I woke up alone on the floor the next morning to the sound of the rain outside. Dane, Julian and I had planned on going freebording all day, but considering the weather that wasn’t going to happen. It began to brighten up around midday, so we took the opportunity to skate around 7km to Mission Bay, down Queen Street and along the water front. We got an ice cream and a Burger King there, which was far from appetising, and as we were doing so the rain came again. However, this time it came sideways with a massive wind blowing against. We had to skate back, and became soaking wet very, very quickly. The skate back wasn’t as enjoyable as the skate there, and once we got back to Dane’s we spent the rest of the day drying out, and I decided what to do for the rest of my time in NZ (about 8 days).
I decided to head south to Taupo, and then after talking to Nat who’s skated NZ I decided to spend three days skating the desert road (which very thankfully didn’t happen – to be explained later!), and then heading back to Auckland for a few days.
The next morning, after a little issue with the bus company after me writing down the wrong number for my ticket, I was on the bus to Taupo. I got off not really knowing where to go, and met a Canadian girl in the same boat. Taupo is pretty small, so we wandered for a couple of minutes until we found a backpackers. It as really not the season for travelling over there, a 100+ capacity hostel only had about 8 of us that night.
Steph (the Canadian girl) and I spent the evening wandering around the town, which didn’t take too long and got some food. The town was pretty at night, and very quiet. Taupo is south of Rotorua on a massive lake, and not somewhere we had gotten to on our whirlwind tour of the North Island. At the book swap in the hostel I found a book which was set in Piddletrenthide, around 15 miles from my home in England. It was damn odd to be reading about somewhere so close to home, yet being so far away. That was pretty much it for the day, not overly exciting but great to see somewhere new nonetheless.
The next morning Steph and I got breakfast and walked around the town some more. I finally bought a jade necklace for myself (which you’re not meant to do – you’re meant to get given them, but seeing as I’m not Maori, I figured its not my tradition, so what the heck!), and at around 1pm I got the bus to Turangi, which is a town south of Lake Taupo.
My intention was to skate the dessert road from here for the two following days, so I went to the information centre to talk to them about it. They basically told me in no way, shape or form should I do it, even though I said it’d been done before! In hindsight, I’m so glad I didn’t do it, but at the time I was looking forwards to doing it, but became pretty damn nervous at this point! I checked into a hostel there and spent the day skating around the town and did a small walk, until it started to rain and I returned to the hostel.
I knew Lizzie (who I met in Palmerston North) was going to be going snowboarding with a friend around the time I had from then until the end of the trip, and she had said that I was welcome to come with them. After some thought about the skate, and how I was really turning against the idea, I gave her call, and thank goodness they were leaving the next day from Palmerston, about a 3 hour bus ride away! I was then pretty damn happy, a) as I really had gotten scared about skating the road, and b) I was looking forwards to travelling with her and her friend.
My coach left in the afternoon, so the next day I carried on with the walk I was doing. The weather wasn’t much nicer, but at least it wasn’t raining. It was also super windy, and the dessert was shut off in the morning due to the conditions – so glad I didn’t start to skate it! After walking I spent a lot of time just wandering about. The town of Turangi itself is tiny, hardly even a main high street, but that’s fairly typical for a lot of the NZ towns. There’s so little in the country that even the smallest of towns is fairly important. For those people reading this in Bridport (if there are any), our town is far bigger than a lot of the big towns in NZ, and that’s only about 15,000 people including all of the villages.
I got on the bus that afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed the few hour journey. It spent at least an hour climbing the rugged terrain to the top of the pass, along it for an hour, and then dropped back down the other side. There was nowhere at all to camp on the road, and the winds were absolutely howling, hideous stuff to be out in! The whole time I was on the bus I was bloody grateful that I wasn’t out skating in it. I went past the three volcanoes again (see previous blog for info on them), and then down into Waiouru, a very small army town where I would’ve ended my skate. It had nothing there, proper tiny! Another couple of hours of coach ride, and I was in Palmerston North. An interesting thing to note, on a stop I looked at houses. In the small town I was in you could buy a bungalow for £40,000. Mad cheap.
I got into Palmerston at around six, and looked around the town for a while whilst waiting for Lizzie and Mariel to say their goodbyes to everyone and come pick me up in town. A couple hours later they arrived, in a huge, white, very old and beaten estate. It was a damn good job they got that, as with everything they owned there was only just enough room for me, my bag and Roxanne (the longboard!).
With me all packed in we drove north for a couple of hours until we got New Plymouth (via a Thai restaurant for more food). We got to a backpackers called the Missing Leg, which was pretty much a house just to ourselves! Sadly the fire wasn’t lit when we got there (around 9.30pm), and it was pretty cold. We ended up cooking, playing with a hackey sack and getting an early night.
The next morning we got up and headed into New Plymouth fairly early. After a natter with the guy at the information centre we headed to local snow store and rented some gear. It wasn’t the best gear we’ve ever used to say the least! The board range was very limited; in fact I was lucky to get one just about big enough for me… We loaded everything back into the car and headed to the ski area on Mt. Taranaki.
On the way to the resort (and I se that term loosely here!) we unloaded everything that was in the boot asides from the ski stuff, and it was a damn good job we did. Road up started progressively turned from normal road to a steep, very windy, snowy, icy road. Lizzie, being the pro at driving in these conditions as she’s at uni in VT, got us up it to the car park, where there were about 4 cars. Nice quiet day on the mountain!
The walk to the mountain from there took around 30 minutes, up a hill and then around a ravine, it was pretty cool actually, if a tad annoying at the time. There was a cable car thing to take boards across, but it didn’t seem to be working at the time and we didn’t want to leave our stuff on there and just hope it would take it across!
The mountain was actually pretty small, and had no trees at all which is so different to anywhere else I’ve snowboarded. The snow layer wasn’t very deep either, and by the end of the day there were a lot of grassy clumps all over the slope. The riding was sweet, cheap lift passes and beautiful weather. There was only one lift we could use however, so not exactly masses of mountain available to us due to the small size of the resort. There was a lift higher up but you needed a belt tow clip thing, and none of us had one or really wanted to rent one. We finished around 3pm after getting tired of doing the same few runs, and headed into town to return our gear. We also picked up some food, and headed back to our hostel/awesome lodge and settled down for some cooking and drinks.
That night we got the fire lit, and spent an enjoyable sitting around, eating, drinking and playing a board game (can’t remember what it was for the life of me… Monopoly maybe?).
After a much warmer nights sleep we went into town in the morning and walked along the beach for a while whilst deciding what to do. We decided to play in the park for a while, decision well made!
We then drove for a few hours (but felt like forever) to Ohakune, a town south of the desert, and which had several resorts close by. We got in, managed to get a 4 bed room in a hostel to ourselves, and went out for some Italian food. After dinner we headed back and watched LOTR3, which took forever. We all fell asleep at some point during it, and at the end of the 3 hour epic we were all very ready for bed.
The next day turned into a pretty epic fail. We got up early and went and rented some gear, all good. You could either get a shuttle up to the resort or drive, and you drive you needed chains which you could rent part way up the mountain. We decided to drive and headed up to the car park where you could rent chains. It turned out that although it was still early a lot of people had the same idea, and were waiting as well to get chains. Problem being the rental hut wasn’t open and it didn’t look like it would be for a while…
After a while of waiting we decided to just go back to town and get a bus up, and it turned out we were damn glad that we did. After the point where you needed snow chains the road got really steep, the visibility dropped right down as the wind was so strong, and it was just plain awful. The wind was so strong that we could feel it buffeting the bus around, kinda freaky really. With the wind so strong it also meant the ski conditions were absolutely awful. Every lift was shut out asides from the beginners slope due to high winds. We bought a lift ticket for the beginner’s area, and as soon as we saw it we instantly wished we hadn’t. About 300 people crammed onto a small beginner slope…
We took one run and the girls instantly sad no. Seeing as we’d made the effort to get here I took a couple more before giving up. It was so crowded that it was quicker to walk back up the hill than take the lift, no fun. We all headed back to the ticket room, where Lizzie very nicely complained enough that we all got our money back for lift tickets, stoked! There was a guy next to us who’d had his pass for more than an hour, and they were refusing to give him back him money which was pretty shitty, or even a part discount.
We got onto the next bus back and went back down to the far sunnier and less windy town. It was still pretty early at this point, so I returned my ski stuff, got a bit of my money back as it was still early in the day and I’d hardly used it, and then worked out a bus for me the next day. I had two more days in the country at this point and needed to get back to Auckland the following day to all of my stuff packed away before my flight the day after that.
As the weather was ok down in the town we went for a walk for a couple of hours out in the countryside, and headed back in the dark. Nothing overly exciting, but it was a cold, beautiful autumn day and great to be outside. We got back into town and got stuff for tea. I have no idea what we cooked, but whatever it was I can remember it being good! Lizzie and I watched se7en, Mariel wrote her diary/read, and then we all slept.
The next morning Mariel and Lizzie woke up early and went up to the mountain. I later found out that the weather was lovely on the mountain, and that they had an awesome session, too bad I had to miss it getting a bus back to Auckland!
Before I got the bus I had a few hours to kill, so I began by taking a walk along the river running by the town. As I got back I noticed a church service was beginning in a small church nearby, so I went along to it. I was feeling very emotional at this point; leaving everyone, leaving the country, and so forth, and I cried a lot during the service. The service itself was really nice, a small affair made up mostly of the elderly, and a few middle aged people. I felt God had truly blessed me by allowing me to go to NZ and meet the people I did.
After the service it was time to get my bus, which then took up the rest of the day. I got into Auckland at around 7 that evening, went to Dane’s and began to pack everything away. I went to bed late that night, intending to get up early the next day to walk around Auckland Domain, go to the art gallery, and see a bit more of the city before I left the following evening.
Dane was working really hard for Uni (exams were coming up), so I didn’t see masses of him that evening. The next morning I woke up at 8, and headed out to the wintergarden. The weather was cold and crisp, a lovely last morning. The garden was beautiful, there were very few people there, and I spent some time wandering around, doing some sketches, and taking it all in. From there I ambled to the art gallery where I was meant to meet Julian, who never showed up….
The main gallery was closed for renovations, so I ended up in the temporary one, which had a few Colin McCahon paintings there which was the main reason I wanted to go there. The paintings were great, but better still there was an amazing pancake stall just outside the gallery, which absolutely incredible. A couple of pancakes later and I wandered back to Dane’s.
It turned out no-one was in, so I just hung out and waited for a bit until people came back. Dane still had a lot of work on, so he just came back for lunch. Dane, Julian and I went down to McDonalds on Queen Street, which was ironically where we all got food when I first arrived in New Zealand. It was a little surreal, as this was the place I first came to with Dane, Julian, Josh and Matho, and it just made me realise how quickly my time in NZ had gone by, and how sad I was to be leaving.
Dane headed back to uni and Julian and I walked around Queen Street. I bought some very bright, very stripey thermals which I think are awesome (apparently no-one else in England does)! And that was most of the day gone. I had one thing I wanted to do before I left; go up the Sky Tower, the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere (apparently). None of the others particularly wanted to, so I went up alone. I went up about 30 minutes before sunset and stayed up there for over and hour, watching the world get dark and the city lights go on. It was fairly cloudy and overcast, but it was my last sunset in NZ, and it was beautiful.
