Hello All
I am now in cloudy Raglan, but even on an overcast day it is lovely. With my last post I was leaving Taupo to head to Waitomo. The journey was pretty uneventful (despite getting a bit lost looking for the backpackers and inadvertantly doing some off roading in a Peugeot 307 - not the best plan) and I checked in to Waitomo in the afternoon, after booking my Black Water Labyrinth trip for the next morning at 9am (Mum, I know, the early mornings just won't stop!)
The backpackers (Kiwipackers Waitomo YHA) was good, all very clean and they had beds not bunks so hurrah no painful ladders for my still tender feet. I chatted with a nice lady who was in the same dorm room as me called Katia (orginally from Germany but now living in Dublin, makes for an interesting accent) and we arranged to meet up at 7.30pm for a bite to eat and some beers at the Waitomo Tavern. It was a Saturday night after all! To put in context how kicking the Tavern is on a Saturday night, it might help if I explain that Waitomo has a population of 49. All of the backpackers who had come off the Kiwi Experience bus tour were partying in the hostel (they all looked 12, how old am I! So glad that I have hired a car, even if the bends continue to terrify me, mainly because of the other drivers here, lunatics!) So we could hear the party kicking back at ours and we chilled out in the local pub for local people. Obviously we blended in seemlessly! Fair dues though, they cooked a great steak, actually serving it pink as requested vs cremated.
Around 11ish I hit the sack, while resisting the urge to throw things at the snoring girl in the bed next to me. I finally get an all female dorm and I get the loudest snorer. Go figure! That is another stereotype shattered this trip.
The next morning I packed up and headed to the Blackwater cafe to go on my 3 hour caving, tubing experience. First step was to get in the wet suits, I swear that to work there you need to just enjoy laughing at tourists. Donnie & Ben were lovely though, but you couldn't help feeling that our humiliation added to their enjoyment. Once we were suited up, I waddled to the mini bus that took us out to the caves (don't worry we had hard hats for protection etc). At the caves we picked up the giant rubber rings that we float through some of the caves on. Once armed with these we have to practice throwing ourselves backwards off a low pier thing in to the river with our bums sticking through the rings. That actually was quite scary, as it does require a certain leap of faith to throw yourself backwards, but as we were going to have to do it in the caves off a waterfall, definitely needed to practice first. The water was cold when I hit it but hell it wakes you up better than a cup of coffee (the coffee I had had that morning had done nothing to revive me).
Dressed up, carrying giant rubber rings and not looking in anyway ridiculous we walked through forest to the cave entrance. My feet majorly protesting that they were supposed to be getting the day off.
The cave entrance was very narrow so we all eased in one by one, before sitting there with the lights on our helmets on and getting used to the dark. We had to scramble over more rocks before we reached our first, fall backwards looking stupid in squat position moment. We floated for a while before we had to scramble some more towards the waterfall. Over our heads there were loads of glow worms (or as they were described to us essentially maggots with shiny poo - nice) which was pretty amazing if you ignored the commentary.
At the waterfall we were reassuringly told to really push ourselves out backwards as otherwise we would land on a rock, which would hurt. I took their word for it and with a hefty shove from Ben made it safely in to the pool below. I tell you I could get used to this falling backward lark. So long as I closed my eyes when I hit the water (a contact lense protection thing vs fear) all was good. After that we had a really nice long float and actually switched all our lights off so we were floating peacefully through a completely dark cave. It was fab. Really enjoyed it and it was a shame when we floated out of the caves, I could have done it again.
After that was 'shower and change back in to non so stupid looking clothing' time before going up to the cafe for complementary tomato soup and a bagel. Nice! Or as they say in New Zealand, "choice" and my personal favourite "sweet as"
Once I had fully relaxed after my Waitomo Caves experience I headed off in direction of Raglan and some of the windiest roads I have seen yet (and for those of you that were with me in New Zealand at any point, I really mean it these roads are mental). I came in to the most wonderful surfer town community. Lots of cute little shops, brightly coloured signs, vintage shops, sushi & thai restaurants and off course the beaches. As already mentioned it is a tad overcast but perfect warm balmy day for walking along the beaches. So as I perch precariously on a stool in a shop that also sells some fab jewellery (umm must resist the urge to shop) my feet are very sandy, my T-shirt is speckled with chocolate ice cream (umm it was good but messy) and I am hoping to actually reach the horse trek company to see if I can go out with them tomorrow.
I am really glad that I am going to be here for 2 nights, it has a really nice vibe here. See, here only a matter of hours and I am already using words like vibe! Choice. See ya Dudes....
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Revenge of Mount Doom
Well as I am here typing this I obviously survived the hike called the Tongariro Crossing. It is a full day hike that goes over some pretty rough terrain (well it was rough for me, I am an unfit media type, I wasn't sure I was going to make it).
Many of you may not have heard of the Tongariro Crossing but it is meant to be one of the most impressive one day hikes you can do in New Zealand. However, most of you will have heard of Mount Doom from the Lord of the Rings, as this hike takes us right up next to it (LOTR Fans, fear not I have lots of photos of it for you). Incidentally the volcano used as Mount Doom is still active and there was a definite smell of sulphur along a large proportion of the hike.
