Japan, Europe...in the near future. After that, well who knows.

The plan is to update the blog with any travel-related news like buying tickets or deciding on a destination, etc. So, keep up to date! Find out where we're going next! Any suggestions?

Once the unpacking, repacking, moving and unpacking is done, we'll get the pics sorted and do a little slideshow for everyone. Thanks for reading!

Alpaca

2010-01-19T20:35:00.000+13:00

Another early start this morning saw us checking out of our lovely little apartment (my new model for the perfect first flat) and hitting the road again to go to Montville, the place to be for arts and crafts in the mountains. We went to the Poets Cafe, a beautiful 20s style verana building with curlicue iron work and art deco windows. We sat outside, under a shade, looking out over the valley and nervously eyeing the horribly large spider on the balcony rail about two meters away. This thing was hairy, black as night and about as big as my hand. Apparently, it doesn't like to bite humans...but I have heard that before, concerning sharks.
We had some beautifully light fruit scones with jam and cream, edging back into the English mentality with morning tea seemed to be a good plan. Then, we had an explore of the boutiques of Montville, enjoying a specialty sweet and fudge shop, an African store and some wonderful glasswork from an artist who actually used to live in Bren's house, the one we are currently staying in!
Then, we found the alpaca shop. I have a small obsession with alpacas and I was actually crestfallen when I decided that it would probably not work in my favour to bring a small Alpaca figurine away with me. Just writing about it brings back the sorrow. Doh.
Well, we departed Montville, sans alpaca, and stopped off only once on the way back to the house to buy sushi for lunch. We ate this on the deck, which has purposefully been aged to resemble Japanese wood, with chopsticks and earthenware mugs of green tea, so as to taste a little of the flavour of Bren and Reg's life in Japan.
Then, I spent about an hour on the phone (or the Skype headphones and mic set, depending on how accurate you would like me to be) trying to persuade Vodafone that I really do want to cancel our broadband contract, as we will no longer be in either New Zealand or Australia.
Since then, I have been spending almost two hours trying to bring this blog up to date! Phew! Meanwhile, Alex has been helping out with the gardening and assembling a photo slideshow to upload once we are back.

So, today is our last full day. Tomorrow, we go into Brisbane to catch our flight back to London. We stop off in Singapore for a few hours, but I don't think they will let us out of the airport. We will be going from our regular 30 degree, sunshine and blue skies, crickets chirupping constantly to the dull grey skies of England, with its rain and its reported -8 degree temperature. Mind you, that was -18 last week, so that is something I suppose!

I will update about the journey when we get back and I have a minute amongst all the reunions and unpacking. We'll put the last of the pictures up and get everything sorted. After that, I plan to try to do a weekly update about our plans for our next big adventure, as well as any other travelling we might happen to do on the way, round the UK and maybe, hopefully, some of Europe, while we save money for the next big trip. So if you are interested, check in every so often, or become a follower for updates.

Thanks for reading!
Since then,

Noosa

2010-01-18T20:05:00.021+13:00

Noosa was calling, as Australia's most sought after propety location, so we had to see what all the fuss was about. We drove down the coast to the National Park bay and it is beautiful. I vaguely remembered it from my previous trip to Oz, so we walked along the beach and up along a boardwalk for views over the curving bay. It was so hot, you practically dehydrated just by standing there, so we went down the highstreet, not to shop per se, but to take full advantage of the air-con.
We were set to meet Bren and Reg at a restaurant they particularly like, called 'Bistro C' at 1pm for lunch and we made our way there and joined them at the table with a view over the sea. Alex had some fancy fish and chips (or 'Fush and Chups' as they are referred to often, here) while I had a swanky salad involving brazil-nut polenta, kumara, blue cheese and crostini. Then, while Alex groaned and held his stomach, I polished off a tasty desert of chocolate creme brulee, rum bananas and candied pecans. Yum!
Then, we went and nursed our bulging tummies by laying out on the beach, carefully avoiding the sea and its possible jellyfish monsters.
While we were there, laying on the hot sand (very relaxing), the wind changed direction, bringing dark purple storm clouds to rest above us and also, according to the lifeguard's megaphone speech, a whole 'flock' of bluebottles - not the fly kind, the stinging jellyfish kind to the beach. Yay. How we love the jellyfish. The clouds started to spit, so we upped ships and left the beach, sitting sandy in the car as we drove back to Peregian Beach. Bizarrely, the rain came down even as the sun was out and shining away.
Back at the apartment, we swam in the pool for a few hours, until we had ingested enough of the salty water to probably cause some sort of incipient illness, then made dinner. We watched a documentary on the Forbidden City and laughed at the dramatic 'woe betides' of the presenter.

Peregian

2010-01-17T19:44:00.033+13:00

We had an early start today, waking up to pack for our trip away from Melany. Bren had booked us in at a resort in Peregian Beach, so that we could hang out at the beach for a day and go and see Noosa, and have a 'last-blast' holiday before we have to head home.
Off we went, through Yandina and onto Coloundra where Bren hoped to stop for her coffee fix. However, the cafe was closed as it was a Sunday and in order to avoid any 'putrid' coffee fails, we continued on to find another cafe that met the standard. We found one. It was overlooking a glorious turquoise blue beach, with hot white sand and palm trees. We ordered our drinks (Chai latte time!) and sipped and revelled in the light breeze that interrupted the 30 degree sun beating down outside the sheltering cloth roof.
We moved on, arriving at our apartment-style hotel in good time. The apartment was lovely, decked out in sunshine bright colours and with a walk-out patio that took you right to the pool. We stopped just long enough for lunch, then Alex and I headed down to the beach. It was a long curve of golden soft sand, edged by white breakers from the deep blue sea. There wasn't a cloud in sight and we strolled along, toes in the water. We saw a few tiny drops, about a centimeter across, but gave the jellyfish no thought. They were too small to worry about. We splashed about in the shallows and then made our way further up the beach to the lifeguard flags. The friendly lifeguards were walking about, helping kids build sandcastles and paddling with the parents. We dumped our towels high up on the beach and then plunged into the refreshing sea. It is so odd - we are programmed to assume that seawater equals cold water, but here in Oz, its actually warm. It is so much more pleasant! So there we are, swimming around, cooling down in the breakers, when I hear I hear Alex apologise - to me, for hitting me by mistake. Thing is, I am about three metres away - his arms are not that long! So I look around and what he has actually hit is a giant brown rock. Thats weird, I think. There was no rock when we walked over that bit of sand a moment ago.
It was a gigantic jellyfish! It was huge! Alex had brushed the top of it with his hand while playing about in the waves. We both realised at the same moment and you have never seen two people exit the sea at quite such speed. We stood there, on the shore, dumbstruck by the sheer size of this thing. Vowing to never set foot in the Australian sea again, we settled down on our towels, still amazed and horrified.
We sunbathed for a bit and then headed back along the beach to return to the apartment for dinner. As we walked along, we spotted several jellyfish stranded on the beach - some small, frilly ones akin to those we saw in Abel Tasman, some fist-sized brown ones, a few more that were bigger than motorcycle helmets and then, the biggest pile of goop masquerading as an aquatic creature ever. We took some pictures (which will turn up once we have our own pc going again) with Alex next to it for size reference. If we'd met this thing in the water...well, it would probably have eaten us. *shudder*
Back at the apartment, Reg and Bren had gone out, so we went into the pool while we waited for them to return and let us into the house again. Alex and I made supper and then we all watched 'Memoirs of a Geisha' on the super comfy sofa, before going to bed.

Rainforest

2010-01-16T19:27:00.029+13:00

Saturday was a day to be taken easily. We relaxed on the deck in the heat, reading and planning. In the afternoon, we all piled into the car and went to the Mary Caincross Rainforest reserve, a reminder of how the area used to look before it was lived in. We browsed the informative display, learning the sheer size of dinosaurs that had lived here thousands of years ago and the sorts of creatures we might come across during our walk. Then, we set off into the trees!
Instantly, the light changes - it is darker, more filtered. The smell of foliage is strong, and the strangler figs loop mad-looking vines across the pathway. As we walked deeper into the rainforest, all sound was blocked out, to be replaced by creaking trunks and snufflings, odd bird calls and things crashing to the floor from the canopy, almost 50 metres above. I spotted two small Pademelons in the brush and both Alex and I froze in order to snap off some pictures of them as they unconcernedly hopped about (they look like tiny versions of kangaroos). We carried on, startling when a large, solid green pod hit the ground just next to us with a heavy thump. Concerned (understandably) about being knocked out, we made a hasty exit from that particular grove of trees, only to walk into a stand of native bush fig trees, and to narrowly avoid being pelted by the continuous rain of bright purple fruit that fell from the canopy above us.
We saw several more Pademelons, including one with a joey in the pouch and we sat and observed them for a bit. We found a crazy misty river winding its way through the tall trees and looking picture-perfect for a Jurassic Park setting. That is where we first heard the noise.
It was a crying baby. We hadn't seen anyone take a baby into the forest, but despite the empty paths, we knew there were lots of other people wandering round. We heard the cry again. Again. Again. It was relentless. We started to think someone had abandoned a baby in the forest. We were just debating investigation, when we heard it again. From the opposite direction! Well, we didn't think there would be two babies in peril in the rainforest. We figured it had to be some sort of animal. Maybe the Pademelons? But no, they just make huffing, clicking noises. We eventually found out what it was - a tiny, insignificent looking bird. A relief, as we had been beginning to think maybe it was some sort of large animal's ingenious human-hunting technique.
Then we took a trip down into Melany town in order to buy the ingredients for a dish Alex and I planned to cook for our hosts the night after. We also hoped to pick up some sort of mozzie bite cure, as Alex had been bitten 51 times and was feeling decidedly woozy. His top lip was starting to swell up, but the chemists was closed. Thus, dinner was eaten inside, so as not to expose him to anymore insects!

Irwin

2010-01-15T18:50:00.074+13:00

(Sorry for lengthy gap in updates! We have been in the Hinterlands, with nary a computer in sight, let alone one attached to the internet! Anyhow, we have returned, so Japanese keyboard notwithstanding, let us continue...if I can remember)

Friday, we planned to go to Australia Zoo, the most famous zoo in the world, thanks in large part to the efforts of Steve Irwin and his family. Bren and Reg drove us down to the Zoo gates and out we got, ready to be amazed by crocs and various odd Aussie wildlife.
After paying the entrance fee (crippling, but worth it), we sauntered to the park map, only to discover a khaki-clad ranger standing nearby casually holding a baby crocodile. The day was shaping up to be everything we could have hoped for.
We planned what we would do around some live animal shows and located the stadium where the first was to be held. We were 10 minutes early and caught the last song and dance routines of Bindi Irwin, the eleven year old that has taken over Australia with her nature-wise rallying cry, in memory of her dad. 11! We were impressed, if a little concerned for her, but she and her mum and brother are doing an epic job of holding everything together.
We were then astounded, literally, by what happened next. A chirpy, upbeat Aussie bounded into the arena and explained that she was going to fire up a bidding war between members of the audience for an afternoon in the echidna enclosure with the Irwin family. Alex and I sat firmly on our hands so no-one could accuse us of offering money we definately do not have to the cause in the auction...we were expecting a few dollars here and there, but we watched in utter amazement as the bidding rose, until the prize was rewarded to the winning bidders - at 1600 AUD!
As the winning family were led away (no doubt in shock at the amount they just dropped on a family day out), enthusiastic rangers leapt into the ring, babbling loudly on mics. Suddenly, huge bright blue and red macaws soared out from under the stadium and over our heads, tail feathers literally trailing inches above the audience as they flew round and round. A small flock of flourescent green lorikeets sped out like twittering bullets and almost took our ears off as they zoomed, chattering loudly right in front of our eyes. Then, the enclosure cleared and the white and black cockatoos that had been sitting all round the bannisters let out a screech and flew off - the audience was asked to yell the name of one of the birds out in the zoo. Everyone joined in, yelling out an obscure name (I can't remember it...something like 'Djambela'). Then, as we watched, an absolutely huge black and white stork-like bird could be seen in the distance, approaching the stadium. Long, spindly red legs trailed out behind her and the rangers ran out of the ring to give her space to land. She was as tall as the men, about 6ft, with a truly massive wingspan. As she walked elegantly out of the enclosure, the keepers once again went into hyperactive mode and announced, with great glee, the entrance of the crocodile! The giant screen lit up showing the crocodile slide menacingly out of its 'paddock' behind the stadium and move into the water in the ring. As it moved its whole four meter length of predatory muscle and teeth into the open, the Irwin family ran out, Terri, Bindi and Robert, as well as some keepers to maintain order and keep the kids safe during the act.
We watched as the silent shadow swum under the water, then rearer out towards the antagonising keeper stomping his feet at the edge of the water. They fed him scraps while teaching the audience that 'crocs are not the ferocious animals you think they are...but lets watch him attack a pig leg and do the death roll, just for funsies'.
After the show, we stumbled out of the heat (in the full sunshine, one gets woozy fast) to the shade and had some of our picnic lunch. Then, we embarked on our trip round the zoo. We posed with the model of the crocodile that weighed two tonnes and measured nine by three meters when it was alive (!) and craned our necks to see the red pandas swaying at the tops of their trees. We stood next to the Indian Elephants while they were being fed, watching as their trunks curled up to suck up bite sized chunks of melon. We sat by the otter pool and watched, enchanted as the tiny sisters showed-off their synchronised swimming moves and then snatched fish heads from their keeper. We pressed up against the glass of the tiger enclosure as the keepers entertained the two big cats with toys and the tigers, in a bound of overenthusiasm found theirselves swimming in the pool. We also found out that while tigers like to swim, they don't like going in front feet first as their front paws are so sensitive - so they back into the water! We went through the aviary and looked at all the colours of the parrots and then into the koala pen to pat the koala's soft fuzz and laugh at their expressions. We meandered through the Roo Heaven and were almost run down in a stampede as the entire mob of kangeroos bounced through the park and right by us. Luckily, we stayed very still, and then soothed them with handfuls of roo food, which they munched contentedly with snuffly noses. I was chased by a huge water dragon lizard that was laying on the path when I tried to photo it. We peaked in at the wombats, heavily weighed down by the babies in their pouches. The discovery of a petting zoo had us laughing at the climbing goats and piglets, the calves and gently baaing sheep. We roamed through the shop, amused at the inclusion of woolly mammoths in the toy section and marvelled at the Bindi brand, which is massive and a sheer money-making machine.
After a lovely, fascinating day, we loped out just as the zoo was closing in order to catch our lift back up into the mountains.

Zoom

2010-01-15T02:01:00.000+13:00

It has been a helter-skelter couple of days. (Apologies in advance if this makes no sense, I am using a Japanese keyboard and it is very weird).
Our last full day with Richard and Ansie, we got a lift with Brad into the city again as he had to go and pick up Rhian's birth certificate. We meanwhile, had lunch in the Queen St Mall food court and then walked over to Southbank and spent the afternoon lazing about the urban beach. This is such a cool concept - its an area of golden white sand, just off from the pavement, with a free pool stretching out towards the river. You can sit in the shallows, pretend you are on the beach and watch the boats go by on the river, or lie back at look over the skyscrapers, or even see the cars filled with commuters zooming over the bridge in the distance. Once we had swum about about and just generally enjoyed being cool in the heat of the city, as well as the obvious novelty of sitting on a beach in the middle of a very built-up area, we went and lay on the grass to dry off. We caught the buses back to Redland Bay and began the dinner. For our last night, Ansie was constructing the creme-de-la-creme of dishes, a roast leg of lamb for the meat-eaters and for us all, a vegetable and ricotta stack. Yum. Delicious! We helped out laying the table and finishing off the pesto mix and then set to eating. We all ended up staying around the table for the whole evening, eating the main, then later a platter of fruits (fresh lychees! Sun-ripened nectarines and watermelon!) and then Brad brought out one of his expensive, vintage reds and a tray of gourmet cheeses and we ended up all eating more than one would have thought physically possible. Anyhow, eventually, we all retired to bed.

The following morning, Alex and I packed up our stuff from the caravan and loaded up Richards car, as he very kindly insisted on driving us up to Melany, our next destination. Ansie joined us on the journey, and after we had bid farewell to Brad and Licelle we set off on the 'short trip' (Aussie terms, not English. In English, we would refer to it as 'Crikey! What a distance! We should stop for tea and scones, so as to not starve before we get there!') Ah well, three hours later we arrived and after a brief mix-up with the house number and sending Alex into a complete stranger's residence, we found Bren and Reg's house. The six of us had a drink on the balcony, before Richard and Ansie had to go to meet friends for lunch. So we thanked them very much and bid them adieu and off they went.
Now, we are staying in an art deco inspired bedroom in a truly lovely 'Queenslander' house (The traditional state building style, made of wood, with painted cladding and very high ceilings). Bren and Reg took us down into the town of Melany and we wandered up the street while they shopped for groceries. The single high street is lined with an odd mix of cafes, hippy shops touting 'legal' highs (!) and touristy boutiques selling handmade soap and the like. We stopped to have cake at a cafe that was beckoning us in with its chocolate coated muffins and blueberry cheesecakes. We sat outside, pavement cafe culture, shaded from the sunshine and munching on cake. On the way back to the house, we passed along Mountain View road, and saw the Glass House Mountains in all their bizarrely shaped splendour, surrounded by sweeping rainforest covered hills and valleys. Back at the house, after dinner and a sit out on the raised decking overlooking the tropical garden, we came inside and watched 'The Last Samurai' before going to bed.

Today, we awoke and had breakfast on the balcony overlooking the palm trees. We all got ready for our planned day at the beach, zooming off in our host's little red sports car to King's Beach in Caloundra. It was beautiful. Clear brilliant blue skies, baking hot sunshine, fine white sand and turquoise water, breaking as, admittedly large, waves on the beach. Palm trees (and pines, oddly) waved on the shores and pavilions and giant parasols occupied the groundspace. We sat in a little cafe on the edge of the beach and the others had coffee while I had a pineapple juice. So lovely! Fresh from the plantations just outside of town, it was sweet, but not sickly, just right and so good and refreshing! After our refreshments, we headed down the bakingly hot sand with funny, high-step mincing movements and settled on towels. Around lunchtime we ventured back to the cafe for fish and chips and then Alex and I bravely ventured near the water, despite the anecdotes involving sharks/jellyfish/crocodiles/sheer bad luck that we have come across while travelling. The water. unbelieveably, was warm. I have never encountered warm seawater before. It was a revelation! We jumped straight in, embraced being battered by the 7ft waves, splashed around...then the helicopter that keeps a lookout for sharks went overhead and we decided to vacate the water. We esconced ourselves in the saltwater pool at the end of the beach instead to wash off the sand, then went back to the towels and read for a bit. Being fidgety though, we ended up getting up to go on a walk quite soon afterwards and meandered down the coast on a raised wooden boardwalk, next to the palms and looking out over oddly shaped rocks into the surf. We had some ice cream (mandatory beach food) and then sat in the still warm rays of the sun at about 5pm. I could very easily get used to this lifestyle.
We returned to the house with a short detour to Melany to pick up some picnic goods for tomorrow, when we plan to visit Australia Zoo. This is a highly exciting plan, given our addiction to animals and the fame of this particular zoo. We manufactured our own pizzas for dinner tonight, with myself making the bases and then instructing their topping process. We ate outside on the decking, surrounded by a symphony of rainforest noise and friendly black beetles. The sky up here in the mountains is completely free of light pollution and every single star shines brightly and clearly. It is so beautiful.

I am currently writing this from the aforementioned Japanese keyboard, on a Mac - so its very odd, but the soundtrack to my writing comes completely and utterly from the depths of the rainforest. There is the constant low hum of the crickets out in the trees, and a staccato frog that chirrups in scales. Another frog makes a monotonous ticking noise not unlike a clock. Before, when we were sitting outside, there was also the steady bumping of large armoured beetles throwing themselves at the glass lamps as well as various rufflings and skuffles in the bushes that had us quite nervous, as there are both mambas and taipans in the garden. There was even the odd flap of large, leathery wings as fruit bats flipped past through the night on a mission for tasty goodness.

Biking

2010-01-12T13:10:00.001+13:00

Awaking to hot blue skies and a haze of sunshine, Alex and I partook of a tasty toast breakfast and then set about making ready to go cycling again. With the rucksack packed full of water bottles, we whipped on our helmets and jumped on the bikes and we were off.
We set ourselves a direction and headed that way with no particular goal in mind. We cycled down the coast in the direction of the Gold Coast for a while, enjoying the occasional rush of cool air as you sloped down a hill and perspiring through the heat on the upward slope.

After a good long while of following the cycle path in random twists and turns, and finding that most of them led onto dead ends, we decided that it might be better to turn back than risk getting lost somewhere in Queensland. So, we backtracked and started cycling back up the route we knew, towards Victoria Point jetty. We had in mind that there was a cafe nearby that we could stop at for sustinence, so on we cycled. It took longer than we remembered, it was definately hotter than before, but we made it without too much difficulty (the one difficulty being that I paid too much attention to a large, golden butterfly and fell off my bike when I careered off the pavement into the banked up edge - good thing I didn't go the other way, or I'd have fallen down onto the rocks lining the beach instead!)

Finally, gloriously, we made it through the heat of the day to the cafe and sat and drank cold gatorade from the chiller cabinet. Ah. Good stuff. Once our flagging electolytes were restored, we had some lunch and then went down towards to beach and sat in the shade watching the boats skim across the water around Coochie Mudlow. Of course, not too long after this, we had to start heading back if we wanted to make it home in time for dinner! So we hopped back on the bikes (ooof, muscle pain) and started peddling back.
We made it home, thouroughly exhausted and jumped in the shower to clear away the thought of exercise. The others were making Spaghetti Bolognaise for dinner, and Richard was kindly manufacturing an entirely different pasta sauce just for me and my vegetarian ways. We laid up the table and prepared to nosh! I sprinkled some of Richard's fresh garden chillies on my dinner and they surely pack a punch raw than cooked! Good stuff!
Instead of being outside on the patio, this time we were eating inside at the table usually reserved for dinner parties in order to avoid more mozzie bites and it seemed to inspire intense debate. We covered the spectrum of random dinner topics, from an in-depth look at the language of Afrikaans, to the issue of privacy on the internet. After a while, we moved to the sofas and watched baby Rhian gurgling at the camera as her parents tried to get a good passport shot of her. Eventually, the effort tired her out and the rest of us decided to retire to bed as well.

Heat

2010-01-10T13:29:00.002+13:00

On Friday, we took a day inside to relax and sketch. Our adventure of the day was in our complete and utter lack of direction when we set out for the three-block away shops...We managed to tramp over nearly every road in the estate apart from the one we actually needed to be on. We eventually returned home, defeated, to the laughter of Richard and Ansie. After more in-depth directions and a hand-drawn map, we set out again. Moments later, Richard passed us on the bike, laughingly checking us to make sure we weren't going off in the wrong direction again. The trauma of the whole thing deserved chocolate, so we bought some cookies (have had no chocolate in over three weeks! Shocking!) and came home again.

Saturday, we awoke in the caravan, our 5-star luxury accommodation after some of the places we have resided.

Our plan for the day was to go and market in Brisbane and we planned to do this self-sufficiently...with the use of the public transportation services. Hahaha. What fools us.
Anyways, we munched down breakfast (cereal addiction has commenced; no more porridge!!!), waved a cheery hello to new arrival to the house, Licelle's brother Antoine, and then departed out of the door to locate the bus stop.
We stood in the blaring hot sunshine of nine in the morning, by the side of the road, watching and waiting for the right bus to roll on by. Eventually, a bus turned up. It wasn't quite the right one, but we boarded anyway and rode through the suburbs of Brisbane, stopping to change at Griffith Uni and finally into the city proper. It only took us just over an hour. Distances in Oz can be deceiving!
We walked to the Southbank precinct and strolled along the beautiful curving metal sculptural arbour, covered with purple flowers and green tendrils. We came across a communal theatre project stadium and saw some randoms practicing their skills with various acrobatical things. Then, we found the market.
This was an excellent market, with many things that I wanted in order to fill my house (as yet, a shadowy dream house that I have yet to own). However, they also had a leather-working stall the likes of which I have never seen before! A fantastic tooled leather owl shaped satchel caught my eye, and I wanted it so badly! Alas, it was a little pricey, but I did get possibly the coolest coin purse (never knew I needed one until now). Its shaped like a dragon, and he is the happiest looking dragon I have ever seen. He is lovely. He is called Clarence. When I am back in the UK and it is cold and raining, I will pull Clarence from my bag and remember being really, really hot in Brisbane. Awesome.
After the market, we sat on the edge of the urban beach pool, right in the centre of the Southbank overlooking the river. We dangled our legs into the cool water and sat for a while, enjoying the water and the sunshine.

However, as per usual we started to get hungry after a while, so we started the search and forage mission for lunch. We located tasty burgers and ate them in a cool, air-conditioned room. I had some more vitamin water, which I am enamoured of (so thirst quenching!) and decided maybe this consumption was what is keeping me free of mozzie bites - its packed with vitamin b. Poor Alex is gaining bites by the hour...
After lunch, we wandered down the riverside, through an elevated boardwalk around rainforest and pools. We spotted five large lizards soaking up the heat on rocks by a little waterfall and another one chased us around the pavement, running helter-skelter on his tip toes. We discovered a Nepalese Peace Pagoda. The carving on this building was beautiful, intricate and all in glossy dark wood.

We were accosted by a little old lady clutching leaflets about the Citycat boat service. We all had a discussion about university courses, and the immense amount of subjects her progeny have studied. She herself had studied the Ottoman Empire and was very excited about my Classical degree. Anyway, it turned out that the boat was cheaper by far than usual cruises due to the fact that it is actually a part of the Brisbane public transport system. So for the same price as the bus fare (cheaper, actually) we took to the water, riding the back of the boat all the way up the river and the front (with its strong, cooling and exhilarating headwind) all the way back again. We took snapshots of the city skyline and the red-brown cliffs.

We saw a ridiculously massive cruise ship (bigger than the buildings it was parked alongside on the shore) and pelicans in flight.
After the thrill of the Citycat, we disembarked on the other side of the river and meandered into town for a sit down. After drinking loads of water to recuperate from being in the sun so long, we started looking at how to get back home.
Pah. Turns out, the Brisbane travel system goes in zones, like the tube in London. Nowhere points this out though and for some reason, all the bus drivers blank us when we talk to them. We reckon there is some sort of secret, in-the-know bus driver handshake/signal that you are meant to give when you board in order to get them to speak to you. So far, we have been unsuccessful. Eventually, we managed to work it out and board the right bus and arrive home. Phew!
It was just coming up to dinner time and everyone (full house as Licelle, Brad and Rhian are back from the hospital) was getting things ready for the table. We laid out the plates and so on and then Richard served up a whole BBQed salmon, which we had with roasted veg and a potato bake. Some of the others had chicken kebabs as well and we all sat down to eat.
We ate, and talked and had guavas for desert and Alex and I were interrogated as to our travels and purposes. We listened to the geckos crawling the walls as they chirupped and watched large bugs fly in and out of the lamplight. One such giant was a preying mantis that flew onto the edge of the BBQ. Richard picked him up and gave him to Alex, who tried to put it on my head while I took some snaps. I held him for a little while, and he danced his front legs about and curled his feelers, looking about with big black eyes.

Then, we went to bed. Sleepy!

