Friday, 13 March 2009
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Videos from Te Puia Geothermal Park, Rotorua
Bare in mind these were only taken on our dinky digital camera, but it gives you the idea of the heat!
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
The good, the bad and the ugly
So, we have had sixteen months of living in a foreign country. Which sounds a bit strange as they speak the same language and have the same queen as us, but actually it’s a lot more foreign than we gave it credit for before coming over here.
By which I mean the customs are different, the social life is different, the climate is different, the seasons are the wrong way round, the shops are different, they work in kilometres instead of miles, their computer keyboards are laid out in the American way, but their spelling is the same as English so you have to keep changing the spellings and the telly is pants!
New Zealand isn’t the promised land, it does have crime, it does have illness and is hit by financial crashes, but in a lot of ways it is kind of isolated from the rest of the world (and not just geographically).
Kiwis are kind of breed of their own. From what I can gather, they are mostly hard working, very outdoorsy sort of people that tend to socialise a lot more at people’s houses than pubs (there aren’t really “British” style pubs out here), believe that if you’re not dead you’re “bludging” time off work, and are generally quite friendly and welcoming, but quite hard to get to know “properly” and become real friends with. The New Zealand way seems to be work hard, play harder.
There is a wealth of history even though New Zealand as we know it now is a baby in terms of established countries. But it's quite a historic country in a lot of ways. It was the first country to give women the vote; it was the first country in the British Empire to have a female mayor; it was the first country in the world to introduce the 8 hour working day; it was the first country to become nuclear free. There are many other firsts, and many of them were positive.
Like many other "empire" countries, the invaders or colonisers as they would have preferred to be called made a lot of mistakes. And that still causes issues now. There are many arguments that will probably go on for many decades to come, about the abuse of the established Maori population's rights as they see it. And there are wrongs on both sides of the story, but for such a young country I think that it has come a long way in resolving things, but still has a long way to go.
The green message is in some ways extremely evident, but in other ways sadly lacking. Recycling (I believe) is mandatory in most of new zealand, with recycling being free and landfill waste being paid for. You get X amount of rubbish stickers when you make your rates payment each quarter and any other you require after that are $2.50 each per 5kg bag. The idea being that the more you recycle the less likely it is that you will need to be excess rubbish stickers. There are also subsidies available for composting or mulching systems.
A major paint manufacturer out here has some serious green credentials, so it's not just dinky out of the way one man band job that no one's ever heard of; there are big campaigns to "buy kiwi" to support NZ businesses as well as reducing the carbon footprint.
But the insulation regulations are way lower that we would expect, double glazing is almost non existant on the North Island and top of the South Island (when you get further down the South Island it starts to get very nippy) so you can find it there.
The use of solar, hydro, wind and geothermal power is much lower than I would have thought it would be considering that New Zealand is in the "ring of fire", is surrounded on all sides by sea as well as having many many lakes and rivers, and gets way more sunshine that many other countries (even in the winter it's not 'cold' here - here meaning the east coast), there are bits of nz that get very cold in winter!
When I win the lotto I will put some money into developing these things!!
By which I mean the customs are different, the social life is different, the climate is different, the seasons are the wrong way round, the shops are different, they work in kilometres instead of miles, their computer keyboards are laid out in the American way, but their spelling is the same as English so you have to keep changing the spellings and the telly is pants!
New Zealand isn’t the promised land, it does have crime, it does have illness and is hit by financial crashes, but in a lot of ways it is kind of isolated from the rest of the world (and not just geographically).
Kiwis are kind of breed of their own. From what I can gather, they are mostly hard working, very outdoorsy sort of people that tend to socialise a lot more at people’s houses than pubs (there aren’t really “British” style pubs out here), believe that if you’re not dead you’re “bludging” time off work, and are generally quite friendly and welcoming, but quite hard to get to know “properly” and become real friends with. The New Zealand way seems to be work hard, play harder.
There is a wealth of history even though New Zealand as we know it now is a baby in terms of established countries. But it's quite a historic country in a lot of ways. It was the first country to give women the vote; it was the first country in the British Empire to have a female mayor; it was the first country in the world to introduce the 8 hour working day; it was the first country to become nuclear free. There are many other firsts, and many of them were positive.
Like many other "empire" countries, the invaders or colonisers as they would have preferred to be called made a lot of mistakes. And that still causes issues now. There are many arguments that will probably go on for many decades to come, about the abuse of the established Maori population's rights as they see it. And there are wrongs on both sides of the story, but for such a young country I think that it has come a long way in resolving things, but still has a long way to go.