You get to see a bit of everything, volcanoes, lakes, alpine scenery and forests all in one day. You can understand why Peter Jackson was so keen to get permission to film here (apparently if you spend 120m on a film in New Zealand you will be allowed to film on a National Park!). The first bit was the hardest as we climbed up the side of the volcano (dormant and kind of squashed, sorry can't spell or pronounce any of the real names of these volcanoes - so "squashed" and "mount doom" it will have to be!) that is next to mount doom (you can do 3 hours extra where you climb to the summit of Mount Doom but that is only for the seriously fit ie NOT ME!).
The climb up was pretty hideous, I had to keep stopping to "take photos" - well I was taking photos but my ulterior motive was to be able to breathe. Thankfully it was a beautiful day as you can have a complete white out up there if it gets cloudy and as I was scrambling clumsily round the rim of the volcano (reassuringly told that if any of us fell in, well it was nice knowing us... by the expedition operators) I was very glad that it wasn't windy (some people were there who had done it the day before when the weather was bad, they had to crawl on their hands & knees as the wind was so strong and they couldn't see a thing through the clouds!).
In fact we really couldn't have had better weather, sunny and still, so the conditions were on my side. Once we had climbed up and made it round the rim, we have to skid down through rocks (I have the bruises on my back and bum to prove that I did part of this on my bottom) towards the Emerald Lakes (very beautiful shade of green, very strong sulphur smell with steam rising out of the crater behind us). After there was a hike to another huge lake, across more desert like land. At one rocky point I went flying forward over a rock, very elegant belly flop/sprawl. Fortunately a nice couple from Watford helped me up, rinsed off the cut on my elbow (I have a nice graze there reminiscent of the scrapes I used to get as a kid). This morning I discovered that I have bruises on my hips and stomach.. What am I like.
I than carried on past thhe lake and you get to more alpine scenery. Very beautiful! I slipped crossing a river and managed to not fall in but to instead shred my trouser leg on a rock. So I was wearing half a pair of trousers. I had to tie my fleece round my leg to make a make shift trouser leg on the other side (umm wearing a bear of summer trousers I got in New Look, possibly wasn't the most intelligent idea!).
So I am bruised, cut, have my jacket tied round my left, am limping cos my toes are screaming with pain and I am covered in dirt. What to do? That is right, I carried right! People walked past me possibly wondering why I was dressed so weirdly but I decided to just play the eccentric card and keep going. I finally make it to the forests which I knew what the last section. Of course by last section they should have stressed that at a hobble it would take me over a hour to get through. But I made it! I went straight to the stinky toilets and changed in to the spare pair of trousers I had in there (so glad I brought them) and wandered around in my socks (boots were out of the question) until the coach was ready to leave and take me back to Taupo.
I was dropped off by my car at the motel (which was full that night, so I stayed at a Backpackers round the corner). The morning had started at 5am so I was pretty tired at 6pm when I checked in and promptly passed out on my bunk (yes of course the top bunk was the only one left, my poor feet had to navigate a ladder). At around 9pm I summed up the energy to shower off the dirt, discover even more bruises before going to bed again. They must have thought there was something wrong with me in my dorm!
So this morning I packed up the car, drove down the road and am writing all this for you! Next stop brunch before I drive to Waitomo where they have caves that are meant to be worth a visit and some black water rafting.
As I ache all over now, I have to ask myself was the Tongariro Crossing worth it. Well I have to say yes. I saw the most amazing and dramatic scenery, chatted to some really nice people (mainly Brits plus some Americans & Swedes) and most importantly finished it all by myself. If I can do that at my level of fitness, I can do anything. Bring it on! Ouch, I shouldn't have moved when I typed that! Picture me now, hobbling to the counter to pay for my internet time like some old, infirm grannie...
Many of you may not have heard of the Tongariro Crossing but it is meant to be one of the most impressive one day hikes you can do in New Zealand. However, most of you will have heard of Mount Doom from the Lord of the Rings, as this hike takes us right up next to it (LOTR Fans, fear not I have lots of photos of it for you). Incidentally the volcano used as Mount Doom is still active and there was a definite smell of sulphur along a large proportion of the hike.
You get to see a bit of everything, volcanoes, lakes, alpine scenery and forests all in one day. You can understand why Peter Jackson was so keen to get permission to film here (apparently if you spend 120m on a film in New Zealand you will be allowed to film on a National Park!). The first bit was the hardest as we climbed up the side of the volcano (dormant and kind of squashed, sorry can't spell or pronounce any of the real names of these volcanoes - so "squashed" and "mount doom" it will have to be!) that is next to mount doom (you can do 3 hours extra where you climb to the summit of Mount Doom but that is only for the seriously fit ie NOT ME!).
The climb up was pretty hideous, I had to keep stopping to "take photos" - well I was taking photos but my ulterior motive was to be able to breathe. Thankfully it was a beautiful day as you can have a complete white out up there if it gets cloudy and as I was scrambling clumsily round the rim of the volcano (reassuringly told that if any of us fell in, well it was nice knowing us... by the expedition operators) I was very glad that it wasn't windy (some people were there who had done it the day before when the weather was bad, they had to crawl on their hands & knees as the wind was so strong and they couldn't see a thing through the clouds!).