Brisbane

2010-01-08T00:28:00.000+13:00

Today, we awoke bizarrely early again in order to cadge a lift into the city with Brad. This mildly backfired, as he needed to pick up his brother on the way and his brother had been coerced into babysitting duty. Thus, we stayed at his brother's house for an hour or so watching the tennis.
Anyway, after a while, we headed into the city proper and arrived in Brisbane, the air heavy with prospective rain that never came, but with a humidity of 89%, you could be forgiven for thinking that you were swimming regardless.
We took a stroll through the city centre, wandering around looking at all the buildings made up of dusty red-gold stonework. We found the Botanic Gardens (which we seem to magnetically locate in every city) and admired the giant lizards sunbathing on the rocks and shivered at the slimy eels gathering at the edges of the ponds. We took some touristy pictures to document the lizards and then carried on to Old Government House. We walked down to a mangrove boardwalk and saw some truly horrific looking red and yellow spiders the size of my palm hanging in the trees. After staring at them in terrified fascination for a good five minutes, we nervously picked our way down the centre of the path along the riverbank, skin crawling. We continued down the river for a while and then turned back into the city, returning to the central precinct in order to have a cool drink and people watch. We sat, with large frozen fruit juices in front of us and a brownie/custard slice for good measure. While we munched and sipped and had brainfreeze, we watched all the people go by. Some were wearing crazy balloon hats from a vendor up the street a little, others were in the height of fashion. It was very interesting.
We took a look around the Myer mall, looking at all the things for sale, but we got bored pretty fast as we can't actually buy anything much due to packing and monetary restrictions. We went to City Hall and sat in George Square, laughing at the need to relocate City Hall when the building in front of us was so obviously perfection for it.
We found a store I visisted last time I was in Oz, called 'Skinnys'. A place for Australiana and sheep skin products, I caved to the forecasts of -11 degrees centigrade at home, and the millions of pictures of snowy landscapes crowding facebook and purchased a new pair of slippers in order to try and keep myself warm when we return home.
Then, content with my buy and after an amusing diversion in a geographical store involving mouldable figurines, we managed to locate a bus service that was headed in the right direction, caught it despite being 10cents short of the ticket price (thank-you Mr. Bus Driver) and were picked up by Ansie at the bus stop.
We have just enjoyed our third restaurant quality meal - homemade buckwheat pasta with roasted garlic and tomato sauce with olives and parmesan...Now, for sleepytime.

Thanks for the comments! We shall try and get some pictures up and in the blog asap. In the meantime, check out our Flickr gallery. :)

Coochie

2010-01-06T21:09:00.062+13:00

We aimed to be awake at 7.30 this morning, in order to not embarrass ourselves in front of our super-early-morning-riser hosts. Hmm. We made it up by 8am, not too bad, considering the complete lack of sleep the night before!
Our plan today was to take a bike ride up the coast to Victoria Point and then catch a ferry over to a tiny little island called Coochie Mudlow. So, after manufacturing ourselves some salad sandwiches from last nights leftovers, packing up water bottles, rain jackets, maps, phones - the whole shebang of a survival kit, as well as donning our law-abiding helmets and some blister-avoiding fingerless gloves (like a ruffian) we mounted our worthy steeds (Richard and Ansie's bikes) and set off down the sloping driveway. Then we stopped, to adjust the saddles. Then, we zoomed down the road! Then we stopped to check we were going in the right direction.
Eventually, we set off properly, whizzing around the bike paths along the coastline, the sea lapping not three metres away. Mangroves skulked about in the shallow water, luckily clear (I say lucky, because if it is muddy the crocodiles can surprise you!) We took a path through woodland round the back of a golf course, spotting a sleepy goanna lizard pop into flee mode and walk on water before submerging itself under a lily pad in an ornamental pond. After some hills and a few long roads with overhanging branches, we made it to the ferry port and walked our bikes onto the little 40-people ferry that pulled up at the jetty.
We meandered across the bay, landing about ten minutes later on Coochie Mudlow. We embarked immediately upon a cycle route around the island. There were some excellent hills to whoosh down, providing a much-needed breeze in the seriously warm environs of the island. I had a nervous moment when I felt something on my leg and looked down to see a large, spherical brown and cream spider sat on my calf. I almost hit a tree in my eagerness to stop, but then very calmly managed to brush it off with a twig. Phew. I laugh in the face of deadly creatures.
We continued on, viewing the pancake-flat cane toads on the road with a sort of macabre interest. I mentioned a while ago, how the New Zealanders serve to hit possums - Australians do the same with cane toads. They have cane toad bashing days. It is like a national holiday!
With great surprise, we found we had completed the entire island route in very little time...admittedly Coochie is a very small island, but still. Bikes are not our first form of transportation! We drew up outside the kiosk and sat down to sample caramel icecreams and vitamin water, which I am addicted to. We watched the creamy ibis stalk about the patio. After our recuperation session, we wandered down onto the yellow sand beach and got comfy after a re-app of sunscreen. Alex concentrated on building a mini fort to protect himself from the sea (thouroughly checked over for possible nasties/jellyfish/sharks/crocs/random evil man-eating beasts that lurk in water) while I started a battle against the land-based meanies, the ants. After a while, in the heat, the sea was looking mighty tempting, but the fear remained. Would we die a horrible death if we ventured into Australian seawater? I dipped in a toe, and survived. The signs were good. There were kids further out in the bay - if all went badly, they would be eaten first. Happy with this arrangement, we went into the deliciously cool water and washed off the grainy sand.
Well, we survived the sea, got back on the ferry and biked on home again. We arrived back to find a note from Ansie - Licelle had given birth at 4pm that afternoon! So congratulations to Licelle and Brad, and welcome to the world Rhian!
That evening, once Ansie and Richard had returned from the hospital, we all feasted on amazing vegetable pies, and I seasoned mine with the 'Hooligan Juice' manufactured by Richard. This substance contains 5kg of tiny chillies, and little else. Yum, tasty. Alex refrained, not being into the hot food so much. Its all good.

Chillaxing

2010-01-05T20:33:00.000+13:00

Today, then, has been relaxed and quiet after our frenetic day yesterday. We found Richard in a cafe at the station and he drove us and our ridiculously hefty bags back to his and Ansie's house. We arrived back, and nearly everyone was up and about, despite it being 6.30 in the morning!
We were intorduced to Brad and Licelle and then we all set about making breakfast, which we ate outside on the patio surrounded by palm trees and ferns. After our leisurely breakfast, we cleaned up and looked over maps of the area to sort an itinery out for the next couple of days.
Later (about 10) Richard, Ansie, Alex and I set off on a car trip around the area so that we could get a feel for it without collapsing from exhaustion halfway through the trip due to our disturbed night! We went to Victoria Point, out to Cleveland and up to Wellington Point where we admired the giant bunyan fig trees growing their roots down into the ground from the upper branches and munched on icecreams. We watched some amateur fishers catch a whiting and a blowfish and they, being friendly Australians, immediately wished us a good trip and recommended places to go. We tootled back to Redland Bay via the farm fresh fruit stall and the chouk farm for eggs, and also, the best fish shop this side of Brisbane. I mentioned, in passing, how I had started to eat fish in NZ and had once tried a prawn in Spain...and this was a catalyst for buying enough different fish varieties to feed us all every night for the next week.
We had naps when we got back as we were both falling asleep on our feet, and now we've just sorted our plans and updated everything. New pictures are up on Flickr! Enjoy! Comment, let us know what you think!

Run

2010-01-05T20:16:00.001+13:00

Ah, the bliss of an actual bed! We awoke refreshed and happy to be horizontal and not propped up in a seat near a screaming infant. We grabbed our stuff, checked-out of the hotel and wandered into town for breakfast. After fruit smoothies and a shopping diversion (I could not help myself. Things were literally leaping out of shops at me, it would have been dangerous to ignore that sort of behaviour from inanimous objects), we bought monorail tickets with the intent of swooping about the first floor level of the city, sightseeing as we went in a fantastic two-birds-one-stone manaeovre.
However, we instantly became absorbed into Darling Harbour. Bizarrely, having written off the National Maritime Museum as unworthy of our illustrious presences, we were humbled into buying tickets for the immensely exciting opportunity to scramble, aft and fore, over a tallship, the exact replica in fact of the Endeavor - the ship Capt. Cook arrived in both Oz and Nz in for the first time! After some quality time pretending to be a pirate (to great acclaim from other watching tourists) and harrassing the volunteer guides with question after question, we moved onto the HMAS Vampire, an Australian Naval ship. We played around the gundecks and the engine rooms and thouroughly explored the many rooms, emerging finally feeling hungry. We hunted out a food court (our new skill, we can find one anywhere. Why, oh why, does England not believe in the magic of the food court?) had sandwiches on the steps overlooking the Harbour ships and a floating model of a seadragon. This is turn led us to the Maritime Museum proper, which was hosting a 'Mythical Creatures' exhibition for free and that sucked us inside with nary a say. Before long we were posing with giant dragons and watching mini movies about the making of mythical creatures in 3D. We saw fake mermaids, heard legends about unicorns and were just admiring a giant golden griffin when...eeek! The time!
We had completely lost track of the time. We had exactly 40 minutes until our train left - and we had to catch the one-way moving monorail on the rest of our planned tour of the city, walk sharpish back to the hotel, get our lugguage, trump off down to the station, check-in the bags and board the train!
We hopped on the monorail, stuffed ourselves into the crowded compartment and gazed out of the windows in an effort to see the remaining precincts of the city and also to stem the flow of rising panic. We swooped above Chinatown, with green tiled bamboo-style roofs and calligraphic signs. We moved on through the Haymarket, passing intricate and ornate Victorian era windows and curlicues on the sides of the buildings. As we arrived back in the City Centre, we flew off the platform and zoomed through to the other side of the precinct to our hotel like birds with their tails on fire. We grabbed our lugguge, and with 20 minutes until our train left, caved and ordered a taxi. This time, we were not swindled by the driver, partly because we obviously had that harried, city-liver vibe and partly because Alex maintained a constant glare at him through the passenger window, which probably unnerved the poor guy into wanting to get rid of us as fast as possible. At the station, we located our platform in super-quick time and boarded the train (no time left to check the bags, they would have to ocme with us!)
Phew! We made it! With the bags safely stowed in overhead compartments, we were ready to embark. The beginning few hours of the journey were in light and Alex actually sighted a kangaroo from the window. We admired the beautful scenery, lagoons surrounded by rich mangrove and eucalyptus forest, with houses snuggled into the roots near the water (obviously the locals are not as petrified of crocadiles as I am). As it grew dark, the hyperactive Italian kids sitting in front of us went almost ballistic with surpressed energy and grew louder and louder. Grr. Finally, they were smothered in sleeping bags and after the initial excitment wore off (two hours later) they passed out. To Alex's great amusement, I made good on my promise from the previous train and crawled down into the footwell with the full intention of sleeping on the floor. This I did, reasonably successfully for a good few hours, but eventually the jarring floor started to cause me pain, and the enforced curled up position was no longer comfy - so we swapped. It obviously proved more comfy for Alex, as when the lights came on at 5am this morning, and the announcement came over the PA that we were coming into the station, I could not wake him up at all. I was starting to have visions of having to ask for assitance to drag him off the train when he finally awoke and we disembarked, off to find my Uncle Richard in the rabbit warren of Roma St. station, Brisbane.

Sydney

2010-01-03T19:43:00.000+13:00

We arrived in Sydney city at 6am on Sunday morning, tired, bleary eyed and with an air of doom about us (we know we have another train journey to look forward too, tomorrow night. Yay. Not).
We decided to go with a taxi to get to the hotel, as we have no net now for quick map reading and were right royally ripped off as the taxi driver took us on the scenic route. Scum. Not feeling like it was the best start to the day, we checked-in to find that the hotel had no record of our booking. Luckily, before despair could take us, the lovely lady on reception pulled the records from the website we booked it from and confirmed our booking did exist. Wheee! We left our bags at reception and went into town to rustle up some breakfast, which we found at a nearby food court. Then, late morning we were able to check into the room, shower and regain our human sides after the night of misery on the train. Feeling considerably recovered, we sallied forth into town and took a stroll around the Botanic Gardens. Here, we were walking into the palm gardens, discussing a book when something, or rather, lots of them, attracted our attention. Flying Foxes. Hundreds upon hundreds of them, hangin like leathery pods from every branch of every tree for a considerable distance in front of us. Noiselly, the ruffled and squawked and cried and opened their wings and flapped about. They were amazing! It was was of the most sureal experiences either of us have had, surrounded by giant diurnal bats! Added to this, a huge flock of Cockatoos zoomed past, screaming defiances at the Flying Foxes, yellow head feathers whirling. Long black beaked ibis stalked about the ground, along with tiny red ground birds and bush turkeys. What an unexpected, sudden sight for us!
We were definately cheered by this encounter and we continued on to find the NSW Art Gallery in the hopes of locating an Eliasson exhibition we had heard about. No such luck, but we did end up having a group demonstration of the Didgeridoo which was excellent and obviously, very Australian!
After the Gallery, we wandered back through the gardens and up to Mrs Macquaries Point, which promised a brilliant view of both the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. As we sat on the wall overlooking the Harbour and across at the two architectural images of Sydney, we took lots of photos and peered out hopefully for dolphin glimpses. As we couldn't very well stop in Sydney and miss their icons, we had to go a join the tourists thronging about the bases for the obligatory cheesy photo. After which, we walked down through Circular Quay and stumbled upon the most glorious chocolatier shop, with beautifully decorated cakes and chocolates lined up in glossy rows along the counter. The persausive (as if we needed it!) Maitre'd suggested we go inside to look at things closer and when we emerged it was with a lovely brown bag, containing a brown box, that contains two very artful and very decadent deserts. Realising then that we were very hungry, we headed to the food court for dinner, filled ourselves nicely and have headed back to the hotel for an early night, so as to enjoy tomorrow and to better survive the following nights train journey.

Nightmare

2010-01-02T19:42:00.002+13:00

On our last day in Melbourne, we woke on time, did a last sweep of the hotel room and were just generally hanging about (I was writing the blog) when we realised that the clocks were all in one way or another, completey wrong. So we abandoned the blog, grabbed our stuff and headed downstairs to check-out, hoping no-one would notice our tardiness and chagre us late fees. Luckily, no-one did.
With our bags in storage at the hotel for the rest of the day, we took the tram down to Fed Square to enjoy breakfast, looking out through the glass a steel geometry of the Atrium onto a theatrical stage and the river. After our tasty breakfasts, we waddled gently down to the museum and went about the various exhibits. Never have we, either one of us, been more disturbed, horrified or strangely fascinated by all the things that exist in Australia (and much of the rest of the world) that would like nothing better than to hurt/paralyse/injure/destroy you and then probably eat you too for good measure. We saw giant, spindly legged crickets and armour plated cockroaches. We submersed ourselves in plastic bubbles so as to see giant ants close up, at eye level. We witnessed the many horrifc ways in which sea creatures disable you before they eat. No-one needs imagination for nasty aliens or thrille rmovie monsters - they should just spend an afternoon wandering the Melbourne Museum to find all the inspiration they need for something really, really bad.
Once we had horrified ourselves with the denizens of the deep and the insects above (including one exhibit of free-roaming spiders with no protective steel plating or iradium or lasers or anything helpful, at all, we went into the mind and emotions section. There, we learnt what things could attack us rom within, mental disorders and the like. Sounds truly disturbing, but there were some brilliant interactive bits, like taking to a couch to experience a dreamscape movie for three minutes, or standing in pods filled with short film clips meant to inspire a rollarcoaster of emotions. After all this, we sat and looked at the dinosaur skeletons for a bit, to soothe our fractured minds, then we took our leave of the museum (but not without gazing longingly at the toy possums and platypus' in the gift shop). Do you know, it turns out that in Australia, possums are actually a protected species? They cherish them here. Not like the bloodthirsty New Zealanders. Obviously, Oz is some sort of possum freeland and they have possum protection programs and so on.
We went back to the food court for dinner and then it was back to collect the bags and off to the station to catch our night train to Sydney. We checked in the lugguage, ate muffins bigger than a small child's head in the food court and then went to board our train. Where we waited. Waited. Waited some more...eventually, almost an hour after it was meant to leave, everyone was allowed on the train and off we went. The leg room was ok, the chair was rubbish, it was your usual semi-horrific night journey on public transport. Added to the complete inability to sleep in such conditions, and thus staying in a sort of dozy, weary trance as the train bumped and swayed about, the whole thing had to stop about two and a half hours out of Sydney due to railworks. We finished our journey on coaches, having been woken up to be told this and move accomodation at 4am. Gah.

Decade

2010-01-02T12:28:00.002+13:00

New Years Eve dawned, bright blue and already 25 degrees. As the temperature rose, we headed out into the city on a hunt for breakfast. We caught the free city circle tram, smartly outfitted in marroon and gold, and listened to the helpful commentary as we traversed the city. We got off by the Ian Potter Gallery and discovered an amazing iron conservatory type atrium, surrounmded by the funky architecture of the galleries and Federation Square. In here, we found giant umbrellas hanging from the ceiling, 'Summer-time' themed art installations and a cafe selling tasty paninis, which we sampled for breakfast. While we ate, tiny sparrows came and sat on the table next to our plates, hungrily looking on and chirping at us for scraps.
After our breakfast, we took a walk round Fed Square, admiring the view of the Yarra River and gardens, the crazy buildings and all the art. There is, suffice to say, a lot of art in Melbourne. Pretty much every ten feet you will find some sort of art installation, popping out of the pavement or hanging from the ceiling or peeping around a tree trunk, or surging out of the ground. They are not precious about it though, the natives continue their daily life around the art with no issue. It is integral to the city. Like the trams.
Now, Melbourne is considered the shopping capital of Oz, and with good reason. Everywhere you look, there is another shop. Melbourne is a very large city and there are so many malls, outlets and boutiques that we didn't know where to go. In the end, we walked along the main street, exploring the Lanes and Alleyways that branch off of it. We found a shop dedicated to F1 which Alex admired, and I bought some board shorts for the beach in Brisbane. (advisable due to jellyfish!)
We looked in on the Houses of Parliment, striking touristy poses on the many steps in the front. We relaxed for a while in Parliment Gardens, next to a friendly and dozy pigeon. We found a huge gothic-looking cathedral, pointed spires soaring up into the sky, edged with sharp stonework and gargoyles.
We returned to the hotel, via tram, in order to freshen up and change for the night ahead. We left and caught the tram again, heading for Southbank which was purported to be an excellent viewing place for both sets of fireworks, as well as a lovely place to eat. The reports were not wrong. Southbank lined the river, with an extraordinary view of the skyline, crazy bridges arching over the water, cruises floating up and down the water and a whole range of chattering people settling into the benches and grassways. Eateries line the edge and we were debating which to go for...
(ARGH! Possible time delay miscalculation, must go now to avoid incurring late check-out fees! Will continue writing later!!!)
...While looking over the various special NYE menus, we stumbled upon the food court. Not only was it still open, but it was the most magnificent and varied food court we had yet discovered. Faced with an array of amazing food, all ready to eat, our stomachs made the descision for us and we found ourselves seated and munching within ten minutes of agonising choice process. Alex chowed down on a burger and pasta salad while I went Greek with spanakopita and salad. Yum. After our delicious dinners, we strolled along the river bank for a while, occasionally pausing to watch a street entertainer or sing along to the radio broadcast echoing around the streets for NYE. Then, we head across a bridge bedecked with steel sculptures and onwards past some crazy birds (rainbow lorikeets!!!) to the carnival area. We hiked on past more bizarre art (a forest of metal sconces) and settled ourselves in a field of spongy grass (so spongy, its is almost like bouncing. It is everywhere in Melbourne). Here, we listened to the playlist, Alex bemoaning his newfound liking of less than indie music and myself bopping away. However. Promising as this scene sounds for much jollity to be had as the evening developed and the early family fireworks began at 9.15, clouds began to gather over the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, the Eureka Tower. Menacing purple-black pouffs clustered over the fake Eiffel Tower. The radio began to issue weather warnings from the Met office. 'Severe storms forecast - be prepared to take refuge.' Refuge! Seriously? We were highly concerned at this point about the forocity of the storm. It grew darker and the clouds multiplied. Then, suddenly the wind picked up and rubbish and toddlers blew across the field. Giant, fat, heavy and cold drops of rain descended from the sky, knocking out passing birds. We decided now was the time to take refuge. So did the other few million people in attendance. A few hundred of us crammed under the thin, boardwalk bridge near the field, sheltering from the onslaught as best we could, not unlike penguins. The ferris wheel pit on a light show and the music continued as we all huddled away from the wind and rain. The fireworks put in an appearance about 15 minutes after the start of the storm, during a lull of rain. They sprang up from behind the Cricket ground (MCG) and made the damp grass sparkle. They were not alone - Mother Nature decided it was a competition of wills, and sprang the most jagged, pink and purple lightning bolts through the air inbetween the man-made lightshow.
Once the first set of fireworks had finished, we debated about staying the next three hours to midnight. However, no-one comes this far and goes home early just because of a little rain, do they? So we stayed. We danced wildly to the crazy rock music that came on the radio. Then we stopped, in case the police thought we had been drinking (strictly a no-no at this event). We then made a run for it as the rain revisited and trumped through various places between the Yarra River, the multistory carpark, Fed Square, the Atrium and some of the random colonaded buildings on Swanson St. There were millions of people, in the street, under tiny overhangs, congregating under stairwells - it was crazy! The music continued, the church bells decided to join in with their own cacophony and the disco that had meant to be taking place in Fed Square had dissolved into a mosh pit adoring the African Dance Troupe that were performing.
We stood by a sheltering pillar and ate the rest of the salad we had ordered for dinner as a mid-night snack. At about 11, we headed back towards our pre-picked-out epic viewing point for the midnight fireworks. It was so cold, still raining, so we shucked the open air for sitting on the grass under the bridge, drinking hastily purchased hot chocolate and eating warm doughnuts, faced on one side by a large Indian family and on the other by a Korean street gang. Bizarre circumstances. After one of the Korean boys got led away by the police, we decided to absent ourselves too. We went down to watch the ferris wheel performing its colours and took shelter under a tree (not wise, I know, in lightning, but it was fry or stay moderately dry. We took a gamble). There, we performing some sort of keep-warm jig to Micheal Jackson's 'Billy Jean' which was blaring out of the speakers lining the river.
Finally, it was almost time, so we darted out, and up the bridge to the point where we could view the entire skyline in order to see the fireworks being fired off the roofs. We had our own countdown, the music cresendoed and the fireworks whizzed, banged, flew and spun through the air off the roofs of the skyscrapers. 2010. Wow!
We spent the first hour of the new decade walking, almost in parade, with the thousands of other revellers not in cars or trains towards the outskirts of town. It was still raining, people were running about, the sheer numbers were crazy. Lights, music - noise everywhere. We sploshed back, made it to our hotel and went to sleep, grateful that the hotel had provided thick duvets in the wardrobe for just such an occasion.

New Years Day dawned...and it was grey and chilly. Hmm. Now that it appears that we really do have the power to cause rain wherever we go, we are seriously thinking about patenting our abilty and earning free trips to hot, draught-ridden locations forever. Its just a case of how to prove it? Ideas on a postcard.
It turns out that it was the coldest and wettest day Melbourne had experience in THIRTY years. Seriously. Its a gift. A giant, draught-ending, water providing, damp and sodden gift.
Anyway, rain notwithstanding, we took off into town and caught the tram to the Docklands. Here, we had a tasty breakfast of fresh blueberry and almond buns and cinnamon rolls. We perused the souviner shops for a little while then headed back into the city proper. We passed the Melbourne Prison where Ned Kelly met his end, as well as several beautiful gardens and buildings. The buildings are a mix of intricate Victorian stonework and modernist colourful blocks. We popped into the Imax theatre and watched the 3D movie, 'Dinosaurs Alive' as we both like dinosaurs. It was amusing as well to hear various young children scream 'My eye!!!' after a shovel full of sand was tossed out of the screen, or yelling when a Seismosauras trumped around the forest.
It was getting late, so we took another walk around the streets near Fed Square and onto Southbank to revisit the food court for dinner. We had Chinese and Indian food respectively, and then splurged on an ice-cream sundae. We sat outside by the river, watching peolpe go by and plowing through ice cream and waffle bits. Then, we returned to the hotel and went for a dip in the pool (not heated, eeep!) and then to re-warm ourselves we sat in the sauna for a bit.

Furnace

2009-12-30T23:23:00.000+13:00

Today, we touched down in Oz. The heat hits you like a wall of molten lava smacking into your body and incinerating you. It is that hot. However, I am getting ahead of myself.

So, yesterday after returning the tent to Jodi and checking our post (nothing, doh), as well as sorting our return flights with Quantas (eeep!) we had a tasty 'Farewell Auckland' dinner involving noodles and sweet potato, pickled ginger and salads, green tea and deep-fried bananas. Then, we retired early so as to have three hours sleep under our belts before we had to drag ourselves from the comforting pillows of the Mercure to find and board the AirBus to the airport.
At 3am then, we awoke and checked-out, wandering the deserted streets of Auckland, the Japanese-influence neons glowing and the street cleaners the only presence. We arrived at the airport, checked in, waited around for a while, got progressively hungrier. We spent some enjoyable time trying to spend our NZ dollar change, which totalled 9 dollars which equals practically nothing in real life, let alone airport prices.
Eventually, five hours after we woke up, we boarded the plane and set off. This plane was in a whole different class to the one we travelled out on - a vast, vast selection of movies, tv shows, radio, music videos, games - there was so much to do we were having serious decision issues trying to best fill the suddenly measly-looking four hour flight. We were served breakfast (thankfully, or my stomach may have eaten me in its protests) and occupied ourselves with the entertainment system.
Upon landing, checking-in, going through customs, being singled out and scanned AGAIN (just me, Alex is apparently not as suspicious looking as I am) and picking up the bags, we were in Oz! Officially! We wheeled the trolley out the doors and that brings me to the start of the blog, with the incinerating heat and all that.
It was amazing. NZ was by no means cold, but Oz has taken the idea of heat to an entirely different level. It reached 37 degrees today. The wind is no cooling breeze, but a baking hot swish of air that literally causes you to gasp for hydration.
We checked into the hotel (after issues with getting there as the driver got lost, and then, issues with checking in as their database was blanking us...) and then headed out. We walked to the Docks and admired the bizarre modern art sculptures (square cow stuck in a tree, anyone? Silver pipecleaners? Maybe some giant plastic white mushroomy things called 'Silence'?) then chose a cafe to provide lunch. We had half a generously loaded pizza each in the ingenious portion where they put a different topping on each quarter of the pizza. Then, stuffed once again, we returned to the hotel for water, naps and showers.
This evening, we headed out to the Suzuki Night Market, a phenomenon I discovered while trawling through Melbourne websites and so awesome it was definately worth the visit.
Imagine, a 2 or 3 acre space, most covered by a gigantic arching red warehouse, chairs spilling out and filling a makeshift square in front of a stage. Live music pumps out as thousands of people mill about, clutching cold juices and ice creams to keep cool in the insane heat, plates balanced in the crook of an elbow as people chose dinner from the myriad different international food stalls - Thai, Szechuan, Vietnamese, Indian, Malaysian, Spanish, French, English, American, Mexican, African - every country in existence appeared to be represented and the smells and sounds and colours were intoxicating. Along the other side of the warehouse, stalls upon stalls on bright clothes, jewellery, art, carvings stood arrayed. The smoke from the cooking hung in the rafters, the evening sun (still hot enough to feel like it is burning you instantly) shining through it...such as awesome market! We bought a giant carton of freshly squeezed cold mandarin juice and drank it as we perused the stalls. I bought an earring, Alex a cap and we both had a go at the lucky dip stall, each earning a bracelet.
Having enjoyed the sights and sounds, we sat in the park for a while and decided that we like Melbourne. We have planned (loosely) our itinery for tomorrow, so now we are just off to bed - we've been up almost 23 hours after all!

Last

2009-12-29T11:26:00.002+13:00

Crikey! Today is the end of our NZ adventure! Sometime during the night tonight, we are to up and quit the hotel and trug along to the airport to catch our flight to Ozland. Wow, its so crazy!

The last few days have been relaxed, we took in the sales on Boxing Day (there is a reason NZ has no large presence on the international fashion scene) and enjoyed the sunshine on our balcony. We continued to stuff ourselves with leftovers and then made all the rest of the leftovers into sandwiches, so as to carry them easily when we checked-out of the Suites to go and check-in at the Mercure down the road. The Mercure has the biggest bed ever, rivalling King Henry VIII's mega-bed. A definate update in luxury from the tent! We went out of Auckland yesterday on the bus to Onehunga, and while there we visited the outlet stores and Alex found a new t-shirt and board shorts at uber cheap prices to replace the old battered ones that have accompanied him on this trip. Its amazing we navigated our way their and back, as the bus drivers for some odd reason refused point blank to actually talk to us when we asked if this was the right bus/correct stop/time to return. Luckily however, they did respond to the other couple on the bus, who had the same destination in mind, so we were able to listen in on their (detailed and friendly) directions and follow them when we got lost and confused.