The green message is in some ways extremely evident, but in other ways sadly lacking. Recycling (I believe) is mandatory in most of new zealand, with recycling being free and landfill waste being paid for. You get X amount of rubbish stickers when you make your rates payment each quarter and any other you require after that are $2.50 each per 5kg bag. The idea being that the more you recycle the less likely it is that you will need to be excess rubbish stickers. There are also subsidies available for composting or mulching systems.
A major paint manufacturer out here has some serious green credentials, so it's not just dinky out of the way one man band job that no one's ever heard of; there are big campaigns to "buy kiwi" to support NZ businesses as well as reducing the carbon footprint.
But the insulation regulations are way lower that we would expect, double glazing is almost non existant on the North Island and top of the South Island (when you get further down the South Island it starts to get very nippy) so you can find it there.
The use of solar, hydro, wind and geothermal power is much lower than I would have thought it would be considering that New Zealand is in the "ring of fire", is surrounded on all sides by sea as well as having many many lakes and rivers, and gets way more sunshine that many other countries (even in the winter it's not 'cold' here - here meaning the east coast), there are bits of nz that get very cold in winter!
When I win the lotto I will put some money into developing these things!!
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
The deputy manager of our house
Well folks, I completely neglected to tell you about the newest addition to our household, our new kitten Mia. A friends cat had an unplanned pregnancy and as we have been looking for a new mog for Billy to be friends with since next door moved out taking their cat Tiger (Billy's best mate) with them, as he has been a right clingy sod.
So we said that we would take one of the little balls of fluff from Sulle (our friend). So Christmas Eve, Mia arrived with a little gift tag on her collar and she has been impossibly cute ever since. And she knows it. I don't think she is necessarily the brightest candle in the box, but she's so endearing you can't help but love her on sight.
Having done his "I'm boss cat, don't mess with me" bit, Billy has now accepted her as his slightly eccentric surrogate sister and she loves using him as her own personal climbing frame. She has absolutely no fear, is an intrepid explorer, jumps from heights with no safety net and has a fascination with chewing feet. And her own tail. It follows her. It's a conspiracy don't cha know?
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Hatches, matches and dispatches
2008 was a strange year. A first year of settling in, missing home, going through all the special dates - birthdays, weddings, engagements, anniversary, funerals. They say that when you are grieving you have to go through a year - all the special dates, before things start to get easier, and I think it's kind of the same when you move to the other side of the world!
It's a strange thing, moving so far away, because you can still keep in touch via email and messenger, so you're kind of "in on the joke", but you're not there, at silly o clock in the morning contemplating the merits of self cleaning portaloos, or listen to rants about the Weimar Republic (Ray!), or who to make up a good rumour about ("never let the truth get in the way of a good rumour" - can't remember what rule number that is in Blews constitution - anyone??).
So last year was kind of busy on the hatches, matches and dispatches front: Maggie & Neil got engaged, then maggie got pregnant; Lee & Nicky got married; Kylie & Darren got engaged and Kylie is pregnant; Claire & Rich got engaged, then Claire got pregnant (sensing a theme here?) and then they got married; Jodie & Richard are having their second baby in March time; Lorraine is having her second baby in March time; Andy & Tamar got engaged; Jane & Mark got engaged and are getting married this year; Katherine and Marc are having their first baby in July (I think). I don't think I've missed anyone out. Maggie and Neil welcomed a baby boy into the world last week.
And sadly we said goodbye to some good friends, Malcolm and Colin, who both put up the bravest of fights over a long period of time. And other friends lost relatives as well so although we didn't know them personally, it is always hard as we want to be there for our friends in the sad times. We may not be able to provide hugs in person, but there is always lots of love and best wishes travelling down the phone and modem lines.
I also know that a few of our friends are doing battle health wise, so our thoughts are with you too.
However great phone, email and messenger are, there's nothing quite like celebrating or commiserating with your friends in person, but we think of you all regularly and you are very much in our hearts.
I had some bad news on the job front - having been told just before Christmas that I would get taken on after christmas (I was temping). I then had my hours halved in January, found out that they were looking for someone minimum wage and were interviewing people without telling me. Then had a morning off due to a migrane and got phoned and told not to come in the next day as they had found someone they could pay less. So needless to say, having worked my arse of for them for nearly two months and got them out of the poo, I am somewhat pissed off!
So I'm at home at the moment, trying to keep myself amused and not feel like a failure. It wouldn't bug me so much if it was because of the recession, but it's not, they're just being tight. Grr.