In fact we really couldn't have had better weather, sunny and still, so the conditions were on my side. Once we had climbed up and made it round the rim, we have to skid down through rocks (I have the bruises on my back and bum to prove that I did part of this on my bottom) towards the Emerald Lakes (very beautiful shade of green, very strong sulphur smell with steam rising out of the crater behind us). After there was a hike to another huge lake, across more desert like land. At one rocky point I went flying forward over a rock, very elegant belly flop/sprawl. Fortunately a nice couple from Watford helped me up, rinsed off the cut on my elbow (I have a nice graze there reminiscent of the scrapes I used to get as a kid). This morning I discovered that I have bruises on my hips and stomach.. What am I like.
I than carried on past thhe lake and you get to more alpine scenery. Very beautiful! I slipped crossing a river and managed to not fall in but to instead shred my trouser leg on a rock. So I was wearing half a pair of trousers. I had to tie my fleece round my leg to make a make shift trouser leg on the other side (umm wearing a bear of summer trousers I got in New Look, possibly wasn't the most intelligent idea!).
So I am bruised, cut, have my jacket tied round my left, am limping cos my toes are screaming with pain and I am covered in dirt. What to do? That is right, I carried right! People walked past me possibly wondering why I was dressed so weirdly but I decided to just play the eccentric card and keep going. I finally make it to the forests which I knew what the last section. Of course by last section they should have stressed that at a hobble it would take me over a hour to get through. But I made it! I went straight to the stinky toilets and changed in to the spare pair of trousers I had in there (so glad I brought them) and wandered around in my socks (boots were out of the question) until the coach was ready to leave and take me back to Taupo.
I was dropped off by my car at the motel (which was full that night, so I stayed at a Backpackers round the corner). The morning had started at 5am so I was pretty tired at 6pm when I checked in and promptly passed out on my bunk (yes of course the top bunk was the only one left, my poor feet had to navigate a ladder). At around 9pm I summed up the energy to shower off the dirt, discover even more bruises before going to bed again. They must have thought there was something wrong with me in my dorm!
So this morning I packed up the car, drove down the road and am writing all this for you! Next stop brunch before I drive to Waitomo where they have caves that are meant to be worth a visit and some black water rafting.
As I ache all over now, I have to ask myself was the Tongariro Crossing worth it. Well I have to say yes. I saw the most amazing and dramatic scenery, chatted to some really nice people (mainly Brits plus some Americans & Swedes) and most importantly finished it all by myself. If I can do that at my level of fitness, I can do anything. Bring it on! Ouch, I shouldn't have moved when I typed that! Picture me now, hobbling to the counter to pay for my internet time like some old, infirm grannie...
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Meeja travels
Well I am currently in lovely Taupo in an internet cafe round the corner from where I am staying and I am now officially on to the "travels" vs "holiday" part of my trip as I am now all on my ownsome.
However, that is a new thing as we were a happy gang of 5 meeja luvvies until yesterday. So to start where I finished off before, should go to the Sunday (19th) after the wedding. It was another glorious day, although I did feel a little the worse for wear, as previously mentioned, it was a great wedding! oh yeah!
Sunday was bbq day with Glynis (the mother of the groom) hosting it in the house that they had rented in Napier. Jo, Max, Pierre & I popped over there early afternoon following trip to supermarket to buy booze and meat! Lots of lovely meat. Our timing was great though as the barbie was just about heated up when we arrived and the cooking commenced (it really was a meat fest - but boy was it good). Andy, Kristina and Sylvain (the rest of the "club") turned up much later, what can I say I didn't stay out as last as they did the night before!
It was a lovely relaxing day of food, chat and supping some wine!
That evening was our last night with Sam & Tom as they were heading off to Auckland the next morning to pack and head off on honeymoon. We went for a fantastic meal at a restaurant down on the West Quay. It was great to have a mellow evening with them and it was strange to say good bye, even for me and I know that I will see them again in 3-4 weeks. For the others it must have been really strange.
By the end of the night we were the only ones left in the restaurant and from the look of things the whole of West Quay (Sunday night being completely different to Friday & Saturday night, when that whole area is heaving). Kris tried to negotiate us some champagne to finish off the evening, but as they had closed up it was no go (despite some pretty hardcore negotiations on her part), so we grabbed a taxi and made it to the supermarket with minutes to spare where we bought a couple of bottles so that we could still end that fantastic weekend with some bubbles.
The next morning Andy and Sylvain went with me to pick up my rental care in Hastings. It is official, Ressort now has wheels! Ahhh! Sylvain sat in the car with me as we headed back to Napier to pick up Jo, Kristina and the rest of our luggage as the 5 of us were heading off to Taupo together for a night there followed by a night in Rotorua.
I needed to pop in to town quickly, so rather than going in convoy Jo & I said we would call the others when we hit Taupo. This was going to be my first big car trip as someone with a licence. It was great having Jo with me as she kept reassuring me that I was doing find, as well as trying to find a radio signal when we went through mountainous bits (I have since bought some cheap CDs so that I don't risk life and limb trying to find tunes when I am driving alone).