Today, we plan to wind up any loose threads here in Auckland. We have to go and check our postbox and give them a forwarding address. We need to give notice on our internet plan with Vodafone. We need to sort and pack our stuff. We definately will be needing snackage for later. Other than that, we'll just give Auckland a last wander round, check out some of our favourite places and get ready to move on to the next big adventure awaiting us across the Tasman!

P.S. Hope you like the new Oz-stylee layout! Also, check out the new pics on Flickr from our Christmas fun.

Christmas

2009-12-26T13:57:00.000+13:00

At 6am sharp on Christmas Eve, we awoke to the dulcet tones of the mobile alarm and the goose outside the tent and packed away our sleeping bags, tent and air mattress - never to see them again, with any luck!
We trumped into town with our packs, located our bus and boarded with no issue. We were on the way to our luxury Christmas delight!
The bus was busy, the driver repetitive with his rules and regs, but we made it through to Auckland and actually arrived 16 minutes early, at 3.30pm. The drive had three short stops for food/loo usage, although they were so fast they prevented me from re-tasting the Best Veggie Burger in the World, at Dino's Diner. Doh.
We checked into the Suites and had a moment to enjoy the space, the walls, the actual flat ceiling...as well as the immense view down to the sea and of the Sky Tower because we are on the 16th floor! It is so insanely high above the city!
After admiring our apartment, we headed to the supermarket to join the rush of people doing last minute grocery shopping and bought enough food to equip a Roman General with a private dinner party's worth of feasting food. Soo good! Once back, we decorated the apartment and got the Christmas music going. We bought ourselves pizza from Dominoes as our Christmas Eve feast - not for lack of food, but because we had been deprived of pizza for a month or more. Oh, it was good. We both ate our entire pizza and spent the rest of the evening laying about watching carols on tv and holding our stomachs.

Christmas morning dawned hot, sunshine and deep blue sky. We had pannettone, actual butter and Alex a bacon butty for breakfast, along with delicious chai lattes. Then, we ripped into our stockings. I had a giant bubble set, a silver tiara and bangles with tinkling bells. Alex had dominoes and a foam shooter and coloured airspray pens. We continued to open presents throughout the day and had an awesome time playing about. We had a shotting competition with the gun set Alex gave me as kids toys go, this thing is practially a lethal weapon, shooting darts well accross the room and aiming at targets. I got a collapsible hula hoop and Alex was entranced by his rubix cube. We snacked on mince pies and then took a lunch break, enjoying antipasto and crudites platters, with oven-fresh bread, dips and iced tea. Yum. We used the airspray pens to tattoo ourselves (these have now faded to large, bruise coloured blotches...) and I built many different cars using my new click-together building blocks. We had a pavlova for tea and then watched the Madegascar Xmas Special and Happy Feet on tv.
We finished off the day (and our ability to walk without waddling) by having Christmas Dinner, baked gammon, roast kumara and potatoes, cranbarry sauce, veggies, vege chipolatas and stuffing - the works. So good. So stuffed afterwards. Settling ourselves in comfy chairs, we called home as the clock moved to Boxing Day.

Boxing Day, a cool 28 degrees after yesterdays heights above 30, has seen a continued trend in the 'Eat, eat and eat' theme. We are taking it easy before heading into town for a stroll among the crowds thronging the sales. We might even get to eat Christmas pudding tonight, as we just couldn't manage it yesterday!

We hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

2009-12-26T01:13:00.002+13:00

Merry Christmas!

Have a fantastically wonderful Christmas, we will do a blog tomorrow as we are feeling far too fat from eating enough food to feed a small army.

Emily and Alex

Icecream

2009-12-23T14:51:00.000+13:00

The last few days have been a bliss of warmth, sunshine and ice cream. The ducklings have grown bigger, but retain their yellow fuzz and come to visit us several times a day. In fact, today they managed to all seperate and get lost from their mother, so we and another gap yearer spent a while carting them about the get them back into a concerted group, to the suspected (but unconfirmed obviously) relief of their questing mother duck.
Yesterday, we headed into town, admiring the blooming roses that adorn the pathways. Our goal was exciting - to purchase presents for Christmas day! We went into the $2 Store we have long had our eye on for this purpose and seperated, each to fill their basket with no more or less than 10 presents for the other. As an acitivity, this was awesome fun and really boosted the whole Christmas mood, which is oddly hard to come by despite the glittering decorations in the campsite. Probably something to do with the 30 degree heat...
Anyways, after buying our gifts and both faithfully promising not to look at the other's bag, we got a subway sandwich each and had a mini picnic, before going to New World to buy the storable/non-fresh stuff we needed for our Christmas meals. Once we had picked all that up, which insures we'll have something to eat if we can't get to the supermarket in Auckland before it closes due to bus lateness or some horrible thing like that, we started on back to the campsite.
We were waylaid however, by the drawing of the competition. Let me explain. Over the last year, Hastings New World has been displaying a very shiny BMW in the foyer. This BMW was the prize in a draw that would occur on the 22nd Decemeber, and which you could enter every time you spent money in store. Given that we have been here a month, and bought all our food supplies from New World, we had collected quite a few of these prize draw entry slips. We had faithfully designated each and every one with our names and numbers, hoping for the Christmas miracle which would see this car (and its £22,000 retail value) land in our laps. (Well, not literally, that would probably result in us being squashed). The giant cement mixer that had been hired to spin the slips was standing in the carpark, the crowds had gathered and the policeman reached in to grab the winning slip...with bated breath we waited! Alas, we did not win, instead the car went to a serendipitous local, but nonetheless it was an entertaining moment.
Today, we have been sorting out all the stuff in the tent and repacking our bags, so that tomorrow morning we can be up, pack away the tent and sleeping bags, and gone on the trek into town in time to catch our very early bus at 7.30am. This bus will whisk us back up the motorway, to Auckland, where we can check into our hotel (a hotel! After a month in a tent! Sublime!) and then hot foot it to the supermarket to buy the rest of the fresh ingrediants needed for Xmas. Once we have lugged those back to the hotel (!), we shall settle in for the Christmas Eve movies, possibly garnished with a pizza.

In the last post, I believe I promised some tales of New Zealand that we had gathered for a time when news was low. Thus, let me tell you about the animals. When driving along, the last thing you expect to see on the side of the road, is a turkey. However, a turkey we did indeed see. Now, you know all this, I put it down in the blog when it occurred. However, since that moment, we also came accross a goat, a sheep, several chickens and even a horse, standing at the side of the road. No tethers, no concern for the cars, just calmly standing on the green between the road and the fence of their apparently unsecure fenced environment. We found it amusing that, having gone to such lengths to escape the fettering hands of their owners, they then turned about face and remained convieniently positioned nearby, awaiting recapture and, no doubt, dinnertime. Oddities.

Today, the 23rd, we would like to wish my Dad a very Happy Birthday! Have a great day in the snow! xxx

Wind

2009-12-20T18:58:00.000+13:00

The tent was practically flat-topped early this morning, when the howling wind outside woke us both up. The wind has been whooshing about all day, battering the tent into weird and wonderful shapes. It is holding up beautifully considering the insane weather conditions it has been through.
We had our uninspiring bran flakes with sultanas for breakfast (cereal just tastes like cardboard here. English cereal must have additives. Tasty additives) then sunbathed for a while, despite the wind which is rather cooling.
I've been reading the Three Musketeers, which has absolutely fabulous language and phrasing. Very amusing.
After lunch, we played with the ducklings, sketched, worked on the pc...we are settling in to watch Stardust now, with the addition of cookies from the Cookie Monster. Now there is a NZ brand I am going to miss.

Now, I'm aware the last few posts have been less than enthralling, but we located a list we made while we were driving about the country of interesting things to put in the blog in the future. So, I shall aim to write about some of these in the next few days - I'd do it now, but Stardust is about to start and my cookie needs microwaving fro that freshly-baked goodness.

Sunbathing

2009-12-19T20:02:00.000+13:00

The last two days have been hot hot heat and laser-like sun rays, fading green grass, ice cream and cake. We have spent the time lolling about the thirsty grass on the riverbank, reading magazines scavenged from other people and baking. Alex has gained a caramel tan, I have managed a faint tan as well, despite being smothered in factor 70, in the shade, complete with hat and sunglasses.
There are a good range of movies in the run up to Christmas, so we always have an evening activity. Tonight is Men in Black 2, which should be fun. Nearly all the Czech people have given up and left, only a few jobseekers remain - an Ozzie, some Americans and Germans.
Thus, from social study, I can tell you the only thing that makes a German man laugh these days is the point in Family Guy where a rooster appears and has a bar fight for a good five minutes. Possibly linked in to the bird/violence thing, is that German women all appeared to be terrified by ducklings, because they scream and run shouting German swear words everytime a hopeful duckling approaches them.

Cinema

2009-12-17T21:31:00.000+13:00

Something very surreal just occurred. Santa, his sleigh and half a dozen fibre-glass, aerodynamic reindeer just zoomed past me. I was standing near our tent at the time. In the very warm evening sunshine. Holding a box of cake. Bizarre has a new picture in the dictionary.
Anyways, prior to this experience, we had awoken, decided that the day seemed warm, but had the potential to go very cold and very wet and set off into town regardless. We didn't even take raincoats. Thats how reckless we are.
We paced into the town, along the concrete pavements that glare the sunlight back up and probably work to tan the underside of your throat...we grabbed a subway and then headed to the cinema, to watch Avatar, out today!
After seeing five trailers (and wanting to watch every single film they advertised but now, remembering none of them) we saw Avatar. It was awesome. Even Alex could not complain about the graphics and the creativity behind the world of Pandora was amazing, the story grabbed your interest and its going onto my top ten list, a rare and mystical place for a movie to nest. However, there were four teenage girls behind us who did nothing but kick the chairs, talk (loudly) and snicker at everything. They don't know how close they came to total anhiliation. Luckily, Alex and I are very tolerant people.
We went to New World and at the urging of all parents, who seem to think that the first thing we would abandon in a monetary crisis would be food (so wrong, we both love the food), splashed out on some yummy goodness to keep us alive and well until we abandon Hastings for Auckland. We got the shopping home while having a debate about the merits of warfare vs. native populations and how Avatar was a possible metaphor for the current war in the Middle East. After our spout of intelligence, we were exhausted and lay out in the sunshine by the river, having dinner and cake, to the immense interest of the ducks, which circled us.
This is how I came to be sytanding by the tent, holding the box of cake to be returned to the tent, when Santa whipped on past to the accompaniment of Christmas jingles.

Cold

2009-12-16T18:52:00.000+13:00

Obviously the teasing about the heat has gained some sort of negative karma - the temperature has dropped, last night was very cold! It has not got better throughout the day either, its still chilly and there was a sudden and unexpected thunderstorm after lunch. The sky darkened, thunder rolled and the rain came down, heavy as small rodents flung out of the sky and just as noisy.
We were concerned our tent would have been flattened, but it seems to have miraculously withstood the onslaught. I have spent the day reading a sci-fi book (the second of the three I found in the lounge) and Alex Mayaed away the day with some helpful online tutorials.
We have no nice foods at all left, just endless grim fish fillets and kumara to fill the hunger. We have one cookie left between us (who sells cookies in packets of nine? It is cruel and unneccessary) and nothing else but the tempting smells of the other campers cuisines, all who have for some reason started making Thai curries full of fresh ingrediants, no doubt with their paychecks...Czechs are obviously more employable than we are.
Anyway. 8 days to go and we can go back to Auckland, our hotel and the rest of our holiday!

Ketchup

2009-12-14T14:26:00.000+13:00

Okay, so this post has nothing whatsoever to do with ketchup, but it sounds almost like 'Catch Up' which would have been my title today if it were not for the fact that it involves two words where I like to have just one.
So, after the excitement of Splash Planet, things have been a little quiet round here. We have, however had beautiful sunny hot weather nearly every day though, which definately gets the thumbs up from me!
We have, somehow, managed to occupy ourselves wiht very little issue the last few days. We spent Thursday reading and watching movies. We also had to say goodbye to Dion, who after returning from work with a roast chicken and a six-pack of beer was having a merry 'ole chat with Alex before being escorted off-site by the campsite owner due to his involvement with the police the other day. So we lost his company and now there are only Czech people, everywhere. I have no idea why every other person hanging about here waiting for a job offer is Czech, but so the matter stands. As we can't speak Czech (dang the English idea that their language will get them anywhere!) we all just mutter 'Hello' at each other and then get to ignoring.
Friday, I have asked Alex and searched my mind and I have no idea what we did. So that was obviously thrilling.
Saturday, we took a trip into town to do a very concentrated and highly-thought out shopping list of food to last us as long as possible over the next two weeks. We also meandered down to the 40% off sale at the Warehouse and purchased cookies, a Christmas tree and some tinsel. So cheap, it was unbelievable. We were very pleased however, especially as our four pound tree includes fibre optics!
Sunday, I awoke from a dream in which we were scrambling up a hill to get away from the tsunami about to destroy the campsite. During the day, Alex was building a Roman soldier in 3D while I practiced drawing. I also made lots of exciting lists and we both calculated how much we need to earn once we are back in England and touched up our CVs and wrote various cover letters, yada yada. Tres fun. Then, in the evening we watched the tv film premiere of 'Ratatouille' which was awesome, if weird and returned to our tinsel-bedecked tent and watched our tree change colour for a while before passing out to sleep.
Today, Monday, the sky is grey, the air is full of water and we are sitting inside. I have done some more sketching, Alex some more 3D work. I found some sci-fi books and 'The Three Musketeers' behind the bookshelf in the lounge and I have kidnapped them to read. All is good. We have fruitbread.

Wednesday

2009-12-09T19:21:00.000+13:00

Ah, but the sleeping was good last night! The difference a block of velour-coated air makes to your back and head! In fact, it was so good that despite the early morning heat that smothered the tent, Alex did not wake up for two hours after I had woken up and I practically starved waiting for him to unfurl from his sleeping bag cocoon. I have, logically, analysed his sleeping style as being not unlike that of a duckling, thus his affiniation with the feathered natives.
After a beautiful breakfast of apple porridge, hot chocolate and nutella filled rolls (you can eat well on a budget!), we decided on a visit to SplashPlanet. Now, part of this campsites attraction is that it offers massive discounts on pre-bought tickets to SplashPlanet. It was a hot, sunny day, we thought, why not go to a swimming pool?
This was more than a swimming pool! There was a never-ending river, about five different slides and rides involving floats and tubes and loads of dry activities too. It was a water-theme park! So we arrived, full of excitement, changed into swimming gear and queued up for our first activity 'Formula Fun'. Obviously, this involved karting around a track in full on racing regalia. It was great, I had an electric blue vehicle, Alex was in a red one (ferrari, don't you know). We zoomed around the track, vying with the other four drivers on corners and skidding tyres on the straight. Alex overtook me on a hill, the sneaky boy and took the lead away from me!
After our dry car adventure, we decided to brace ourselves for the cool water of the pool, the sudden and unstoppable way - on a giant, double loop tube down a large twisty waterslide! We lugged our tube up the steps and boarded, then pushed off, into the unknown! Surfice to say, it was chilly at the other end, but a brilliant ride! We practically fell off the tube after one vertical turn.
We took the daylight skyride (an open tube high above the park) and then the dark skyride (literally pitch black. I almost did an unexpected loop the loop when I took a corner I couldn't see on the uber-slippery mat I was riding). Then, we swooshed into the Never-Ending River, grabbed a couple of thick foam floats and then did magic carpet impressions as we floated around the park's circumference on the fast-flowing water.
We did many repeats of the slides, exhausting ourselves with the steps up. Then we took a break to go and sit in the hot pools, although these were not nearly as hot as we were expecting (having been in the real thing) and rather noisy due to all the small kids. We vacated the hot pools in favour of the indoor slide, the 'Master Blaster' which was vertiginously twisting and all in the dark as well! I almost scooted over the edge when it opened out and the corner turned too vigerously.
We gathered our stuff from the lockers and dried off in the sunshine (about five minutes, done and dried) and then headed back to the campsite to rustle up some dinner. Just as we finished eating, Dion, the guy from the kitchen the other day, turned up and we had a lengthy conversation about New Zealand and so on. He is a native, from up in the Northland and so generous! He has given me a book on Maori language and offered Alex a bag of mince from the freezer so he doesn't starve on vege rations.
By the end of the convo, we were pretty hungry again, so we made some soup and toast and are just relaxing in the lounge now, trying to get some work done and do the research that we love so much. Hmm.
Maybe the beautiful cats will show up again, as they did last night. They are very vocal. Two are black with white whiskers, one plush with a plume for his tail, the other skinny with a chunk out of her ear. The other is giant, poofy, white and grey and aloof.
Lets hope the weather sticks - the forecast is for rain tomorrow (Doh) but the West coast has had (and I quote from the weather lady) 1119 lightning strikes today! Eeep! Also a note about the TV - has anyone at home seen the new Heinekin advert, with the walk-in wardrobes? Hilarious!!!

Tuesday

2009-12-08T18:23:00.000+13:00

We were in shock when we awoke this morning. It was actually sunny and hot, for the second day in a row! That is two out of nine!
We embraced this gorgeous cloud-free weather by scrambling out of the tent and towards the kitchens for our hearty winter breakfast of porridge, which we may have added too much 'milk' (e.g. water and powdered milk) to and turned out more the consistency and colour of flu-induced mucus. Yum.
After such a grim fuelling, we headed out of the campsite and braved the world beyond, determined to go to town and explore. We wandered the streets of Hastings, which, despite its general lack of actual activities/anything at all to do is very pretty. Possibly the prettiest habitation in New Zealand. Many of the towns and cities are based along the main road in a long line, bungalows with lots of corrugated iron laying about. Hastings however is awash with sculptural fountains, ponds, green swathes of grass and many flower baskets rioting in colour.
We went intho the Warehouse and caved to the cheapness. We bought, after much price comparision and searching, the cheapest air bed in the store. Now, it works out at 40 pence a night for pure, squishy air-filled comfort. Bliss.
We also bought (on an amazing price) 50 multicoloured fairy lights and two red felt stockings with green felt trim and printed holly. They are amazing and cost us no more than, wait for it...three whole pounds! Bargainous! Ah, so happy with the stockings to decorate our Christmas hotel. We have a plan to raid the two-dollar shop for stocking fillers. It is going to be awesome!
Then, we had a subway sandwich (so many vege, meat for Alex, yet cheap!) Yes, we are obsessed with cheap. Still no jobs.
We went to New World, the supermarket of true brilliance in the Southern Hemisphere, and got some more food to keep us going. Then (long, arduous, hot walk), back at the campsite we cleared out the tent, blew up the airbed and stuffed it inside while feeling light headed from the air loss. Ah, so comfy. So worth it. I am actually looking forward to going to bed tonight.
We made dinner and sat outside to eat it, enjoying the heat and the sparrows. We're going to scope out the movie channel to see if anything good is on tonight.
In the meantime, plans continue for the future. We cannot continue the mega-trip we had planned without cash. So, we are thinking that breaking the trip down is the way to go. This obviously requires working in the inbetween times, so we have pretty much decided to embark on the next obvious stage availible to us - return home and work! Once there is money in the bank...onwards and upwards!

Monday

2009-12-07T20:28:00.000+13:00

Today, it was sunny again, yay for us! We started out with our 'Very Berry' porridge and marvelled about the heat of the sun in December and the ability to eat porridge outside and not get pneumonia.
Then we settled in for some hardocre work, Alex on his maya project for his portfolio and I on reading my book, slowly.
We had olives and pasta and cheese for lunch which was highly enjoyable. I finished the second of the books in my omnibus selection which was galling. I just can't refrain! I attempted, by making tasty nutella toast for snackage and thawing the nutella out with hot water as we'd left it in the fridge. This was time consuming, thus not book reading time, thus good. It didn't make a blind bit of difference however, I finished the third and last book of the omnibus just before dinnertime, despite trying to distract myself. Doh. Now I have nothing to do. We made a tasty concoction for dinner and then headed back to the tent, one for a change of scene from the lounge and two, to enjoy the less laser-like rays of the evening sunshine.

We have spent a lot of time thinking about our options. Obviously, we have run aground as far as money goes. The jobs are not forthcoming. We are spending time researching and thinking of variously crazy slash practical ideas for the future. Who knows what will happen? Watch this space, I daresay the decision will have to be made shortly!

SUN

2009-12-06T18:51:00.002+13:00

The sun came out! Today was warm! Sunny! We had to apply our brand new, super amazing factor 70 sunscreen! Yes, there is such a thing as factor 70! There is even 85, but the shop didn't stock it...

Ah Sun. How we have missed thee.

Sofa

2009-12-05T23:04:00.000+13:00

I have so many aches from sleeping repeatedly on the ground. It is unbelieveably solid, despite the fact that there must be an underground river flowing through it by now.
We woke at 5am, to see the rain actually causing dents to appear in the top of the tent. Dragging ourselves through the rain to the kitchen, we made our porridge breakfast (we bought exciting flavoured satchets of porridge oats to enliven the monotonous regime of porridge) and chatted to the guy also in the kitchen cooking. Guess what he was making? He was cooking up a whole pan (read=20) of giant green-lipped mussels. For breakfast. Having been up since 2am at Cape Kidnappers, diving for them.
This guy eats more food than I can even comprehend eating in a week, let alone one sitting. The other day, he was making dinner. This involved five fried eggs, six lamb cutlets, three garlic breads and ten sausages. I am not even kidding. This morning, for breakfast, other than the mussels he had four sausage sandwiches and a french baguette filled with a whole cow. Okay, maybe that last was a little exageratted, but otherwise, yup, those are his eating habits. I do not know how 1) He has the time to cook and eat all this stuff, 2) How he has time in between cooking and eating this stuff to work enough to afford it all and 3) How anyone's stomuch can take that amount of food on a constant basis! He is also unfailingly generous and friendly, offering anyone around a share. This morning, Alex tried a fresh cooked, caught two hours previously mussel. I demurred, as it was a copped coloured squidge complete with rusty black breathing tubes and squelchy white stretchy bits attached to the shell. I like the shells, not the inhabitants! Apparently, it was really chewy and tasted of salt. Not surprising, really, but defiately not my preferred breakfast of choice!
Anyways, we hung out in the lounge again and Alex started up something new on the laptop for his portfolio. I read a magazine full of shiny pictures. We had some beans on toast for lunch and I bemoaned the Kiwi need to make everything sweet and their seeming hatred of hot foods.
We moved to the sofas and I started in on my book. We had music videos in the background. All the other backpackers were hanging about too, all reading and moping about the weather.
Then, amazingly, the sun came out and the rain stopped. Blue sky began to appear. We all gathered at the windows in sheer amazement. Then, fast as it had appeared, as if to give us false hope, it disappeared again. Its not raining (yet) but it is definately grey. Doh.
We had some exciting distraction in the form of the police showing up wanting to talk to the guy who cooks all the massive amounts of food - turns out he'd bashed osmeone attempting to rob his car on the head and the robber had complained to the police. But he was offskies anyways - he drove past and waved at me as I was returning to the lounge after a pasta-fetching mission form the tent!
A car race came on and absorbed Alex into its distracting circuits and crashes. I decided to do some mindless things on the laptop for a while, instead of consuming my book within one day. We had dinner, chocolate (amazing stuff with cherry flavoured jelly beans and bits of biscuit included in the chocolate) and watched Legally Blonde 2 on the tv with another couple. Now it is dark and it is time to re-greet to solid mattress of doom known to others as the ground. Joy.

Torchlight

2009-12-04T21:59:00.000+13:00

Well, we survived yesterday. The rain eventually ceased, around 5 in the evening so we were able to dry out our tent and possessions and get to sleep without the fear of potential drowning.
Of course, such surcease could not last and it was flippin' well raining again when we woke up this morning. Grr. Also, for some unknown reason, the birds decided that our sixth morning in the tent was the morning for splattering the tent in guano. Yay.
Anyways, we awaited the rain to stop, in hope of a dry run to the kitchen for breakfast and miraculously, it did! So we gobbled our cereal bars and emailed a few more random contractors. Then we decided to take a walk to the PickNZ office in Hastings City and see if us showing ourselves to be real and not virtual abnmormalities might secure us a job.
Well. We trumped, for miles upon miles, upon the hard concrete pavements of the urban sprawl. We went through an industiral estate, down a main road and round about a flowery residential area. We finally located the office (usefully hidden from hopeful jobseekers behind a fence and car park) and sat down to wait our turn. There were six teenagers, who did not appear to speak English, being put on file by the very loud, very harrassed-looking women on the desk. Finally, she looked up and around the office, noticed that about five more people ahd come in and announced 'If any of you are here looking for vacancies, there are none.'
Doh. We trudged all that way for nada.
We went round the circuit route and back in the main city where we salvaged our lost operation with subway for our late lunch (the whole debacle took three hours!!!) and I purchased a magazine and a book (honestly the heaviest book I have ever hefted. So did not think that one through before buying). Hopefully, these can keep me occupied long enough to let Alex work on his portfolio pieces successfully on the laptop. So, we forge ahead, using the spare time wisely...
Of course, we got back to the campsite and it appears the weather had decided to take a turn away from wet and more towards freezing. We made dinner and huddled with everyone else in the lounge, watching Glee, the awesome musical drama they have here and then AotearoHA!, a comedy sketch show. Somewhere, in the middle of all this hilarity, the heavens opened and the rain came down. Again.
We made a run for the tent, which does not appear to be leaking (!) and now we have to settle down for the night, with bucketloads of water bouncing off the top of our tent. I guess at least it will clean off the bird droppings.

Torrential

2009-12-03T08:25:00.000+13:00

Okay. It is 8 in the morning. It has rained solidly for 15 hours, no pause. What is more, it has POURED. This is no drizzly, mizzly half-hearted rain. This is full on torrential monsoon type water descending from the sky.
Our tent just cannot take it anymore, the seams are so full of water that they have started leaking. We have wrapped all our possessions (gladly, not much as Val agreed to take some of the bulkier items back to the UK for us) in black plastic bags and retreated to the lounge again, to make serious friends with the sofas.