Well, the snow back home looks lovely - well, if you don't have to get anywhere that is. When we were living in Kirkby we often got snow in the winter and at the first flake of snow the entire transport network grinds to a halt! Aah Kirkby - I NEVER HAVE TO GO BACK THERE AGAIN!!!!!! (sorry, just needed to get that off my chest!)
I know you're all envious of the heat, but don't be too jealous, because with the heat, come severe fire warnings - this is a country that massively relies on it's forestry industry, and prides itself on having lots of lush wooded areas and lots of scrub in between - perfect fire transportation. Two weeks ago a fire started on the Mahia Peninsula (about an hour and a half from Gisborne), and the fire service (mainly volunteers I hasten to add) are still working their bums off to try and stop it flaring up again.
Having said that, no one has been hurt as a result of the fire at Mahia and only two houses (I believe) were destroyed, so that was a blessing. Sadly, Australia has a massive bush fire at the moment and they are really struggling, so we can be very grateful that it is a relatively enclosed area at Mahia (they are pretty strict about putting lots of fire breaks in).
I think that oz is maybe a better place to live if you're going to live somewhere hot, as they all have air conditioning, where as relatively few homes here do. 30+ degrees is not so great when you're trying to get to sleep!
Speaking of sun, the attitude of a lot of people here to the sun never ceases to amaze me, consider that there is a bloody great big hole in the ozone layer above New Zealand. Having had applying suncream drummed in to me from a young age (living in Britain, which less face it gets about two hot days a year these days), it's crazy to me to not wear suncream and cover up when it's that hot. But plenty of locals (who are more than old enough to know better) still sun worship or don't take care in the sun. One of the traffic controllers at Dave's work got third degree burns as he was out in the sun all day and didn't apply suncream or use a hat, or cover up or stand under the shade provided (all of which the company pays for). And they wonder why New Zealand has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world??? Crazy
It's a strange thing, moving so far away, because you can still keep in touch via email and messenger, so you're kind of "in on the joke", but you're not there, at silly o clock in the morning contemplating the merits of self cleaning portaloos, or listen to rants about the Weimar Republic (Ray!), or who to make up a good rumour about ("never let the truth get in the way of a good rumour" - can't remember what rule number that is in Blews constitution - anyone??).
So last year was kind of busy on the hatches, matches and dispatches front: Maggie & Neil got engaged, then maggie got pregnant; Lee & Nicky got married; Kylie & Darren got engaged and Kylie is pregnant; Claire & Rich got engaged, then Claire got pregnant (sensing a theme here?) and then they got married; Jodie & Richard are having their second baby in March time; Lorraine is having her second baby in March time; Andy & Tamar got engaged; Jane & Mark got engaged and are getting married this year; Katherine and Marc are having their first baby in July (I think). I don't think I've missed anyone out. Maggie and Neil welcomed a baby boy into the world last week.
And sadly we said goodbye to some good friends, Malcolm and Colin, who both put up the bravest of fights over a long period of time. And other friends lost relatives as well so although we didn't know them personally, it is always hard as we want to be there for our friends in the sad times. We may not be able to provide hugs in person, but there is always lots of love and best wishes travelling down the phone and modem lines.
I also know that a few of our friends are doing battle health wise, so our thoughts are with you too.
However great phone, email and messenger are, there's nothing quite like celebrating or commiserating with your friends in person, but we think of you all regularly and you are very much in our hearts.
I had some bad news on the job front - having been told just before Christmas that I would get taken on after christmas (I was temping). I then had my hours halved in January, found out that they were looking for someone minimum wage and were interviewing people without telling me. Then had a morning off due to a migrane and got phoned and told not to come in the next day as they had found someone they could pay less. So needless to say, having worked my arse of for them for nearly two months and got them out of the poo, I am somewhat pissed off!
So I'm at home at the moment, trying to keep myself amused and not feel like a failure. It wouldn't bug me so much if it was because of the recession, but it's not, they're just being tight. Grr.
Well, the snow back home looks lovely - well, if you don't have to get anywhere that is. When we were living in Kirkby we often got snow in the winter and at the first flake of snow the entire transport network grinds to a halt! Aah Kirkby - I NEVER HAVE TO GO BACK THERE AGAIN!!!!!! (sorry, just needed to get that off my chest!)
I know you're all envious of the heat, but don't be too jealous, because with the heat, come severe fire warnings - this is a country that massively relies on it's forestry industry, and prides itself on having lots of lush wooded areas and lots of scrub in between - perfect fire transportation. Two weeks ago a fire started on the Mahia Peninsula (about an hour and a half from Gisborne), and the fire service (mainly volunteers I hasten to add) are still working their bums off to try and stop it flaring up again.
