Diary of a pondering wanderer: September 2008

I have one used soul for sale - any takers? Nah, thinking about it I'd probably end up giving a refund.

Jeeeeeeeeeez. Last month (August) I checked the prices for return flights home and it worked out to just under $4,000 for both of us. It is now September, and flights home from now, up until May 2009 (when we were hoping to get home) are now nearly $4,000 PER PERSON!!!!!!!!!

So Christmas is cancelled and my soul is for sale.

Ok, I'll try to stop panicking about where the hell we're going to magic that money from and tell you what we've been up to.

Beginning of August, Dave had a two-day course in Wellington, so we drove down from Gisborne on the Wednesday (very pretty drive, but a real bum numb-er, especially in Dave’s tractor of a ute. Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful he has a company vehicle, but it's not the most comfortable of long distance travelling methods.

Wellington is a bit of a pain in the bum to drive around as it has lots of one way streets, but after dropping a "chilly bin" of food off at Sollys (colleague of Dave) mums house (and declined dinner, snacks, food to take with us and much Samoan "mammy" hospitality) we finally found the parking for our hotel/apartmenty type thing.

The room itself was very nice, very modern and quite funky, but had craply fitting windows and the world’s most uncomfortable bed. Wellington isn't called the windy city for nothing!!!

So having been plugged into my t.e.n.s machine most of the way down in the car, I woke up having had a pants nights sleep, and in more pain than I was when I went to bed. So mostly, Thursday was spent in a painkiller haze, whilst Dave was on his course (can't remember what it was about - "management bollox" is his description!), then I managed to find a masseuse to batter the hell out of me in the guise of making me feel better.

So Friday woke up slightly less in pain, but aching like I'd done ten rounds with Mike Tyson, and took a poddle round Wellington city centre. Wellington has two very, very long main shopping streets and to be honest, I really wasn't in much of the mood for shopping, so I had a wander round, and went to Te Papa, the museum of New Zealand.

Felt a bit of plank walking round on my own, so I probably didn't stay as long as I would have done, but the top floor is a Marae (Maori meeting and worship place) and is absolutely beautiful. I didn't manage to get that many photos because you're not allowed to take photos of certain things (as it is an active Marae, so it's a respect thing), but there are loads of amazing wooden carvings that describe the history of the tribes that the Marae belongs to and their ancestry. It's beautiful, but if you visit, I would recommend going on a guided tour of that floor as they tell you loads more stuff than there is to read about what’s what in the Marae, and the genealogy and verbal history of the various maori iwi (tribes). Very cool.

Wellington is a bit of a weird city as there are loads of quays and wharfs and stuff, so the city is pretty much surrounded on all sides by water, it's kind of hard to get your bearings sometimes.

We had a Wagamamas - which we have been waiting a year for!!!!! And it was yummy but we end up sat next to a really stroppy man that was being an arrogant pillock so that spoilt it somewhat!

We also had a curry from the "British Balti House" but that was pants, no better than the NZ curry houses in Gisborne. So the hunt for a decent curry in NZ continues! Had a really nice Italian meal though, so two out of three ain't bad.

We decided to go home on Saturday morning instead of Sunday because we were both knackered from a crap two nights sleep and wind whistling through the joins in the windows.

So that was that.

Umm, my bosses Kim & Debbie went away on the 20th August for a month to travel the Croatian Islands & various other places, so I've been the only one doing admin and accounts and payroll for nearly a month now. I haven't burnt the place down, or bankrupted the company, so I think it's gone ok!

We went to Auckland at the end of August, drove down on the Saturday – again, beautiful, scenic route through gorges and mountains and coastal areas.

We went up the sky tower, which, as the name implies is a big tower! But it also has restaurants, a casino, shops etc in the bottom of it. The set of lifts to the first stop off point have glass floors, and it goes bloomin' fast for a lift – not recommended for the faint of heart! There is a glass floor around the perimeter of the first level you stop at (I’ve posted some pics through the floor) – and big signs saying that the glass is stronger than the concrete in the rest of the building. That’s as may be, but it’s still very nerve-wracking walking on a glass floor that high up, and I’m not scared of heights! On both stop off point there are glass walls, so you can get a really good view in all directions, of the mountains, sea, rivers, extinct volcanoes, etc.

If you’re that way inclined you can jump off the top of the sky tower – not quite a bungee because you don’t bounce back up half a mile and they control the speed of your descent, but even so!!!!! You can also clip yourself onto a flimsy looking bit of wire and go on the “sky walk” which is just walking outside around the circumference of the top of the sky tower – with no safety net. Sod that!!!!!

There is a big bungee chair thing next to the sky tower (again, I put some photos on here) which deranged people pay good money to be flung up into the air and bounced around with two friends. I fancied keeping my dinner in my stomach so I passed on that one!

We went to Auckland Zoo on the Sunday (after about a five mile detour because the signs disappear as soon as you get out of the city centre). So we got to see our first orang-utans in person since the last time we visited Twycross last year. Sadly, they only have one chimp, and she is very, very old and hidden away sleeping so we didn’t see her.

They are similar to Monkey World and Twycross in that they are lobbying regarding loss of habitat to palm oil plantations – palm oil plantations are sh*te, because not only do they kill thousands of animals and native species to clear the ancient rainforests to plant them, they only produce a few crops of palm oil (if they’re lucky) and then the ground is useless because the money grabbing g*ts have stripped all the nutrients out of the soil by ripping out the thousands of year old plants. So look very carefully at your purchases people – if it says palm oil or “vegetable oil” – and its not responsibly planted – don’t buy it!!!!!

I was going to apologise for getting on my soapbox, but I won’t because it’s important. I want my children’s children to see all the amazing habitats and animals in the flesh, not just in picture books because they are destroyed/extinct.

We finally got to see Bill Bailey on the Sunday night – only a year after we originally bought tickets to see him in the UK. Front row seats (by complete fluke) and ended up sat next to an ex pat Pom! He (Bill Bailey, not the bloke we were sat next to!) was very funny and it was worth the wait.

Haven’t done anything much of interest in the last two weeks or so, work, aerobics/yoga, dinner, flump, bed!

There are the junior kapa haka championships here this weekend, (haka as in what they do at the rugby, but kapa haka is the full name):

“The term Kapa haka (kapa meaning 'rank' or 'row' and haka refers to a 'Maori war dance') is commonly known in Aotearoa (New Zealand) as 'Maori Performing Arts' or the 'cultural dance' of Maori people. Kapa haka is an avenue for Maori people to express their heritage and cultural identity through song and dance.

It can be said that Kapa haka dates back to pre-European times where it developed from all traditional forms of Maori pastimes; haka, mau rakau (Maori weaponry), poi (tiny ball attached to rope or string) and moteatea (traditional Maori songs). The significance of these everyday activitites were influential to the development of kapa haka.

A kapa haka performance involves choral singing, dance and movements associated in the hand-to-hand combat practiced by Māori in precolonial times, presented in a synchronisation of action, timing, posture, footwork and sound. The genre evolved out of a combination of European and Māori musical principles.”

Thank you very much Wikipedia!

Anyway, I think I’ve bored you enough for one day!

Kia ora