Time

2009-12-02T16:42:00.001+13:00

We were lounging about on our second full day here in Hawkes Bay, watching the phone and obsessively checking our emails, while watching a bizarre film from reception that another bored camper couple had rented out and put on in the movie room. It was called Lonely Hearts and starred John Travolta and Salma Hayuk being a psychopath.
Anyways, it was during this odd film that we got a phone call from Val and Bren. They had successfully visisted the gardens in Hamilton, glow wormed it up in the caves in Waitomo and trekked round the volcanoes in the Tongariro National Park. Now they were in Napier and ready to rendevous once again. They arrived in the campsite and located our tent, where we introduced them to the 15 golden ducklings that like to hang around our tent. We had a brief lecture from a randomer about sadistic children attacking the ducklings, and to stay on our guard (!) and then off we went, to explore!
We directed them to the New World supermarket in Hastings, the best supermarket I have so far seen in NZ. It is so pretty, they really put effort into the displays. All the vegetables are in hessian sacks or baskets, there is a salad bar, a deli, a chocolatier, a bakery, everything, in fact that one could want from a supermarket. There is also the top notch cafe they have out the back where Alex and I ate the day before.
Alex and I offered to concoct dinner and so swept around the aisles picking up ingrediants for our special - ricotta and spinach stuffed baked cannelloni! Once we had procured these vitalities, we set off for Val and Bren's motel room and kitchen facilities where we mixed and stuffed and prepped and baked until dinner was served, all on matching plates (not plastic!) and round an actual table! Novelties all.
We were driven back to our little tent in the rain and retired to bed. The weather did not imporve, it was still raining the next morning. Val and Bren picked us up again and kindly offered to take us on a tour of the orchards in the hope that showing our faces to would-be employers may sway them into offering us jobs. Alas, no such luck. After visiting over seven different places and being point blank refused at all of them, we couldn't take the rejection any longer. We headed to Mission Bay Winery, the oldest in NZ, and very pretty and grand. There, we headed to the fancy restaurant and had some lovely lunch, surrounded by gilt mirrors and ruched red silk blinds. We took a stroll out onto the terrace, looking out over the vineyard and towards the sea and the sun actually started to peep out from behind the rainclouds!
Once back in Napier city, we wandered along the Marine Parade, dodging cyclists and admiring the view. We looked over some beautiful gardens and innovative water features, remembering the story of Pania of the Reef and generally enjoying the return of the sunshine. Then, it was decided that we go and play mini-golf, although whose idea this was I do not know!
I have never played before and the first hole was a perfect example of this. No beginner's luck for me, 6+ 'gentle taps' and the ball was obstinately refusing to go into the hole. However, things picked up, my ball getting closer and closer to the hole with each successive green, until I actually scored a hole-in-one! Round a corner as well! Skills! Alex scored his hole-in-one on the first green, showing off his golfing prowess and Val got one round a random boulder stuck in the centre of the green. Some of them are deceptively innocent looking, when really they are filled with slopes and tricky corner bits. Grr.
Back at the motel, we had a tasty tasty supper of cheese (proper cheese! Not pre-sliced!), olives, bread, anzac biscuits, caramel slice, wafers, ooh it was yummy. I ate too much.
Back at the campsite, Alex and I sat by the river for a while to see the sun go down. By morning, it had turned from a breathtakingly beautiful golden sky to a black rainy one. Doh.
I was mobbed by the ducklings as I got out of the tent this morning to brush my teeth. They have got to know us now and were jumping on my feet and squeaking at me. Alex brought the camera out and they charged him too, just as Val and Bren pulled up. Once ready, we set out to do an educational tour of the Art Deco buildings Napier is famous for. We admired the rather lovely gardens and the bizarre trees lining the streets which appeared to be decked out with little bells or dirigible plums.
Then, we dropped Bren off in town so she could attend a more detailed Art Deco tour around Napier and said our goodbyes until Oz, then the rest of us headed back to the campsite for lunch. We made some tasty packet macaroni (helped along by generous quantities of real cheese) and had some carrot cake, then set of for Te Mata peak, despite the lingering rainfall. However, by the time we got to the peak and whats more, had heaved ourselves up the vertical sides to the top, the sky had cleared, the sun was out and the view was incredible. We looked over craggy mountainous sides, smooth organised vineyards, beautiful manor houses, right down to the curved Bay, the golden sands and the blue waters of the sea. In the opposite direction, there were hundreds of hills, roughly popping out of the countryside and covered in an almost furry-looking grass.
We returned to the campsite and said our goodbyes, as this would be the last time we see Val in NZ. Sad times.
Alex and I tidied the tent and sat outside for a bit in the sunshine. Then, the sky went dark, the clouds turned purple and everything went very quiet. We decided to move to the tv lounge and 5 minutes after we had esconced ourselves on the sofas, the downpour came. The rain is so heavy, so relentless and it is just getting heavier and heavier. The wind picked up. We are concerned our tent will not be there when we go back, which we shall have to at 10pm tonight, when the tv lounge is locked up. Oh dear, and now the contingent of kids that arrived earlier are flooding (ahhh, flood possibility!) into the lounge too. This is not good!

Burger

2009-11-29T09:26:00.003+13:00

So yesterday we awoke at 7am and in a super-efficient manner tidied our room, checked all was packed and headed out for muffinage. Shock! The bakery was closed, it was so early! So we went to the 24hr store and got some snacks for the bus trip, then returned to the bakery at 8am and grabbed hot chocolates and muffins. Yum. After enjoying this last vestige of civilisation, we checked out of our hostel and trumped up the hill in enough weight to portray training commandoes convincingly.
We boarded the bus is a frenzy of labelling and registering and settled in for the journey. The lowpoint of this was that, for the entire seven hour trip, I felt so queasy I submerged into a dozy heap in the corner of my seat. The highpoint was that Alex managed to both find and download a full copy of Zoo Tycoon onto our laptop so we can have our own zoos. A second high point was the lunch stop. The coach came to a holt outside Dino's Diner, near Taupo and magically my appetite returned the moment I was once again on land unconnected to wheels. I had what is quite possibly the best vege burger I have ever eaten, which is bizarre as the New Zealanders are not so kindly disposed towards vegetarianism.
We finally arrived in Hastings at about 5pm, and reloaded ourselves in the manner of pack animals in order to walk the 3 kms to the campsite.
Hastings appears 'nice' - white picket fences and gardens full of delicious smelling flowers, little white postboxes shaped like Alpine chalets and an evening humidity that was not unpleasant. We arrived at the campsite, bathed in evening sunshine and bedecked with glittery Christmas decorations. The tent was duly set up and proved to be big enough for the both of us and all our stuff, which is qutie the achievement for a canvas structure. Once set up, we had dinner (lack of saucepan and other edible food led us to eat the snacks bought that morning for the bus ride...lucky that) and then went to the TV lounge to charge the laptop and fire off emails off our superior employability now that we are right in the thick of the action, so to speak. Once it was dark, we retired to bed, tricky without a torch (mine broke early on in the trip) and tried to sleep, amazed at our situation which we had not even imagined two days ago.

The night passed, eventually. Without something spongy to sleep on, the ground is rather rock hard. We had such difficulty getting the pegs into the ground yesterday it was not unexpected, but still. Alex's sleeping bag was rather thin as well, so he ended up getting too cold to sleep and spendng the early hours of the morning building his zoo on the pc. We were both woken up abruptly this morning when some rabid Kiwi's obsessed with rugby started a loud conversation about the match of the day next to our tent. Grr.
We have partaken of our remaining food (cookies!) for breakfast, and are recharging the pc and answering emails, in the search for employment.
We walked back into Hastings in order to forage for food and came away full from the superb scrambled eggs and toast, as well as carrot cake. We also secured a brand new shiny saucepan and flipper-thing to cook our food in, and enough cereal bars to sustain us through many a working lunch. We are now fully prepared. We even have a bag of water, food and suitable clothes waiting in the tent, just on the offchance that someone calls at 5am with the promise of work and transport in the next 10 minutes. We'll be ready!!!

If, by chance, reading this is a vineyard owner or orchard contractor, then we are here in Hawke's Bay, we have a tent, we'll get a car if necessary, we have work visas, IRD's and NZ bank accounts, we'll work full time, 6 days a week, we are both eager and good workers and we can start immediately!

Karma

2009-11-27T20:23:00.001+13:00

Whoot, today has been a bit crazy on the productivity side!
We met Val for muffins again, then zoomed back to the hotel to pick up Bren and all the lugguage. We took this round to the next street to pick up their rental car and packed it up and saw them off, despite their somewhat nervous acclimatisation to the wiles of an automatic.
Alex and I headed back to our hostel, where we booked a coach from Auckland to Hastings for tomorrow morning. Then, off into town to sort out loose ends and try and get some sort of plan in motion.
We popped up to the jobseekers office to speak to Jodi again about the backpackers she had suggested in Hastings. She phoned them for us, and when they were fully booked, continued to the next place...and the next. Things were not looking great until we stumbled upon a deal with the holiday park - one week for 135 dollars! This price was beyond amazing and we were ecstatic...until we realised - that was the price for a tent pitch, and we were there with no tent, sleeping bags, or any other type of camping equipment. In a swoop of amazingness, Jodi immediately offered to go home and pick up her tent, to give to us as she couldn't remember the last time she had used it. Added to this, she popped into the hostel lost propety room and snagged us two sleeping bags. We arranged to pick these up later and left, having sorted out accomodation in one fell swoop and restored our faith in the human race. We were both just in absolute shock mode that anyone could be that lovely! Jodi is a star, no doubt about it. We decided to get her a box of chocolates as a thank you and once that was sorted, we continued on with our chores. We went to check our mailboxes (sadly, nothing there). We popped into Vodafone and sorted out a NZ simcard for Alex's phone (mine dislikes foreign simcards...) so now we have an NZ number for employers to contacts us on. We then went to the warehouse to check on prices for Christmas decorations so we know what we can get for our hotel cheer!
After all this, we returned to pick up our new house (tent!) and waved goodbye to Jodi with profuse thank-yous. We came back to our hostel in order to pack up our stuff, which has multiplied and spread around the tiny room somehow. We had a tasty stew for dinner in the bustlingly tiny kitchen and then its showers and bed! All ready to embark on our new adventure tomorrow at some awfully early hour.
'Tis gooood!

Bloom

2009-11-27T20:10:00.002+13:00

On Thursday, Alex and I met up with Val in the Hollywood bakery for another tasty muffiny breakfast. I mananged to figure out the offer on the muffins included hot chocolate instead of the exclusive coffee I had thought it to be offering, so now I am no longer bizarrely hyper for an hour after breakfast.
We returned to the Suites to pick up Bren and sort out what we should do. We decided at length to make a trip up the hills and dales of Auckland city and go to the Domain Gardens, there to see the Victorian Greenhouses (hot and cold) and generally enjoy the sunshine that was pouring out of the sky.
The buses were (unfortunately) not working in the morning, so we struck out, up the practically vertical hills. However, luckily we did not end up taking the exact route Alex and I took earlier in the season when we visited the Domain, so we did not have to repeat the gruelling experience of the walk to K'road. Instead, we deviated from the prescribed route and meandered through Albert Park, which was much more pleasant of a hill to wander upon.
Once we had arrived in the Domain, a wide sweeping space of lush green lawns and hyperactive school kids at sports day, we sauntered about admiring the goslings and ducklings and generally cute things ending in 'ing'.
We found a little cafe, much to our relief as we were all quite peckish by this point, having hiked our way up there. We all had toasted sandwiches on the terrace, overlooking the waterbird pond and fountain, with trees swaying in the breeze and the sun keeping things warm.
After lunch, we popped into the Wintergardens. The hothouse displayed a variety of rainforest plants, many of which Alex and I have seen in their natural setting in recent weeks. There was also a fernery, filled with the green smell of foliage and curling fronds. Last, the cold house. It was a riot of colour and scent in there, so beautiful. The gladioli sprung from the ground in every colour combonation imaginable, the orchids spilling out of their containers in bright masses, the roses blooming in large, gorgeous flowers. I went into a frenzy of macro photography and emerged, blinking into the sunlight about half an hour later.

We swished onwards, leaving the park behind and moving onwards and upwards, past the musuem and through a delightful sensory garden filled with herbs and soft furry leaves.
The buses were back in action by this point, so we caught one back into town. Alex and I returned to our dorm for showers and a change of clothes and then we rejoined Val and Bren to take a stroll around the Quay and look at the yachts. After selecting which yachts we would individually own (making up somewhat of a fleet) we selected a place to dine, called 'Meccas'. Here, we sat in an enclosed outside area, a bit on the breezy side but with a lovely view across the viaduct basin. We snacked on tasty bread and dips while the conversational waiters popped by every so often to drop tidbits of information about the food in, as well as mercilessly pick on me at every occasion. I really don't know why I provide such entertainment for these people. Doh.
In the evening, we just relaxed at the Suites, watching tv while Val and Bren planned their route with random helpful asides from Alex or myself. Then, to bed! It was a long day, and the bed at our hostel resembles nothing so much as a medieval torture device and is thus rather tricky to catch a good nights sleep in.

Zoo

2009-11-26T10:59:00.002+13:00

After a tasty blueberry muffin for breakfast in the flouro green Hollywood Bakery, we discussed what to spend the day doing. It was beautiful, clear blue skies and sunny weather, so we took a wander round the harbour front and debated about what to do.
We located a warehouse clearout concentrating on hats so I managed to finally purchase a hat to stop my poor head constantly burning in the sporadic sun. After trying on many variations (including a multi-coloured sombrero and some floppy cowboy style hats) I bought a plain cap that should work for outside work (should we ever secure any). Val secumbed to the lure of some sparkly scarves and a lighter bag.
After some subliminal brainwashing, we decided to go to Auckland Zoo and set about finding the right bus stop. We boarded, paid (for singles, no returns in NZ for some reason) and traversed up Queen St and K'Road and on towards Motions Rd.
The Zoo was awesome. We ambled happily around in the sunshine, looking at sealions gliding effortlessly through rainbow saturated water of their environment.

We laughed at the antics of the acrobatic spider monkeys tumbling through the air and into a bush after a plastic bottle cap. We stared, struck at the epic amount of sound that the siamang can produce from its throat pouch. We strolled over a high boardwalk looking out over mock savannah at elegant and stately giraffes, rotund zebras and the odd fluffly ostrich.

We watched as an inquisitive emu snatched food from a startled baby and as wallabies leant backwards on their knees to bask in the shade.
We took a break for lunch and then continued round, looking at the uber-cute red panda curled up in its nesting box and the crazy flying fox bats crawling about the top of their aviary looking like aging rockers in baggy leather trousers. Then we took a tour round (and under) the meerkat enclosure, crawling through tiny subterranean tunnels in order to pop our heads up into plastic bubbles and so look the meerkats eye-to-eye.

We all succumbed to the delicious ice cream on offer and watched the tigers deciding whether to come into the open or not, as well as finding a beautiful lionness sleeping right up against the glass on her enclosure. We were the thickness of the pane of glass away from her, she was so big, with cushy solid paws and twitchy sides as she dreamt away the afternoon in the sunshine.
We were weary after the day exploring various creature features and went to catch the bus back into Auckland. I somehow got hiccups (usually I get the odd, random hiccup. I do not tend towards prolonged periods of hiccupping). I was mocked by a German lady to her baby and called 'Frau Hicksy'. Sad times, I say! Mocked! In German!
We rode back on the bus and relaxed in the Suites for a bit. Later in the evening, Alex's Aunt Bren arrived from Oz. We all sped out of the apartment and towards the Skytower round the corner. It was just before dusk and we headed into the base of the tower to buy tickets to take the elevator up to the top. In the foyer, was the biggest and most glittering Christmas tree, surrounded by fairy lights. With tickets clutched in our hands, we entered the elevator, got the spiel and zoomed upwards, the glass panel in the floor showing the speed at which the ground was leaving us.
After mild confusion about the platform access, we got to the top viewing deck. Auckland was spread out in front of us, like a toy city. We could see right over the skyscrapers and gridded road systems, over to the harbours with the white sails soaring up into the sunset sky. Lines of pale lilac, pink and peach strung out accross the clouds, lit up from beneath by the fading sunshine and city lights.
As darkness fell, the city lights came alive and the whole of Auckland glittered. It was much more Christmas-like than during the daytime. It was beautiful and a lovely experience. We enjoyed the Christmas decorations up the tower.
With hunger gnawing, we grabbed noodles from a 24hr shop on Queen St and snarfed them down before retiring to bed.

Rangitoto

2009-11-24T21:02:00.001+13:00

We rose early in time to catch the wonderful coffee and muffin offer at the Hollywood bakery on the corner of Albert St. We zoomed off down the road to meet Val, as we were running a mysterious 5 minutes late. I had a delicious frothy mochaccino and a chocolate muffin of goodness to start the day. Ah, every day needs to start with a muffin.
After breakfast we mused as to what we should do for the day. The weather was a sort of mizzling grey and we walked down to the harbour to try and suss out the weather possibilities for the rest of the day and also the timetable of the ferries.
In a spurt of decision-making firmness, we bought tickets to Rangitoto, one of the three islands off the coast of Auckland. What makes it exciting is that Rangitoto is an active volcano and no-one lives there or runs businesses there (unsurprisingly really). So, we our hastily purchased packed lunch in hand, we boarded the ferry with a group of hyperactive school kids and set sail!
Our ship was called the 'Wanderer', particularly appropriate as this is the name of the main character in the book I just finished reading. (The Host, Stephanie Meyer, Very good). We bumped up and down on a few of the wilder waves and then the captain upped the knots to about 18 and it seemed as if we flew over the waves. The foam at the back of the ship was pure, blinding white and frothy. The sky turned ever more grey and mist-like however.
We reached Rangitoto jetty and the air was clear of the lurking mist but humid all the same. We disembarked and set off to find the walk trail to the summit. The whole island was covered in rainforest (to my surprise, the guidebook issued a strong staement declaring no life on the island at all) and pumice stone. The rock was so black, and the edges of the island covered in mangrove trees which twist and curl into the water lapping against the shore.
Upon finding the trail, we started off, aiming for the summit. Rangitoto is not especially high compared to some of the mountains we have tackled, but the incline definately started to wear you down as you climbed! The ground was uneven, moderating between copious quantities of loose pumice (slippery) and large rocky formation that had us scrambling upwards. There were occasionnally the addition of steps, but the jury is out on whether these are better or worse...
We finally gained the summit and it was definately worth it. We stood on the viewing platform and watched as the sky cleared over Auckland, distant across the water.

The sun streamed down and lit up the water into turquoise and you could see the thin ribbon of the start of the trail, and the ferries coming in and out of the jetty entrance.
We had lunch and then began the climb down again. We diverted off the path a few times to explore other, less frequented paths, such as the one to some lave tubes and caves. These were pitch black, dark holes off the path and into the undergrowth and beyond.
By the time we made it back down to the start again, we were tired and our feet were starting to feel weary of the constant slide of the pumice. However, the ferry denied us entry as it was a special Harbour Cruise ship, so we went and sat on a bench overlooking the water for a while. We walked around to a Kowhai Tree Grove, dense rainforest and loud chirping crickets surrounding us.
On our return, we found another ferry, but that denied us as well as it was a different company from our tickets. Doh.
Finally, our ferry turned up, just as the weather began to turn cold, windy and drizzling. We queued (still behind the crazy schoolkids!) on the cold jetty until they let us on board. The exhertions of the day seemed to settle on us then, and we went into quiet mode.
Back in Auckland, we popped to the supermarket to stock up on some essentials so Alex and I can cook a meal for everyone tomorrow. Then we went back to the Chifley Suites for tea and some 'X Files' before heading back out this evening for Mexican on the wharfside.
This was tasty, with a view out over the harbour and the evening sunlight streaming down. After gorging ourselves on burritoes, nachos and tacos, we strolled back to the Suites for some rest and relaxation. I have hot chocolate. All is good.

Kiwi

2009-11-23T23:12:00.000+13:00

We awoke, tidied and re-packed, scoffed our remaining yoghurts and checked out of Base Hostel. Once the important business of returning the key was done on time, we headed to the jobseekers office for a consultation.
The results were unpromising. We were told that jobs at the moment are practically endangered, due to seasonal issues and many redundant Kiwis. Oh dear. We faced absolute dread as the possibility of not being physically able to work, and therefore, the realisation that the money was out hit us.
However, the nice lady, Jodi, phoned a hostel a Hawke's Bay on our behalf. The idea here is that the hostel owners in work-saturated districts use their position as a sort of go-between backpackers and contracters. Therefore, once we have a booking in a hostel, the owner will lead us into jobs as the contractors call each day needing workers and the owner can tell them how many willing people are ready to go. This is probably what we shall end up doing, as it allows us the slim chance of work, whereas nothing else seems to hold that option. It is still a gamble though, so we have left it for a day in the hopes that something better will come along or that there will be increased chances of the venture working in our favour.
In the meantime, we popped along to the bank and sorted out our very own New Zealand bank accounts. We are now practically pure Kiwi, as many natives keep informing us when they hear how long we have been in the country.
We spent some quality time in the library again, Alex finishing up his portfolio site and I freaking myself out with the accuracy of a palmistry book.
Then, we popped along to the Chifley Suites to harangue the receptionist once again - this time, for entrance to the upper realms, where Alex's mum, Val, had arrived a few hours previously. It was bizarre being back in an identikit copy of the room we occupied back in September, but cool as well and lovely to see Val. We had tea and a chat and then Alex and I embarked on a foraging mission for pizza.
Amazingly, we managed to get lost on the way to the pizza place and discovered a whole new road in Auckland, with mosaic walls and restaurants. Once we located Dominoes, we ordered our tasty pizzas, inhaling the scent emanating form the ovens and I resisted, with every ounce of self-control I could muster, adding chocolate fudge brownies to the list of pizza and garlic bread that we bought. It was hard!
We returned to the Chifley Suites and we all munched through the yummy pizza. It was soo good! Being without an oven is not an option for the future, natch.
We have made plans for tomorrow's meeting, as phones are proving to be tricky beasts here. Its muffins at dawn and more plans from there!

City

2009-11-22T10:38:00.001+13:00

Our hostel is over about 6 floors of a giant straight up, straight down block on Queen St, the main shopping street of Auckland. As such, the little block rooms are surrounded on all sides by more little block rooms. The walls are very thin, like paper in fact. We have a couple of stereotypical American girls to one side, who seem to constantly be drying their hair. On another side, there is a couple who keep storming back to their room and then having massive rows, seemingly oblivious to the fact that everyone can hear them. A few doors down, there is a dorm of boys who enjoy staying up until the early hours swigging back beer. To contend with this, we have a fridge that appears to be auditioning for the opera, with its continual gurgles and droning. We also face right onto the street, which, come both Friday and Saturday nights, has been filled with noisy revellers and police sirens. But nevermind, for it is comfy enough and it keeps us out of the rain which is currently plaguing Auckland.
It is strange, being in a hostel with so many people after living in the car for two months. It is like one giant flatshare, with slow elevators to take us from floor to floor (stairs are for fire escape only). The huge communal kitchen is stuffed with bags of food, all labelled and stacked haphazardly about. The lounge is generally host to a few people, kicking back and reading leaflets. The computer room is always full and there is a dark room, filled with sofas and the odd person snoring where you can go and watch a movie.
So, Saturday, we went to the library and stayed there for most of the afternoon, until it shut at 4. We found a space to work in amongst all the students studying for their finals (End of term in a few days, muchos stress and panic seething through the air for those who have not yet finished their revision) and got stuck in, jobhunting and cv perfecting and all that jazz.
Back in our room we viewed the building just over from us which spent the day having a gigantic plastic santa and reindeer and presents attached to it, to the disruption of the traffic. For some odd reason, Santa's face is entirely swathed in fabric with a sign promising that 'All will be revealed' on Sunday at 1.30. Neither Alex nor I are exactly sure what they mean by this - Santa's face is pretty much generic merry man complete with white hair and beard. Alex has a theory that it is going to be Michal Jackson's face, in memory. We shall see, anyways, later this afternoon.
We had dinner (hooray for pasta) and splashed out on cheese to make it palatable. Now we have a fridge, the sky is the limit - you have no idea how much you miss cheese until you have no fridge. Once we had washed up, we wandered into the movie room with our hot milk and cookies (!) and grabbed a sofa for optimum viewing. The film appeared to be about 20 minutes in, I'm not sure what it was called, but it was highly entertaining, involving a rogue super computer's plan to replace everyone in the chain of command in America and reset the government, using explosive crystals and a sonic trumpet. Once this cinematic gem has finished, we headed to bed, in lieu of the hostel's adjoining bar plans of wrestling for a prize.
New Zealand appears a little more conservative than England in that the shops close early on a Saturday and most don't even open on a Sunday. So with the library only open for 4 hours today, we are not entirely sure what to do with ourselves. Santa's reveal will obviously be much more entertaining than we expected, as it is likely the only thing that will occur today other than the job hunting...

So, an edit for today's happenings. We went to the library again and worked for a bit. Later on, we saw Santas face, revealed to the masses - it is overtly cheery, and his tongue is poking out. It is actually a little disturbing, but never mind. We watched the epic Christmas window display at the big department store (to rival Harrods) It consists of mechanical puppet mice working to ake presents, put on a theatre show and generally have a fun and sparkly Christmas. We'll take some pictures to put up tomorrow.
We saved on food all day and treated ourselves to the cinema this evening to see New Moon. In Alex's expert opinion the CGI was both well done (the wolves) and beyond awful (the water).
We had pasta and cheese for dinner and it was taaasty! Now an early night to prepare for the morrow!

New

2009-11-20T20:01:00.000+13:00

So, we knew this day had to come, eventually. We had prepared as best we could and packed and preened Newt up for his grand relinquishment, back to Spacestation Auckland.
We drove back to the Penrose Spacestation and, sadly, gave up the keys to the lady on reception. The end of an era has been reached.
The loss of Newt was felt deeply and immediately, as we then had to carry our very heavy, unwieldy bags up a hill to the train station. We caught the train back into Auckland city and then spent an hour or so trumping about looking at hostel deals and prices. After an almost-cave to the enchantments of the Chifley Suites, we found Base ACB in the center of town, right on the main street. We got ourselves a room for the next two nights and were allowed to leave our bags at reception while the room was cleaned. We went off to the food courts to snuffle up some lunch, having had only a cereal bar for breakfast.
In the bustle of a busy lunch hour food court (oddly situated on the upper floor instead of the usual basement) we found pizza. It was good. We stared at the Christmas decorations swathing every possible surface in mild amazement - we know its coming, but it doesn't seem Christmassy to be wandering around town sans coat, scarf and twenty other layers. I was in sandals!
Returning to the hostel, we got to our room (a small, oddly shaped room overlooking the main street, painted a sickly cream with red velour curtains and a very noisy fridge - but still almost four times the space we had in Newt!) and dumped our stuff inside. Tired already from lugging the bags about, we had some down time where Alex became unconcious and I checked my emails.
Later in the afternoon, we went into town to check our post! How exciting! After locating our temporary address, we both found the post - two unassuming plastic boxes shoved under the desk in the corner in supposed alphabetical order - and marvellously, we have both been granted IRD numbers, so we can now continue on in the steps necessary to 'Getting A Salary in New Zealand'.
We returned, once again, to Base and sorted out dinner. Yum. We had the tag end of our packet of noodles, rehydrated with powdered tomato soup. Luckily, we also had cookies waiting for us in our room, to be devoured for afters. While we ate we had an enjoyable conversation with Paul, a traveller from Belfast who had just arrived in NZ after a seven month stint in South America. So, after many questions about llamas and mummies in Peru, not to mention Aztecs, we allowed him on his way again and came back upstairs to munch on those cookies, along with hot milk from our powdered milk stores (we ran out of hot chocolate powder!) So, now we resemble small children being granted hot milk and cookies as a treat for being good. Doh.

Trees

2009-11-19T21:56:00.001+13:00

Sooo, yesterday rained, it poured and it thundered. Thus, the weather prevented us from our planned activity. So, instead we visited the black sand beach by our campsite and watched, amused and horrified, as surfers threw themselves about on the very high waves in the rain and the cold. Crazy. It reminded me of the black sand beach in Kawhia - so, so soft and with purple tint.
Anyway, luckily, today dawned bright and sunny so we set off to Tree Adventures!
After driving through the dense, dark pine forest we arrived and kitted up in harnesses and helmets. We were appointed a practice session leader and joined up with a group of giddy ladies on a hen party trip to learn the basics...and find out how to stay alive high above the ground!
Once we had passed the practice course, we were released on the rest. Being us, we had decided to do all nine of the courses, each getting harder and higher. The courses started out about 8m above the ground and the last one was about 20m up. They were composed of collections of zip wires, swinging logs, various formations of walking wires, swings into giant rope nets and tunnels.

By the time we got to course 8 (the hardest physical course, 9 being more about the psyche-out aspect) we were tired but confident in our ability to leap across the void onto precariously strung up bits of wood, to crawl through madly swinging tunnels of slatted wood and to zip accross large open spaces on tarzan swings or surfboards strung up on wires.

However, this course opened up a whole new level of exhertion, starting with a climb over a slack rope net (hard), then an attempt at the monkey bars. Now, both of us are absolute ninjas where monkey bars are usually concerned, but these were rope bars, they were high above our platform (which was, in turn very high above the ground) and so we both ended up just dragging ourselves along it...only to find the next challenge, which was to cross the gap between platforms on a sloth rope.

To make things easier for myself (if only!) I managed to do this backwards, which was highly painful, uncomfy and nerve-wracking. I almost ended up stuck on it as I couldn't see the platform I was trying to stand on due to facing the wrong way. Doh. Alex managed it fine, we continued on to rope swings into a giant net.

Once we had managed to complete the whole forest of activities, we ate a muffin each in reward. I have to stop paying people to put me into bizarre situations. Although, hanging upside down on a long zip wire careering through the forest? Worth it.
We drove on and through Auckland again, in preperation for our relinquishing of Newt back to the Spaceship HQ tomorrow, in Penrose. We have spent the evening clearing out the car, packing and tidying up. We're chucking out anything unneccessary, as well as trying to find a way to pack that somehow makes things lighter...

