Lots of driving to be done!

R's sister has come to visit, so we're taking her the length and breadth of the country. We're nice like that.


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... yeah. (For some reason it won't let me zoom out very far. Oh well, I'm sure you can manage it yourselves.)

Anyway, Christmas was good, if a little odd. Summer is not the appropriate time to be dealing with Christmas trees and stuffs. Salmon makes a nice change from turkey though.

After Christmas we headed up to Lake Heron for New Year with R's family, including four small children. We camped outside as the cottage was full, and got quite used to our wake-up call being "Helloooooo... I'm heeeeere!" Ah, three-year-olds. Do you ever sleep? But there were lambs to be fed, and calves to be kept out of the way of lambs while they were feeding, so that was all very exciting. Think I enjoyed feeding the lambs more than the kids did, but hey ho.

Now we're back in Christchurch with a big day of seeing people and places planned for tomorrow. Today we went to Akaroa, which is the French enclave (well, sort of). Swimming in the sea is great when it's 32C plus. In any case, I'd better go to bed so that we can go to the Antarctic Centre tomorrow and see penguins!

It was like something from the Twilight Zone

So there we were, propping up the bar downstairs from where we've been staying for the past two weeks, chatting away with the staff and generally being good little backpackers, when in walk four Santas. Good, we thought, this will be entertaining. Nothing like a few Santas to liven the place up on a Saturday night.

Then in came some more.

And then some more.

And then even more.



Apparently they'd started at 2.30pm somewhere about 13km away, and were bar-crawling to the best of their ability. Except someone had decided that they weren't allowed to use public transport or taxis to get around, so they were hitching from bar to bar. All very well, but apparently people don't really like stopping to pick up drunken Santas, so when some people made it they then had a rather long wait for the rest to turn up.

And then there was pole dancing.



I love this country.

December?

I still can't get used to the fact that December is sunny. I keep thinking that it's going to get much colder by Christmas.

Currently we're in Nelson, which is the sunniest place in NZ. Just to prove it, it's raining. Oh well.

I'm sure I had lots to write about, but I've largely forgotten it all. Luckily this place has free internet, which is nice, so I can come back tomorrow and write lots. You have been warned...

Also there are a couple of photos up on Picasaweb. Unfortunately I have to upload them in batches of five, which takes a very long time, so there aren't many for now.

Shiny new things

The observant amongst you will have noticed a little slideshow of photos just to the left. If you click on it, it will take you to R's online album. When I get my photos online, I'll change the slideshow, but until then you'll have to make do.

A brief summary

We've made it to Wellington, where we're staying with R's family. It's been a busy couple of weeks - we've camped on the Coromandel Peninsula and walked up tracks with steps as high as my waist (well, nearly); visited the hot springs in Rotorua and relished in the smell of sulphur; adopted a kiwi at Rainbow Springs (by kiwi I mean the comical flightless bird, not a stray New Zealander); seen the crazy colours of geo-thermal pools and caves at Wai-O-Tapu ("Sacred Springs"); seen what looked like Mordor while on the Tongariro Crossing, apparently the best one-day walk in New Zealand if not the world, and more that I can't think of at the moment.

Tomorrow we take the ferry across to Picton, and our South Island adventure will begin. We've got a hostel booked in the Marlborough Sounds where we'll spend a week about a three hour drive from - well - anything, and then we'll be camping our way down to Christchurch via whatever looks interesting on the way. Oh the life of a carefree traveller!

Aotearoa photos!

Rob put some up here.

We just found out that his sister is in Grant Park at the celebration. I'm so jealous! But there's celebratory salad and big glasses of wine. We know how to live.

(We're also going to be staying in Auckland for a few more days than planned. Daisy needs new brake pads, and given how twisty the roads are here - think rally tracks on gravel roads - we might appreciate her having them.)

Obama did it!

And I dance around awestruck at the amount of people in Grant Park, wishing that I could be there too. Chicago will be having one hell of a party tonight.

This is history. Let's hope it lives up to expectation.

Back in Auckland

As the title says, we're back in Auckland for a few days being fattened up by Stephanie and Yid-Ee, getting a new road user charge (since diesel here doesn't have tax added at the pump, there's a separate charge) and generally working out what to do and where to go next.