We got in to Taupo only 25 minutes after the others, so I was quite proud that obviously I don't drive like a granny! Yeah! Andy had found a place for us to stay AND they had booked a para sailing session on the lake (Lake Taupo is huge, you would think it was the sea but you can see the mountains in the distance). It was great fun, even I went up (I was a maybe when we got on the boat, but after I saw how much fun the boys had, I decided to ignore my fear of heights and go for it!). It was great, although I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little scared. You get a great view from up there as you go up so high. It was amazing and definitely cleared the cobwebs. Seemed to be a day of me doing things for the first time that frighten me.
Lake Taupo has thermal streams running in to it, with several near our motel. We headed off to swim in the lake, although Kristina did have to ignore the ducks & the accompanying duck poo that was floating around, although the water is very clean if you can get past the "nature" element! My problem was how rocky it was and I was making a real hash of getting out to deeper water as I was slipping and almost falling all other the place. In the end I gave up and sat in the hot water by where a thermal stream was feeding in to the lake. I did learn to be careful about where I sat after I accidentally scorched my bottom as there was a fissure in a rock that I went to sit on that was seeping very hot water! I did manage to get a swim though as the motel had a pool, so all was not lost.
As it was getting close to sunset we pulled our stuff together (we had stocked up on bbq stuff after the para sailing) and headed to one of the bbq spots on the beach. Unfortunately our bbq wasn't working very well, so it turned in to a late night was we waited to ensure that we had well and truly cremated the chicken. The steak sandwiches were great though! There is something really mellow about eating by the water's edge, drinking wine and looking up at the stars. We could even see the Milky Way!
The next morning we headed to Rotorua in convoy, Steph at the wheel. Oh yeah! We stopped off en route (loads of warning for that right turn, NOT!- well at least I proved I was paying attention) to look at Huka falls which was beautiful, although wouldn't want to fall in the water, would end up mangled.
We could tell when we were getting close to Rotorua as the lovely sulphur smells started. Oh boy, I don't think I'll be eating egg for a while!. We once again found a place to stay (wonderfully kitch motel, felt like we had gone back in time to the 50s), changed in to our swim suits and headed to Hell's Gate to walk round the thermal park (amazing but very smelly) and bathe in mud (or in the case of Andy & Sylvain, fight in mud, they looks hilarious they were absolutely covered in the stuff). Fortunately you do get to rinse off before sitting in nice warm mineral spa waters afterwards. I am assuming that this was all very good for me!
The Hell's Gate sulphur experience was followed by a Maori Village and dinner experience. A coach picked us up outside of the Motel that Sylvain & Kristina were staying. Our driver Mark (sorry still can not even come close to pronouncing the last name) was a character and taught us all what Kia Ore (which is Mauri for hello, how are you, how's it hanging etc..) meant in about 48 different languages (well both his French and Polish were good, can't vouch for the other languages though). On the journey we were told that we needed a chief for our tribe (which was our bus load of people), needed to be a man, strong, tall, wise and who could play rugby... so of course we decided that that had to be Andy (other than the wise bit, pretty accurate description of you Andy, wouldn't you say?)
As a result he had to go forward when we arrived, and wait for the Maouri warriers who would come out to greet him (threaten him with spears, pull faces at him and generally try to intimidate him) and put down a peace offering. Fortunately Andy picked up the peace offering rather than starting a war (I wasn't up for a fight, some of those warriors looked like they could look after themselves, whereas we were a coachload of tourists! Didn't fancy our chances).
Once the peace offering was taken the signal was given and we were all welcome to come in to the village. It was great how they have re-created everything there, and the people running it were really informative about their culture etc.. I really enjoyed it. The sang, danced, fought, wove etc.. it really did make you feel like you had gone back in time (theme for the day following our 50s motel moment). Andy carried on in his chiefly duties (mainly involved pressing his nose against other peoples a lot - he was very good at it!) and we eventually went through for a nice buffet dinner and a look round the shops. It was good fun!
After that we headed back to town on the coach, this time singing as per Mark the drivers request. Andy wasn't allowed to sing 'Swing low' but we did get the wheels of the bus in, the Marseillaise, God save the Queen and Waltzing Matilda, so it was a giggle.
As it was still relatively early we headed off to sample the Rotorua nightlife. It was going to be our last night together as the Meeja traveller gang as Jo, Andy, Kristina and Sylvain were all heading to Auckland the next morning. It turned in to a late one, talking to some mad Tasmanians (well I have somewhere to stay now if I make it to Tassie) and drinking champagne, wine, sambuca and cc & dry.
It will come as no surprise to you that I felt HORRIBLE the next day. My first day alone, needing to drive and I had a storming hangover. After I said goodbye to everyone I spent some quality time with my guide and decided to head back to Taupo. It is a good place to do lots of different things and it doesn't smell of rotten eggs. I made it to Taupo unscathed and here I am. I spend most of yesterday pottering round the town and by the lake. Today I was supposed to be kayaking but it was too windy (1m high waves, apparently are a bad thing for kayaking) so that was cancelled and has given me lots of blog updating time. I may even write some postcards (yes mum, I know, I will send one to Mamy as soon as).