Down

2009-11-17T19:49:00.000+13:00

Today, the driving was all down, back down towards Auckland again.
We did manage to see a sunset last night, a golden, molten metal sort of sundown whereby the cloud was turned into a drip of hot furnace metal above the clear, shimmery grey water of the harbour. However, in being lifted up to take a good picture, I managed to whack my head on the roof which was unexpectedly hanging over the balcony viewing point. Doh. Now I have a lump on my head.
This morning, we left the campsite, waving goodbye to guitar man who has sat and played the guitar, constantly since we arrived yesterday apart from the 8 hour gap he took to sleep.
We drove round the hilly roads of Northland, marvelling how they went from windy and steep to impossibly straight and flat within seconds of each other.
We drove into the Kauri Forest first, the oldest habitat on New Zealand's shores. We stopped to trek in and gawk at Tane Mahuna, the Lord of the Forest. He was amazing, aweinspiring int he true sense of the word. You have never seen a tree this big. He was over 2000 years old, and in Maori legend is the reason the Earth exists, as it was his doing that pushed apart the Mother (Earth) and the Father (Sky) and so allowing people to come into being between them. His trunk was 13.5m circumference, 75m tall. Absolutely gigantic, especially in comparison with the other rainforest species. So large, you whispered in his presence.
We continued on through the thick rainforest, following the seemingly deserted road. Eventually, we broke out into sunlight again, the canopy no longer covering us in green light and bird calls.
We had a small lecture on Ancient Greek Theology in the car, as Alex asked about it and that fired off my blather mode. When we surfaced from the mug of ancient religious talk, we were several klicks further down the 'Coastal Highway' (still no coast to be seen! Lies!) and very hungry. We had lunch overlooking the entire valley and stayed there for a while feeling on top of the world. We passed back near the town of metal animals and then spent some time exploring down random roads. We found a lovely reserve that reminded me strongly of a lake I have visted in France a few times and we parke dup in the forest campsite for awhile, looking out over the lake and enjoying the surroundings.
Once we had peaced out, we continued onwards and eventually came to stop at a lookout for dinner. Here, we were hijacked by 10 varied and curious chickens, all beautiful, all highly interested in our car and us and all desperate to steal our food. They followed us about and made funny noises to each other, then started a rallying cry for reinforcements from the other side of the hill. We made dinner with the last of our vegetables (we have timed the finishing of food rather too well!) and made a run for it. The chickens all chased us as the car drew level with road again.
We continued on, looking for a campsite for the night. After looking for one that appears to have vanished from existence since the writing of our map, we turned tail and went in the opposite direction for a bit, managing to find one, nicely situated in a park of pohutukawa trees. We have yet to pay for this site, as the owner cannot get his card machine to work and so just waved us on through, so whether we have to do some heinous chore tomorrow to pay him back or not, we are not sure. In the meantime, our car now has a view of baby rabbits frolicking under the trees, so it should be a peaceful night.

Clouded

2009-11-16T18:39:00.000+13:00

We set off from our idyllic seaside spot this morning into the Northland pastures new, clouded over and drizzling. As we drove, it thankfully began to clear up a little, so we were not forced to listen to the dreary whine of the windscreen wipers scrape across the glass.
We drove back though Whangerai, onwards towards Whangerai Falls. Here, we stopped for elevenses (alas, no more butter, we had dry fruit bread!) and took a walk down into the rainforest to have a gander at the Falls. These were brilliant, a full 27m drop of water, curtaining a basalt lava flow from some good while ago. The basalt had formed into 6-sided columns under the eroding effect of the water and vibrant green moss grew over the whole, adding to the 'depth-of-the-rainforest' vibe. We continued onwards, through the thickly growing trees, their roots twisted and curled upwards and over the soil. Ferns twirled and exotic sounding birds chirped. It was like being in a room with a 'rainforest sounds' CD. The water, after being churned by the falls had turned an odd, milky blueish tone and was slowly creeping on over rocks and pebbles in the way. The odd duck turned up and we spent some time trying to capture the antics of a wagtail on camera. It was oddly disturbing, the river water, reminding me of descriptions of the river Styx in Greek mythology. Never a good sign to feel as if you are heading deeper into the Underworld...However, passing out from under the trees, we found ourselves in a Springtime meadow, complete with daisies, buttercups and dandelions as well as cow parsley and tall grasses. We walked on for a while, in the sunshine that was valiently attempting to break the cloud cover, then returned (uphill) to the car.
We drove on, leaving Whangerai and continuing Northwards. We stopped in Kawakawa to see the Hundertwasser toilets, a bizarre tourist attraction centred around an artist (Hundertwasser) who had lived in Kawakawa for the majority of his life and left a legacy of crazily decorated toilets. These were awesome, made up of broken tiles and handcrafted sculpture tiles, with inlaid bottles and pottery urn columns. It was very colourful and cool, the tiles melding into the ground in a curve and the whole thing vaguely reminiscent of Moroccan art work, with a twist.
We left Kawakawa with cookies in our hands (and soon our stomachs) and continued onwards. We reached Paihia, a destination we had long been looking forward to despite its tourist status focusing on cruise ships. Paihia was beautiful - long stretches of golden sand, calm inlets and islands covered in forest just out in the bay. These were the Porr Knights islands and are apparently excellent for diving. We parked up and took a wander round, exploring an arts market that happened to be showing its wares on the green in front of the ocean that day and also sitting for a while on the beach, enjoying the sunshine which had finally turned up.
Once the sunshine disappeared once again and the clouds came back in force, we left Paihia. The air in Northland is very humid, hot and sticky, which is at odds with its grey skies. We headed on to Hokianga, in the hopes that the weather might yet clear and we would be rewarded with good weather at one of the most spectacular sunset viewing areas in New Zealand. As such, we are parked up in Hokianga now, poised with a view over the entire harbour. Sunset is at about 8.15, so we have just had dinner and are settling down to do some constructive portfolio work before the possibility of a decent sunset occurs. The sky cannot seem to quite decide what it is doing, being oddly blue one moment and misty grey the next. Anything could happen. We shall see!

North

2009-11-14T18:04:00.002+13:00

Well, we have been relentlessly moving on up North from Miranda. After some more quality time in the heated pool, we left Miranda Springs and started back along the Coastal Pacific Highway after reading that it was a 'Thing to do before you die' route.It was nice and all, but really? A must-see? Alex and my official stance on this particular route is that it is mostly propaganda anyways - it is nearly always away from the coastline, and it merely rambles through pleasant green countryside.Not to mention, I was pulled over by a completely scary-looking bunch of police officers, who wanted me to speak my full name aloud, before letting me go on my way. Alex and I were mystified by the whole thing until we turned the radio on and realised NZ has just passed a law for the police to do random drugs tests on drivers. So yeah, that box I spoke into? Not a dictaphone recording my name as evidence in some heinous crime, just a drugs detector! Nice to know NZ police think I look high. Humph.
We eventually came to the point where we had to go on through Auckland. We stopped in Manukau first and were bowled over by the amount of people and civilisation that awaited us there. We were actually in awe of the mall, just because we have been away from such things for a good long while. They had 'Sooshi' - fruit icecream rolled up in dried fruit and then fruit jelly added to it to look like, you guessed it, Sushi. It fascinated us. They had whole counters devoted to baked goods. We sniffed the baked goodness as it wafted around the foodcourt. They had skate shops and games shops which drew Alex towards them with unholy power. I was attracted, as if I was something metallic looking at a magnet, towards shops with shoe sales and sparkly things. It was quite fun, if a bizarre way of spending an hour.
We battled it through the busiest traffic we have ever come across in NZ, along the 3-lane motorway across Auckland's Harbour Bridge. We sighted the Skytower and it was like coming home, as it was the first thing we saw when we first arrived in NZ. Such an odd feeling!
Within 10kms of Auckland, the traffic had thinned right down again, no cars were to be seen apart from the odd truck. It was as we were drifting up into the Northland, that we saw the sign. 'SheepWorld' it blared out at us. We had to stop and see. It was mandatory, having seen the sign. That was when we saw them. We had parked in the carpark, we were about to go in and have a look at prices, we heard a 'baaa', we turned.

An entire field of flourescent, bright, radiant pink sheep stood on our right. Pink sheep! They were day-glo! They were spectacular.
We wandered around the shop for a bit, but decided to skip the park itself (despite their having alpacas) as the ticket was quite pricey and included events that had long since finished by the time we rocked up at about 2.30. But still. We saw pink sheep, and that was hilarious enough to entertain us for quite a while.
We carried on going, aiming for Whangerai, but eventually stopping at Mangawhai Heads Beach Reserve instead.
(Sidenote: I keep forgetting to add this - The Maori pronunciation of these words is very different to how we see them spelt. 'Wh' = 'F' sound, the 'g''s are soft and bouncy sounding and you pretty much slur it all together then make it sound musical. Go with it. As such, 'Whangerai' sounds more like 'Fang-er-AY'. Its fun to play with, although you mostly get odd looks if you do it in public).
We stayed at the Beach Reserve for the night, as it was an empty car park with pretty cool views. The carpark was crazy, it had some weird parking system that no-one could actually figure out, so everyone in it was parked ina different way, at odd angles. It was quite amusing, especially when one elderly couple in a massive campervan started audibly complaining outside our window this morning that they were unable to park correctly, because of where we were parked. I should point out at this time that the carpark was huge, and at this point occupied by only three cars, including us.
Northland is rainforest extradinaire and as such, it has been humid and drizzly since we arrived. Doh. We continue however, in the knowledge that we have but one week remaining and Northland is the last part to tick off on our roadtrip.
On our drive, we came across a rather disturbing and unusual aspect of this area. Near Warkworth, the whole country side is peppered with metallic sculptures of farmyard animals. This is patently uneccessary, as NZ has more than enough real-live farm animals to maintain. Despite this however, we have seen metal chickens, goats, sheep, alpacas, cows and one very scary, freakish goat/cow hybrid monstrosity that lurked out suddenly from its vantage point of a hill and caused us to fear what we would find aorund the bend in the road.
This morning, we set off for Whangerai, looking forward to what the guidebook painted as a pleasant little seaside town with many free distractions for tourists. However, driving through it, it was more of an industrial town, with confusing roundabouts. We went to Pak 'n' Save for muffins and abandoned the place, heading out to the coast to find a campsite. We have the need to feel a bit more grounded at the moment, less transitory. We have lucked out with a lovely green place, cheap and fully kitted out with kitchens and bathrooms. The sea is breaking on the bay not ten metres away from our car and we can see right around the headland, following the curve of the land.

We have, in a moment of foresightedness, planned our itinerary for the remaining days in Newt (*sob*) and shall therefore, hopefully, be able to take things easy and absorb the best of the Northland.

We've added a new batch of pictures to Flickr, so feel free to check those out!

Still

2009-11-12T20:05:00.000+13:00

Ahhh. Today has been good! In a manner in which I'm sure no-one will sympathise, Alex and I were tired of moving on every day, always pushing on so as not to miss anything. So we took a holiday from our holiday, as it were.
Yesterday evening, we stayed in the hot mineral pool until it closed at 10. We were in it again this morning at 7. After much steam and thought on the subject, we decided it would really be best if we remained in the holiday park for a day longer. Time to recuperate from the road, we said. Time to relax from our constant travelling. Just one more day.
Sp, instead of packing up and leaving our glamorous campsite this morning, as we were meant to, we instead stayed. We soaked in the pool. We consumed breakfast (crazy 'Weet-Bix' made up of five different things...including puffed rice? It is like eating popcorn, ricecakes and weetabix all in one compact, rectangular cereal). We donned our sports wear (or what passes for it from our lugguge) and got rackets from reception, and spent the rest of the morning playing tennis. Once we had our eyes programmed to the yellow ball instead of a red one, we got some good rallies going, played out our own little Wimbledon. I won one set, Alex the other.
Having downed an energy drink to make it through the tiring rounds of tennis, we were both still raring to go. As such, we spent a good long while on the trampoline, to the amusement of random other park denizens, who wandered past, bemused at the activity.
After lunch (last nights left-overs) and fruit bread (a friendly sparrow came within an inch of my hand to steal mine. An inch!), we went back in the pool. Three times in under 12 hours is no bad thing...
We spent some quality time with the tv and watched Fraiser, while checking emails for job replies. Now we have an action plan, which will hopefully work out. No-one can commit to giving us jobs and all recommend asking the day before we want it instead of three weeks in advance. Yay for organisation.
Then, it was a return to the trampoline. This time, we took the camera in order to share some of our crazy flying-high moves.
We had dinner (a terrible combination of chilli beans, sweetcorn, potato, carrot and the evil ingredient - tuna) and copious amounts of chocolate afterwards to ward off the tuna.
Then we have been having our 'Work' hour, where we both work on something to put in our portfolio of skills and so hopefully attract employers towards us.
I'm reckoning the pool or the trampoline will probably see us again before the day is through...There you have the run-down of our day. Hope you all have a good day too! Let us know how its going! :)

Lost

2009-11-11T18:15:00.000+13:00

After waking to an overcast day, we embarked on a roadtrip round the coastal highway route of the Coromandel Peninsula instead of heading down to the beach again.
Now, this was purportedly a trip to admire the gorgeous coastline and discover secluded beaches...what it in fact was, turned out to be a trip down a road where houses had been built on either side, thereby obscuring the view! Admittedly, the houses were multi-million dollar mansions, which mad eup for it slightly as we plotted ambitious designs on how to secure these houses for our very own.
Once we had finished our trip around the entire peninsula however, we were still only in the early afternoon - we get up way too early! We explored the 'Warehouse' shopping centre, pawing at all the Christmas decorations and checking prices to see if we'll be able to have any tinsel adorning our Kiwi Christmas. Its weird, being out South Hemisphere way for Christmas.
After reading books we hadn't bought sneakily in the back of the shop, we moved on, and found the 'Miranda Holiday Park'. Having shaken the sheets out this morning due to the uncomfy exfoliating effect of having over half the beach inside the car (I have no idea how we trugged that much sand up the cliff back to the car, but somehow, it got in), we decided more showers were in order to rid ourselves of the sandy hair syndrome.
Now, we are enjoying some serious creature comforts in our holiday park full of random tourists who appear to have settled here.
We have sofas, tv, a kitchen, tennis courts, pentanque and (get this) our own heated mineral pool, fresh from the hot springs down the road! Good stuff! We now need to use as much of this as possible, in order to have justified our spending of ten whole pounds each for the night. Excellent!

Coromandel

2009-11-10T19:16:00.000+13:00

After a hair-raising drive along a clifftop road, we entered the Coromandel Peninsula through a gravelled road that allowed us to bypass the blockage we had thought would prevent us from seeing it.
Wow. It is truly beautiful here. The sea, that reaches out as far as you can see is an aquamarine/deep blue, calm and endless. Scattered amoungst the waves are clump-like islets covered in rainforest. The beachs and golden and sandy. There are pleasant boulders grouped up along the shore.
After parking, we tramped the hour walk to the Cathedral Bay beach we had heard was the best. Oh, was this walk beyond tiring. Good thing there was a beach at the end of it! Considering we have survived glaciers with no ill-effect, and done much else physically demanding in the course of our travels, this track caused the disquieting feeling of one's heart expanding and attempting to leap from your mouth. Exhausting.
The gorgeous beach made up for it, as did the sunshine, heat and shady pohukatawa trees climbing the cliff faces. We lay out on the sand, composed of tiny pink pieces of shell and golden speckles, and paddled in the (freezing) clear blue water of the bay.
Having returned to the spaceship, we cooked up another brilliant stew and are now sorting through job applications and all that jazz. Exciting stuff.

I forgot yesterday, to mention some of the people we have been coming across...
In the Pak 'n' Save carpark yesterday, we managed to attach an odd elderly man to us when he noticed our car had 'Spaceships' scrawled on the side. His innocent seeming remark - 'Been far in space then?' turned out to be the start of a UFO conspiracy conversation which Alex and I just nodded along to as he vehemently declaimed the government and 'the people in charge'. He went to the extent of fetching out corralating paperwork evidence from his car to show us. Slightly concerning, but after about 30 minutes or so of in depth alien space theory, he wandered off with his trolley and engaged some staff members in conversation instead.
Alex also came across someone who freaked him out utterly, at the campsite. The women at the front desk acted rather robotically and kept having heart palpitations and wandering off during the transaction!

Rumble

2009-11-09T17:44:00.000+13:00

There are weird, painted lines along some of the roads here and often, in order to cross and turn right, you are forced to run over these lines. They make horrible, scary rumbling noises and the whole cars makes sounds as if it is about to collapse. It is unnerving.
What is also unnerving is that we have travelled all the way up the East Coast of North Island, to see the Coromandel Peninsula, only to discover that the single entry into the National Park has collapsed and the entire Peninsula is inaccessable. Doh.
We drove from Napier to Taupo after a disquieting run-in with some threatening looking locals who scared us by following our car around and making weird gestures at us. So we ran away. On wheels.
In Taupo, we revisited our lakeside parking spot and enjoyed a truly relaxing Sunday. You may be wandering, what have we done recently that is so stressful as to deserve a relaxing Sunday? It is a valid question, but in reply, we have done lots of driving. It was Sunday, traditional day of rest...Okay, obviously those are no-fly excuses. It was sunny, we were by a gorgeous lake, ice cream became involved, who were we to argue with the idea of staying put for a day? For the record, I had passionfruit and malaga, Alex had kiwifruit and boysenberry. All four were sumptious!
We walked round some of the lake, took about an hour. It was very hot and sunny, the water was sparkling and all of Taupo's boat-touting residents crawled out of the woodwork and started displaying their machines. Bizarrely, some of the streams feeding the lake are boiling hot and steam as they run into the lake.

We have been listening to the New Zealand radio stations for a while on the longer drives - they are hilarious. They are in no way as PC as English radios are, although sometimes they just go too far. They swear, they make illicit comments, they insult everyone and yet, they remain hysterically amusing. They have terrible competitions ('What are your King or Queen of?' - 'Sausages', 'Stripping', Deepest Voice' being some of the answers) and crazy headlines - 'Seven Year Old Reicarnated Buddhist Monk'. The Dj's are not in any way reserved, speak their minds and spend a lot of time phoning random people up for no apparent reason. They also have a serious need to mock females. Like I say though, fuuunnyyy!

Anyways, we are currently in a random place (Waihi) at a campsite for showers! Yay! We are trying to work out our next move, now the Coromandel has seemingly collapsed...

Sun

2009-11-07T15:14:00.000+13:00

Okay, so we all knew it was coming eventually, what with hemisphere differences and all. Here we go anyways: I am writing this from a sun-soaked beach in Napier, North Island. It is very hot, there is sunshine and we recently took a drive along a palm-lined avenue reminiescent of the Sunset Strip. It is possible ice-cream will become involved in the near future. Their is a lido and sun deck to the right and a lifeguard station to the left - although, the lifeguards do appear to be fishing en masse on the beach...mind you, no-one is actually swimming in the sea due to the prevalence of sharks in this area, so they probably don't have to much to do anyway.
The last three days have been bereft of internet signal, so, apologies.
We drove on towards Abel Tasman, which meant driving through Nelson again. We were both excited about this - in the last months or so of constant transit, returning to a place we had visited before was a novelty! We did our grocery shop and then onwards again! We arrived in Marahau, the tiny town at the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park and booked our kayaks for the day after. Then, we enjoyed the rest of the day by wandering up and down the sweeping, intensely golden beach and looking at the rock pools housing tiny crabs. They have shells here like England has pebbles, in every pastel hue you can imagine and probably some more that haven't been named yet.
We had to be up early the next day to check out weather conditions and decide if we still wanted to go out on the waves. Luckily, the sun dawned bright, the sky clear and the sea calm. After a safety briefing and practice session that lasted 2 hours, we were released in our kayak, onto the coastline trail of Abel Tasman.
Kayaking is hard work. Attired in neoprene splash-skirts and lifejackets, knees crooked under the rim of the fibreglass craft, we paddled the hard way, straight out into the bay across to Fisherman's Island. The water was so clear you could see right down to the wavy patterned sand beneath us. As it got deeper, the surface turned an inky green and bit rougher. We slogged on, the land appearing to get no nearer at all! Eventually we reached the island and were rewarded with sights of a large sea bird (a Black Crested Shag for those in the know) drying its wings in the sun. We zoomed onwards to Adele Island in the hopes of seeing some seals but alas, it was not to happen, they head headed off round the side and due to westerly winds we had been advised against going to the west coast of the islands. We paddled back towards the mainland coast, stopping on a golden beach for lunch. We sat on a sun-bleached tree trunk and nibbled our sandwiches and fruit, then paddled in the clear aqua water for a bit. Thousands of tiny silver fish were darting around the shallows and clusters of shells opened and closed under the surface in the wave motion.
We paddled on, keeping close to the beautiful coastline and exploring caves and looking at the wildlife. Colourful rocks under the water reared up and had to be constantly watched out for so we didn't beach ourselves or damage the kayak. We stopped at another beach and had a bit of a sunbathe and an exploration of the shoreline by foot. As it started to approach 3, we decided to start back as we had to return the kayak by 4. We paddled swiftly, starting to get really tired arms, but we made it back and cannily avoided having to drag the thing up the beach by riding a tiny inlet of water round to the tractor that came to collect returning kayaks.
We went to the Marahau campsite and had five minute showers for a dollar. Once no longer sandy or salty, we made ourselves some dinner and had a long conversation with a random local who was touring the campsite asking about people's experiences of NZ for a website called 'rankers'.

The next day was to be our last in South Island for the time being. It was another spectacularly lovely day and we set off early in the morning, reaching Nelson again before 10. We booked a ferry and made it to Picton in plenty of time, despite revisiting the most heinously steep and windy roads through the Queen Charlotte Sounds and two seperate landslides. We even got stuck behind an old bus trying to navigate the twists and turns. At one point, it was going so slowly we actually came to a halt. Nevertheless, we got to the ferry and boarded without issue.
This time round, we went with 'Bluebridge' ferries - a cheaper ticket, but a much smaller ship, with the emphasis on getting to the North Island, not sightseeing, which was a shame, we hadn't realised the difference. We got a good seat on the deck though and watched the Marlbourough Sounds recede and the North Island open up to us again.
We were hoping to catch the fireworks in Wellington and once arrived we managed to find parking, get bags together for enjoying the evening and head out to find food. We settled with a Subway as the food courts close after 5 and only the posh restaurants seemed to be open. Sadly, after we finished our sandwiches, we discovered that the 6th was only the postponement date for the fireworks and they had actually aired the night before. Oh well.
We drove on for a fair way, looking for a place to stop for the night as there is no such place anywhere near Wellington, as we discovered last time. Luckily, following the East Coast highway (Highway '2') turns out to have lots of picnic spots, so we spent a nervous night at one of those - nervous due to some sort of cow/goose/dog/donkey creature outside the car making the most awful noises you have ever heard.

This morning, we bizarrely woke up even earlier than usual (about 7) and cruised off down the highway towards Napier. This has got to be the most boring and uninteresting drive that has presented itself to us since being in New Zealand, or even, since I passed my test. Just a long, flat highway, surrounded by variously flat green fields and rolling green hills. Every so often, there was a vineyard.
Finally, we arrived in Napier. Now, this was of interest because in our original travel plan, it was high on the list to serve as our base for working. It turns out that Napier is indeed very, very nice. A weird cross between Paris, America and Art Deco Land, we traversed the streets of pavement cafes and palm lined avenues. We have stolled the Marine Parade along a strecth of pleasant (if shark-infested) coastland. We are now laying out in the sun for a bit. Alex had a moment of extreme activity in which he fired off about 50 emails to potential employers. Between us, we have now accumulated quite the list of contacts in the great job search. Hopefully, one will bear fruit. (Haha. Fruit-picking jobs...bear fruit...).

I'm sorry for spelling oddities or anything - the sun is so bright I can't see the screen! I know, I know, what stress!

Relax

2009-11-03T20:37:00.000+13:00

We left Christchurch in a blaze of morning sunshine...very sleepy after waiting up for the F1 the night before. Well, I tried, I actually just fell into an unwakable coma just before the race started and only woke up again at 9.30 the next morning...Alex managed to stay awake however, but missed the end of the race due to rubbish streaming site. Doh.
We trundled onwards towards Hanmer Springs, feeling that a soak in hot baths would re-energise our flagging energies. We arrived at Hanmer, a pretty ALpine-themed resort with spa and springs and after sorting out the boring stuff in the library (application forms and so on) we went into the spa. This was gorgeous! Apart from a few random sulphur pools they had tucked away in a corner (there is just no contianing that smell. Eurgh).
We sat in the sunshine, under the blue sky in 41 degree water, overlooking pine trees and the odd mountain fronted by palm trees. Very bizarre to be on a sunlounger in a bikini/shorts in November and actually feeling too hot!
We padded around between the various pools of alternate temperatures, avoiding the paths strewn with cold sprinklers - a cruel necessity, as they were in place to deter all the honey bees from landing on the ground and getting squished under bare feet. The minerals in the pools make your skin feel very smooth and soft and you can even choose which minerals you want by going to different pools!
We spent a considerable amount of time in the pools, but eventually we were forced to leave by rumbling stomachs. We had a snack and got underway with the driving again, leaving Hanmer bethind and heading towards Kaikoura.
We found a lookout point to park in for the night. This got bizarrely rowdy around 8, when all the drunken patrons of the races up the road (this week is the start of race season) turned up on their way home. At last, once we had finally seen them off we settled in for the night.
This morning, we managed to drive off in the wrong direction (my skill, I apparently have inherited my dad's directional ability. E.g. nada.) Once going in the right direction again, we got to Kaikoura. This was a lovely little seaside town, I rather liked it. We stopped and had fish and chips at a wooden cafe and then tried to think of ways to see the whales and dolphins Kaikoura is famous for without spending money on a boat cruise. (Well, I say Kaikoura is famous for swiming mammals - in actual fact 'Kai' = 'food' and 'Koura' = 'Crayfish' in Maori and that is what the place is famous for. Alex and I are freaked out by crayfish, which are angry looking giant lobsters.)
We managed to find a parking spot right on the beach and unbelievably, there were two dolphins playing in the waves about 20m away from the shoreline! We sat and watched them for ages, even managing to see them do four acrobatic flips! It was brilliant, although of course the moment Alex got the camera ready to capture their flips they stubbornly stayed beneath the water. Weird, as in my experience, dolphins are usually show-offs.
We then went on to a seal colony. This was so different from the seals we have seen before, from far away at the tops of cliffs or from the road. Here, you could walk onto the rocks among the seals and get within 10m of them! We admittedly defied the guidelines and went a little closer, although not close enough to be mauled by a giant fur seal. We got some cool pictures as these seals were definately posers and couldn't get enough of the camera shutter clicking. We skipped around the rock pools and followed rare sea birds in order to try and get a shot or two of them. They were not so cooperative however.
From the seals, we moved on to Blenhiem. The countryside changed into gently rolling, although still very large, hills carpeted in lush greeness.Then, suddenly, the landscape was so flat you could see for miles and miles without break! It was really odd to go from elevated to flat so suddenly. The flatlands were covered in strict parallels of vineyards. We had entered the Marlbourough region.
We whizzed through Blenhiem, as the only thing to do there is taste wines and this was going to prove either expensive or ultimately pointless as neither of us are massively fond of wine and I was driving anyways!
Onwards then, towards Abel Tasman! We have stopped for the night up one of the large mountainous bits on the edge of the Marlbourough Sounds, which are beautiful. We watched the sun set over the nearby town of Havelock from our vantage point and watched in amusement as the giant campervans that have been cropping up ever more often as the season turns from Spring to Summer attempt to turn around in the small space.
We had an interesting supper, as we are running very low on food and need to stock up tomorrow (it involved apples and baked beans. Together.) Then we have eaten lots of chocolate. Time for bed!