I came down from the tower into the night and headed up Queen Street to Dane’s. I picked up my bags and said my final bags to him, Julian and Rebecca and made my way to the bus stop. A final farewell, and I was on my way to the airport, and home.
The baggage allowance for my flight was 20kg, which I was fairly nervous about. I was taking three longboards home with me, as well as a lot of clothes, shells, and general stuff I somehow accumulated. Luckily I was also allowed a backpack and a laptop bag, so I had some room to put the heaving items into my carry on. I had one box for the boards and padding, and my rucksack, which turned out to weigh a combined total of nearly 25kg. A bit of weight shedding later (including throwing away some old trousers and tent pegs), and I was down a couple of kilos.
I decided to take some time off and wandered around the airport. The only place open to get food was McDonalds (they seem to be getting a regular mention here, which is very strange seeing as I probably haven’t even been to one more than ten times!), so I got an apple pie and sat down with a trolley full of bags and a box. I started chatting with a Romanian girl called Diana who was getting the same flights as me to get back to England, so it turned out I had a travel buddy the whole way home!
She also has a mass of luggage, so after the food we headed over to the scales and commenced repacking. Eventually I managed to get my bags down to 20kg, but had made myself a fair few kilos heavier in the process! My coat was full of shells, my laptop bag was crammed, as was my backpack, Diana was wearing one of my jumpers as she was cold (every little helps!), and I had my skate helmet and hiking shoes hanging from my laptop bag, as they were too heavy to get in my checked bags.
Our flight was leaving at around 5am, so we both sat and waited for our gate to open before going through customs. After some very uncomfortable sleep for a couple of hours we checked in and headed to the departure lounge. I was slightly nervous as I had a lot of shells in my pockets and thought they might stop me, but it turned out to be fine.
We got onto the plane and I promptly fell asleep, for most of the 9 hour flight to Brunei, in between watching 'He’s Just Not That Into You'. I got off the plane to find Diana waiting for me, and we headed through customs to the main part of the airport for out massively long layover, which lasted most of the day. We decided to go on a tour of the city which included a river boat to see monkeys, and going to the national museum, a giant mosque, and a shopping mall.
The tour included the two of us and an English couple of about 65 who were headed to England also, who now live in NZ, and have been for a long time. We drove down to the river and got on a long, thin boat, which was absolutely awesome. Brunei has a giant river village with schools, stores, the works. We drove up through the village and out in the main estuary which was shrouded by dense mangrove on either side. There was quite a bit of pollution in the water, which I guess was fairly expected as the river village was just nearby. We started to head down side paths, and eventually nosed into the forest. We sat there in the silence for around 15 minutes, sweating, and listening to the sound of the forest. Monkeys were scattered here and there, none overly close though. It was a whole different world in there. We mosied back out and continued upriver until we got to a low bridge we could not get under, and then turned and headed back to the city.
The museum was next on our whirlwind tour of the city. It was dedicated entirely to the sultan, and was full of gifts to him, and his chariots.
From there we headed to the old and new mosques in the city. They are huuuuge! Sadly we couldn’t go in them as it was the time of prayer. Apparently there’s a 3.2 tonnes gold statue of a lamb in the new one, and all of the domes are covered in 24 carat gold, which makes up a LOT of gold.
What was probably the best part came next; the mall. First stop, the food court. Food was crazy cheap, so we piled up with masses of it. I ended up with a three tiered milk, syrupy black stuff and iced tea drink in an old fashioned ale glass, a soup with tofu, eggs, noodles and chilli and Diana got Tum Yum (seafood soup). All for about £4. Then on to milkshakes. They had some of the oddest flavours, such as sweetcorn and yam, but sadly they’d run out of them and I had to settle for Oreo. Bad times.
A lot of wandering around the shopping mall ensued, with buying of stuff such as knock-off sunglasses which were a mix between boots and sandals (for Diana I hasten to add), and an I <3 Brunei shirt. You could buy some strange stuff as well, such as Nazi memorabilia matches and whatnot, not overly sure who buys them…
Before we left for the airport it was back for more food, this time rice and sweet beef for less than £1. I wish food here was that cheap. Our mall adventure over, we headed back to the airport where we took a walk for an hour in the crazy hotness that is Brunei. There was the weirdest fruit ever on a tree. It was the size of a rugby ball, green, spiky, and only one on the whole tree.
Four hours later and a quick shower each and we were headed to Dubai, and then onto England. I sat next to a guy who was loud, but very interesting. He’d ran over 300 marathons, raised over £250,000 for charities and has and MBE. 8 hours later and we arrived in Dubai, possibly the most expensive airport ever, where a single hot chocolate costs US$7. A bottle of vodka was only $12 though….
The layover was only an hour long, so we were soon back on the plane, England bound. A couple of hours sleep, and a lot of sitting later we arrived; nearly 5 months after leaving and I was back in England.
Diana and I cleared customs then stood watching as our baggage slowly rolled around to us. A couple minutes later and we emerged into the main area of the airport. At the end I could see a woman waving frantically; the first I’d seen of my mum in such a long time! Diana and I said our goodbyes, and I ran to hug my mum and sister. I was finally home.
Thus ends my final marathon text entry, only 7 months after being back, and almost a year since I first left. My time in NZ was absolutely fantastic, made especially fantastic thanks to the friends I met over there. We just met again in Boston, and it was truly special. I hope we all meet again soon, wherever it may be.
If people have read all of this, I’m very impressed!
Catch you all later,
Rob x
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
So, two weeks ago I was on holiday in France and Spain, going to cities. After two days in Barcelona I remembered why I love the country more than the city. I decided to take the third day in the mountains outside of the city, and get some hiking done.
I woke up at 7 the next morning and made my way to the train station. The city was so quiet in the morning, a completely different environment. I got on the 8.15 train, and slowly made my way away from the city. The scenery gradually began t change; urban turned into fields, which turned into mountains. A bit over an hour later I was the bottom of Mont Serrat.
Mont Serrat is a very old abbey, built very high in the mountains. It’s a very old Benedictine abbey, and also has a statue of the black Virgin Mary which is highly revered. It’s a bit of a tourist attraction, so there’s a funicular railway to it, which I took.
I then got a rack railway higher up the mountain, and from there started walking. For the first 30 minutes I went completely the wrong way and ended up at the ruins of some houses used by monks centuries ago, and a tiny chapel (see picture).
It was getting hot at this point, around 30 degrees, so I was pretty glad I was doing this in the morning rather than in the afternoon when it’d get even hotter.
I returned to the start of the trail, and went on the one I intended to go on originally to the top of the mountain. The path lasted for about an hour and a half, and led to the highest peak on the range. On the walk I went past countless lizards, skinks and butterflies, and was eventually rewarded with views like this:
After a lunch of chorizo (a type of salami), bread and water I started to head down to the abbey, bypassing the rack railway. Another hour and a bit later of more stunning scenery I arrived back at the abbey. After a brief look around at the incredible architecture I headed back to the city for a night of festival at one of the cities biggest free festivals of the year encompassing the entire city.
I’ll leave with a picture of the abbey, taken from above.
I woke up at 7 the next morning and made my way to the train station. The city was so quiet in the morning, a completely different environment. I got on the 8.15 train, and slowly made my way away from the city. The scenery gradually began t change; urban turned into fields, which turned into mountains. A bit over an hour later I was the bottom of Mont Serrat.
Mont Serrat is a very old abbey, built very high in the mountains. It’s a very old Benedictine abbey, and also has a statue of the black Virgin Mary which is highly revered. It’s a bit of a tourist attraction, so there’s a funicular railway to it, which I took.
I then got a rack railway higher up the mountain, and from there started walking. For the first 30 minutes I went completely the wrong way and ended up at the ruins of some houses used by monks centuries ago, and a tiny chapel (see picture).
It was getting hot at this point, around 30 degrees, so I was pretty glad I was doing this in the morning rather than in the afternoon when it’d get even hotter.
I returned to the start of the trail, and went on the one I intended to go on originally to the top of the mountain. The path lasted for about an hour and a half, and led to the highest peak on the range. On the walk I went past countless lizards, skinks and butterflies, and was eventually rewarded with views like this:
After a lunch of chorizo (a type of salami), bread and water I started to head down to the abbey, bypassing the rack railway. Another hour and a bit later of more stunning scenery I arrived back at the abbey. After a brief look around at the incredible architecture I headed back to the city for a night of festival at one of the cities biggest free festivals of the year encompassing the entire city.
I’ll leave with a picture of the abbey, taken from above.
Saturday, 15 August 2009
We spent the rest of the day in Te Papa, which was interesting but got old after a while. There was an art section in it with some Colin McCahon paintings which I really liked; he does some great art work, often with interesting sentences or phrases. One of my favourites is in the Christchurch galley, and on the bottom it says ‘tomorrow will be the same, but not as this is’. I really like it. That night we were staying at a guys house that was on the IFSA-Butler program with Sharon, Danielle and Mark. Sadly it was their last day of exams, which meant people were getting very drunk, and none of us were in the mood for it. We went out for a few drinks, went to an Irish bar, and generally wandered around taking in the city.
The following sleep was one of the worst I have ever had. Sleeping on the floor, with different people coming in every hour and waking us up and being loud sucked. Some German girls who didn’t even live in the house took it upon themselves to wake us up several times, great stuff.
We left early the next morning to go into town and look around some more. Firstly we went back to the Irish pub and were told we couldn’t get breakfast there unless we had ID, and they didn’t take my driving licence, great stuff. I ended up getting a pancake from a very French man, as did Sharon, and it was damn good and sweet. The first thing we did that morning was head to the Houses of Parliament, and took a tour of them. They’re essentially based on the British ones with the red and green carpets in the House of Lords and commons. They, however, have abolished the house of lords as no-one there could be assed with it! They also didn’t have enough money to finish the building, so instead of the House of Lords being opposite the House of Commons as in England, they’re not. Tour over, we headed to the botanical gardens. A girl from home (Jenna Rogers) is in Wellington for the year, so we met up with her and took the gondola lift up to the gardens, which are on the top of one of the hills to the side of the city.
The gardens were kinda out of season, but still prettyful. Jenna told us how Wellington is normally ridiculously windy, and never that good for weather, but when we were there it was calm and warm. It was strange, the south island isn’t that far away at all, but I already felt as if it was warmer on the north island. It was great to meet someone from home, and all of the Americans were surprised they could understand her fine; for some reason they can never understand what I say, Brady described me as the most British sounding person ever!
Maggie, Josh, Lisa, Mel, Emily, Luke and Teddy were all in Wellington that day as well, so we all went to meet them for lunch. It was fantastic seeing them all again, but also a bit odd as I’d said my goodbyes in Christchurch and had gotten all emotional then, and seeing them all again was making me emotional again! We all ate at a Macs brewery restaurant, and after the meal Jenna excused herself as she had to work. We also had to head off and begin driving north; that night Brady, Sharon, Mark, Danielle and I were staying in Palmerston North with Lizze and Dan who were also from the IFSA program. Dan also went to school with Danielle, so they were pretty good friends and wanted to catch up.
The drive only took a couple of hours, so we got there and all went straight out to a food court to eat. Some Indian food later and we hit up Pak ‘n’ Save for some cider/wine/general alcohol before heading out. After some Ring of Fire we headed into town, to a place called ‘The Game’, a karaoke bar, which I was not overly thrilled to go to! A few drinks later and Dan and I sang Thunderstruck by ACDC very, very badly. Can’t say it was the highlight of my night…! Anyhoo, we left there thankfully and Dan and I went to a house club, leaving everyone else behind as they were taking forever leaving.