I am getting up tomorrow at 5am as I am going to hike for the day.. so early night for tonight. The day after that (Saturday) I am heading to Waitomo to check out the caves before going further north to Raglan to check out the town and beach there (good horse riding trip to a waterfall I hear, I am to check that out!).
So all is good with me. I have until the 4 March pottering round the North Island before I need to be on a ferry to South Island (sadly I have to change cars I will miss my Peugeot! have one with a cheaper company, so bring on my Nissan!). Ferry trip back North is booked for 20th March. I may well just coach it up from there to save a bit of money, rather than getting a car again. I am going to push back trip to Australia from 22nd March to abouth the 28th March so that I can see some of the country North of Auckland, as that is supposed to be amazing! Sadly even with the time that I have here, still isn't enough to do everything. But I am having a great time, I love the country and the people. I recommend it to everyone!
I had better head as need to buy provisions for my hike tomorrow. Love to all
However, that is a new thing as we were a happy gang of 5 meeja luvvies until yesterday. So to start where I finished off before, should go to the Sunday (19th) after the wedding. It was another glorious day, although I did feel a little the worse for wear, as previously mentioned, it was a great wedding! oh yeah!
Sunday was bbq day with Glynis (the mother of the groom) hosting it in the house that they had rented in Napier. Jo, Max, Pierre & I popped over there early afternoon following trip to supermarket to buy booze and meat! Lots of lovely meat. Our timing was great though as the barbie was just about heated up when we arrived and the cooking commenced (it really was a meat fest - but boy was it good). Andy, Kristina and Sylvain (the rest of the "club") turned up much later, what can I say I didn't stay out as last as they did the night before!
It was a lovely relaxing day of food, chat and supping some wine!
That evening was our last night with Sam & Tom as they were heading off to Auckland the next morning to pack and head off on honeymoon. We went for a fantastic meal at a restaurant down on the West Quay. It was great to have a mellow evening with them and it was strange to say good bye, even for me and I know that I will see them again in 3-4 weeks. For the others it must have been really strange.
By the end of the night we were the only ones left in the restaurant and from the look of things the whole of West Quay (Sunday night being completely different to Friday & Saturday night, when that whole area is heaving). Kris tried to negotiate us some champagne to finish off the evening, but as they had closed up it was no go (despite some pretty hardcore negotiations on her part), so we grabbed a taxi and made it to the supermarket with minutes to spare where we bought a couple of bottles so that we could still end that fantastic weekend with some bubbles.
The next morning Andy and Sylvain went with me to pick up my rental care in Hastings. It is official, Ressort now has wheels! Ahhh! Sylvain sat in the car with me as we headed back to Napier to pick up Jo, Kristina and the rest of our luggage as the 5 of us were heading off to Taupo together for a night there followed by a night in Rotorua.
I needed to pop in to town quickly, so rather than going in convoy Jo & I said we would call the others when we hit Taupo. This was going to be my first big car trip as someone with a licence. It was great having Jo with me as she kept reassuring me that I was doing find, as well as trying to find a radio signal when we went through mountainous bits (I have since bought some cheap CDs so that I don't risk life and limb trying to find tunes when I am driving alone).
We got in to Taupo only 25 minutes after the others, so I was quite proud that obviously I don't drive like a granny! Yeah! Andy had found a place for us to stay AND they had booked a para sailing session on the lake (Lake Taupo is huge, you would think it was the sea but you can see the mountains in the distance). It was great fun, even I went up (I was a maybe when we got on the boat, but after I saw how much fun the boys had, I decided to ignore my fear of heights and go for it!). It was great, although I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little scared. You get a great view from up there as you go up so high. It was amazing and definitely cleared the cobwebs. Seemed to be a day of me doing things for the first time that frighten me.
Lake Taupo has thermal streams running in to it, with several near our motel. We headed off to swim in the lake, although Kristina did have to ignore the ducks & the accompanying duck poo that was floating around, although the water is very clean if you can get past the "nature" element! My problem was how rocky it was and I was making a real hash of getting out to deeper water as I was slipping and almost falling all other the place. In the end I gave up and sat in the hot water by where a thermal stream was feeding in to the lake. I did learn to be careful about where I sat after I accidentally scorched my bottom as there was a fissure in a rock that I went to sit on that was seeping very hot water! I did manage to get a swim though as the motel had a pool, so all was not lost.
As it was getting close to sunset we pulled our stuff together (we had stocked up on bbq stuff after the para sailing) and headed to one of the bbq spots on the beach. Unfortunately our bbq wasn't working very well, so it turned in to a late night was we waited to ensure that we had well and truly cremated the chicken. The steak sandwiches were great though! There is something really mellow about eating by the water's edge, drinking wine and looking up at the stars. We could even see the Milky Way!
The next morning we headed to Rotorua in convoy, Steph at the wheel. Oh yeah! We stopped off en route (loads of warning for that right turn, NOT!- well at least I proved I was paying attention) to look at Huka falls which was beautiful, although wouldn't want to fall in the water, would end up mangled.