Christchurch

2009-11-01T20:56:00.000+13:00

Christchurch was founded by a group of Oxford scholars and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Thus, it will not surprise you to know that upon getting into the city this morning, I was heard to remark; 'It really reminds me of home!'
It is odd - different, markedly so, but also vaguely deja vu of England. There is a winding river (The Avon) with costumed punters poling through the waters, like Oxford. There are ducks and green gardens covering many acres of the central city, like Canterbury. There is also a tram and a gondala ride, as well as crazy new metal sculptures and installations, like NZ cities everywhere. It really is most bizarre.
We had walked for over an hour from our campsite to get into town without having to then deal with the hassle of parking and so on. Once we arrived we set to exploring. Within about ten minutes, we had completed a leisurely stroll around the main centre squares and streets - another angle in which Christchurch reminds me of Canterbury.
Anyways, having just decided to stop spending quite so much money the night before when we re-did our budget, we found ourselves walking into a vegetarian restaurant, for the sheer novelty of finding that natives do not actually hunt vegetarians down and shoot them (even if they would like to) but actually occasionally cater to their needs. The Lotus Heart was a bit heavy on the new world meditational stance and had a poster boy by the name of Sri Chinmoy, who was posing serenly in various pictures with princesses, presidents and pop stars. The food was very tasty however, even if they did get a little confused as to which menus were on offer that day. We both decided to try a kefir drink after reading an extensive list about its health-giving propeties. It involved fermented milk, orange juice, grape juice and cinnamon and despite sounding a little gross was actually yum, with a weird fizz and a milkshake-like orange froth as a topper. It reminded Alex of Lambrini, make of that what you will.
After the culinary delights of vegetarian India, we progressed into the city again. We went to the library to check out printing options (exciting, I know) and sat in the park for a bit watching the Paradise ducks in action. They really do make the most peculiar noise - like a wazzoo!
Then we traversed the loooong walk back to the campsite and have since luxuriated in hot showers, hot dinner and the aforementioned hot chocolate.
Tonight will be a late one - the last race of the F1 is on in Dubai. I believe it starts at 1am. Doh.
We have not decided yet what we are doing tomorrow. We have been researching temporary holiday work for the last few days and sorting out the paperwork. Soon, after all, we will have to relinquish Newt! *sob*

Birdlife

2009-10-31T19:53:00.000+13:00

We drove a smooth tarmac road that hugged the cliffside around the bay of Dunedin, right onto the Otago Peninsula. As a protected region, we had to go to the one campsite as free camping was a strict no-no. Here, we experience the most squishy grass known to mankind and little else really. We got an early night and made ready to set out in the morning.
Our plan was to visit the Royal Albatross colony on the headland and after climbing high into the hills, buffeted by wind, we made it to the colony centre. However, turns out that this time of year is prime egg laying time and as such no-one is allowed to even breathe near the albatross in case they spook and fly off, never to attempt reproducing again. Nevertheless, there were some taxidermed versions to look at as well as an instructive exhibition about the wildlife and a video that made me instantly guilty about having started to eat fish. In other words...Save the Albatross! Use simple fishing methods to avoid catching giant, 3m wingspan birds of the sea on your hooks! Albatross friendly fish!
We left the hills and meandered into Dunedin itself. We were not sure if we would like this city, after initially visiting it on the way into the Otago Peninsula in search of fuel, at 6.30pm, with the emergency light bleeping and the car making funny straining noises on hills. Fuel is aparently a rare commodity in Dunedin when you are actively searching for it, but we got some in the end, after coming across a disused fuel station, one in the process of being built and one that was just closed early!
Turns out however, that Dunedin is very pleasant. We wandered the streets and had a browse in the shops. I discovered a pajama store that is now my absolute favourite shop, called peteralexander. We also discovered a Cadbury's chocolate factory and decided to go on the tour.
This was an awesome decision. First up, we went through the groovy exhibition on the discovery of chocolate by the Aztecs (I love learning about Aztecs) and how Cadbury's came into being. While Alex waited for the tour to begin, scorning my need to read every board on display, I carried on regardless. This, it turned out, was the way to go!
Our guide 'Cocoa Joe' turned up in bright purple dungarees and fetching head cover. We had to don head covers as well and in a moment of pure comedic genius, Alex was made to wear a 'snou' or a beard cover! Hilarious, he looked like Santa Claus. Off we went into the factory, the air positively heavy with chocolate scents. We were each given a little plastic bag with a chocolate bar in it - to hold goodies as we went. This was excellent, we had not realised we got free stuff into the bargain.
In some weird cliche, everyone working at the chocolate factory was happy. Everyone! They all beamed at us as we passed, gave out free chocolate to fill our bags and had names like Bernie. It was awesome. Even better, 'Cocoa Joe' had a policy of ask a question, and give the reward correct answers with free chocolate. The moment I realised this, the stuff I'd been reading in the exhibition came into itself! I have many, many free chocolate bars now. All is good in the world. They are all weird crazy ones that have never been heard of in the UK - like 'pinky', 'moro', 'snowball' and 'funkynana'! They all involve much marshmallow though, so Alex is pretty much reaping the bounty of my question answering skills.
After Cadburys we went into Dunedin and had a coffee before going back to the car to start the drive onwards to Christchurch.
We arrived in Moeraki around about 5pm. Now, the boulders along the beach here are what initially decided New Zealand for me - they are the photograph on the cover of my travel guide. As such, I was eager to see them. They are a bit of a geological oddity, in that they are rounded boulders, quite large, randomly strewn about the otherwise unremarkable beach of Moeraki. Some are split open, like eggs, and reveal a honeycomb centre which is even caramel coloured for realism! Alex and I had a good bit of fun playing about on these, Alex jumping easily from one to the other while I flopped and floundered about through them.
Onto Christchurch. On the way, we passed Omarau, which promised a Blue/Fairy penguin colony. We decided to stop and have a looksie. Imagine our amusement when it turned out to be a full-on centre and conservation movement for penguins which we had seen earlier in a leaflet and wanted to go to, but clean forgotton about since. Not only this, but we managed to turn up at dusk, at the exact time that they recommend you arriving so you can get seats before the penguins come inland.
Here, we sat in a small grandstand overlooking the beach, the boulderstrewn cliff and the swathe of grass covered in hummocks and man-man penguin next boxes. As darkness fells and the yellow lights came on (penguins cannot see yellow) we spied a tiny little blue penguin making its way up the rocky ramp. We named it 'Jonesy' as such named individuals are apparently always on point position in war games and watched it scamper up in a very sneaky, ninj-like manner. Upon finally reaching the grass, it made an all out break for it, scurrying across the grass towards its nestbox at full throttle. I know this description is typical of penguins, but it is so true - he looked like he was wearing a full dinner jacket and smart shirt. Admittedly, in oh-so-fashionable indigo blue and satin sheeny white, but still. What makes it funny is that he was a mere 10 inches tall. As it got darker, more and more penguins arrived. They spend the day fishing alone, then form up into groups or 'rafts' about a kilometre out to sea. They then cruise in together, catch a wave and ride it onto the beach, standing up as it recedes and waddling, hopping and scrambling up the rocks. They make odd honking-shrieking-purring noises to each other and move across the open area before the grass in groups of 20 or 30, leaving behind a rear guard each time who waddle back to the waiting penguins in the rocks to, assumably, inform them it is okay to cross now! We saw fuzzy chicks and mates running out of their nests to welcome back there partners from the sea. It was really cool. It was also very, very cold. After freezing for an hour or so, we decided to leave. As we stood, one of the penguins noticed and appeared to make eye contact with ALex, even though they are not supposed to be able to see in the dark. It made straight for him in an unwavering line, practically leaping over the pebbles. After stopping and staring for a while, it moved on and ALex and I continued down the path. Here, there were three penguins clustered together. They were wandering about so we stopped to watch and they started towards us. Alex bent down and the penguins went crazy for him again! Running straight through the wire fence, one approached him and gently tapped his shoe! Whether this was because he was wearing blue and white converse or because, as I think, he has a weird affinity with birds and was quite possibly a bird in a past life and thus attracts them to him...who knows?
We drove away from Omarau to find somewhere out of town to park up for the night. This proved tricky. Everywhere else we have been there have been lookouts and rest stops about every 10kms. Not so here. After driving for nigh on 50kms, in the dark, we were starting to be concerned. This was not helped by glimpsing a possum trying to leap in front of the car (it failed, luckily and stayed on the other lane), by a random collie dog frolicking around in the dark and by a giant unrecognisable creature slinking along the side of the road. Suitably freaked, we drew up at a lookout over a dam and went to sleep, nervously awaiting attack by previously mentioned unrecognisable creature.
In the morning, it was gloriously cloudfree sky and brillaint sunshine. There was no evidence of fenzied scratching or clawmarks on the car, so we ventured forth again. This time, our goal was a lookout over a lake to Mt Cook. Upon reaching it, we sat on the roof for elevenses and marvelled at the expanse of pastel blue water stretching in front of us to the foot of the mountains covered in snow. It was stunning.
Continuing on, we reached Lake Tekapo which was, if possible, even more beautiful. We were both amazed at the fact that all the land around the edge of one side of the lake is for sale - the view is spectacular. We sat on the rocky beach and soaked up the sunshine for a while, skimming stones across the water.
Some time later, we arrived in Christchurch, in the evening. We have bought ourselves a patch of holiday park to call our own for the next two nights, so we get showers, a pool and loads of associated benefits, wahey! It also allows us to catch a bus into the centre tomorrow and properly look around the city, which we are both keen to do as it is almost impossible to do when you have a car in tow!

Happy Halloween everybody!

Luge

2009-10-29T14:24:00.000+13:00

Imagine climbing into a fibreglass toboggan on wheels, checking your brakes are working, then zooming off down a steep polished concrete ramp at full speed. Oh, you are at the top of a mountain too, overlooking NZ's adventure capital, Queenstown.
Today dawned blue and gold so we headed for the gondala that carts people up the mountain looming over Queenstown and Lake Wakitipu. After boarding, we soared upwards through the pine trees in our little plastic cube, with epic view across the Remarkables and the lake. Once up top, we were fitted out with helmets (brilliantly colour-coordinated with our hoodies) and given instructions on stopping. Always handy, that.
There were two routes, scenic and advanced. We had to do a scenic one first to prove competence and whizzed down it with no permanent injury. I managed to rather spectacularly spin off track on a corner and career into the fence but I'm used to bruises by now.
We had bought five goes, so after the scenic slope we had a practice run of the advanced before our competition began. We had three races. Only one could win. Who would it be?
Both outrageously confident, we set off from the top. I raced ahead, taking the corners at breakneck speed. Alex drew up alongside and for one brief instant managed to ovetake me...but then I got back in the lead at the next corner and was laughing all the way to the finish line!
Second go down, luge car rattling along as if it was going to shake itself apart, we kept side by side, each edging forward a little then slowing on the corners. Finally, on a straight about halfway down, Alex took over my position and try as I might, I could not get up enough speed to overtake him again.
Last race, the tiebreaker. The guy supervising our cart usage was amused by our attempts to best each other. We set off from the top, down the slope and into the first corner. Steeply turning, I took the inside while Alex whizzed around the outside. The first ramp was approaching and the speed we could get from that would determine the winner...Argh! I wheelied my cart around the ramps following corner and smelt burning rubber as Alex flew into the lead yet again! I couldn't catch up and he waved at the cameras as he crossed the finish line ahead of me.
After our exhilarating racing moment, we sat and admired the view for a while. We were looking straight down over an evergreen forest, across the massive lake of Queenstown which was a steely blue colour and at the higher peaks of the snowy Remarkables. The radio forecast snow last night and we could see the fresh dusting on the lower slopes. Bizarre, as it was warm and sunny on our mountain.
We took the gondala back down in order to get back to our car before its parking ran out and then moved on to grab a good lunch at the food court. Curry goodness was had by all and we are now very full of food.
Eeep! Another siren just went off right outside!

All good, its fine. No one started running for their lives. All the odd noises and emergencies that no one cares about are things that definately should be mentioned to strangers so as not to panic them unnecessarily!
We are heading on to Dunedin this afternoon. It is right across the country on the opposite coast -this is as far down as we go! It can only get warmer from here, yay! We thought we'd update the blog in case we stop half way across and have zero signal due to elevated landmasses.

Hope all is well back home and everyone is doing good. Love to all xxx

Driving

2009-10-27T20:43:00.000+13:00

With much sadness, we left Wanaka to continue on around the South Island. Monday was a Public Holiday (Labour Day) so the roads were busy but it was nice to see so many natives. We drove straight onto Queenstown and while driving, the rain started. Having had three beautiful sunny days, Alex tempted trouble by putting our raincoats in the boot, instead of on constant standby on the car seats as they have been since we left in Newt. Of course, the perpetual downpour we then endured yesterday shall be attributed to Alex. Grr.
Anyways, we arrived in Queenstown which appeared through the rain to be as lovely as Wanaka, if a bit more bustling and people-filled. Once we had located parking spots, we took a stroll along the waterfront and then gave up on trying to be scenically interested due to freezing conditions and aforementioned downpour. We ventured instead into the Mall in a hunter-gather mission of sustenance. Alex had some nasty McDonalds meal for comparisons sake between NZ and the UK. The verdict was that the burger actually resembled the picture, and felt cleaner to eat. No comment. I, on the other hand, opted for a curry from the food court which was very yummy. After eating, we wandered around the shops looking at the range of clothes available and prices, as we will both probably need to purchase some at some point! Alex got a brilliant green hoodie with NZ slang on it for the summer.
After moshing about Queenstown for a few hours in the rain, we realised that all the things we wanted to do there pretty much demanded good weather. In a snap descision, we decided to move on and attempt the mega drive to Milford Sound and hope for good weather the day after (today) in which to see it. Milford Sound is not that far away from Queenstown, geographically. However, there happens to be a rather large mountain range running between the two, making the drive 291km more than would be necessary if you had the bonus of wings.
With the aid of an energy drink (luminous green and fruity) we miraculously managed the entire drive and outran the rain! We camped overnight in a DOC site in the woods and then this morning drove the last little bit to the Sound. The environments we are driving through are crazy. We have passed well over a million sheep and their progeny. Most of the drive was in a basin-like valley surrounded by huge mountains called The Remarkables, all snow and jutting peaks. We passed a few kilometres of gentle rolling hills covered in golden-red grass tussocks (imaginatively named 'Red Grass Tussock Conservation Area') and also scrubland and lakes. Once in Fiordland, we marvelled at the views and bought passage on one of the Milford Sound cruises.
This was well worth it. One of the best boat trips I have ever taken, we were steered around the tranquil waters of the inner Sound to the edge of the Tasman as it smashed against the rocks. We saw the vertiginous peaks of the mountains surrounding the blue-green waters. Waterfalls cascading down from hundreds of metres up in the air and misting down across the water. Fur seals basking on the rocks in the sunshine and tiny little crested Fiordland penguins hopping over the rocks and swooping through the water. There were many pictures taken and when we have a better internet connection we'll get right on uploading some photos.
Once we had disembarked, we started the drive back to Queenstown. We are now parked up for the night about 30km outside of Queenstown and having lucked out on the weather today for our trip, we're hoping for similar again tomorrow for our second go at Queenstown.

Wanaka

2009-10-25T22:58:00.001+13:00

We had tasty breakfast today, making full use of the kitchens at the campsite - scrambled eggs, beans, toast. Yum! Anyways, thus fortified for a while at least, we set off to 'Have-a-Shot' just outside of Wanaka, in order to test our aim and various projectile weapons. First up was archery. Now, I had a bit of an advantage here having practiced weekly for a couple of years at the local shooting range, but here we were equipped with bows, arrows and targets. It was excellent fun and reminded me how much I miss the sport. After a few quick tips Alex was shooting away like a pro and I managed to get my eye in and land some good target practice. I will not reveal end results (being a good sport and all) but surfice to say I may have ended up with just a few more points than Alex did...
Next up was the rifle range. Now, this scared me. I dislike guns. I dislike their use and their purpose. However, Alex had done this before and we had quite the competition going by now. After instruction on loading and aiming and all that jazz, we set to.

Bang! Quite a noise, yet much easier than bows to aim! I managed an entire target sheet with holes all gathered in the middle. Top points to me! Alex tried to get a bit fancy and aim without a rest, so lost what would have been his lead.
Finally, we took a turn at the driving range with the golf. Now, I do not see the point in golf, other than as a social sport. I can whack the ball, but that is pretty much it. I also did a few classic try and miss swings. Doh. Alex was hitting the balls all over the range, in the attempt to hit the TV at 100m and so win us $45. Alas, it didn't happen, although he did get to a very impressive 160m.
Once we had finished indulging the need to shoot things, we headed off to Puzzling World, an oddity park full of illusions and mindtricks, as well as a massive maze. We managed to complete the maze (eventually) which was on two levels and involved finding four towers in a particular order. We managed the towers reasonably well, the hard part was then trying to get out again! When we finally emerged, we had trod at least 3-5km and were exhausted. We recharged with a slab of chocolate cake and some brilliant puzzles in the cafe, then headed into the illusion area. First up was a room of holographic pictures that leapt out at you as you passed. Then, the worlds only 'Room of Following Faces', where large casts of famous people's face sline the walls and their concave nature causes them to follow you intently about the room - not just their eyes, but their entire head!

After pictures with Mandela and Van Gogh respectively,we headed on into the Balance Room. Oh, was this odd! The whole room is on a tilt, so that you walk upright, but appear to be slanting over...it was so hard! We kept falling down the room and banging into the walls!

It really messes with your head. There were optical illusions on the wall as well, to further confuddle your poor brain, so we had anti-grav chairs and water flwoing the wrong way to contend with as well.
Wrenching our way out of that room, we went to the Ames Room, which is how the hobbits were created in Lord of the Rings - it appears to be a normal room, but when filmed a person on one side appears to be too large to fit inside while the other person on the opposite side is so tiny they cannot reach the ceiling!

We also explored (this is going to sound odd) the toilets - where an illusionist motif painter has a replica Roman bathroom just outside of the real toilets.

Lastly, we tried some silly poses around the meandering buildings of Puzzling World, just for fun.
Once we had returned to our campsite, we had a full-on sort of the car. We cleaned it out and got it spick and span. I was also made to streamline my lugguge, which was a traumatic experience. I am now in mourning for the things which I will have to send home in order to lighten my load. We made an epic amount of dinner and then got sociable - the dining room was full of people who all wanted to chat, so we have been in here for about 3 hours swapping stories and travel routes with various people, from Scotland, LA and Germany! It all started when our 'next-door neightbor' in the campsite asked me a question...even though he seems incapable of hearing my answers! They have all gone now though and we are going to bed after I have finished the blog - Alex is currently dancing around the kitchen/dining room area with the fish slice, attempting to defend himself from the overlarge moths flying around the ceiling. There is an all out defensive going on here!

Updated Flickr with lots of shiny new photographs, also, hopefully sorted the comments issue (again).

Blue

2009-10-24T17:42:00.000+13:00

New Zealanders hate possums. I am talking real hate here, not the namby-pamby way in which people throw it into their sentences, but proper burning, loathing disgusted hatred. As such, many of them have taken to driving in the darker hours solely for the purpose of swerving and hitting possums out of existence. Today, on the road from Fox Glacier to Wanaka, we have passed no less than 52 dead possums on the road. What is more disturbing, is that many of them were in such a good state that they may have been sleeping. This means they were probably all hit within the last twelve hours. New Zealanders really hate possums.

On other things however, blue is an apt word to sum up our trip today. We set out from Lake Matheson, marvelling at the view of Mt Tasman and Mt Cook gleaming away in the morning sunlight. To our delight, it continued to get both sunnier and warmer throughout the journey, so we had lots of stop offs. First up, we had elevenses at Knight's Point, an elevated lookout across the clear bright blue Tasman Sea. This was at the calmest we have ever seen it. To the South-East was Tasmania, to the South-West was Antartica. We sat on a picnic bench and had sandwiches while watching the gentle waves cruise into the shoreline.
Next up, we stopped at the Blue Pools walk. This was a brief 30 minute trek (nothing after yesterday) through the forest and across some swingbridges to the blue pools of glacier water. Glacier water is blue due to the high concentration of mica suspended in it and these were so clear you could see the borwn trout hanging in the water as if there was nothing there. We sat on the pebble beach and regarded the mountains and played with the glittery sand. Back at the car, we made lunch and gave cheery helloos to every single person who wandered past the car.
We trugged on through the mountain roads (you know the drill by now, twisty, turny, steep, vertiginous...) and all the time we were just surrounded by epically beautiful snow capped mountains and waterfalls and creeks. Finally, getting closer to our destination, we drove past Lake Wanaka. Immense, edged with forest and spectacularly deep blue, we parked up and stared at it for a while. However, just around the corner, was Lake Hawea. This was breathtaking. It quite literally has exhausted my list of descriptives. We went down onto the beach by scaling some crumbly, rocky slopes. The beach was made up of smooth, flat stones, all pinks and greys, blues and greens, all with the ever-present mica making them glitter. The water was luminous blue, deep and intense, like Venetian glass. In front of us, across the lake, were the snowy mountains. Around the edges were mountains covered in brown-green scrub. Unbelievably the day was actually full on hot by now and it was so lovely.
Reluctantly, we left the lake and drove onto Wanaka town. This also captured our interest, due to it not being American-looking, but the buildings actually suiting the surroundings, resembling nothing more than an Alpine Village. We are treating ourselves (and the other tourists we occasionally come across) to have showers tonight, as we have foregone such luxuries for over a week now. As such, we are parked up in Wanaka Lakeside View Holiday Park, which I am happy to say has very nice showers, nothing like the pit of doom that passed for a shower in the last place we paid to stay. We have a view of blossom trees, deep blue lake and snowy mountains. It is so hot, I have put on shorts and a t-shirt. I even got out sandals and am seeing my bare feet for the first time in about a month. I also do not ache from yesterday's glacier hike, as I thought I would. Life is good.

Glacier

2009-10-24T17:22:00.000+13:00

I am so exhausted. I also think my legs may be about to fall off. More on that in a moment.

The moment I finished updating the blog yesterday, a piercing siren rent the otherwise tranquil air of Franz Josef. We freaked, neither of us had a clue what it was about and started having visions of earthquakes. In looking about, we saw people running up the hill. We decided the safest place to be (later checked and recommended by the authorities on the web) was the car. Luckily, in this situation, the siren was just calling the firemen to the truck. We have since researched what to do in every possible emergency situation - namely earthquakes as NZ has small, 'unnoticable by human' ones every single day which often get big.

We went on to Fox Glacier village and Lake Matheson where we stayed the night. An iconic lake, nearly every NZ photo book or calender has a picture of this lake reflecting Mt Cook and Mt Tasman. We walked through the rainforest at twilight, looking for the perfect spot to take our own pictures. It was cool and mostly clear and so beautiful. Absolutely breathtaking.

We also bumped into (finally!) another Spaceship in the carpark! Yay! We got to swap our DVDs and meet a random Swiss dude who didn't fully understand what we were on about most of the time.

We started today bright and early, we had an appointment booked. We were going onto Fox Glacier! We arrived and got suited and booted, with massive heavy leather hiking boots and loads of layers. We were carted up the 6km track to the terminal face (the snout) of the glacier. From there, it was all on foot.

We had to hike along the valley, viewing ridiculously gigantic landslides and rockfalls as we went. Our informative guides kept up the banter, explaining the vivid blue colour of the pools nearby as due to the mica suspended in the water. Such a clear, intense blue. We reached near to the edge (about 300m away due to severe danger of being anywhere closer) and steered ourselves away from the freezing cold hunk of ice and into, get this - sub-temperate tropical rainforest. Bizarre. Warm, verdantly green, ferns and mosses, waterfalls of pure snow melt which we drank from - it was lovely. Except for all the stairs. Cut into the mountain, they were built to the size of the guide who makes them. We met one of them, working away. He was 6''7. That is a whole 12 inches taller than me. These steps were massive! There were so many of them! We trudged, up through the rainforest, melting gently in all our layers. We went through no-stop zones where landslides were so frequent, we had to be spotted across. After so many stairs, we reached the ice of the glacier's surface.

The glacier itself was gargantuan and really hard to judge scale on. It involved swoops and spike of dirty white ice, all glowing eerily blue from deep within. The striations on the surface were grey and red - grey from the 'rock flour' of grinded rocks and red from Uluru in Oz! Incomprehensibly large. We all strapped our crampons onto our feet (I managed to do so in a way which our guide had only seen once before and she thought it was hilarious that I essentially reversed her instructions on how to do them. Doh.) and picked up our 'alpenstock' (read: mountain stick) then we set off. More steps ensued. In order to get about, the guides are equipped with pick axe with which they hack away at the ice, creating steps which can be climbed.

The glacier is not smooth. No Fox's Glacier Mint this, instead, picture cravasses, deep holes, hills and valleys, swoops and dives. All covered with fingernail sized chunks of ice, glowing faintly blue. It is like walking on a very large, very solid, blue Slush Puppy drink. We tramped about, up the glacier, down the glacier. Near its snout we explored caves of blue ice and walked along a cravasse. Waterfalls and rivers swooshed along nearby as we literally made our own path across the surface. It is certainly a unique environment! Being in a deep ice cave is like standing within blue Turkish Delight. The walls are smooth to look at, yet you can peel huge translucent crystals off the walls with your fingers. They look like waves, sculpted from ice. It was amazing.

We spent 4 hours hiking about on the ice, after our 1 hour hike up the mountain. Of course, we had to hike down too, and by the end of that walk, everybodies legs were shaking. I have personally never been so happy to see bus seats. So much effort goes into it, it is so much harder than we were prepared to deal with, yet so worth it.

We had a pizza back at Fox Glacier village, now we are heading back to the Lake to get an early night. Exhausted! There is going to be pain in the muscles tomorrow, but such is life.

Wekas

2009-10-22T15:49:00.000+13:00

After the sunset, we stood outside the car for a bit in the absolute darkness looking at the dome of twinkles above. There are definately more stars in the Southern Hemisphere. No question about that. No recognisable constellations or patterns, we just stood and gawped. However, the temperature on the coast really takes a dive after sunset, so it was rather chilly. We got back in the car pronto and went to sleep.
Nest day, we awoke and breakfasted while watching the hilarious Wekas. These are flightless birds, bigger than ducks, with individual distinguishing features. One, for example had scarlet legs, while another was sporting particularly bushy white eyebrow streaks. They are meant to be quite rare, but we have seen about 6 of them now. These two were zooming round the flax plants over the hills at top speed. I'm not sure what the one had done to offend the other, but they were really going for it, like marathon racers. It was hilarious to watch!
We visited the seals again before we left, seeing them plop in and out of the water and heave up onto the rocks from the foamy sea. The little ones were playing together and racing about quite fast, considering their transportation limitations on the land. A few were still just sunbathing as they had been the day before!
We also ran into a fellow campervan driver we had met in Nelson, so had a brief catch-up and then we moved on.
We drove down the coast and got to the Punakaiki National Park, where we parked up in order to sea a biazarre natural phenomenon. This was spectacular - Pancake Rocks! It occurs when limestone and mudstone layer up and the mudstone is eroded, leaving limestone 'pancakes'. The sea, gushing in and out of the rocks at high tide (minutely calculated so we could see them at their best! Skills!) was awesome! The rocks have formed giant blowholes and cave systems, so you could stand and watch a huge wave swoop into the rocks and then boom out of the blowhole in a resounding crash. It was excellent and the walkway was pretty cool too, weaving in and out of the rocks. Back in the carpark, we encountered Wekas again, hiding in the bushes around our car. They are so curious, they come out and start tapping at the car and giving you the oddest looks.
We continued along the coastal road, which was beautiful, with views right out across the waves. We stopped for lunch and once again, practically stumbled on an entire Weka nest. This was a huge (comparatively speaking) complex of flax plants with their leaves woven together to make rounded dens. Inside, was the parents, the aunts and uncles, as well as a few chicks and an adolescant bird. The teen was a total poser, stealing bread from Alex and then dancing about for my camera. The chicks were tiny, fluffy black things on legs and stoof in the shadows of the nest, chirping. The father was a massive one with angry red legs and big feet. The others were delicate looking and speckled brown and rushed in and out of the flax stealing bread.
We reached Greymouth, one of the only settlements of any sizable note down this side of South Island (due again to the Gold Rush) and had some amazing fish and chips while sitting on the jetty looking out at the whitebait fishers. They are all obsessive over a minute little white fish, which has a fishing season of about one month. They all sit there with their nets for hours - whitebait is a delicacy round here, although we have yet to sample any, due to its massive cost for what seems like a tiny herring.
After Greymouth, we moved on to Hokitika, the last proper town before Invercargill on the very bottom of the South Island. Here we stocked up on groceries and petrol before finding a remote spot to settle for the night. It poured all night long with ferocious intensity, the winds howling around the car. It was so dark it was impossible to see anything, although, amusingly, we did catch sight of a Weka poking the tyres just before the light faded!