Still having massive bank trouble - Natwest blocked my debit card the other day, which was exciting. They did leave four messages for me on my UK number, which was nice, but that also meant that I've just spent lots of money calling voicemail. Oh well. Got to keep Richard Branson happy somehow. After talking to a rather tired-sounding Scottish man, my debit card should now work again. Huzzah, access to money! I hope. The other thing is that the BNZ won't take a Sterling cheque, so my new plan is to take out $600 at a time and pay it into my NZ account in cash. If I'm lucky, I won't get mugged between the cash machine and the bank counter... I'll just have to act nonchalant.

We went up to Waitangi the other day, which is where the treaty between Maori and Pakeha (generally "European", but more specifically the English in this case) was signed. The treaty was the official establishment of New Zealand as a realm of Her Majesty, drawn up with the usual colonial arrogance of the time and then debated and changed by the Maori to better suit them. Good for them, really. There's still an awful lot of debate about it too, especially as it's almost election time here.

It's a very interesting place, especially as there's not a comparable place in the UK. There's a meeting house (marae) which is unusual in that it's for all the people of the country and you don't have to be invited in, unlike a tribal marae. We saw another cultural performance, which was much more powerful than the one in Auckland Museum - the performers seemed to take much more pride in welcoming visitors to the "birthplace of the nation". R and I were the only two there for the first part, so we had the full force of the traditional welcome. R was designated the chief; this meant that he was greeted by a young Maori man doing the threatening posturing thing, tongue out, eyes bulging, lots of yelling and gesticulating with a stick. I'll tell you now, the Pakeha explorers were very brave. If I'd come across this country and been greeted by angry Maori, I'd have said they could keep it. This guy was being welcoming and was still terrifying! Eventually he gave R a fern leaf as a symbol of peace and welcome, and then all was ok. They sang us a song thanking God and the ancestors, theirs and ours, and formally welcoming us into their whare (house); then it was time for hand shaking and the hongi, which is gently pressing noses together. By doing this you share breath with the other person, showing that you've been accepted by them as a brother or sister.

There were a few more songs, talking about Kupe (the first Maori to set foot on New Zealand) and another legend which I can't remember at this point, and then it was audience participation time. Uh-oh. Poi looks simple, but is really not. Luckily another couple had come in, so it wasn't me by myself (poi is a women's game). I think I may need practice; fortunately there are no photos. I'll just have to make a set.

After being shown how to do it properly by the Maori women, it was the men's turn. Haka is also not simple, although good to watch. R and the other man didn't look as fierce as the Maori though - it's hard to stick your tongue out and get the good staring eyes when you're concentrating too hard on what you're supposed to be doing.

Aaaanyway, there's baking happening and that sounds exciting. I'll try to get some photos up soon, and perhaps a more ordered post of what we've been up to. I need to get back in the habit of keeping the blog up to date - it's been a while since Russia.

Our car is now called Daisy. She's fantastic.

Spent the past few days out on the Karikari peninsula at a fantastic backpacker's called The Rusty Anchor. Staying there felt more like crashing at a friend's house than staying in a hostel, which was great. One night Shane (one of the owners) took us out on a glow-worm tour on his private land, which was really cool. There's something magical about sitting listening to a stream and the calls of the morepork (NZ owl) while watching the glow-worms come out and light up the rock overhangs like earthbound constellations. Gorgeous.

Anywy, today might be caving shortly. Yay, underground exploration! or it might just be sitting drinking coffee and chasing the hostel's dog around. Who knows.

At some point I need to get to a bank, too. Then I can pay myself a cheque and finally have access to my own money! Take THAT, Natwest! (Still very annoyed about that.)

Oh, and I snorkelled for the first time the other day too. That was a lot of fun, although I kept having to remind myself that yes, I can breathe underwater. I kept holding my breath, which really doesn't work. Anyway, saw loads of little tiny fish, masses of sea urchins and a big crab. Not sure who was more scared, it or me. I quickly left it alone and went back to looking at the less pinchy things.

What else? I can't really think of things of interest. Lots of the past few days has been spent just enjoying the spring weather and relaxing in pretty scenery. Oh, and driving. Almost ran over some wild turkeys, which was exciting. Why do they run along the road? You can't outrun Daisy!

Currently we're staying at the Little Earth Lodge, which is rather cool. There are ponies, which took a liking to R and decided to try and eat him, a rather fantastic shaggy dog who we spent a while chasing round and round, and lots of farmland. It's so peaceful - I can hear a tui and a pheasant at the moment and nothing else. Lurvely.

We are officially surf bums, but withoout the surfing. We shall learn though, and then the Tasman Sea had better watch out!

Lots of other things to write about too, will do that when I'm not supposed to be cooking...