Having said that, no one has been hurt as a result of the fire at Mahia and only two houses (I believe) were destroyed, so that was a blessing. Sadly, Australia has a massive bush fire at the moment and they are really struggling, so we can be very grateful that it is a relatively enclosed area at Mahia (they are pretty strict about putting lots of fire breaks in).
I think that oz is maybe a better place to live if you're going to live somewhere hot, as they all have air conditioning, where as relatively few homes here do. 30+ degrees is not so great when you're trying to get to sleep!
Speaking of sun, the attitude of a lot of people here to the sun never ceases to amaze me, consider that there is a bloody great big hole in the ozone layer above New Zealand. Having had applying suncream drummed in to me from a young age (living in Britain, which less face it gets about two hot days a year these days), it's crazy to me to not wear suncream and cover up when it's that hot. But plenty of locals (who are more than old enough to know better) still sun worship or don't take care in the sun. One of the traffic controllers at Dave's work got third degree burns as he was out in the sun all day and didn't apply suncream or use a hat, or cover up or stand under the shade provided (all of which the company pays for). And they wonder why New Zealand has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world??? Crazy
Thursday, 15 January 2009
New year, new blog entry
Ok. the problem with not writing for a while is that I've got to think about what the hell we've done since the last written entry four months ago!
End of September, beginning of October, I was poorly and had to have some time off work, and as a result lost my job. But apart from the fact that my bosses were complete arseholes about it, it's a good thing as working there was making me ill, hence the time off!!!
So I had a couple of weeks off work, and got some temping work at an estate agents (for the third time in my life!) doing admin and advertising (doing the actual formatting and layout of it, which is something I've never done before). So I was dumped straight in the deep end with quite a big backlog to tackle. So in the run up to Christmas I was working ten hour days to try and tackle the backlog, and finally the hard work paid off as I can now see my desk! I'm there long term and it is likely that they will take me on permanantly (fingers crossed).
Christmas was a complete non-starter, we didn't bother with any decorations or special food. We went to our favourite restaurant, The Fettuccine Brothers on Christmas Eve, and before eating I was violently ill and had to take my dinner home in a doggy bag to eat later. Spent most of Christmas day curled up on the sofa, although we did go out for a short walk in the after noon. Boxing day was very much the same.
In between christmas and new year we spent escaping the heat and the zillions of people that were here for the annual Rythm And Vines music festival by hitting the beach. We also went to watch the annual Kapa Haka competition (the adult competition this time) - which was pretty cool. I don't speak Maori, but the singing and traditional dances are absolutely brilliant - well worth watching if you are visiting the land of the long white cloud.
We also went on one of the few remaining steam trains in New Zealand - sadly it is only able to run a short way, about half an hour in each direction, as very few railway tracks are in use in New Zealand, especially not in the more "provincial" areas. But quite frankly half an hour each way was more than enough as we were stuck in a carriage with two families from hillbilly hell!
End of September, beginning of October, I was poorly and had to have some time off work, and as a result lost my job. But apart from the fact that my bosses were complete arseholes about it, it's a good thing as working there was making me ill, hence the time off!!!
So I had a couple of weeks off work, and got some temping work at an estate agents (for the third time in my life!) doing admin and advertising (doing the actual formatting and layout of it, which is something I've never done before). So I was dumped straight in the deep end with quite a big backlog to tackle. So in the run up to Christmas I was working ten hour days to try and tackle the backlog, and finally the hard work paid off as I can now see my desk! I'm there long term and it is likely that they will take me on permanantly (fingers crossed).
Christmas was a complete non-starter, we didn't bother with any decorations or special food. We went to our favourite restaurant, The Fettuccine Brothers on Christmas Eve, and before eating I was violently ill and had to take my dinner home in a doggy bag to eat later. Spent most of Christmas day curled up on the sofa, although we did go out for a short walk in the after noon. Boxing day was very much the same.
In between christmas and new year we spent escaping the heat and the zillions of people that were here for the annual Rythm And Vines music festival by hitting the beach. We also went to watch the annual Kapa Haka competition (the adult competition this time) - which was pretty cool. I don't speak Maori, but the singing and traditional dances are absolutely brilliant - well worth watching if you are visiting the land of the long white cloud.
We also went on one of the few remaining steam trains in New Zealand - sadly it is only able to run a short way, about half an hour in each direction, as very few railway tracks are in use in New Zealand, especially not in the more "provincial" areas. But quite frankly half an hour each way was more than enough as we were stuck in a carriage with two families from hillbilly hell!
Sunday, 9 November 2008
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Soul for sale
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
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
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
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