Today then, we awoke to blue skies and a burning heat from the sun! After a quick breakfast, we went back into Hokitika to do some craft sighting. We wandered round a gold nugget museum/shop/gallery and marvelled at how incredibly expensive it was. Then we sauntered round some jade carvings (this is one of the prime jade supply areas in the whole of NZ). We watched a glass craftsman working at the furnace and curling the molten glass into shining curls representing ferns. Lastly, we visited a Kiwi House, where they have a captive breeding program to see these birds. As they are the national emblem of NZ, and many other random NZ creatures were there too, we had a look in. We saw tuataras, which have not changed since the dinosaurs and which can live for over 300 years! Also, giant eels being fed, which was horrible. They are such manky creatures - nasty to think they were in the cave water we tubed down in Waitomo! Then we saw the Kiwis. They are crazy birds! We are glad we have seen them, because if we had heard their call in the forest, alone in the car in the middle of the night...well, suffice to say they sound like someone being murdered, horribly. They are so loud! It is the noise used for the raptors in the Jurassic Park films. They skitter about in the dark, running with such an odd gait and scuffle noise. They have ridiculously long beaks which they poke into the ground looking for bugs. They make funny grumbling, huffing noises too. Freaky if we come across them in the wild, in the dark!
After leaving Hokitika, we drove down towards the glacier country -this road hugs into the Southern Alps instead of the coastline. Cue more twisty bendy roads. Also, bizarrely, the straightest flattest road we have yet come across. It is as if the Romans turned up, tutted at the NZ natives roads and went to work to show them how its done.
Now, we are in Franz Josef! We can see a solid river of white ice creeping down between two mountains and the sky is crystal blue. The sun is actually burningly hot, but strangely, there is still drizzle. We are going to have a snack and a walk down to the glacier. Then onto Fox glacier, which is our chosen destination for some glacier high jinks!

Seals

2009-10-21T13:47:00.000+13:00

I write this from a sun-soaked beach, bathed in the last rays of the day as the sun sinks behind the granite boulders lining the shore.
It has been a good day. We awoke in the benighted campsite at which we stayed last night and were immediately plagued by the sandflies again. After fully taking advantage of the site's superior cooking facilities (more than one cooking ring! Luxury!) we drove away from 4 River Holiday Park, hopefully forever! The drive took us to the West Coast country, an area which got ever more dramtically beautiful the further we went through it. The mountains grew larger, the forests denser and the river we followed was nothing short of immense.
The Buller Gorge and river (the Maori name for which means 'deep and swift') is a granite lined area of curvy boulders, huge swathes of water-cut rock and tumbling waterfalls. The river itself is blue and rapid, with white curlicues all over the surface. We followed this round to the Buller Gorge Swingbridge, the longest in NZ.
Feeling akin to Indiana Jones, we took to the bridge in single file (it was very narrow). Balancing on the thin bits of metal, swaying high over a swishing river and very hard-looking rocks was a great experience, if mildly nervewracking. Once safely over the other side, we embarked upon a track through the rainforest.
This took us along a vaguely well-travelled path lined with boardwalks looking out across the fault line revealed by an old earthquake. We then decided to take another track, leading past open mine shafts and remaining gold claims. This track had probably only been traversed once, in the distant past and was more like an intense trek through the rainforest.
Still, we got to see a fair bit of gold country as it was before the rush caused everything to be cut down and forced to go into regeneration. The West Coast was primarily colonised in the first place due to gold and so it was a glimpse of days gone by.
Just to prove how long it was since someone last took this path, the promised bench at the end of it was nothing more than a rotten plank merging with the forest hillside behind it!
Having safely made it out of the rainforest and ended up, miraculously, where we had parked the car, we had lunch. We also had, (no exageration) 100 flies join us in the car for lunch. So ensued a grimy and horrible massacre, of which neither of us is proud (well, maybe Alex is, a bit. He has a thing against flying bugs.) Anyway, now our car is littered with insect corpses, so we had to have a clean out but somewhere where more wouldn't just come in. We drove on, admiring the beautiful surroundings and crazy roads (cliff hugging road over a raging torrent anyone? Or how about a lofty viaduct soaring over a granite cliff into the mists of the river?)
We stopped to have a brush out and a doze, as the tramping about earlier had tired us out. Then we continued on our way to Westport. This town is another grid system, based on American architecture and generally odd looking due to its mix of styles.
We continued through to the Tauhanga Beach, to go seal watching. There is a rookery (breeding spot) for NZ fur seals here and we came to see them. This section of the drive was stunning and we have both fallen in love with the area. Coastal views accross the sea, out to rugged granite formations in a haze of seaspray and blinding sunshine.
The hills are gentle and low, covered in Herakeke (Maori for flax, which they use for everything) and palm trees. After a brief walk, we came to the viewing platform.
The seals were so gorgeous! The rocks below formed a sort of natural enclosure, with rock pools and little watrefalls over bigger rocks when the tide spilled over. The seals themselves were almost indistinguishable from the rocks, but you can start to pick them out as they move. They were all draped accross the rocks, bathing in the sunshine. Their coats had gleaming highlights where the sun was catching the hairs and they got up every so often and flopped off over the rocks in that unmistakable seal-gait. This time of year, they are mostly weanig off last years pups and giving birth to new ones. There were some tiny seals playing on the rocks. One crept over the rock and looked as if it were worried about the drop to the next rock. In actual fact, it was planning a jump onto its companion!
Since then we have parked up for the night, by the sea. We had dinner and are just sitting, watching the sun go down now. It is by far the most beautiful place we have yet come across.

Also, in exciting news, today our speedo reached 2000km! We have been travelling for a month now and it just keeps getting better!

Net connection is a bit unreliable, so this is yesterdays post - if we have any net tonight I'll do a post of today - pancake rocks and wekas, anybody?

Chores

2009-10-19T21:24:00.000+13:00

Today, I awoke, bright and early at 7am. Alex was just crawling back to bed having got up at the crazy hour of 4am to stream the F1 race and possible championship-decider onto the pc for live viewing from Brazil. As such, while I was rustling up breakfast (Milo cereal and our fabulous new discovery, powdered milk!) to assuage the hunger, he was curled up in the duvet, his head barely visible. In fact, its possible he transformed into a duvet, as the only real Alex-identifiying feature was the voice that mumbled out of it every so often in response to my chattering.
Once we were both awake and fed, the morning began in earnest. We headed off out of Nelson to find the recommended mechanics on from Tahunanui Beach. After abandoning poor Newt to the car doctor, we wandered off into the industrial district (which is where we now found ourselves) and tried to amused ourselves for an hour. This was not too hard, as we found a Homebase-style warehouse to walk around gawping at patio furniture. Luckily, it also had a brilliant little cheap cafe inside too, so after boring of the furniture (0.5 seconds) we had coffee and chai. Yum. We also had an in-depth discussion of English Politics for some random reason, much to the interest of the friendly staff who thought it amusing that we both had 'Kent' on our clothes and had also lived in Kent. We are both thinking of getting new jumpers, or else working out some sort of advertising fee from UKC for our patriotic duties overseas.
Back at the garage, we discovered the mechanic had replaced the battery which was epically destroyed and also some of the cables which were frosted in green and blue battery acid. Even better, he sorted it all out for us and charged Spaceships the bill, which they agreed to, as they should, since we had nothing to do with it. Thank-you Spaceships! On we drove.
Into town again we popped back to the library in order to re-charge and continue looking at the books. It was during this time however, that Nelson struck us. Out of the window, I saw the ticket guy at the car. We tried, we failed, we were ticketed. Grr.
Deciding Nelson was no longer for us, we abandoned New Zealand's 2nd oldest settlement and headed towards Westport, as the weather seemed set to stay rainy for the next week and so we will come back to Abel Tasman on the way up again. Bizarrely, we were assured, yet again, by the native Kiwi mechanic that 'this weather is not usual' and no-one knows why its raining so much. We know. It is because we came. Soon, we shall patent this and become millionaires, as we can induce countries to rain even if they are in draught. Oz is going to worship as as gods when we get there and it starts pouring.
The drive took us through increasingly rugged mountains, limestone jags playing host to millions of tiny waterfalls, all meeting up in the Buller River. We have stopped for the night at a campsite (5 days without a shower is more than people living in a small enclosed space should have to bear) and will continue on the road tomorrow.
Argh. This campsite. I shall find out what its name is when we leave so it can be properly shamed.
We drive in, pay a surprisingly cheap rate, pull up in a spot. It is practically empty, all well and good. It seems like a nice place. There is a view over the gorge and river, the other side looks over forested mountains. It is all to lull you into a false sense of security. I go for my long-awaited shower. First, I spend about 15 minutes walking all round the massive site just trying to locate the showers. When I finally find them, they are not the luxury I was hoping for. A metre square cubicle, with badly locking door. A slippery floor and freezing cold air. No lights at all. To make this dark box of cold misery worse...the shower was on a timer! Two dollars for SIX minutes! Daylight robbery. Or in this case, dark robbery. Grr. What was even worse, is after Alex got back from his shower, looking unbelievably relaxed and pleased with himself, he had managed to find the closet thing to Heaven in a shower on the other side of the campsite. The meter was broken, so he paid no money for it. It was entirely not fair. I dislike the campsite.
There are also sandflies. Many of them. This is amusing, as Alex has taken to sitting clasping the open jar of Marmite to him, to ward off the blighters. He dislikes Marmite, but so do the flies. He makes faces. It is hilarious.

Flying

2009-10-18T15:40:00.001+13:00

In a rush of air, we tipped away from the platform. Strapped into what was essentially a comfy chair, wearing crazy hats for no particular reason, we set out across the forested mountains. This time however, we were not in a car at ground level, but over 150 metres above the canopies, with views over the mountains to pastureland glowing green in the afternoon light and even over to the turquoise waters lapping at the sand in a far away bay. It was so tranquil that high up and even at 92 miles an hour, the forward zoom of our flying fox ride was in no way, shape or form scary, just brilliant fun and a new perspective on the landscape we've been driving around so much. We took the ride at Happy Valley just outside Nelson, it is the longest zipwire in the world at 1 mile long.
It was excellent to fly over the treetops in the sunshine.

However, now it is raining again. Shocking, I know. We decided that Sunday deserved a special breakfast so we sat and made apple pancakes in the carpark, which attracted a few odd looks from early morning dogwalkers. Its a popular spot for random walkers - turns out we are very close to the geographical centre of NZ! Trust us to not realise despite reading through the guidebooks and million or so leaflets repeatedly. So we shall probably go and have a look at the exact center a bit later. In the meantime we had an issue: the darn car stopped working again. This time round, it was not even our fault! Nothing was on that should not have been, there was no logical reason for the car battery to have died. Logical reasons however, do not matter to cars. At all.
The AA guy suggested we get it checked out at an electricians, so we have to go first thing tomorrow morning. Luckily, we were not really planning on moving on instantly anyway. Our hopeful next destination, Abel Tasman, really depends on gorgeous weather so we are in no rush to leave for the National Park in the drizzle.
For the rest of today then, we are here in Nelson, hanging out in the library. This is good, as it gets us out of the car where we are usually trapped when it rains, and it also puts us in the path of books, which have been missed due to slim packing.

Oh! We finally opened the CookieTime packet and those cookies definately live up to their advertising promise. So good. Good thing they are the size of small plates, and come in packs of nine.

Nelson

2009-10-16T19:07:00.000+13:00

Today, we awoke and somehow entered into an hour+ long debate about the pros and cons of war in the modern world. Over beakfast. Yes, we are a bit strange.
Anyways, once we had theoretically found satisfactory answers to the worlds major problems, we went into Nelson to visit the largest bead stockest in the world. Doesn't sound very exciting, but this place was a treasure trove. Over 10,000 different types of beads, ranging from a 1 cent plastic bauble to a 1000 dollar Roman pottery shard with a hole drilled through the top. Sacrilage to the archaeologist within of course, but pretty nifty as well! The idea follows th eline that you pick out your beads, play with them for a while to make a design you like, string it all together with the help of the in-store jeweller team and then walk away with your own personally designed piece of jewellery. This was very exciting. I am now the proud owner of a hemaetite, paua shell, teal and red venetian glass necklace with silver fixings. Its pretty, it reminds me of NZ and it was bargainous too! Alex was bamboozled by the choice of beads available, so decided not to make anything in the end. The guys beads did tend towards the bone material, which he was not too fond of.
After caving in and buying a giant pizza for lunch (you never know how much you will miss oven baked food until you lack an oven!) which we ate by the beach, we decided to go in search of adventure.
We found it. Booked into an afternoons quadbiking, we have spent the majority of today hurtling around a boulder strewn, muddy, wet, sheep infested mountain at high speed on top of hulking red quadbikes the size of a small rhino. It was excellent fun! SO exhilarating, we have decided to get quadbikes ourselves at the first opportunity. We had a picnic on top of the mountain with our guide Greg, who was brilliant and gave us informative and funny commantary about the German Princess who owns the island you could see offshore. I even managed to jump a ditch and fly over it, all four wheels off the ground! Alex and Greg were amazed.
Also, Greg found out about my love of lambs and took us to see a newborn that had popped out one hour previously. It was so small and wobbly on its legs! Then he took us to a small enclosure on the farm where they kept lambs that had been rejected and let us hold one lamb each. It had really soft ears, and tiny ringlets, and made small 'Maaaing' noises.
This whole day has been awesome. We are parked up at the Miyazu gardens again, ready to head into town tomorrow morning for the famous Saturday Market.

Hope everyone is good! Thank-you very much for the lovely comments about my writing! :)

South

2009-10-15T18:59:00.000+13:00

Wahey! Okay, so we got to Wellington, both instantly fell under its spell and then realised one very annoying fact. Wellington, by car, is a bad thing. The streets are narrow, car-lined, turny and steep. There is no free parking, or even cheap parking. So in a shock spontaneous decision, we booked passage on a ferry to the South Island for that evening and jumped aboad. We are making plans to return on a city tour (sans inconvienient car) in late November. In the meantime, we were on one of the most picturesque and famous ferry cruises in the world.
The three hour journey took us through the choppy aquamarine waters of the Cook Strait and then into the Queen Charlotte Sounds, thickly forested inlets and mountains, all aglow in the evening light. We arrived in Picton at about 9.30 and drove off into the night.
Luckily, we found a spot to pull over in for the night quite quickly and then marvelled at the densely packed sky. At night, the pitch black above is scattered with stars, so many more than in the Northern Hemisphere. With no recognisable constellations, but a clear view of the Milky Way we spent a while trying to take long exposure shots from the roof of the car.

The next morning, we set off in the sunshine and drove through the mountainous regions out of Picton and towards Nelson. We decided to take a random road off the main highway towards Okiwi Bay in the hope of good scenery. Well, the road was so crazily bendy it was like constant deja vu. Seriously, curve around one bend and you are staring into the face of another, identical bend. It made both our heads dizzy. With a bit of a drop on the one side, and a landslide prone cliff on the other, we were climbing further and further up a mountain with no visible destination. Eventually, we even hit a cloud, and could see no further than about 10 metres in any direction. It made for exciting driving!
We made it (in one piece) to Okiwi Bay to discover...a sleepy village with a large, beautiful bay, sheltered by forested mountains wreathed in mist and a pebble beach covered in creamy pink and purple shells. We set up for the night at the local holiday park, as large signs forbade us from parking anywhere else and we were not driving back up that road in the dark!
We happily ate banana cake purchased earlier that day ( and meant to last for a good few days to come, ahem) and planned the next few days ahead.

Today, we left the campsite and drove back down the mountain, which was happily mist-free. After seeing nothing but trees for kilometres, we arrived in Nelson. Nelson is a beach town filled with arts and crafts in an established wine region. After arriving, we headed straight for the supermarket, this time an alive and kicking Woolworths, although with green instead of red.After a substantial restocking of our Spaceship's larder (in which we have now included classic Kiwi buys such as 'CookieTime', 'Milo' cereal and 'Pineapple Chews' for long car journeys) we headed to Tahunanui beach to enjoy the sun. This beach was especially engaging, due to the view - overlooking the long golden sands and the clear waves, were giant snowy peaked mountains. It was quite bizarre, but spectacular at the same time. We sat for a while, building a garden of shells before moving on.
We decided to visit the WOW museum, an oddly coincedental pairing of interests that had our names on it. 'WOW' - or 'World of WearableArt' is a gallery combining wearable art pieces as well as a classic and vintage car collection. Wow is the right word - the costumes are so fantastically detailed and so creatively put together that they are amazing to behold. The exhibition was cleverly done, and the clothes held both Alex and I entranced. One dress was made exclusively of recycled clear plastic, another was constructed of geometric triangles. One was made of over 1000 Chinese paper fans, while yet another was crafted from gleaming metal. The range was inspiring and it would be a fun, if intensive competition to enter. On the car side, they were literal carriages with engines instead of horse, shiny and powerful. We looked them over, but they could hardly compare to the genius of the WearableArt.
With hunger starting to stir and a need to find a place to sleep encroaching on our afternoon, we drove out to the Miyazu Gardens, a Japanese garden on the outskirts of Nelson. After touring the garden in its meditative state, we have parked up in the carpark and are set to cook our dinner. Then, we shall have to sample the CookieTime. We have already seen full size planes completely coated in pictures of these cookies, so they better meet expectations!

Interesting

2009-10-12T21:58:00.000+13:00

Today, we have been doing the long drive down from Tongariro National Park, where Mt Ruapehu is situated, down towards Wellington. We are south of Levin at the moment, having holed up for the night before continuing onto the capital tomorrow. As such, most of todays highlights include continued sightings of lambs (at which I coo gratuitously and Alex licks his lips), lots of white cars turning up out of nowhere (seriously, why are all Kiwi cars white?) and us running out of all food excepting breakfast. So, instead I include a little selection of interesting things we have noticed here;
1. Cillit Bang, of the product that provides brilliant amusment value with its adverts, is found in NZ too, but under the name of Bam!
2. About nine out of every ten Kiwis has a personalised number plate on their car. Favourites include: OD1, LUVM3, R0YA1 and SK1.
3. The supermarket we have been patronising, Pak 'n' Save, has bright yellow and black insignia and resembles the unlikely offspring of an Ikea Warehouse and a LIDLs. If flat pack furniture and random Eastern European produce had children, of course.
4. The radio has just gleefully pronounced the results of a survey on accents in which the Kiwi accent was rated as second after British most attractive English-speaking accent.
5. The place we have parked tonight is a random field. Insignificent apart from the two magnificent roosters that are waiting outside the doors of the car. They follow us around when we leave the car. They stare at us from right outside the windows. Our only relief from their baleful glares is now to be found in darkness.
6. These are not the only bizarre birds hanging about strange places. We came across a turkey, happily grazing at the side of a road, no farmstead or any other turkeys to be seen. Not to mention all the other crazy, weird and wonderful birds that NZ has just casually strolling about.

That is all I can remember right now.
Alex has been working on a googlemap that shows our trip in detail, which is a cool little detail we'll add to the blog when its complete.
So far 1350km over the North Island, onto Wellington tomorrow!

Mountain

2009-10-11T20:14:00.002+13:00

Delay due to unprecedented number of mountains in the area...no internet signal.

Now, lets get this straight. I am not a religious person, but yesterday, I found myself practically preying. We'll get to that in a moment.
Yesterday started, cold and grey. We decided to head to Mt. Ruapehu as Taupo is a dead loss when its raining. The rain was so dense we didn't even realise we were surrounded by mountains until the morning when the sky cleared!
We piled on the clothing, after I was frogmarched to a camping store to purchase thermals. Honestly.
We drove up through the outskirts of the Tongariro National Park and turned a corner and BAM! Instant transformation from lush green forested mountains to huge, rugged white-capped peaks, wreathed in clouds.
We hot footed it up the mountain, following a nerve-wracking track with sheer drop-offs on either side and boulders the size of sofas casually propping up the side of the road after avalanches. Thick snow started to appear, we climbed up above the clouds.

I have never seen so much snow. Ever. A good 6 foot drift leant against the buildings, some of the slopes were just thick, powdered white. It was like walking through diamonds.
Ruapehu is an active volcano - the last eruption was in 2007! There are avalanche warnings peppering the mountainside and posters of surviving eruptions in the toilets.
Due to a gale that morning, the mountain was pretty much closed off unless you wanted to slide down it on a tray or in a bucket. We walked up it a little way.
Alex sunk up to above his knees at one point. That was hilarious. It was tiring walking!
We decided such effort meant we deserved a meal at the mountain snack shop and had some tasty hot food while hopefully waiting for the rental shop to open. Alas, it didn't, but we got Alex a groovy hat after extensive surveying of every hat-like option.
On the drive down, we passed a few signs for random tramp treks. One was for Tawhai Falls. We pulled up and went for a trek through the bush to look for the waterfall.
Along the way we found several semi-inebriated Americans. Semi-naked, semi-inebraited Americans. They were pysching themselves up for a leap over the waterfall, plummeting down to the icy (and I mean icy - snow trickling straight off the mountain as the source) water below.
At the base of the pool, I set up with my camera to take some pictures of the crazy people...possibly for their insurance company to look over later.
After they had all (miraculously) survived, not only the jump but the freezing water below which turned them all an interesting shade of blue, I turned to Alex.
'I want to do that' he says. Hence the preying.
Resigned to his need to throw himself off a 20m cliff over a waterfall, I armed myself with a hot water thermos, two towels and my camera. May as well record his last moments after all. I also needed to something to concentrate on, so I wouldn't yell 'Don't jump!' at the last moment and throw off his aim.
So prepared, we went to the Falls again. Alex whipped off his clothes and stood, only in his boardshorts at the top of the cliff, to the extreme consternation of a foreign couple standing there too (within the barrier). I rushed down to the pool and set up my camera. Another couple looked at me oddly as I scrambled over the rocks to be closer, with no doubt a slightly feverish looki in my eyes. They realsied why all of ten seconds later, when with a cheery wave, Alex launched himself off the top and tumbled in to he depths below!

Thankfully, the Americans had already prooved in their numerous numbers that the pool was deep enough for such antics, pretty much wherever you landed.
Alex survived and was duly covered in towels and force fed hot drinks.
Once the adrenaline had ceased to course quite so recklessly, we both sat on the roof of Newt and enjoyed the last rays of the evening sunshine gleaming on the peak of the mountain in front of us.
We stayed in a nearby camp park in order to get rid of our growing washing pile, have hot showers and charge all our gadgets.

There are three colours 2000m up on a mountain. The intense luminous blue of the sky, the blinding brilliance of the snow and the earthy borwn of the volcanic rock.
Today, we re-donned our warm clothes (never actually took them off, it was a very, very cold night) and drove back up the mountain. We hired snowboards, purchased our chairlift pass and awaited our instructor. After a 2 hour lesson, we were released on the slopes.
First off, snow is inordinately slippery, more so if you strap giant, flat boards to your feet. Second, once down, you have to get inventive in order to get back up again. Lastly, if you can't stop properly...you will get up close and personal with more snow than you ever realised existed.
Alex pretty much got into the flow of it instantly, due no doubt (as he keeps reasuring me) to his ten year experience with skateboards. I have the balance (just). I also have the weird desire to speed over snow. What I lack is any other ability. To stop, I chuck myself onto the ground. I find this technique works for me best because it has prevented me flying off the random, no barrier sharp and fast turns of the beginner slope. Yes, for some random reason the beginner slope is mental and aimed at weeding out the rubbish comapred to the amateur through Darwin-like principles of Survival of the Fittest.
After a while of landing in the snow every 3 metres, I was starting to get irate. It was beginning to hurt. However, we took a break and Alex gave me some tips, which made so much more sense than the instructors did. Anyways, so I was happily doing my zigzag turning down the slope when I stacked it again. No problem, except some out of control 6 year old and his dad on a solid plastic sledge were coming up behind me. At speed. 6 year olds, it turns out, lack aim. So do their fathers. It hit me right in my lower back which equals pain! After establishing that I could still feel and move all my limbs, and Alex had been prevented from giving the father a yelling at, we sat at the edge for a while. I have rather nice bruise developing on my back now and I'm rather stiff, but thats probably from the general cold and exhertion. After all, I was sitting in a natural icepack at the time!
We took a break from the slopes, then I returned my gear while Alex went down again, then we went on the chairlifts, towards to top of the mountain. We weren't allowed our gear up there anyway, as beginners, but we saw the epically beautiful scenery and admired the super-pros (who still fall!)

It was rather chilly, the snow was deep, icicles were forming down the sides of buildings and rocks. After hot drinks in the cafe, with sweeping views accross the valley, we headed back down the mountain and back to the car.
It was a gorgeous day, apparently the best of the season! Oooh, fun fact: the next mountain across the valley was the mountain used as Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings.

The comments problem is now fixed so comment away! Don't forget to sign up to google and follow this blog.
New pics have also been added.

Lakeside

2009-10-08T20:35:00.000+13:00

We had stuff to sort out this morning, so we traversed the electricity stores of Rotorua looking for cigerette lighter power adapters to charge gadgets on the go...luckily, we found one! Now we just need to keep the car...
We were going to head to Whakarewarewa for some Maori cultural interaction, but we decided to delay that until its warmer, on the basis that we just could not take the smell of Rotorua any longer.
Instead, we headed out for Taupo.
One of the Maori myths goes along the basis that the son of the Earth and Sky, upon pushing his parents apart to create the world, floated along in his canoe on the water. He caught a giagantic fish. The South Island is his canoe, the North is the fish. Lake Taupo is meant to be the heart of the fish.

We are currently pulled up alongside this lake, at another of these free parking areas for vans. We have a view right out over the lake, complete with friendly ducks who have been following Alex about like devoted disciples. While I relax next to the lake, after my tasty (if cold, due to gas running out as meal was cooking...) dinner of pasta, tomato sauce and vege sausages (Yes! They have them here too! Not Quorn though, these ones are not so yum. In fact, kind of grim. Alex reckons they are pretty near identical to real sausages though. Called VegeDelight, which should have been suspicious from the start), I shall tell you about our journey.
Up hill and down dale yet again, we passed through a landscape of very high, very oddly shaped mountains, some even with snow glistening on the top. We diverted whenever the fancy took us. As such, we visited the Waikite Hot Pools.
These were brilliant. Six pools, public access, all of varying temperatures from 30 degrees to 46. Heaven. We soaked in the heat and looked around at the surrounding mountains and rainforest. Its a good life.
We also, bizarrely, met an alumnus from Kent Uni, circa 20 years ago! After a while reminiescing and comparing destinations, we sang a short round of 'Its a small world after all' and continued our merry way around the pools.
Continuing our journey down to Taupo, we were driving through dense fir forests when, wonder of wonders, we passed a field containing not one, but two alpacas! One caramel coloured, the other creamy, they responded to our whistles and pranced about for us a bit.
At another stop, we discovered more information than we ever thought existed about bees (thereby arming me with the credentials to back up my 'beekeeper' status should it become necessary...) and tasted about 10 different types of honey. Alex was going to move onto tasting the meads, but the place was closing for the night, so we figured we should get on. We purchased some Manuka and Burbage honey and hit the road again, reaching Taupo around 5.30.
We found the spot recommended by our fellow campers from yesterday and made friends with the new ones next to us here. Now for a spot of planning for tomorrow.

We have sorted and selected a few photos to put on FLickr - when we went to add more yesterday, *shock, horror* but we had exceeded the monthly upload already (three days in) and we had already filled half the account. So we are re-sorting for a bit of a Spring clean, as it were. Fitting, considering every other field contains lambs and calves, the ponds are full of ducklings and the ground is covered in bluebells and tulips. It is a little bizarre to be going into Spring instead of Autumn, but as such, the temperature has not yet differed from that we would be experiencing back home.

Please comment, we'd love to hear from you!

Pools
Bees

Adventure

2009-10-07T21:55:00.003+13:00

Today has been a busy one.
We woke at 9, to brilliant blue skies and sunshine. We decided to zoom off straight away to get to a geyser that spouts at exactly 10.15am every morning. We even skipped breakfast in order to get there on time! What is the world coming to.
Anyhow, we got the location of the Geyser a little confused, and ended up up Hells Gate instead. This is a national park-like area which, for a small fee, allows you to wander the environs of typical Geothermal landscaped. I say wander - the gist of the sign at the entrance reads:
'Enter at own peril. DO NOT under any circumstances, even to rescue a puppy, leave the path, or you WILL fall through the thin crust into a fiery, steaming cave of sulphourous Hell torture.'