A few drinks later and the others arrived; all of us were a tad worse for wear at this point! A lot of dancing ensued, and we left sometime the next morning. In Palmerston North they have a late night pie shop, but with a twist. The dude behind the counter serves you in tiny, tiny shorts, and if you ask him to he whips it out apparently, tasty… Apparently he used to be a lecturer at the uni and had a stroke, which is why he does what he does, and if that is the case it sucks.
One taxi ride home and we were back for a short nights sleep before leaving the next morning. We said our goodbyes to Lizzie and Dan early the next morning (8ish), and got in the car without anyone saying much. Brady doesn’t drink, and being the only one not hungover/way over the legal limit, he drove that day.
We all slope a fair bit that drive, but we were all awake when we drove the desert road. This was spectacular, a desert 3520 feet above sea level. There are several volcanoes on one side, named Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro. These names meant nothing to me, and seemed damn confusing, but if I said Mt. Doom I’m guessing you’ll know what I mean. Mt. Ngauruhoe is in fact Mt. Doom, and it was incredible. They were all snow capped, and surrounded by beautiful blue skies. I came back here later; see the third entry of my blog when it comes out in the near future!
A bit after midday we arrived in Matamata, which is where the set of Hobbiton is located (a very Lord of the Rings themed day). We got on a tour pretty soon, and got driven out to the set. To be honest, I wasn’t overly fussed on doing this, but the others were and I’m glad I did. It turns out only 19 (I think) of around 50 of the hobbit holes are still remaining, and it’s only by chance that they are. New Line Studios (who made LOTR) were in the process of taking them down, but it had to be postponed due to weather. People then asked to see the set, and the farm owners got in contact with New Line, who then let them keep the holes that were left, and agrees to maintain them. They’re all completely white, for a couple of reasons; a) to help preserve them, b) it makes them visible in bad weather, c) everything on the movie was a base construction with everything on top being made of incredibly well painted polystyrene. Literally, everything. The bridges, the buildings, everything was fronted by painted by polystyrene. As that’s pretty bad for the environment New Line took the polystyrene down as soon as filming had finished, took it to Wellington, and got rid of it. Another interesting thing at the set was the oak tree. The Tolkien’s said if the movie was made the oak tree which is described in massive detail in the book had to be in the film. As there wasn’t one on site, they had to buy one from nearby, cut it into small pieces and then reassemble it at the set. That’s a fair bit of effort for a 22 ton tree! Also, as it was then dead they had to put thousands of fake leaves on it, so it looked right for filming.
So the set was interesting and after we left we drove to Waitomo, home of very famous glow worm caves. In my guide book we found a very cheap sounding hostel ($12 a night I think), so we headed to that. It turned out to be a cavers hit, with no-one there at all, and a collection box in the main room. To sum it up in one word: amazing. We had a big living room type thing with wood fire, kitchen, a cat Mark named Belle and a bunk bed with a mattress that could hold at least 10 people. We stuck a space heater in that room, made some tea, and reclined in front of the fire. It was fantastic. Danielle and Mark knitted, Brady and I wrote journals and read, and Sharon sat there hating Belle as she’s allergic to cats.
We got a semi early night, and went to our by now roasting hot room and got into our bags. For some region we then began to debate war, which (to my surprise) Danielle and Brady were for, and Sharon and I were dead against. Not wanting to get involved, Mark said nothing… Not the lightest bedtime talking, and it got people a bit riled up! No matter, we all settled in for a good nights sleep with nothing to get up early for the next morning.
Then followed one of the best days I have ever had.
I arose after Sharon, who I found rekindling the fire and starting to make pancakes, awesome! We spent the morning sitting around the fire, eating pancakes and spent a very leisurely morning reading, knitting, talking about religion, and then talking about other stuffs. It was really peaceful, and I really liked it.
We’d come to Waitomo to go to the caves, and at around midday we set off to a caving centre to go on the tour we’d booked into. We’d decided to go ‘toobing’, which involved sitting in big rubber rings and gently floating along a slow river through the caves, instead of walking around them. We met our guide (Meg) and set off in her van. It was only the five of us plus Meg doing the tour that day, which was great; no annoying tourists there!
We all got into massive 5ml wetsuits, booties and wellies, and set off for the cave entrance. Meg showed us the distance we’d be going from above ground, it only looked a few hundred metres, but Meg assured us it would take at least a couple of hours to go that distance.
We climbed down a ladder in to the darkness, and one tight squeeze past some rocks later we were in the start of the cave. We had out headlamps on at this point and were all excited for what lay ahead. We began walking through the cave, looking at all of the stalagmites and stalactites all around us, until we reached our first stopping point, a very mini glow worm cave. We turned our lights off and looked around at the ceiling being lit by small worms, surreal! The light is emitted form the worms’ bums, and is from chemical matter breaking down inside them. They cannot excrete, so all waste is burnt off in the form of light.
Lights on, and we went to our first toobing port of call. We all got a tube and jumped off a ledge into the pool below. Linking ourselves in a chain, we slowly floated down a long tunnel with our lights now off. Glow worms littered the ceiling, and it felt like the Milky Way was just above us, but in glow form! It was incredibly serene, but it had to end. We got to the end of the tunnel, and turned our lights back on. Whilst Meg walked the tubes back to the top o the tunnel we were told to crawl through a very narrow tunnel with our lights off and to wait for her in the cave at the end. This freaked me out, but what felt like a long time later I arrived in a big cave with the others. A few minutes later and Meg walked round the corner, asking how we’d found it.
We carried on for a few minutes more and stopped for a hot drink and some chocolate (Meg carried them) to keep us warm. It was lovely, just sitting in a cave, having and eat and not being overly cold either! We pressed on through a section which we had to swim through, and came to our last toobing point. Here we lay on our fronts and casually drifted through a green glow towards the end of our toobing experience. Just before leaving we saw some wetas – massive ass bugs which are freaky. We exited the cave into the night, and instantly got pretty darn cold. On our walk back to the hut and warm showers we saw a possum in the trees, very NZ!
Some hot showers and a drive back into town later and we decided to drive to Rotorua, which is very famous for its hot springs. Emily, Teddy, Mel and Luke were also there that night, so we intended to meet up with them. Our friend Jon had told us about some hot pools which you could bathe in as well which were just under a bridge by a road, and they sounded awesome.
An hour and a bit later we rendezvoused with the others, and all decided to head to the springs. I jumped in the others car as I hadn’t seen them for a while, and wouldn’t be seeing them again after this point.
30km later, and we arrived a bridge enshrouded in stream. Already in swimming trucks, we jumped out of the car and made our way to the steaming river below. The water was deliciously warm, and we quickly sank into it. After a while we moved downstream, to find a massive pool with some others already in it, who were just leaving. This pool was fed by two rivers; one hot and one cold. It was amazing, you could adjust how warm you wanted the water by moving around in the giant pool, and it was great fun running form the hot side to the cold!
Something happened then that I did not expect. We were all sitting around in a large circle, when Brady went ‘guys, I’m not actually wearing my shorts anymore’, really not the person I was expecting to say that! Needless to say, Sharon, Emily and I joined him in it, but sadly the rest wouldn’t! We stayed there until around 11.30, when we dragged ourselves out of the pool and into our clothes. The other car headed back to their hostel, whilst we headed to a nearby campsite, which was deserted and had no running water, which sucked as we had hardly any. We set up camp and got to sleep. Thus ended one of the best days I’ve ever had.
The next morning we woke up rather parched, and hastily got the tent down. As we were in a thermal hotspot I really wanted to see some of the geysers, mud pools, etc. We set out to some nearby mud pools and watched them boil and goop away for about 10 minutes before heading back to the car and heading to a ‘thermal wonderland’. I’d also like to note everything here completely reeks of sulphur, including us who hadn’t showered after the previous night… Sadly the wonderland cost $30 and I was the only one who wanted to do go around, and the others had stuff to do in town, which was about 35km away. We left there and headed in Rotorua.
Danielle, Brady, Sharon and Mark had all decided to go zorbing (rolling down a hill in a giant inflatable ball), something which I wasn’t overly fussed about, so I spent the arrest of the morning and early afternoon writing my diary and snoozing in the local library.
We all met up later and drove to one of Dan’s (Maggie’s boyfriend and our friend) friends houses in Ohope, a couple of hours north. We arrived and went straight to the local Charter Club, which had a snooker table, awesome! 2 and a half dinners, 2 frames of snooker and a couple of beers later we headed back to Derek’s and watched Slumdog Millionaire before bed. Not the most eventful day, but nice nonetheless.
The next day we awoke to pouring rain. A couple of hours of driving later stopped for lunch, got food and carried on to Hahei, which is where the famous and stunningly beautiful Cathedral Caves are, or for a more visual description; opening scene of second Narnia movie. Yup, pretty epic! The rain had eased off by this point, so we drove to Cathedral Caves via some very flooded roads. After arriving at the car park near the caves we walked for 30 minutes to the coves. We were pretty much by ourselves on the beach, and the five of us spent some time wandering around in awe of the place, and just marvelling at its beauty. After about an hour other people came and we left. When we got to the top of the cliffs the sun was beginning to set, so I sat watching that for some time before we all left. I realised that my timescales here haven’t added up to anywhere near a day, the time in-between us getting up and sunset was also filled with stops at random places as well the caves!
We found a campsite nearby which let us have a small chalet to ourselves for $100 (£40) for a night, bargain! The chalet had a kitchen, living room and 2 bedrooms, perfect for us. This became another evening of relaxing, we watched George of the Jungle (my choice), failed at doing a puzzle by the end of the night, ate, I drank a fejoia beer (fejoia is a fruit that (to me and Rosie Jones) is disgusting. It tastes like dentist and nastyness) and people that started watching a movie called Napoleon, which was absolutely hideous. It was a bout a do going on adventure who could talk to other animals. I guess getting all of the animals to act is impressive, but it was still hideous. I went to bed and left the others watching it.
Near Cathedral Caves there’s a place called Hot Water beach, which is a beach that has hot springs on it under the sand (surprisingly!). You can only get to them at low tide, which was at 3am that morning. We got up around 1am and headed out. The tide was fairly low, but the sea was rough. After a fair bit of searching Brady and I found some hot springs. They were damn hot. You’d stand on the stand and could feel the soles of your feet burning, crazy. The tide was still too high to make sand pools to bathe in, so we messed around on the beach for a fair while. It was getting to be late autumn there, but we were still out in just shorts and t shirts and were fine. Sadly the sea was too rough and kept washing over the area where the hot springs were and we couldn’t build any pools, so at 3 we headed back to our chalet and slept.
The next day, as I’m sure everyone will agree, was by far my least favourite day of the trip. We did a lot of driving, interspersed with only a few breaks. I shall keep this days description brief. We drove around the Cormandel peninsula to the town of Cormandel where I had an amazing chicken and kumra pie. After a wander around the town, more driving, a brief stop at a lookout and more driving until we were past Auckland where we stopped for lunch. Then more driving to Dan’s parents house, in Whakatane (pronounced faka-tarn-ay – wh – ‘f’ sound). Dan’s parents were absolutely fantastic to us; they put us up and gave us food in exchange for some wine! I was fairly pissed off with the day by this point so went to the beach by myself for some air. Being stuck in a car all day listening to a lot of music which I strongly dislike really grates! I returned and we spent the evening watching TV and chatting with his parents before hitting the hay.