We could tell when we were getting close to Rotorua as the lovely sulphur smells started. Oh boy, I don't think I'll be eating egg for a while!. We once again found a place to stay (wonderfully kitch motel, felt like we had gone back in time to the 50s), changed in to our swim suits and headed to Hell's Gate to walk round the thermal park (amazing but very smelly) and bathe in mud (or in the case of Andy & Sylvain, fight in mud, they looks hilarious they were absolutely covered in the stuff). Fortunately you do get to rinse off before sitting in nice warm mineral spa waters afterwards. I am assuming that this was all very good for me!
The Hell's Gate sulphur experience was followed by a Maori Village and dinner experience. A coach picked us up outside of the Motel that Sylvain & Kristina were staying. Our driver Mark (sorry still can not even come close to pronouncing the last name) was a character and taught us all what Kia Ore (which is Mauri for hello, how are you, how's it hanging etc..) meant in about 48 different languages (well both his French and Polish were good, can't vouch for the other languages though). On the journey we were told that we needed a chief for our tribe (which was our bus load of people), needed to be a man, strong, tall, wise and who could play rugby... so of course we decided that that had to be Andy (other than the wise bit, pretty accurate description of you Andy, wouldn't you say?)
As a result he had to go forward when we arrived, and wait for the Maouri warriers who would come out to greet him (threaten him with spears, pull faces at him and generally try to intimidate him) and put down a peace offering. Fortunately Andy picked up the peace offering rather than starting a war (I wasn't up for a fight, some of those warriors looked like they could look after themselves, whereas we were a coachload of tourists! Didn't fancy our chances).
Once the peace offering was taken the signal was given and we were all welcome to come in to the village. It was great how they have re-created everything there, and the people running it were really informative about their culture etc.. I really enjoyed it. The sang, danced, fought, wove etc.. it really did make you feel like you had gone back in time (theme for the day following our 50s motel moment). Andy carried on in his chiefly duties (mainly involved pressing his nose against other peoples a lot - he was very good at it!) and we eventually went through for a nice buffet dinner and a look round the shops. It was good fun!
After that we headed back to town on the coach, this time singing as per Mark the drivers request. Andy wasn't allowed to sing 'Swing low' but we did get the wheels of the bus in, the Marseillaise, God save the Queen and Waltzing Matilda, so it was a giggle.
As it was still relatively early we headed off to sample the Rotorua nightlife. It was going to be our last night together as the Meeja traveller gang as Jo, Andy, Kristina and Sylvain were all heading to Auckland the next morning. It turned in to a late one, talking to some mad Tasmanians (well I have somewhere to stay now if I make it to Tassie) and drinking champagne, wine, sambuca and cc & dry.
It will come as no surprise to you that I felt HORRIBLE the next day. My first day alone, needing to drive and I had a storming hangover. After I said goodbye to everyone I spent some quality time with my guide and decided to head back to Taupo. It is a good place to do lots of different things and it doesn't smell of rotten eggs. I made it to Taupo unscathed and here I am. I spend most of yesterday pottering round the town and by the lake. Today I was supposed to be kayaking but it was too windy (1m high waves, apparently are a bad thing for kayaking) so that was cancelled and has given me lots of blog updating time. I may even write some postcards (yes mum, I know, I will send one to Mamy as soon as).
I am getting up tomorrow at 5am as I am going to hike for the day.. so early night for tonight. The day after that (Saturday) I am heading to Waitomo to check out the caves before going further north to Raglan to check out the town and beach there (good horse riding trip to a waterfall I hear, I am to check that out!).
So all is good with me. I have until the 4 March pottering round the North Island before I need to be on a ferry to South Island (sadly I have to change cars I will miss my Peugeot! have one with a cheaper company, so bring on my Nissan!). Ferry trip back North is booked for 20th March. I may well just coach it up from there to save a bit of money, rather than getting a car again. I am going to push back trip to Australia from 22nd March to abouth the 28th March so that I can see some of the country North of Auckland, as that is supposed to be amazing! Sadly even with the time that I have here, still isn't enough to do everything. But I am having a great time, I love the country and the people. I recommend it to everyone!
I had better head as need to buy provisions for my hike tomorrow. Love to all
The Wedding!
Hello all, hope that you are well. I wanted to start off with a post dedicated to the wedding as it was pretty amazing.
The day dawned and it was beautiful and sunny. As the wedding wasn't starting until 4.30pm we decided to have a lazy morning involving a long relaxing lunch in the pub round the corner. After that we popped back and got dressed up in our glad rags before being the last to leave the motel (we were getting a bit worried that we might hold the bride up due to a last minute emergency shirt ironing session following nasty shaving cut/blood/white shirt type situation - obviously not my emergency as I don't shave my chin yet, I am saving that for when I am old and bearded).
A mini bus took the 7 of us, now known as the orange marigold club (yes I know it wasn't a marigold but I like the name) because of the lovely button holes that Max & Jo arranged for us all. The Mission Estate is absolutely gorgeous and a perfect setting for a wedding. Moving across the lawn you had view of mountains, vines, forests.. basically lots of wonderful natural scenery. Tom was there ready and waiting for his bride, looking very daper I might add in his suit.