Like I say though, it was sunny so we continued on (though we did keep to the path). The land is bleached, parched white and grey with powdery yellow-green crystals huddling about the steaming craters and pools of intensely bubbling mud. The noise of popping, spludging goop at high temperatures, combined with the sulpherous steam was distinctly unnerving. Neither Alex or I can imagine why, on seeing that place for the first time, the Maori's first urge was to get into the water and take a bath.
There was a Maori guy at the end of the park, offering to give basic instruction in Maori carving, so I had a go and successfully (its recognisable...) carved myself a Maori stylised shark, meaning 'strength'.
We got back on the road and went to Okere Falls. It used to be used as a water turbine, now is a wild water rafting experience. We watched some rafts go over the 9m falls and explored the caves and surrounding forest. We also went searching for trout in the pools.
We stopped for lunch at the side of Lake Rotoiti, which means 'Little Lake' in Maori. The sun caught the min wavelets and made them sparkle. It was quite idyllic.

In the afternoon, we headed for Hanumana Spring. This place was magical. A stand of giant Redwoods kept the air light, cool and smelling of foliage in a pleasantly green manner. The ground was spongy with bracken and it led us on a lovely walk to the spring.

This was fascinating - a 15m rock hole, underwater, with water serenely welling out of it-a million gallons an hour! Yet so quietly and softly! The water was so clear as well. The river walk on the way back - you could see right to the bottom of the river, and the water actuallyu appeared to be turquoise. Tiny bubbling springs lifted up grey sand and floated it around. Black swans posed and tussled for picture space on the surface. It was beautiful.
Back at our little camping spot on the sulphur plains, we have got some ideas for our next destination from our fellow campervanners, parked nearby. They have just arrived in Rotorua from Taupo, our next major relocation destination. It is sounding gooood!

Random

2009-10-06T17:03:00.000+13:00

There are a few things about NZ in general that have caught our notice and been variously left out or forgotten about for blog entries.

1. Owls are called Moreporks or Rurus.
2. There are some seriously gigantic moorhens round here. The size of geese!
3. The big articulated trucks look like multi-coloured dragons.
4. Some of the birds are tiny, and yellow and they graze in the grass like sheep.
5. There are loads of birds. We have seen one cat in the entire time we have been here. Lots of dogs...no predatory creatures.

Other than that;
5. You cannot physically imagine smell. Especially one as bad as the smell that hangs around Rotorua. Rotten eggs does not cut it. To really understand, you have to picture yourself in a beautiful garden, fragrant blooms, sunshine...then a sudden, unexpected gust of wind carrying a smell that turns your stomach upside down.
6. We turned out to be parked on the sulphur flats. Doh.

As to the horrible conditions of the past two days...we bought an extra duvet, a thermos flask and a large wodge of chocolate cake. What do you know, we woke up to sunshine and blue skies this morning, so the remedy of the chocolate cure-all is still alive and kicking!
We have wandered around Rotorua's Government Gardens today, looking at the boiling mud and splashing pools. The steam coming of the lakes has a stench, and the whole surrounding area is chalky white, yellow and dead looking. Manuka bushes surround, tangled and scrubby.
We spent the morning luxuriating in a hot pool, so hot when you get in it is like your skin in melting. Its a good feeling after the pain had dissipated. Makes you positively lightheaded however! Makes you hungry as well, despite our celebratory 'its sunny again' breakfast of French toast and caramelised apples.

Spaceship

2009-10-05T13:46:00.000+13:00

There have been loads of questions about the Spaceship - so here is a quick guide. Pictures will turn up, once we can charge the cameras!
Its a Toyota Lucida, automatic, bubble-like. It is also bright orange.
The back of the car is one giant storage unit, lifting up from within the car and holds our gear, our food and random junk. On top of the storage bits are foam bits that assemble to make a mattress. We can extend this out into a full size double bed by some nifty metal bars and wooden boards sliding together either over the middle chair, (which swings around to face forwards, backwards or out the side depending on what function you are going for), or out the back of the car. We have only extended it inwards so far, due to weather conditions. If it ever gets warm and sunny again, we have the option of an awning thing that can be attached over the back of the car.
There is a metal arm that swings out from the middle of the car and holds our gas cooker so we can make food. We have taken to using this out of the extended part of the back of the car instead, to shelter from rain when cooking.
The interior has curtains and lights, as well as a DVD player. If we see another Spaceship, we can swap our DVDs for theirs.

We have an alpha 2 berth, check it out on here:
www.spaceshipsrentals.co.nz

Monsoon

2009-10-05T13:31:00.000+13:00

Yesterday was a bad day. One of those days that tries you.
We slept for longer than usual, obviously subconsciously aware of the day ahead. Anyway, we set off from Waitomo at 10am, having looked around the local museum to learn about glow worms (!) and, brilliantly, gone to see the angora rabbits being sheared. These rabbits are huge, with a good 8 inches of soft, pure white fluff to dig your fingers into.
I heartedly wished I had stolen one later, as it would have provided much needed warmth.
Anyways, we set off on the 160km drive to Rotorua. It continued to rain, as it had done so all morning, getting stronger and heavier with every half hour. The inside of the car was steaming up, there was water everywhere...it was slow going. We pulled over with 65km to go to our destination and cooked up some lunch from the back of the car, using the trunk roof as shelter from the immense amounts of water cascading out of the sky.
Ready to get going again, we got in, tidied up and buckled up. The car would not start.
The battery was dead, the lights were on, the entire 30 minutes we had been sat there had destroyed our chances of getting away again. The water kept on coming.
We asked the friendly Canadian couple parked up a short distance away if they had any jump cables, and despite their best efforts and kind nature, that was a no-go. We called the AA.
After a very long and tedious phone call, in which they quizzed us on every aspect of the car and our location, they agreed to send someone out. We were both soaked through, and freezing cold.
The AA guy turned up pretty snappily but the battery gave up the ghost with its final spark of life...leaving us stuck in a steadily more lake-like field and with the electric window stuck in open mode. We rigged up a towel to keep the worst of the water out and sat around waiting for a brainwave.
Thankfully, the spaceship is equipped with two batteries, one for the driving and one for the inside lights and DVD player. The AA guy had been jump starting the spare one, not the dead one, hence no engine working. Once the engine was running, (but us not actually realising that this was the case - AA guy thought we just had a mentally wired up car) we were advised to drive to Rotorua, stop for no reason on pain of not being able to get going again, and find an electrician.
We realised the issue of the batteries, so did not need the electrician. Once parked up in the miserable gravel free camper place, we sorted the car, stowed all the wet stuff in a bag and tried to get warm and dry again. We even hosted our own fabulous cooking program, 'Cooking from the Boot' with your hosts, Alex and Emily! In the wind and rain, we concocted a giant amount of hot casserole type food which we have named 'Newt Stew' in honour of the car. Made up of kumara, apple, onion, rice, pasta, chilli beans and sauce, it was darn good and filled a hole.
Next came the coldest night ever, with us stowed under the duvet in trousers, socks, legwarmers, scarves, jumpers, hats and gloves. In the morning, it was still raining. Still is now as a matter of fact, and its 1.30pm!
I have never seen such amounts of water and all the natives we meet keep commenting on how this is the worst Spring in 20 years. Gah.

We smelt Rotorua before we saw it. Sulphurous fumes waft through the air, even when tamped down by rain. For those who don't know sulphur, that mean rotten egg smell...constantly, and stronger all the time. It is a grid system town, full of motels and neon. It looks like small-town America, as demonstrated by the many teen dramas played out on the TV in the UK. We are going to get our stuff together, try and sort out a way of charging up the gadgets, and hopefully, find some way to insure tonight is not as miserably cold.

Caves

2009-10-03T20:00:00.001+13:00

Cue your cannily fashionable morning wear - a neoprene body suit with fetching matching jacket, accessorized with a scarlet hard hat, a jazzy black and yellow harness and some funky-as green and black gumboots. (Unless you are Alex, in which case your wear blindingly white wellies. Point and laugh).
Get yourself attached to a cable and then throw yourself off of solid ground and abseil 37metres down a narrow, wet, creamy-white limestone hole. In the dark.
Once safely landing, and realising just how cold it is in a cave, go clambering over shards of spiky limestone. Look around you in wonderment as your headtorch lights up stalactites (down) and stalagmites (up).
Then jump off a ledge, in pitch black, strictly all torches off, attached to a zipwire in a cave filled with glow worms. Exhilarating does not cut it as descriptive enough.
Take a break drinking hot tea and supping on cake, kindly brought down by the guides. Swing your legs over the edge of the ledge, not knowing what is below. Then, once tea is done, grab a giant inflatable tube and launch yourself off again, landing in the water far below with an ear-rending crash.
I kid you not, but this water was cold. It redefined the meaning of the word cold. I have never been so freezing cold.
After hauling ourselves through the water, we stopped and floated, turning off our torches and allowing the current to take us back. It was like floating on a gondola through space. Thousands of twinkly glow worms, blue-green phosphorescent pinpricks of light, adorned the walls of the cave like brilliant constellations.
So much so awe-inspiring however. Next up, we trekked further underground, down narrow tunnels lined with spiky limestone. I am amazed that my hands are only mildly pink, instead of ripped to shreds as I thought they would be.
We leapt over a waterfall, plummeting down several metres and in my case especially, submerging myself so deeply my headtorch went out and left me bobbing around in the dark, swirling water.Luckily, the guide, Lloyd, was on hand to pull me up again.
Crazily enough, we had done so well we were ahead of our time, so our guides took us on an alternate route out of the caves. First, we shimmied along a narrow (half a metre at best) tunnel, using our knees and backs to stay upright. Then, we scurried through a tube-like tunnel, heads down, hands in the mud. We trawled through a cavern where the ceiling became so low, we ended up going along with one eye out of the water and the rest of us completely submerged. Nerve-wracking, to say the least!
At the end of this crazy escapade, we had a choice - the tranquil way out, or the dangerous way out. Obviously, all being of sane disposition, we choose the mad, bad and mental way out.
We climbed our way up two separate waterfalls, water gushing down in a veritable torrent, slippery rocks providing the tiniest of hand and footholds, torches flickering and distorting the light. Finally, there was daylight at the end of the tunnel. We had successfully climbed over 70 metres out of the dark, dank, freezing depths into the light of day. The sense of achievement and satisfaction is unreal.
We have celebrated our success with a massive pub dinner.
That caving trip, was quite simply an awesome experience. Waitomo Caves, and in particular the Black River Rafting Co. were beyond expectation.
Pictures are in the slideshow on Flickr, to the right. Check them out!

Hot

2009-10-02T20:38:00.000+13:00

Hamilton gardens were beautiful, sweeping lawns in that vibrant green I now associate with New Zealand. After lunch, we went on exploring and looked through the Paradise Gardens, which were recreations of gardens in different cultures, including India, Japan, China, England and Modernist America. I was very excitable by all the macro photo opportunities and have now got way too many shots of flowers...
We settled up in the gardens carpark for the night after walking through the forest, along the Waitikere River and looking at a random Russian log cabin which I now wish to occupy. We sat out on the lawns for our dinner (chilli) and watched The Bourne Ultimatum once it got dark.
Come morning, we woke to blue skies and sunshine and, although I also had a bit of a snuffly nose as well, we set off in reasonable spirits. Our aim was Te Awamutu and from there onto Pirongia.On the way we drove through Cambridge, which hosted Roche St.!
After attempting to get into the Pirongia Forest Park, we decided it was a giant conspiracy as each road sign directing us there took us instead closer to Raglan again! In the end, we gave in to fate and drove back through Raglan. This turned out to be a worthy sidetrack - today, Raglan was gorgeously sunny and the sea a gentle azure blue. We stopped for lunch ('Gunod' (?) fish and chips and ginger beer. It was yummy, especially considering the view - right over the harbour from the wharf, mountains in the distance and even an old fashioned pirate ship.
Our next destination was Kawhia. We embarked upon the road, edging the coastline and experienced the most mental road we have so far stumbled upon. The roads so far have been wide, smooth and easy to drive, with twists and turns to keep it exciting. Times this by 20, and you have the Kawhia road. Gravel as apposed to tarmac, stomach-clenching edges, head-turning heights, landslides...I loved it and now want to do a quadbike or 4WD adventure. The scenery exposed us to dark green fir forests lining the pastoral hillsides which got more and more rugged. The sheep appeared to be wearing wollen knickerbockers and the lambs (Spring again!) gambled across sheared-off rock and streams. Where landslides had occurred, the sides of the road were deep, intense ochre colour. We stopped off a few times to get pics of the surroundings and take a break from the jiggling about in the car, like ping pong balls.
The whole time, the only other vehicles we saw were three seperate quadbikes - crewed by ten+ kids. I have no idea where the adults are in this area, but the kids have the run of the place.
We arrived in Kawhia and parked up. The sand was black, with a purply sheen and so unbelievably soft and silky on the feet. We climbed the dunes and viewed the sea. We had heard that Kawhia was a hot water beach. The water was very, very cold. We met some other trippers who had been digging about and found nothign but cool water. We grabbed sticks and started digging our own patches of sand around the vast beach. After a good hour or so of hunching over the sand and stabbing away with twisted sun-bleached sticks, steam started to pour out of the ground. We dug faster. The water filling the hole was boiling hot. Alex actually burnt himself. Quickly, we opened up the ground, making a round, shallow pool of steaming hot water. The air was freezing cold, the wind biting, but we could not resist the thought of a hot bath after three days living out of a car.
There is nothing so good as luxuriating in your own personal, natural jacuzzi on a windblown beach.
The walk back to the car however, was coooold! After a change of clothes and a snack, we set out yet again. This time, we headed for a shop Alex had previously found on the net, which promised free overnight stays to campers. Having arrived, we made up our macoroni cheese and viewed the misty mountains. After popping into Bill and Brenda's for cookies, we found out just how generous Kiwi's can be.
They have given us a ready-brewed hot water supply, allowed me to charge all my gadgets, given us use of the washing machine and laundry line, the shower and, they even taped the F1 and are allowing us to sit in their closed cafe so I can blog and Alex can watch the practice sessions in Japan. The wind outside is blowing such a gale that the car is acually rocking gently, so to be safe and warm inside is brilliant. The cookies are flippin' amazing too.
Tomorrow, we plan to head to Otarohanga and Waitomo, to get some caving adventure time. Glowworms should be sighted with any luck. Today has been amazing. Tomorrow can only get better.

Roadtrip

2009-10-01T12:06:00.000+13:00

There is a permanent curtain of water descending from the skies.
Yesterday, we passed from the Auckland region into the Waikomo. Huge, sumptiously green hills roll over the landscape. Oak and fir forests coat the hillsides. They are so vibrantly green, that it could almost hurt your eyes to look at them for too long. Driving is truly the perfect way to see it.The roads are good, wide and smooth although twisted like a knitting pattern. Alex seems convinced I'm going to career off the edge into the abyss below, but despite the crazy speeds the natives take the corners at, I'm not only cautious but still reading the kph as mph, which naturally keeps us slower anyways. Apart from the odd turning on of the windscreen wipers when I am meant to be signalling and vice versa due to the canny switching sides of these vital levers on my steering wheel, the automatic is actually very simple. It obeys the basic principle of 'Go' and 'Stop' without any of the fiddly gear bits inbetween to worry about.
There are calla lilies growing like weeds on the sides of the road, pure dots of white against the verdant green.
We stopped in Raglan for the night, a point of particular interest to surfers, who kept turning up at ungodly hours to ride the storm tossed sea. We parked up all of ten metres away from the waves, up from the black sand that shows this is volcano land. There was a massive storm, rain falling from the sky all night long, battering at the roof of Newt. There were signs all over Raglan forbidding camping and overnighters - the residents are haters of the backpackers apparently. Alex got some stories up on the net that told of Raglan citizans coming out of there homes at 1am to pelt tents and campervanms with flour, or call the police out on them. We gambled on the weather being so horrible no-one would feel the need to attack our vehicle, but still it was an anxious night constantly waiting for the sound of flour bombs hitting the windscreen!
We couldn't cook due to the rain, so feasted on olives, babybels and bizarre sandwiches - marmite and salt and vinegar crisps anyone?
Once the morning came and we realised we had survived the night, we had breakfast, again an odd mix. I figure sandwiches are going to be what I am eating for most meals for the next two months, so I better make them as interesting as possible. I had nutella and banana in mine, Alex decided to stick with peanut butter. Mine had the odd aftertaste of watermelon. Figure that one out!
We abandoned Raglan and it's never-ending rainstorm and drove through some gorgeous country-side to reach Hamilton. We are currently at the gardens, having looked at the rhododendrons and successfully cooked up some scrambled eggs and beans for lunch, we might venture into the town...if the rain holds off!

Hope everybody back home is doing good! Drop us a line and let us know! :)

Newt

2009-09-30T13:27:00.000+13:00

We awoke this morning to blue skies and sunshine. We packed up our bags and checked out of the luxuary of our hotel. After tromping through Auckland with a bag that inexplicably desires to incapacitate me with its sheer weight (how did it get so heavy? Seriously!) We caught the train from Britomart Transport Centre to Penrose, the depot point where we were to pick up our Spaceship.
We arrived, and were cheerily greeted by yet another bizarrely smiley stranger. This was Charlie, who was going to tell us about our Spaceship. Named 'Newt' (Or, 'The Rare and Bizzarre Abyssian Newt of Destiny Mobile') our brilliant orange auto is going to be our transport and our home, for the next two months. Yep, two months - we have extended the hire for an extra 3 weeks, which takes us to the 20th November! We are sitting in a carpark by the Pak 'n' Save supermarket eating lunch and repeating 'This is our house now' on a loop. I think we are both in shock. My shock may stem more from the discovery that the car is an automatic, rather than a gearstick shift drive, as I am used to.
All the buttons and sticks on this car are the opposite way round to my little Ka. It is also huge, not unlike a tank. Also, as previously mentioned, it is orange and called Newt.
We have stocked up on enough food to feed a small army and now we are just trying to decide what direction to head in. Who knows where we will be by this evening.
Road Trip!!!!

Parakeet

2009-09-28T16:11:00.003+13:00

'Sitting here on top of the bay, watching the sun fade away...'
I write this from a patch of very green, very spongy grass overlooking the yachts tethered in the harbour, Auckland rising up behind. Very 'City of Sails'. Alex is taking macro shots of the flowers and I am excitedly pointing out the brightly coloured parakeets flitting about from tree to tree.
How idyllic. The gentle hum of the motorway provides an unusual soundtrack, but nevermind.
We caught a bus from Queen's St. to Posonby, a district of Auckland that the guidebook promised was an olde-world creative coffee-shop type place with picturesque views over the harbour. The harbour part is right...if you tromp down vertical roads to get there! The street itself was a little disappointing, lined by a road instead of a gently winding pathway.
So, we walked/abseiled down the hill and took some oturist shots of Harbour Bridge and back over the sails to the city. We are sitting here for a while before attempting to find a way back to the hotel without having to purchase mountaineering equipment.
Parakeets are awesome. Fact.

Sunshine

2009-09-27T18:53:00.003+13:00

We somehow managed to join temporarily with a peace march, they gave me a balloon :)

After perusing the map, we found a random little bit called, wait for it...'Emily's Place'! So brilliant, we visited it and it was a grove of 'Peheratakawa' (or something similar) trees which were actually the coolest trees ever. So we scrambled all over the trees, then through Albert Park which was lovely and verdantly green.

Today was the first sunny day we have had and was it gooood!
We went down to Queen's St. and round the Viaduct on a hunter-gather mission for food. The sea was about 20 different shades of blue and green, with steamlined sleek yachts gliding along.
We located a seafront coffee shop and I had the most yum breakfast ever. Try sitting on a hightop stool looking over the sea and islands across from Auckland, with a warm apricot and yoghurt muffin, librally slathered in salted butter from a tiny white porcelain pot, while drinking chilled guava and apple juice...oh it was great!
Anyways, forgetting my love affair with the breakfast menu, we then embarked on what turned out to be an 8 hour walking trip round and round (or should that be up and down?) Auckland, which is significantly larger than we had originally thought.
Then we went to Auckland Museum and looked over the entire collection of Maori history and New Zealand natural history. The Maori intricately carve every single part of their house, doors, tools, everything is decorated.

As we left the museum (halfway during the volcano exhibit), we decided to take a walk through the Domain (another park) towards a duckpond. This involved yet another hill, which was torture! After trawling through the fern-like rainforest, we made it back to civilisation.

Oddities

2009-09-25T16:37:00.005+12:00

After waking at 4.30 this morning and partaking in an odd mix of cheese and scrambled eggs, we set off for Kelly Tarltons, Auckland's number one tourist destination and more importantly, the ideal location to while away a rainy day. Kelly Tarltons is an 'Antartic Encounter and Aquatic Adventure' and we went on a polar vehicle through a penguin habitat, as well as watching a diver being practically eaten by three gigantic manta rays with 2m wingspans and rotating through an underwater tunnel filled with vicious, man-eating sharks. We also travelled in a mini van masquerading as a giant shark, which was excellent.

Five Random Things about Auckland:
1) The crazy traffic lights - they click down, getting faster and faster, then a laser-like shooting noise, as if we have just been abducted by aliens whooshes out of the air and you have approx. 3 seconds to cross the gigantically wide, 5 lane road.
2) Rain expectation. New Zealand is equipped for regular rainfall. Instead of life stopping the moment the downpur starts, everything continues anyways due to every pavement being covered.
3)Freakishly friendly people. Every shop you go into is ringing with cries of 'Hey there!' 'How're you today?' and 'Whats up, guys?' It is brilliant, and yet both of us still treat this exuberance with mild suspicion.
4) The wonderful mix of Eastern vs. Western. For lunch today I had a tofu kabab in chilli-caramel sauce and a vege sushi roll. Alex had cantonese style beef. There was also an Italian, a Mexican, a 'Hollywood Bakery' and various other Asian cuisines.
5) The entire city of Auckland is built on about 70 volcanoes...some of which are still active. It is extremely hilly, and that, combined with the crazy traffic lights, makes getting places fast an issue. Especially if you are full of tofu and trying to catch a bus shaped like a giant shark. Fact.

Library

2009-09-24T11:00:00.002+12:00

Here we are, in Auckland! Its so crazy, even though we are here I don't think it has quite sunk in. We woke up, the earliest I have voluntarily opened my eyes in years, at 7.30am. Its 18 degrees, and a bit grey and drizzly, but hey, a sudden burst of sunshine would have confused us native British rain-miesters.
The mission was simple. Get out of the hotel, and locate breakfast. This being one of my special talents, scrambled eggs and toast were found in approx. 5 mins of leaving the building. The staff were so friendly, and we have already had people chatting to us in the street, conversations fired off by Alex's Kent jacket.
It is such a bizarre, but workable mix of London higgedly-piggedly buildings, big wide American grid streets and Japanese-style street awnings and signs. We have been wondering around all morning taking it in, and are currently holed up in the Library to use the net. The Library is great, such a lovely space! It instantly makes me feel inspired and cultural. :P Connection is a bit slow though!

Landed

2009-09-24T10:50:00.003+12:00

Wahey! Our flight finally was good to go at three, six hours after it was originally meant to leave. By this point, I was Sleepy, with capital a 'c'. We boarded the plane and Alex practically forced me into a travel cushion/sleep mask/ear plugs situation. I jumped a mile when they gave me my dinner (very hungry, wolfed it down) then passed out for the entire flight, jumping again when Alex woke me to get off the plane. The steward probably thought I had issues with seizures. Eye masks make me jumpy.
We got through customs, security, biohazard stage, lugguge collection. Amazing, considering at every other airport, my passport has been scrutinised way more than Alexs. On arriving in Sydney, I was even taken aside, into another room for a full on pat down and bag scan! Nerve-wracking! Alex thinks it is hilarious that I am constantly treated with such suspicion. *sigh*
We found a shuttle bus into town, no mean achievment considering I was practically sleep walking, which took us to our hotel. Already, everyone we meet is so friendly, its quite weird, considering the usual stand-offish British manner.
The hotel is awesome, we have the coolest room ever, complete with view of the SKytower, lit up beautifully. A quick shower to wash off the grime of travel, and sleep, glorious sleeeeep!
Pictures will arrive soon, I'm going to go out and take a load of first-impression shots to upload later.

Waiting

2009-09-24T10:48:00.000+12:00

Sooo, its 4.24am in the UK, and about 1.15pm in Sydney. I still haven’t slept, but remarkably, feel fine. I shall probably crash out when I actually need to do something useful later, like locating the hotel. In the meantime, we are waiting for our plane. It has changed gates no less than four times, and it keeps being delayed. We have a great position with floor to ceiling windows onto the runway though, so we sit and relax, and watch the planes. The bizarre dust has cleared and its sunny outside now, so hopefully we’ll be off soonish.

Dust

2009-09-24T10:36:00.007+12:00

That disk by the lamp in the above picture is actually the sun...

Upon swooshing into Sydney’s airspace, the sky turned a ruddy red colour, like being inside of a kidney, and the wind upped its game. Turbulence saw everyone strapped into their seats, looking out of the window anxiously…we were only 2000ft up and yet nothing could be seen of Sydney, which should have all its light blaring out like a beacon at 5am! The air was consumed by an intense dust storm, the like of which my flight partner, born and bred in Sydney, had never before seen in her life. The pilot made a few attempts and we circled loops over the Tasman Sea for an hour. Visibility was so low they couldn’t detect the airport, much less the runway! Just as we were about to give up and divert to Brisbane (not helpful, considering our connecting flight from Sydney to Auckland left in about 3 hours) the pilot made another attempt. We made it! The pilot sounded genuinely shocked, which was rather disconcerting, but we made it, so its all good. Now, sitting in Sydney airport for our connection (Please please come!) The news has said that Sydney city is taking a day off today – the dust is so severe. The air is actually orange, as if the world outside has been set in Orangina. Mental. What a welcome to Oceania, huh? Its like we just landed on Mars.

Journey

2009-09-24T10:15:00.000+12:00

The day finally came! We departed Heathrow at 9.35 pm on Monday and I am not entirely sure what day it is now, or indeed, what time. I am in Sydney though.
We got comfy in our seats, complete with blankets, cushions, eye masks, socks and mini movie screens. Once off, we were fed, brilliantly picnic-like trays of tasty food with every type of utensil and condiment you can imagine is produced in small, logoed satchets. As I had vege meals, I rather fantastically got served first every time, leaving Alex and our seating partner (both carnivores) looking longingly at my feast.
There was an open bar, and hundreds of movies and cds and random tv shows to watch, as well as my ridiculously massive pile of magazines.
My task was to stay up for the first 9 hours of the flight at least, in an attempt to set my sleep cycle. Weirdly, I actually managed that feat with no issue! In the last hour, I dozed a bit but then we had breakfast before getting off at Singapore.
We were in the terminal wondering around for an hour whiles the plane refuelled, then we set off for Sydney. By this point, I was bored with the notion. This next stage was to be spent in sleep, ideally. However, despite lying back with my eye mask and cushions and blanket, and soothing music no sleep was forthcoming. Doh. About from semi-awake dozes, I have not slept in over 35 hours. Eurk.
The vege meals are getting more random though – the last one was macaroni cheese, with tomato sauce, red, green and yellow peppers and cold cauliflower and chickpea salad on the side. The others got some weird gelatinous green goo which Alex bravely identified as melon blancmange. Lucky for me, I got chocolate and a fruit plate  The joys of vegetarianism.

Departure

2009-09-22T07:15:00.002+12:00

So, we find ourselves in the departure lounge of the airport...surprisingly, there is absolutely nada to do back here, unlike the usual sprawl of shops and cafes. We have visited starbucks and queued for long times in WHSmiths for sudoku magazines (with free pen!!!). We have also watched the planes take off and the sun set behind the runway. In half an hour, our flight will be called and we can board. Then, hopefully, dinner will be served. :p

I can feel the rumble of planes taking off through the seat, the walls and the windows. It is distinctly unnerving.

Flight Day

2009-09-22T00:46:00.002+12:00

!!!

Alex has set off for the airport, I'm just about to depart too, I just need to track down my cat.

Scary moment! I fear emotional goodbyes await at the departure terminal.

Here we go!

30 Days to go...

2009-08-23T08:34:00.003+12:00

Just one month until departure.

Suddenly I am realising just how far away New Zealand is from everything I know and love back home.

*gulp*

I have reams of lists to work through, have been sorting out all the boring stuff like opticians appointments and lugguge cases today.

I feel I need to be doing something, or I may just start to panic.