When we woke up the next day it was absolutely chucking it down. Another day which, to be honest, was not my favourite! We did a fair bit of driving again, but at least I got to drive some of it. Firstly we went to Waitangi where the treaty was signed between the Maoris and the English, and it was still raining. Only Sharon was willing to pay to get in, so the rest of us sat in the car and played cards whilst she did that. I also went inside a Maori meeting house by myself, and well all went and looked at some big Maori carvings nearby. Interestingly, the carvings at places such as museums and in public spaces differ very much to these rural ones; these carvings were ridiculously well hung!
I then drove back, but we went a different route which involved getting a ferry across an inlet and taking a smaller, more coastal road back. This really wasn’t the best idea ever, as the road was flooded in parts and blooming scary to drive through! That night we cooked for Dan’s parents and spent a lot of time talking before going to bed,
This next day (a Saturday) was the last day that I was travelling with the others for; they were flying back to Christchurch early on Sunday morning for exams which were taking place the following week. I got up earlier than the others to go to an oil refinery visitors centre nearby (there was a big refinery up there right by the beach), but sadly it was closed. The weather this day was better, but still not ideal. To being with we went to the beach for a frolick, and then to some local caves which were pretty flooded and very slippery, so we didn’t do any exploring, just looked around for a while.
After much umming and ahhing we drove to the south west of the Northlands to a black sand beach. The weather wasn’t particularly great, but it wasn’t raining at least. Brady and I started the beach time by jumping off some massive sand dunes and running around a lot. We then went to the other end of the beach, and saw some crazy, crazy fishermen. The sea was pretty rough, and about 8 fishermen were all standing on a big rock outcrop with their rods jammed into holes in the rock. They would then leave the rods and run to them when they got a bite. Waves kept crashing over the top of the rocks and washing past the rods, it was nuts!
We were standing in shorts and nothing else at this point, and it started to get cold, so we ran up to the top of the cliff to have a look around. Below us was a gannet nesting colony which was empty sadly. It looked like masses of mini craters where the birds would build their nests. In the sea far below a few hardcore surfers were going for it by the rocks in some very choppy waves. We eventually got too cold and ran back to the others, when it started to rain. We all bundled back into the car and headed to Auckland.
It was odd, I’d started my NZ trip and Dane’s, and now I was finally back there. After a lot of parking confusion we got there, and the others met Rebecca, Matho, Dane and Julian. We all went for a wander around town and to the Sky Tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere (apparently). For such a big tower it has a very small base and is quite incredible. Then to an oriental restaurant, where we were the only people who weren’t Asian. The food was good, and the side dishes which kept being brought were awesome!
We headed back to Dane’s and the others packed their bags, getting ready to leave super early the next morning. It was all pretty sad. At a very early hour of the morning the others got up and we all said our last goodbyes. It was really emotional for me; I’d been with these people almost everyday for the past few months, and I didn’t know when I’d be seeing them again, if ever. They left and I went back to sleep.
Thus ends my time of travelling with the others, and it only took me 6 weeks to write up! Now for the last part of NZ….
The following sleep was one of the worst I have ever had. Sleeping on the floor, with different people coming in every hour and waking us up and being loud sucked. Some German girls who didn’t even live in the house took it upon themselves to wake us up several times, great stuff.
We left early the next morning to go into town and look around some more. Firstly we went back to the Irish pub and were told we couldn’t get breakfast there unless we had ID, and they didn’t take my driving licence, great stuff. I ended up getting a pancake from a very French man, as did Sharon, and it was damn good and sweet. The first thing we did that morning was head to the Houses of Parliament, and took a tour of them. They’re essentially based on the British ones with the red and green carpets in the House of Lords and commons. They, however, have abolished the house of lords as no-one there could be assed with it! They also didn’t have enough money to finish the building, so instead of the House of Lords being opposite the House of Commons as in England, they’re not. Tour over, we headed to the botanical gardens. A girl from home (Jenna Rogers) is in Wellington for the year, so we met up with her and took the gondola lift up to the gardens, which are on the top of one of the hills to the side of the city.
The gardens were kinda out of season, but still prettyful. Jenna told us how Wellington is normally ridiculously windy, and never that good for weather, but when we were there it was calm and warm. It was strange, the south island isn’t that far away at all, but I already felt as if it was warmer on the north island. It was great to meet someone from home, and all of the Americans were surprised they could understand her fine; for some reason they can never understand what I say, Brady described me as the most British sounding person ever!
Maggie, Josh, Lisa, Mel, Emily, Luke and Teddy were all in Wellington that day as well, so we all went to meet them for lunch. It was fantastic seeing them all again, but also a bit odd as I’d said my goodbyes in Christchurch and had gotten all emotional then, and seeing them all again was making me emotional again! We all ate at a Macs brewery restaurant, and after the meal Jenna excused herself as she had to work. We also had to head off and begin driving north; that night Brady, Sharon, Mark, Danielle and I were staying in Palmerston North with Lizze and Dan who were also from the IFSA program. Dan also went to school with Danielle, so they were pretty good friends and wanted to catch up.
The drive only took a couple of hours, so we got there and all went straight out to a food court to eat. Some Indian food later and we hit up Pak ‘n’ Save for some cider/wine/general alcohol before heading out. After some Ring of Fire we headed into town, to a place called ‘The Game’, a karaoke bar, which I was not overly thrilled to go to! A few drinks later and Dan and I sang Thunderstruck by ACDC very, very badly. Can’t say it was the highlight of my night…! Anyhoo, we left there thankfully and Dan and I went to a house club, leaving everyone else behind as they were taking forever leaving.
A few drinks later and the others arrived; all of us were a tad worse for wear at this point! A lot of dancing ensued, and we left sometime the next morning. In Palmerston North they have a late night pie shop, but with a twist. The dude behind the counter serves you in tiny, tiny shorts, and if you ask him to he whips it out apparently, tasty… Apparently he used to be a lecturer at the uni and had a stroke, which is why he does what he does, and if that is the case it sucks.
One taxi ride home and we were back for a short nights sleep before leaving the next morning. We said our goodbyes to Lizzie and Dan early the next morning (8ish), and got in the car without anyone saying much. Brady doesn’t drink, and being the only one not hungover/way over the legal limit, he drove that day.
We all slope a fair bit that drive, but we were all awake when we drove the desert road. This was spectacular, a desert 3520 feet above sea level. There are several volcanoes on one side, named Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro. These names meant nothing to me, and seemed damn confusing, but if I said Mt. Doom I’m guessing you’ll know what I mean. Mt. Ngauruhoe is in fact Mt. Doom, and it was incredible. They were all snow capped, and surrounded by beautiful blue skies. I came back here later; see the third entry of my blog when it comes out in the near future!
A bit after midday we arrived in Matamata, which is where the set of Hobbiton is located (a very Lord of the Rings themed day). We got on a tour pretty soon, and got driven out to the set. To be honest, I wasn’t overly fussed on doing this, but the others were and I’m glad I did. It turns out only 19 (I think) of around 50 of the hobbit holes are still remaining, and it’s only by chance that they are. New Line Studios (who made LOTR) were in the process of taking them down, but it had to be postponed due to weather. People then asked to see the set, and the farm owners got in contact with New Line, who then let them keep the holes that were left, and agrees to maintain them. They’re all completely white, for a couple of reasons; a) to help preserve them, b) it makes them visible in bad weather, c) everything on the movie was a base construction with everything on top being made of incredibly well painted polystyrene. Literally, everything. The bridges, the buildings, everything was fronted by painted by polystyrene. As that’s pretty bad for the environment New Line took the polystyrene down as soon as filming had finished, took it to Wellington, and got rid of it. Another interesting thing at the set was the oak tree. The Tolkien’s said if the movie was made the oak tree which is described in massive detail in the book had to be in the film. As there wasn’t one on site, they had to buy one from nearby, cut it into small pieces and then reassemble it at the set. That’s a fair bit of effort for a 22 ton tree! Also, as it was then dead they had to put thousands of fake leaves on it, so it looked right for filming.
So the set was interesting and after we left we drove to Waitomo, home of very famous glow worm caves. In my guide book we found a very cheap sounding hostel ($12 a night I think), so we headed to that. It turned out to be a cavers hit, with no-one there at all, and a collection box in the main room. To sum it up in one word: amazing. We had a big living room type thing with wood fire, kitchen, a cat Mark named Belle and a bunk bed with a mattress that could hold at least 10 people. We stuck a space heater in that room, made some tea, and reclined in front of the fire. It was fantastic. Danielle and Mark knitted, Brady and I wrote journals and read, and Sharon sat there hating Belle as she’s allergic to cats.
We got a semi early night, and went to our by now roasting hot room and got into our bags. For some region we then began to debate war, which (to my surprise) Danielle and Brady were for, and Sharon and I were dead against. Not wanting to get involved, Mark said nothing… Not the lightest bedtime talking, and it got people a bit riled up! No matter, we all settled in for a good nights sleep with nothing to get up early for the next morning.
Then followed one of the best days I have ever had.
I arose after Sharon, who I found rekindling the fire and starting to make pancakes, awesome! We spent the morning sitting around the fire, eating pancakes and spent a very leisurely morning reading, knitting, talking about religion, and then talking about other stuffs. It was really peaceful, and I really liked it.
We’d come to Waitomo to go to the caves, and at around midday we set off to a caving centre to go on the tour we’d booked into. We’d decided to go ‘toobing’, which involved sitting in big rubber rings and gently floating along a slow river through the caves, instead of walking around them. We met our guide (Meg) and set off in her van. It was only the five of us plus Meg doing the tour that day, which was great; no annoying tourists there!
We all got into massive 5ml wetsuits, booties and wellies, and set off for the cave entrance. Meg showed us the distance we’d be going from above ground, it only looked a few hundred metres, but Meg assured us it would take at least a couple of hours to go that distance.
We climbed down a ladder in to the darkness, and one tight squeeze past some rocks later we were in the start of the cave. We had out headlamps on at this point and were all excited for what lay ahead. We began walking through the cave, looking at all of the stalagmites and stalactites all around us, until we reached our first stopping point, a very mini glow worm cave. We turned our lights off and looked around at the ceiling being lit by small worms, surreal! The light is emitted form the worms’ bums, and is from chemical matter breaking down inside them. They cannot excrete, so all waste is burnt off in the form of light.
Lights on, and we went to our first toobing port of call. We all got a tube and jumped off a ledge into the pool below. Linking ourselves in a chain, we slowly floated down a long tunnel with our lights now off. Glow worms littered the ceiling, and it felt like the Milky Way was just above us, but in glow form! It was incredibly serene, but it had to end. We got to the end of the tunnel, and turned our lights back on. Whilst Meg walked the tubes back to the top o the tunnel we were told to crawl through a very narrow tunnel with our lights off and to wait for her in the cave at the end. This freaked me out, but what felt like a long time later I arrived in a big cave with the others. A few minutes later and Meg walked round the corner, asking how we’d found it.
We carried on for a few minutes more and stopped for a hot drink and some chocolate (Meg carried them) to keep us warm. It was lovely, just sitting in a cave, having and eat and not being overly cold either! We pressed on through a section which we had to swim through, and came to our last toobing point. Here we lay on our fronts and casually drifted through a green glow towards the end of our toobing experience. Just before leaving we saw some wetas – massive ass bugs which are freaky. We exited the cave into the night, and instantly got pretty darn cold. On our walk back to the hut and warm showers we saw a possum in the trees, very NZ!