We all took our seats in the most shaded areas we could find (man it was hot) as we heard the sound of bagpipes signalling that Sam had arrived. The Bag
Piper (am assuming that is official name for one who plays bag pipes) walked in to the wedding area followed by Sam's adorable nieces who were the flower girls and did a great job scattering petals (they are only 4 & 2 years old, and very cute). Ruth (Tom's sister) and Charmaine (Sam's sister) followed as the bride's maids (or matron of honor I suppose technically for Charmaine as she is married).
Next came Sam and her dad. Sam looked absolutely radiant with a huge smile on her face. Her dad looked a little nervous. The service was great and you could tell that it was a friend of the family conducting it, as it gave a really fun informal tone to the proceedings. Sam and Tom did some great comedy faces (look on Sam's face at various points was priceless which was great as it stopped me crying as I was getting a bit emotional in places). Great bit of comic timing was when they were pronunced husband and wife and in the background a champagne cork popped. Think that is an auspicious sign for the new Mr & Mrs Osbourne.
After the service the champagne and wine flowed. All of it came from the Mission and was lovely. We were ushered in to a room that looked like it came out of a fairytale of a perfect wedding, where we took our seats and ordered from the menu (ummm food was gorgeous.. I had the duck, lamb and creme brulee - obviously that is 3 courses rather than me having weird mix of food on 1 plate!) The speeches were great, all of them witty, beautiful and short - so essentially perfect.
After the meal the band came on and the dancing started. Sam & Tom took the floor for their first dance which was to Nina Simone's 'My Baby Just cares for me'. As briefed moments before they took the floor, we all quickly piled on after them so they weren't left dancing alone in front of everyone for too long. Pierre (Max's boyfriend) and Stephan (Ruth's boyfriend) had pre-arranged a dance off for that night, which was great and I believe Pierre won but Stephan may well dispute that. The two of them dancing is amazing - I don't think the band quite knew what to make of it all.
It really was a fantastic wedding, as these things do tend to be made mainly by the people. Sam & Tom are related to, and friends with, a really lovely bunch of people and we had a great time dancing, drinking, taking in the atmosphere and soaking up the views. It really was an amazing night.
Thanks Sam & Tom for inviting me, hope that you are having a fantastic honeymoon and see you in Auckland end of March!
The day dawned and it was beautiful and sunny. As the wedding wasn't starting until 4.30pm we decided to have a lazy morning involving a long relaxing lunch in the pub round the corner. After that we popped back and got dressed up in our glad rags before being the last to leave the motel (we were getting a bit worried that we might hold the bride up due to a last minute emergency shirt ironing session following nasty shaving cut/blood/white shirt type situation - obviously not my emergency as I don't shave my chin yet, I am saving that for when I am old and bearded).
A mini bus took the 7 of us, now known as the orange marigold club (yes I know it wasn't a marigold but I like the name) because of the lovely button holes that Max & Jo arranged for us all. The Mission Estate is absolutely gorgeous and a perfect setting for a wedding. Moving across the lawn you had view of mountains, vines, forests.. basically lots of wonderful natural scenery. Tom was there ready and waiting for his bride, looking very daper I might add in his suit.
We all took our seats in the most shaded areas we could find (man it was hot) as we heard the sound of bagpipes signalling that Sam had arrived. The Bag
Piper (am assuming that is official name for one who plays bag pipes) walked in to the wedding area followed by Sam's adorable nieces who were the flower girls and did a great job scattering petals (they are only 4 & 2 years old, and very cute). Ruth (Tom's sister) and Charmaine (Sam's sister) followed as the bride's maids (or matron of honor I suppose technically for Charmaine as she is married).
Next came Sam and her dad. Sam looked absolutely radiant with a huge smile on her face. Her dad looked a little nervous. The service was great and you could tell that it was a friend of the family conducting it, as it gave a really fun informal tone to the proceedings. Sam and Tom did some great comedy faces (look on Sam's face at various points was priceless which was great as it stopped me crying as I was getting a bit emotional in places). Great bit of comic timing was when they were pronunced husband and wife and in the background a champagne cork popped. Think that is an auspicious sign for the new Mr & Mrs Osbourne.
After the service the champagne and wine flowed. All of it came from the Mission and was lovely. We were ushered in to a room that looked like it came out of a fairytale of a perfect wedding, where we took our seats and ordered from the menu (ummm food was gorgeous.. I had the duck, lamb and creme brulee - obviously that is 3 courses rather than me having weird mix of food on 1 plate!) The speeches were great, all of them witty, beautiful and short - so essentially perfect.
After the meal the band came on and the dancing started. Sam & Tom took the floor for their first dance which was to Nina Simone's 'My Baby Just cares for me'. As briefed moments before they took the floor, we all quickly piled on after them so they weren't left dancing alone in front of everyone for too long. Pierre (Max's boyfriend) and Stephan (Ruth's boyfriend) had pre-arranged a dance off for that night, which was great and I believe Pierre won but Stephan may well dispute that. The two of them dancing is amazing - I don't think the band quite knew what to make of it all.
It really was a fantastic wedding, as these things do tend to be made mainly by the people. Sam & Tom are related to, and friends with, a really lovely bunch of people and we had a great time dancing, drinking, taking in the atmosphere and soaking up the views. It really was an amazing night.