Some hot showers and a drive back into town later and we decided to drive to Rotorua, which is very famous for its hot springs. Emily, Teddy, Mel and Luke were also there that night, so we intended to meet up with them. Our friend Jon had told us about some hot pools which you could bathe in as well which were just under a bridge by a road, and they sounded awesome.
An hour and a bit later we rendezvoused with the others, and all decided to head to the springs. I jumped in the others car as I hadn’t seen them for a while, and wouldn’t be seeing them again after this point.
30km later, and we arrived a bridge enshrouded in stream. Already in swimming trucks, we jumped out of the car and made our way to the steaming river below. The water was deliciously warm, and we quickly sank into it. After a while we moved downstream, to find a massive pool with some others already in it, who were just leaving. This pool was fed by two rivers; one hot and one cold. It was amazing, you could adjust how warm you wanted the water by moving around in the giant pool, and it was great fun running form the hot side to the cold!
Something happened then that I did not expect. We were all sitting around in a large circle, when Brady went ‘guys, I’m not actually wearing my shorts anymore’, really not the person I was expecting to say that! Needless to say, Sharon, Emily and I joined him in it, but sadly the rest wouldn’t! We stayed there until around 11.30, when we dragged ourselves out of the pool and into our clothes. The other car headed back to their hostel, whilst we headed to a nearby campsite, which was deserted and had no running water, which sucked as we had hardly any. We set up camp and got to sleep. Thus ended one of the best days I’ve ever had.
The next morning we woke up rather parched, and hastily got the tent down. As we were in a thermal hotspot I really wanted to see some of the geysers, mud pools, etc. We set out to some nearby mud pools and watched them boil and goop away for about 10 minutes before heading back to the car and heading to a ‘thermal wonderland’. I’d also like to note everything here completely reeks of sulphur, including us who hadn’t showered after the previous night… Sadly the wonderland cost $30 and I was the only one who wanted to do go around, and the others had stuff to do in town, which was about 35km away. We left there and headed in Rotorua.
Danielle, Brady, Sharon and Mark had all decided to go zorbing (rolling down a hill in a giant inflatable ball), something which I wasn’t overly fussed about, so I spent the arrest of the morning and early afternoon writing my diary and snoozing in the local library.
We all met up later and drove to one of Dan’s (Maggie’s boyfriend and our friend) friends houses in Ohope, a couple of hours north. We arrived and went straight to the local Charter Club, which had a snooker table, awesome! 2 and a half dinners, 2 frames of snooker and a couple of beers later we headed back to Derek’s and watched Slumdog Millionaire before bed. Not the most eventful day, but nice nonetheless.
The next day we awoke to pouring rain. A couple of hours of driving later stopped for lunch, got food and carried on to Hahei, which is where the famous and stunningly beautiful Cathedral Caves are, or for a more visual description; opening scene of second Narnia movie. Yup, pretty epic! The rain had eased off by this point, so we drove to Cathedral Caves via some very flooded roads. After arriving at the car park near the caves we walked for 30 minutes to the coves. We were pretty much by ourselves on the beach, and the five of us spent some time wandering around in awe of the place, and just marvelling at its beauty. After about an hour other people came and we left. When we got to the top of the cliffs the sun was beginning to set, so I sat watching that for some time before we all left. I realised that my timescales here haven’t added up to anywhere near a day, the time in-between us getting up and sunset was also filled with stops at random places as well the caves!
We found a campsite nearby which let us have a small chalet to ourselves for $100 (£40) for a night, bargain! The chalet had a kitchen, living room and 2 bedrooms, perfect for us. This became another evening of relaxing, we watched George of the Jungle (my choice), failed at doing a puzzle by the end of the night, ate, I drank a fejoia beer (fejoia is a fruit that (to me and Rosie Jones) is disgusting. It tastes like dentist and nastyness) and people that started watching a movie called Napoleon, which was absolutely hideous. It was a bout a do going on adventure who could talk to other animals. I guess getting all of the animals to act is impressive, but it was still hideous. I went to bed and left the others watching it.
Near Cathedral Caves there’s a place called Hot Water beach, which is a beach that has hot springs on it under the sand (surprisingly!). You can only get to them at low tide, which was at 3am that morning. We got up around 1am and headed out. The tide was fairly low, but the sea was rough. After a fair bit of searching Brady and I found some hot springs. They were damn hot. You’d stand on the stand and could feel the soles of your feet burning, crazy. The tide was still too high to make sand pools to bathe in, so we messed around on the beach for a fair while. It was getting to be late autumn there, but we were still out in just shorts and t shirts and were fine. Sadly the sea was too rough and kept washing over the area where the hot springs were and we couldn’t build any pools, so at 3 we headed back to our chalet and slept.
The next day, as I’m sure everyone will agree, was by far my least favourite day of the trip. We did a lot of driving, interspersed with only a few breaks. I shall keep this days description brief. We drove around the Cormandel peninsula to the town of Cormandel where I had an amazing chicken and kumra pie. After a wander around the town, more driving, a brief stop at a lookout and more driving until we were past Auckland where we stopped for lunch. Then more driving to Dan’s parents house, in Whakatane (pronounced faka-tarn-ay – wh – ‘f’ sound). Dan’s parents were absolutely fantastic to us; they put us up and gave us food in exchange for some wine! I was fairly pissed off with the day by this point so went to the beach by myself for some air. Being stuck in a car all day listening to a lot of music which I strongly dislike really grates! I returned and we spent the evening watching TV and chatting with his parents before hitting the hay.
When we woke up the next day it was absolutely chucking it down. Another day which, to be honest, was not my favourite! We did a fair bit of driving again, but at least I got to drive some of it. Firstly we went to Waitangi where the treaty was signed between the Maoris and the English, and it was still raining. Only Sharon was willing to pay to get in, so the rest of us sat in the car and played cards whilst she did that. I also went inside a Maori meeting house by myself, and well all went and looked at some big Maori carvings nearby. Interestingly, the carvings at places such as museums and in public spaces differ very much to these rural ones; these carvings were ridiculously well hung!
I then drove back, but we went a different route which involved getting a ferry across an inlet and taking a smaller, more coastal road back. This really wasn’t the best idea ever, as the road was flooded in parts and blooming scary to drive through! That night we cooked for Dan’s parents and spent a lot of time talking before going to bed,
This next day (a Saturday) was the last day that I was travelling with the others for; they were flying back to Christchurch early on Sunday morning for exams which were taking place the following week. I got up earlier than the others to go to an oil refinery visitors centre nearby (there was a big refinery up there right by the beach), but sadly it was closed. The weather this day was better, but still not ideal. To being with we went to the beach for a frolick, and then to some local caves which were pretty flooded and very slippery, so we didn’t do any exploring, just looked around for a while.
After much umming and ahhing we drove to the south west of the Northlands to a black sand beach. The weather wasn’t particularly great, but it wasn’t raining at least. Brady and I started the beach time by jumping off some massive sand dunes and running around a lot. We then went to the other end of the beach, and saw some crazy, crazy fishermen. The sea was pretty rough, and about 8 fishermen were all standing on a big rock outcrop with their rods jammed into holes in the rock. They would then leave the rods and run to them when they got a bite. Waves kept crashing over the top of the rocks and washing past the rods, it was nuts!
We were standing in shorts and nothing else at this point, and it started to get cold, so we ran up to the top of the cliff to have a look around. Below us was a gannet nesting colony which was empty sadly. It looked like masses of mini craters where the birds would build their nests. In the sea far below a few hardcore surfers were going for it by the rocks in some very choppy waves. We eventually got too cold and ran back to the others, when it started to rain. We all bundled back into the car and headed to Auckland.
It was odd, I’d started my NZ trip and Dane’s, and now I was finally back there. After a lot of parking confusion we got there, and the others met Rebecca, Matho, Dane and Julian. We all went for a wander around town and to the Sky Tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere (apparently). For such a big tower it has a very small base and is quite incredible. Then to an oriental restaurant, where we were the only people who weren’t Asian. The food was good, and the side dishes which kept being brought were awesome!
We headed back to Dane’s and the others packed their bags, getting ready to leave super early the next morning. It was all pretty sad. At a very early hour of the morning the others got up and we all said our last goodbyes. It was really emotional for me; I’d been with these people almost everyday for the past few months, and I didn’t know when I’d be seeing them again, if ever. They left and I went back to sleep.
Thus ends my time of travelling with the others, and it only took me 6 weeks to write up! Now for the last part of NZ….
Sunday, 5 July 2009
End travels, part 1
At the time of starting to write this its 7.06am, before the first day of my new job. I woke up really early for no apparent reason, probably nerves, and have some time on my hands, so am starting to write this up. At the end of writing this, it is 13.48, 6 days later.
So, continuing from where I left off. Emily booked us all onto a party bus, which is essentially a bus which drives to obscure bars before dropping us off in town. It was a lot of fun, and most people ended up pretty drunk. I managed to leave my phone on the bus which sucked massively, especially seeing as I was leaving early the next morning and had no way of getting it back. I said my goodbyes to everyone, and then Danielle and I went back. We later got a call from Sharon, who had locked herself out of her room… I climbed around her balcony and got in through her window, good times!
The next morning I woke up fairly early, and Dan gave me a lift to town and the bus stop; it was pretty emotional. The coach to Kaikoura only took a couple of hours, and when I got there I booked into a hostel and went and bougt some food to use on the Queen Charlotte track the next day. This is important, as it served as my first lesson in travelling (explained later). Kaikoura is famed for its paua shells, which are highly colourful shells in blue and green which can be found on the beach, if you look in the right places. The best ones are picked up by divers and look incredible, but seeing as I wasn’t doing that it was the beach for me. I turned a 3.5 hour cliff walk into a 5.5 hour beach and cliff walk, and found some lovely shells. There are literally thousands of the shells in the town, and they’re made into exquisite jewellery. That night I had made tea and got an early night; I was exhausted and slept for 11 hours. The next day I got up and left and learnt lesson number one; remember whatever you left in the fridge! I realised I left my meat and cheese at the hostel later in the day when I was on the Queen Charlotte track, which I took a coach and boat to get to, so no way of getting them back!
I got the coach from Kaikoura to Picton, stopping on the way to look at seals. The weather was awful, and the road is literally just above the beach, so it was beautiful in a chaotic kind of way. I got into Kaikoura and booked everything for my time on the track, including the first nights stay and my boat which left in an hour. The track is a ‘luxury’ track, meaning that the boat companies pick up your pack each day and drop it at the next place you’re staying so you only have to carry a day pack. I thought this would ruin the point of a big hike, but it was actually great as you could enjoy it so much more.
The Queen Charlotte track is on Marlborough Sound, which has its own weather system. Apparently the wind is always southerly, and it rarely gets any bad weather as its all taken to sea/into the mountains before it reaches the sound, meaning its almost always good weather. The day I got there it wasn’t so good… I had originally planned to do a 15km hike before getting to the homestay where I was staying that night, but ended up just getting the boat straight there.
I got to the homestay around 3, and met my host, Noeline. She was eccentric; her dog was called tuppence, the first was called pence, and she spends 2 months of the year travelling alone, which she can afford by letting people stay for 10 months a year. This year she’s going to Hungary and Romania. She only goes to town once every two months, and she’s 80 years old. Inspirational. Two others were staying there, Liz from Holland and Dorian who was cycling the trail. We spent the evening in the warm and dry, and got an early night. This is also where I realised all of my food was in Kaikoura…
Woke up early the next day and set out with Liz at around 8am. We left our packs on the jetty at Noelines, and just took day packs for the 25km hike ahead of us. The previous night it snowed on the track, which only happens about once year, so it was pretty special. The hike was just incredible. Every corner you turn yields more incredible views, I have hundreds of pictures from the few days I was there that all look really similar to anyone who hasn’t been there! Each inlet had perfect blue water, lush green foliage and stuck into the sea in a haphazard manner. There is no way for me to describe the beauty of it. That night I camped and Liz stayed at another homestay. I was the only one camping which was nice, and in the evening I went to Portage, a luxury retreat which also had a bar. I sat there by myself drinking a beer and eating wedges for 2 hours, and only saw 4 other guests; definitely the quiet time of the season. Portage also has the best steak pies EVER, they were incredible!
That night I slept for 13 hours, I only had a small hike the next day, so there was no reason for me to get up early. Another pie later, and I set off at around 11. That night I was o be couchsurfing with a guy who lives on the track, and he was about 8km away, so no hurry. This time I carried my pack, hiking is so much harder with it on! A few beautiful hours later and I arrived. I’d also like to note that on this few hours I breathed the purest, best feeling air I have ever breathed. It was just awesome. After staying there for a while and bashing out some sketches I carried on to Peter Cowell’s. the guy I was couchsurfing with. His house was around 45 minutes off the track, and amazing. Just before his house is a rope swing that swings out across the sound, and just sets the tone for the place. I arrived at around 3, as the sun was starting to go out behind the hills, and after some quick introductions he told me we were going out fishing on his boat to catch the sun. So, we headed down to his boat via a cart he made that traverses about 100m of steep hillside. He took some snails off his jetty, and we went out on his boat. The snails were then used to catch snappers, which were then used as bait for bigger fish. Sadly we didn’t catch anything else, but it was great staying in the sun and talking.
He hand built the two houses on his land, and has lived there for 23 years. The one I stayed in he rents out for $200-$300 per night for a third of the year. The rest of his income comes from doing odd jobs for neighbours, such as mowing lawns and painting. There are around 50 homes in the inlet, and only 3 or 4 habited year round. In the rest of his time he reads, hunts and maintains the forest. He catches all his own meat, grows fruit and veg, and has water direct from a natural spring. It is impossible for me to describe how idyllic this was.
So, after fishing he asked what I was doing for tea, and when I said noodles he told me he’d made us stew and was going to make dumplings. It was awesome. We ate, and he then asked if I’d like a beer. I said sure, and he came back with a few litres of beer, which he brews himself. It was good stuff. He then asked if I wanted weed, which I declined. He said he grows it himself, truly self sufficient! We spent the evening watching trashy TV, and relaxing, which was lovely. He was a really interesting guy to meet, with a lot of stories, too many to include here!
The next morning we went out into the forest and collected a couple of bags of pine cones for his fire, and he made us a fry up. A great start to the day. He then had to go into town, and after giving me a bag of passion fruit he left on his boat. I stayed around the house until around 1, just hanging out and being in the sun. One more go on the rope swing, and I set off for my next destination, a campsite only a few miles away.
The next few hours were again, magical. A side track took me up to the top of a hill that gave 360 degree panoramic of the whole area, I’ll try and upload the video somewhere, it’ll show it far better than I can explain.
Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnYfNE0QFNA
That evening I arrived at my campsite, which was at Mistletoe Bay eco lodge, or something along those lines. I camped, and spent the evening reading in a cooking hut which was also populated by about 50 10 year olds and their school teachers. I’d picked up the Kite Runner at Portage, and got a fair way through it.
The next morning I got up, dried off the inside of my tent (its cheap, and condensation builds up on the inside, it sucks), and left my bag on the jetty for the water taxi to pick up. I had around 4 hours of hiking ahead of me, and I gave myself 6 hours to do it in so I could take my time. Again, another day of ridiculous scenery and beautiful weather. At one point I rounded a corner and the entire sea was covered in mist; it looked as though you were on top of a mountain far above the cloud line. I finished with two hours to spare and spent some time reading and sketching on the beach before the water taxi picked me up. Over the 4 day I have around 50km, 25 of which were on the first day.
I took the taxi back over the calm waters, and arrived back in Picton. I booked into a hostel which had free chocolate pudding each evening, and free breakfast, pretty good if you ask me! I met a guy from Bath there, and spent the evening talking with him, a guy from Essex and an American, who couldn’t understand a lot of what we said. I had this the whole trip with the Americans; they couldn’t understand me a lot, and it was nice to talk to a couple of English guys who could! I also booked my Ferry ticket; the next day I was going to the north island.
I feel as if my blog has got less descriptive over time, which is probably a good and bad thing; I’ve already written masses and only covered a week or so, and there’s another two weeks at least to write up, but I also feel like there’s probably a lot of bits I miss out. Its impossible to describe how awe-inspiring everything was without being there, the pictures really can’t begin to show what it was like, and they also can’t incorporate things like the wind or the smell or the feeling of being alone in such a beautiful place, which sucks!
The next morning (Friday now) I got up and got ready to leave the south island forever. Sad to be leaving, but also excited to see a new part of the country. The ferrys are huge, and damn slow. They also go through the sound to get into the straight between the islands, and I felt like I should be outside the whole time, but it was actually fairly cold, and after being in the sound I didn’t feel like I’d be seeing anything that I needed to. So I took a nap, and awoke half an hour later for the scenery to be pretty much the same, but now with dolphins included! A fair few people have swam the straight between the islands, and it’s a fair way. I just tried googling the distance, but couldn’t want to find it. I’m writing this as the youngest person to do it was 11, epic!
After arriving in Wellington I headed along the water front to Te Papa (the nation in Maori), where I was meeting Danielle, Sharon, Brady and Mark who I would be travelling with for the next 10 days. I’d like to say it was an emotional reunion, but it really wasn’t more of a ‘hi, hows it going?’!
Right, this is the first section of my end of NZ adventure, and if you’ve read this, props! I’m writing this both for other people if they’re interested, and for myself, so I never forget the times I had.
Next entry to come soon(ish).
x
So, continuing from where I left off. Emily booked us all onto a party bus, which is essentially a bus which drives to obscure bars before dropping us off in town. It was a lot of fun, and most people ended up pretty drunk. I managed to leave my phone on the bus which sucked massively, especially seeing as I was leaving early the next morning and had no way of getting it back. I said my goodbyes to everyone, and then Danielle and I went back. We later got a call from Sharon, who had locked herself out of her room… I climbed around her balcony and got in through her window, good times!
The next morning I woke up fairly early, and Dan gave me a lift to town and the bus stop; it was pretty emotional. The coach to Kaikoura only took a couple of hours, and when I got there I booked into a hostel and went and bougt some food to use on the Queen Charlotte track the next day. This is important, as it served as my first lesson in travelling (explained later). Kaikoura is famed for its paua shells, which are highly colourful shells in blue and green which can be found on the beach, if you look in the right places. The best ones are picked up by divers and look incredible, but seeing as I wasn’t doing that it was the beach for me. I turned a 3.5 hour cliff walk into a 5.5 hour beach and cliff walk, and found some lovely shells. There are literally thousands of the shells in the town, and they’re made into exquisite jewellery. That night I had made tea and got an early night; I was exhausted and slept for 11 hours. The next day I got up and left and learnt lesson number one; remember whatever you left in the fridge! I realised I left my meat and cheese at the hostel later in the day when I was on the Queen Charlotte track, which I took a coach and boat to get to, so no way of getting them back!
I got the coach from Kaikoura to Picton, stopping on the way to look at seals. The weather was awful, and the road is literally just above the beach, so it was beautiful in a chaotic kind of way. I got into Kaikoura and booked everything for my time on the track, including the first nights stay and my boat which left in an hour. The track is a ‘luxury’ track, meaning that the boat companies pick up your pack each day and drop it at the next place you’re staying so you only have to carry a day pack. I thought this would ruin the point of a big hike, but it was actually great as you could enjoy it so much more.
The Queen Charlotte track is on Marlborough Sound, which has its own weather system. Apparently the wind is always southerly, and it rarely gets any bad weather as its all taken to sea/into the mountains before it reaches the sound, meaning its almost always good weather. The day I got there it wasn’t so good… I had originally planned to do a 15km hike before getting to the homestay where I was staying that night, but ended up just getting the boat straight there.
I got to the homestay around 3, and met my host, Noeline. She was eccentric; her dog was called tuppence, the first was called pence, and she spends 2 months of the year travelling alone, which she can afford by letting people stay for 10 months a year. This year she’s going to Hungary and Romania. She only goes to town once every two months, and she’s 80 years old. Inspirational. Two others were staying there, Liz from Holland and Dorian who was cycling the trail. We spent the evening in the warm and dry, and got an early night. This is also where I realised all of my food was in Kaikoura…
Woke up early the next day and set out with Liz at around 8am. We left our packs on the jetty at Noelines, and just took day packs for the 25km hike ahead of us. The previous night it snowed on the track, which only happens about once year, so it was pretty special. The hike was just incredible. Every corner you turn yields more incredible views, I have hundreds of pictures from the few days I was there that all look really similar to anyone who hasn’t been there! Each inlet had perfect blue water, lush green foliage and stuck into the sea in a haphazard manner. There is no way for me to describe the beauty of it. That night I camped and Liz stayed at another homestay. I was the only one camping which was nice, and in the evening I went to Portage, a luxury retreat which also had a bar. I sat there by myself drinking a beer and eating wedges for 2 hours, and only saw 4 other guests; definitely the quiet time of the season. Portage also has the best steak pies EVER, they were incredible!
That night I slept for 13 hours, I only had a small hike the next day, so there was no reason for me to get up early. Another pie later, and I set off at around 11. That night I was o be couchsurfing with a guy who lives on the track, and he was about 8km away, so no hurry. This time I carried my pack, hiking is so much harder with it on! A few beautiful hours later and I arrived. I’d also like to note that on this few hours I breathed the purest, best feeling air I have ever breathed. It was just awesome. After staying there for a while and bashing out some sketches I carried on to Peter Cowell’s. the guy I was couchsurfing with. His house was around 45 minutes off the track, and amazing. Just before his house is a rope swing that swings out across the sound, and just sets the tone for the place. I arrived at around 3, as the sun was starting to go out behind the hills, and after some quick introductions he told me we were going out fishing on his boat to catch the sun. So, we headed down to his boat via a cart he made that traverses about 100m of steep hillside. He took some snails off his jetty, and we went out on his boat. The snails were then used to catch snappers, which were then used as bait for bigger fish. Sadly we didn’t catch anything else, but it was great staying in the sun and talking.
He hand built the two houses on his land, and has lived there for 23 years. The one I stayed in he rents out for $200-$300 per night for a third of the year. The rest of his income comes from doing odd jobs for neighbours, such as mowing lawns and painting. There are around 50 homes in the inlet, and only 3 or 4 habited year round. In the rest of his time he reads, hunts and maintains the forest. He catches all his own meat, grows fruit and veg, and has water direct from a natural spring. It is impossible for me to describe how idyllic this was.
So, after fishing he asked what I was doing for tea, and when I said noodles he told me he’d made us stew and was going to make dumplings. It was awesome. We ate, and he then asked if I’d like a beer. I said sure, and he came back with a few litres of beer, which he brews himself. It was good stuff. He then asked if I wanted weed, which I declined. He said he grows it himself, truly self sufficient! We spent the evening watching trashy TV, and relaxing, which was lovely. He was a really interesting guy to meet, with a lot of stories, too many to include here!
The next morning we went out into the forest and collected a couple of bags of pine cones for his fire, and he made us a fry up. A great start to the day. He then had to go into town, and after giving me a bag of passion fruit he left on his boat. I stayed around the house until around 1, just hanging out and being in the sun. One more go on the rope swing, and I set off for my next destination, a campsite only a few miles away.
The next few hours were again, magical. A side track took me up to the top of a hill that gave 360 degree panoramic of the whole area, I’ll try and upload the video somewhere, it’ll show it far better than I can explain.
Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnYfNE0QFNA
That evening I arrived at my campsite, which was at Mistletoe Bay eco lodge, or something along those lines. I camped, and spent the evening reading in a cooking hut which was also populated by about 50 10 year olds and their school teachers. I’d picked up the Kite Runner at Portage, and got a fair way through it.
The next morning I got up, dried off the inside of my tent (its cheap, and condensation builds up on the inside, it sucks), and left my bag on the jetty for the water taxi to pick up. I had around 4 hours of hiking ahead of me, and I gave myself 6 hours to do it in so I could take my time. Again, another day of ridiculous scenery and beautiful weather. At one point I rounded a corner and the entire sea was covered in mist; it looked as though you were on top of a mountain far above the cloud line. I finished with two hours to spare and spent some time reading and sketching on the beach before the water taxi picked me up. Over the 4 day I have around 50km, 25 of which were on the first day.
I took the taxi back over the calm waters, and arrived back in Picton. I booked into a hostel which had free chocolate pudding each evening, and free breakfast, pretty good if you ask me! I met a guy from Bath there, and spent the evening talking with him, a guy from Essex and an American, who couldn’t understand a lot of what we said. I had this the whole trip with the Americans; they couldn’t understand me a lot, and it was nice to talk to a couple of English guys who could! I also booked my Ferry ticket; the next day I was going to the north island.
I feel as if my blog has got less descriptive over time, which is probably a good and bad thing; I’ve already written masses and only covered a week or so, and there’s another two weeks at least to write up, but I also feel like there’s probably a lot of bits I miss out. Its impossible to describe how awe-inspiring everything was without being there, the pictures really can’t begin to show what it was like, and they also can’t incorporate things like the wind or the smell or the feeling of being alone in such a beautiful place, which sucks!
The next morning (Friday now) I got up and got ready to leave the south island forever. Sad to be leaving, but also excited to see a new part of the country. The ferrys are huge, and damn slow. They also go through the sound to get into the straight between the islands, and I felt like I should be outside the whole time, but it was actually fairly cold, and after being in the sound I didn’t feel like I’d be seeing anything that I needed to. So I took a nap, and awoke half an hour later for the scenery to be pretty much the same, but now with dolphins included! A fair few people have swam the straight between the islands, and it’s a fair way. I just tried googling the distance, but couldn’t want to find it. I’m writing this as the youngest person to do it was 11, epic!
After arriving in Wellington I headed along the water front to Te Papa (the nation in Maori), where I was meeting Danielle, Sharon, Brady and Mark who I would be travelling with for the next 10 days. I’d like to say it was an emotional reunion, but it really wasn’t more of a ‘hi, hows it going?’!
Right, this is the first section of my end of NZ adventure, and if you’ve read this, props! I’m writing this both for other people if they’re interested, and for myself, so I never forget the times I had.
Next entry to come soon(ish).
x
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Home
Hey everyone, I'm back now. Theres going to be a massive entry at some point in the near(ish) future about what happened in the last epic few weeks. Until then, hopefully see everyone soon.
Friday, 29 May 2009
Leaving Christchurch...
Its pretty sad, just went round town for the last time, and said goodbye to everyone at Uni.
On a side note, Sarah did not make the flan as I said last time, it was Josh and Molly. They were pretty happy when they saw that I'd credited someone else with it! Sarah made some muffiny things
So, this week has been good. Sunday evening was church, and it was nice to see people again there before I left. To be honest I was pretty tired and had trouble staying awake during parts of the talk!
On Monday my accommodation ran out so I've moved in with Maggie and Danielle for a few days. The day time on Monday was taken up with writing up report, and seeing my tutor. We've been turning my work into a paper to be published, and its an interesting process. In the evening we all hung out and played games, such as loaded question. Roger and some of his friends stayed the night (they're at Dunedin, and we're flying to Australia from the airport here), so they stayed in Maggie's room and I slept on Danielle's floor.
Tuesday as much of the same, albeit it was Emily's birthday. This involved a lot of drinking on her behalf, and playing beer pong, which I actually quite enjoyed. I'm always sceptical about all of the things the Americans obsess over, but this was good. Also this evening I went to Navigators (Navs for short) which is a Christian group on campus. A lot of my friends were there, so it was nice to see them one last time. We prayed in a circle holding hands, and it was very moving.
The weather was still bad on Wednesday, and on this day I worked some more. I went to my last Christians on Campus meeting in the afternoon, and in the evening went to Don and Karen Pearce's house for tea. Don runs the group, and I've been there a few times to eat. We had a big rice dish, and 5 different sorts of vegetables, it was awesome.
Yesterday (Thursday) the weather was lovely, so I got up early (before 7!) and took a bus ti Lyttelton and a ferry to Diamond Harbour. I was intending to do a hike up Mt. Herbert, but first I accidentally did a cliff walk for 2 hours as I missed the Mt. Herbert path (in my defence it wasn't signed!). So, I got back and then did the hike. The mountain is 919m above sea level, and about 7.5km to the top. I got there in 2 hours and back in 1.5 after a half hour lunch at the top. Most of the trail follows a river which is all water from snow, and beautifully clean. After looking closely at it and tasting it I drank some and it was delicious. Then, about 500m up the river head starts from a large wetland, and in the middle of it there was a dead cow. I was not best pleased to say the least after just drinking the water downstream! I got back after that and slept a lot, then played more beer pong. I got in fairly drunk at about 1.30am, and slept for a about 5.5 hours before getting up for my last meeting with my tutor.
Today (Friday) has been really nice, after my tutorial I went to the park and gardens with Danielle, Mark, Josh, Sarah and Molly. We played a lot of frisbee, and I was very happy to just wander around in the sun. They went to a fudge 'cottage', i.e. a mini fudge factory in the arts centre, and whilst they were doing that I went to the art gallery for an hour or so.
So, this brings me to the end of my time in Christchurch. I leave early tomorrow morning, and will be travelling for a few weeks before coming home. The general travel plan is as follows; go to Kaikoura Saturday, go up to Picton on Sunday and spend 4 days doing the Queen Charlotte track. 2 of these days will be spent couchsurfing with a guy who owns an eco lodge on the trail, I'm really excited about it! After that go to Wellington, where I'm meeting Sharon, Danielle, Brady and Mark and from there spend 10 days getting to Auckland. After that I've got another week by myself to explore above Auckland. And them home, will be back in Bridport June 24th. Oh, if anyone is selling a car/knows someone who is for £1500 or under, please let me know.
Tonight we're going out again for Emily birthday, and I'm quite looking forwards to being with everyone for the last time.
I won't be updating this for a while I imagine, so don't expect much!
See you all soon,
Rob xxx
On a side note, Sarah did not make the flan as I said last time, it was Josh and Molly. They were pretty happy when they saw that I'd credited someone else with it! Sarah made some muffiny things
So, this week has been good. Sunday evening was church, and it was nice to see people again there before I left. To be honest I was pretty tired and had trouble staying awake during parts of the talk!
On Monday my accommodation ran out so I've moved in with Maggie and Danielle for a few days. The day time on Monday was taken up with writing up report, and seeing my tutor. We've been turning my work into a paper to be published, and its an interesting process. In the evening we all hung out and played games, such as loaded question. Roger and some of his friends stayed the night (they're at Dunedin, and we're flying to Australia from the airport here), so they stayed in Maggie's room and I slept on Danielle's floor.
Tuesday as much of the same, albeit it was Emily's birthday. This involved a lot of drinking on her behalf, and playing beer pong, which I actually quite enjoyed. I'm always sceptical about all of the things the Americans obsess over, but this was good. Also this evening I went to Navigators (Navs for short) which is a Christian group on campus. A lot of my friends were there, so it was nice to see them one last time. We prayed in a circle holding hands, and it was very moving.
The weather was still bad on Wednesday, and on this day I worked some more. I went to my last Christians on Campus meeting in the afternoon, and in the evening went to Don and Karen Pearce's house for tea. Don runs the group, and I've been there a few times to eat. We had a big rice dish, and 5 different sorts of vegetables, it was awesome.
Yesterday (Thursday) the weather was lovely, so I got up early (before 7!) and took a bus ti Lyttelton and a ferry to Diamond Harbour. I was intending to do a hike up Mt. Herbert, but first I accidentally did a cliff walk for 2 hours as I missed the Mt. Herbert path (in my defence it wasn't signed!). So, I got back and then did the hike. The mountain is 919m above sea level, and about 7.5km to the top. I got there in 2 hours and back in 1.5 after a half hour lunch at the top. Most of the trail follows a river which is all water from snow, and beautifully clean. After looking closely at it and tasting it I drank some and it was delicious. Then, about 500m up the river head starts from a large wetland, and in the middle of it there was a dead cow. I was not best pleased to say the least after just drinking the water downstream! I got back after that and slept a lot, then played more beer pong. I got in fairly drunk at about 1.30am, and slept for a about 5.5 hours before getting up for my last meeting with my tutor.
Today (Friday) has been really nice, after my tutorial I went to the park and gardens with Danielle, Mark, Josh, Sarah and Molly. We played a lot of frisbee, and I was very happy to just wander around in the sun. They went to a fudge 'cottage', i.e. a mini fudge factory in the arts centre, and whilst they were doing that I went to the art gallery for an hour or so.
So, this brings me to the end of my time in Christchurch. I leave early tomorrow morning, and will be travelling for a few weeks before coming home. The general travel plan is as follows; go to Kaikoura Saturday, go up to Picton on Sunday and spend 4 days doing the Queen Charlotte track. 2 of these days will be spent couchsurfing with a guy who owns an eco lodge on the trail, I'm really excited about it! After that go to Wellington, where I'm meeting Sharon, Danielle, Brady and Mark and from there spend 10 days getting to Auckland. After that I've got another week by myself to explore above Auckland. And them home, will be back in Bridport June 24th. Oh, if anyone is selling a car/knows someone who is for £1500 or under, please let me know.
Tonight we're going out again for Emily birthday, and I'm quite looking forwards to being with everyone for the last time.
I won't be updating this for a while I imagine, so don't expect much!
See you all soon,
Rob xxx
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Nearly leaving...
Winter is coming, and its scary! Its been raining for over a week now, and its very reminiscent of England - awful! I've pretty much finished all of my work, so am trying to get out, the weather isn't giving me much motivation though.
So, after putt putt we spent a lot of time getting to a burger bar called Wisconsin burger, which was good but not overly amazing, then came back. We hung out in Marks flat, and had a great time just messing about and being immature I think the highlight for most was the Chug of War between Teddy and I. It basically involved eating a lot of bun, very quickly with your arms linked. Teddy is crazy strong, and an awesome wrestler, so very daunting! Its easiest just to watch the video; http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=798853783588&subj=204504202
Needless to say, it was very messy, and very, very entertaining.
Two weeks is a lot of time to remember stuff for, so I can't exactly give a day to day run down of what happened, can give a guesstimate though! We probably did a pot luck at some point (everyone makes a dish and we have a group meal - normally themed, i.e. world food, breakfast, etc), and I probably didn't do much work. I finished my experiments before the Easter break, so have spent my time after writing up my project, and writing up sections for a paper that will be published on mine, and others research. I'm really happy about this, it means I'll have a paper published with my name on it before I graduate.
Danielle's friend Ryan came on Thursday some of us went into town for some drinks, and after Dan (Maggie' boyfriend - a Kiwi) drove us up the Port Hills, where we looked down at Christchurch at night. It was so beautiful, I hope not to forget it for a long time.
Danielle and Ryan had decided to drive to Queenstown that weekend, and not having anything else to do, Teddy and I grabbed a lift to Wanaka, which is a town about an hour from Queenstown. We'd stopped there for an afternoon on our travels over Easter, and it was lovely, hence us going back. We'd planned on camping, but it rained all weekend, so we ended up staying in a hostel, the more expensive yet far drier option. Friday night was taken up with pool, ping pong, and some beers at the hostel.
We awoke on Saturday to find it still raining, and decided to go for a small hike and then on to Puzzle World, where there's lots of puzzle (go figure!), a two level maze and lots of things that are world unique or world first, such as a hologram room, uphill room, etc. We got ready for the hike and realised that Teddy had left his boots in the car and only had loafers with him. As Teddy's H-core (what we've coming for hardcore) we did an hour or so hike in the rain up a mini mountain, and trekked into Puzzle World. Puzzle World was a lot of fun, and we spent the most of the day there, until eventually walking home in the pouring rain. That night was spent in the same manner as the one before.
The next morning it wasn't raining, so we did a small walk around the lake before getting on-board our bus home. On the bus we joined Emily, who'd gone to Queenstown with Danielle and Ryan, and we settled in for out 6 hour ride home. About 45 minutes in we got to Tarras, the start of a pass through the mountains to Lake Tekapo, only to find the pass was closed, and that we had to take a huge detour. This seemed to be a recurring theme; at least two other roads were closed due to rain either causing landslides covering the road, or swelling rivers and flooding bridges. 10 hours later we got back to Christchurch - a bit of a long day!
This week I work fairly hard - my tutor had read through my 60 page report over the weekend, and had gone over it in detail, so I had a lot of improvements to do on it. I was really pleased he'd done this, as its improved my report a lot. We did a pot luck on Tuesday, and did world foods; I did a tagine.
After the world Foods a few of went to the casino, which was quite daunting at first, but a lot of fun. We all played $5 blackjack, Teddy came up $47.50 up, I was $50 up, Dan $80 and Luke $100.
On Thursday I had a meal with Dan and Maggie. Friday was my birthday, and we were doing a dessert pot luck and they couldn't make it, so we made tea and had ice cream together - very nice! After that we played beer pong until bed - around 1am.
The next morning Danielle, Ryan and I went into town and spent the morning at the art gallery. I especially liked these quotes I took from paintings;
'Tomorrow will be the same, but not as this is'
'Nothing else. And then. The oracle speaks: take one step'
'as there is a constant flow of light we are born into the PURE LAND'
These are from a New Zealand artist called Colin McCahon, asides from the second one.
After that we met up with the others, and went to the Foundry (the campus bar) and played cars, and then proceeded to Hells Pizza, which took forever as it was Friday evening and the traffic was awful.
Then the desserts began! There were a lot; cheesecake form Jon and I, fudge by Brady, more fudge by Danielle and Ryan, Flan by Sarah, peanut pie by Mark, cupcakes by Mel, and a whole lot of other things by everyone else. Lisa and Sharon made a particularly memorable one; 4 Boston buns stacked on top of each other, and covered with icing and jelly sweets for the cake, it was spectacular!
After that we played card games, and Brady and Jon did a chug of war, which was very intense. Then we realised there was a massive puddle outside, and a few of us decided to go jump in it. About 30 minutes later everyone had been persuaded, and everyone donned their ghostbuster uniforms from the Twalk, and went outside into the freezing cold. This next part was probably the best part of the night; 15 of us jumping and sliding in a massive puddle in the middle of uni with a load of people watching. A random guy then got naked and dove in, which was hilarious, made even funnier by him falling over whilst running back to his house! We then crammed about 5 of us into each shower at Emilys house and warmed up a bit. A few more games, and we ended the night.
Yesterday (Saturday) I began to pack up my room, as my accommodation runs out tomorrow (Monday), which is very weird (I'm moving into Maggie and Danielle's for a few days before leaving Christchurch next Saturday). Saturday evening I went to Dan's for food, and we went to some of his friends and then to the casino again. I lost $20 this time, even after being $40 up at one point. This sounds pretty dumb, and most likely is, but its weird when you're there and you hold plastic chips - it doesn't feel like real money. I put down two $20 bets at the end and lost both - you win some you lose some I guess! Its weird, I feel like I lost $60, but I only put $20 in... A very interesting experience anyways, and overall I came out positive. Think that will be my last time going to a casino, its easy to see why they're so addictive.
Anyways, its still raining and the hike I was going to do with some others has been postponed - I've got all of next week with not a lot to do, so will do it then. I'm going to finish tidying my room today, and go to church in the evening, really looking forwards to it.
I'll be back in a month, so see y'all soon!
xxx
So, after putt putt we spent a lot of time getting to a burger bar called Wisconsin burger, which was good but not overly amazing, then came back. We hung out in Marks flat, and had a great time just messing about and being immature I think the highlight for most was the Chug of War between Teddy and I. It basically involved eating a lot of bun, very quickly with your arms linked. Teddy is crazy strong, and an awesome wrestler, so very daunting! Its easiest just to watch the video; http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=798853783588&subj=204504202
Needless to say, it was very messy, and very, very entertaining.
Two weeks is a lot of time to remember stuff for, so I can't exactly give a day to day run down of what happened, can give a guesstimate though! We probably did a pot luck at some point (everyone makes a dish and we have a group meal - normally themed, i.e. world food, breakfast, etc), and I probably didn't do much work. I finished my experiments before the Easter break, so have spent my time after writing up my project, and writing up sections for a paper that will be published on mine, and others research. I'm really happy about this, it means I'll have a paper published with my name on it before I graduate.
Danielle's friend Ryan came on Thursday some of us went into town for some drinks, and after Dan (Maggie' boyfriend - a Kiwi) drove us up the Port Hills, where we looked down at Christchurch at night. It was so beautiful, I hope not to forget it for a long time.
Danielle and Ryan had decided to drive to Queenstown that weekend, and not having anything else to do, Teddy and I grabbed a lift to Wanaka, which is a town about an hour from Queenstown. We'd stopped there for an afternoon on our travels over Easter, and it was lovely, hence us going back. We'd planned on camping, but it rained all weekend, so we ended up staying in a hostel, the more expensive yet far drier option. Friday night was taken up with pool, ping pong, and some beers at the hostel.
We awoke on Saturday to find it still raining, and decided to go for a small hike and then on to Puzzle World, where there's lots of puzzle (go figure!), a two level maze and lots of things that are world unique or world first, such as a hologram room, uphill room, etc. We got ready for the hike and realised that Teddy had left his boots in the car and only had loafers with him. As Teddy's H-core (what we've coming for hardcore) we did an hour or so hike in the rain up a mini mountain, and trekked into Puzzle World. Puzzle World was a lot of fun, and we spent the most of the day there, until eventually walking home in the pouring rain. That night was spent in the same manner as the one before.
The next morning it wasn't raining, so we did a small walk around the lake before getting on-board our bus home. On the bus we joined Emily, who'd gone to Queenstown with Danielle and Ryan, and we settled in for out 6 hour ride home. About 45 minutes in we got to Tarras, the start of a pass through the mountains to Lake Tekapo, only to find the pass was closed, and that we had to take a huge detour. This seemed to be a recurring theme; at least two other roads were closed due to rain either causing landslides covering the road, or swelling rivers and flooding bridges. 10 hours later we got back to Christchurch - a bit of a long day!
This week I work fairly hard - my tutor had read through my 60 page report over the weekend, and had gone over it in detail, so I had a lot of improvements to do on it. I was really pleased he'd done this, as its improved my report a lot. We did a pot luck on Tuesday, and did world foods; I did a tagine.
After the world Foods a few of went to the casino, which was quite daunting at first, but a lot of fun. We all played $5 blackjack, Teddy came up $47.50 up, I was $50 up, Dan $80 and Luke $100.
On Thursday I had a meal with Dan and Maggie. Friday was my birthday, and we were doing a dessert pot luck and they couldn't make it, so we made tea and had ice cream together - very nice! After that we played beer pong until bed - around 1am.
The next morning Danielle, Ryan and I went into town and spent the morning at the art gallery. I especially liked these quotes I took from paintings;
'Tomorrow will be the same, but not as this is'
'Nothing else. And then. The oracle speaks: take one step'
'as there is a constant flow of light we are born into the PURE LAND'
These are from a New Zealand artist called Colin McCahon, asides from the second one.
After that we met up with the others, and went to the Foundry (the campus bar) and played cars, and then proceeded to Hells Pizza, which took forever as it was Friday evening and the traffic was awful.
Then the desserts began! There were a lot; cheesecake form Jon and I, fudge by Brady, more fudge by Danielle and Ryan, Flan by Sarah, peanut pie by Mark, cupcakes by Mel, and a whole lot of other things by everyone else. Lisa and Sharon made a particularly memorable one; 4 Boston buns stacked on top of each other, and covered with icing and jelly sweets for the cake, it was spectacular!
After that we played card games, and Brady and Jon did a chug of war, which was very intense. Then we realised there was a massive puddle outside, and a few of us decided to go jump in it. About 30 minutes later everyone had been persuaded, and everyone donned their ghostbuster uniforms from the Twalk, and went outside into the freezing cold. This next part was probably the best part of the night; 15 of us jumping and sliding in a massive puddle in the middle of uni with a load of people watching. A random guy then got naked and dove in, which was hilarious, made even funnier by him falling over whilst running back to his house! We then crammed about 5 of us into each shower at Emilys house and warmed up a bit. A few more games, and we ended the night.
Yesterday (Saturday) I began to pack up my room, as my accommodation runs out tomorrow (Monday), which is very weird (I'm moving into Maggie and Danielle's for a few days before leaving Christchurch next Saturday). Saturday evening I went to Dan's for food, and we went to some of his friends and then to the casino again. I lost $20 this time, even after being $40 up at one point. This sounds pretty dumb, and most likely is, but its weird when you're there and you hold plastic chips - it doesn't feel like real money. I put down two $20 bets at the end and lost both - you win some you lose some I guess! Its weird, I feel like I lost $60, but I only put $20 in... A very interesting experience anyways, and overall I came out positive. Think that will be my last time going to a casino, its easy to see why they're so addictive.
Anyways, its still raining and the hike I was going to do with some others has been postponed - I've got all of next week with not a lot to do, so will do it then. I'm going to finish tidying my room today, and go to church in the evening, really looking forwards to it.
I'll be back in a month, so see y'all soon!
xxx
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