Thanks Sam & Tom for inviting me, hope that you are having a fantastic honeymoon and see you in Auckland end of March!
Friday, February 17, 2006
4 seasons in one day
Well here is an update at last! I am currently in Napier and it is the day before the wedding! The sun is shining (thank god those cyclone warnings came to nothing) and I have taken the opportunity to pop off and update before meeting some of the others at the side pool for a refreshing dip. We have been on the road so I haven't really had any opportunities to spend any time on-line and I am now going to have to struggle to remember everything that I have been up to, so this will be a topline summary.
Well, when I left off Sam & I were heading to Mount Eden (great views of Auckland, I took lots of photos) and having lunch (Belgian bar/restaurant where I had the hugest pot of the largest mussels I have ever seen, couldn't finish them all!).
That evening Tom & Sam, Ruth & Stephan were going out with Tom & Ruth's dad & his wife for dinner so Glynis and I had a lovely quiet girls night in, making exciting recipes with the left over food, drinking white wine and watching chick flicks (or straight to Stephs as Jo Lambert likes to call them). That was a real treat as I can't see me getting the opportunity to do that again any time soon.
The next day it was an early start as Sam & I went to her parents salon to get our hair done (Sam was having a practice run of her wedding hair). I had the loveliest massage first (it's a hard life I know) and just gave up trying not to drool. I must have looked like one of those dogs with major saliva control problems by the end. After that I got lots of my hair chopped off and my head felt so light and floaty it was fab (you should have seen the piles of hair on the floor, it was liberating to get rid of it). Don't panic Mum, I haven't gone for a crew cut or anything, I can still just about tie it back in to an action pony tail.
After that we headed over for Sam to have the final fitting of her wedding dress. OK, I admit it that I did almost cry when I saw her. The only thing that stopped me was Sam looking at me getting teary saying "don't you dare, of all my friends I thought you wouldn't blub, I don't want everyone crying at my wedding" or something like that. So I pulled myself together, but she did look absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to see her tomorrow with all her make up and flowers etc.. I am definitely taking tissues to the wedding!
After the fitting we went for a spot of lunch, popped round to her sister's place so I met the adorable nieces (soon to be flower girls) and than headed over to Auckland Airport to meet Jo B's plane in from Sydney. Sam and Jo had a short time to catch up in the airport before Jo & I had to go get our little plane (Jo was kind of worried when she saw it) over to Nelson
The flight was wonderful (jo is now a convert to the joy of little planes) and Max & Pierre were in Nelson to meet us. As it was evening, it was literally a case of picking up the keys for our cabin at the campsite (very nice, had our own kitchen and everything), dropping our stuff off and saying hi to the bikers in the cabin next door (against stereotype I think we were more noisy and disruptive than they were!).
The hunt for dinner was interesting as it was gone 9pm (shock horror!) so most of the restaurants had closed their kitchens (Jenny, does this remind you of our trip round the Deep South or what!) but we finally found a nice Thai place where we got some take away and a sneaky bottle of wine. It turned in to quite a late night with the 4 of us drinking, chatting, listening to music (my Ipod speakers are fab - long live ipod) and generally mellowing out.
the next day we woke up to glorious sunshine. Now if we had known that was going to be the only sunny hour that day we would have run to the beach in our pyjamas! Sadly we were oblivious (I should have known better given the trend so far of having 4 seasons in 1 day here) and missed the sunny window. Now comes that time to thank the guys from Fox for the travel scrabble that they gave me as part of my leaving present. Without it we may well have gone completely mad! As it was Jo was very grumpy, with Max closely following in the "unimpressed with general quality of weather"stakes. I think I annoyed them by not minding, as unlike me they don't have months of travel ahead of them
The next day was glorious but we were leaving the Nelson area to go to wine country (Marlborough region, place called Renwick near Blenheim). We had the best time! The weather was lovely (sunny with a breeze, exactly what we needed), we found the most wonderful place to say called Watsons Way Backpackers, where we could rent bicycles for the day for a few quid complete with helmets and we explored loads of the vineyards, sampling some really lovely wines. In the end Cloudy Bay was probably our favourite, very closely followed by Herzog and Allan Scott (where we had a gorgeous lunch). So it is all swings and roundabouts, bad day before, lovely day after. We needed it.
Once we had tasted enough and were feeling saddle sore (don't think the others were as bad as me though, my bum is far too padded to cope with those uncomfortable bicycle seats, you would think that my natural padding would help, but on the contrary it just gave me a larger area that was in pain) we headed back to the packpackers for some cheese, wine, grapes and scrabble, followed by some petanque (I still suck, never could get the hang of that game, I throw like a girl).
We eat at a local pub before heading back for another game of scrabble (I think we might be addicted), while writing rude notes about the noisy Canadian girl who you could probably have heard talking back in London. Loved the bit where a woman came storming out of her room wearing nothing but a towel and asked her to turn it down a bit. We would have done that, but already felt a bit like old farts since we weren't pissed and were playing scrabble. To be fair she did seem very sweet, just that her volume control was obviously damaged by the alcohol.
The next day we had a bit of a lie in (until 9am - yes mum I now consider 9am a lie in!) before checking out, heading to the chocolate factory to check it out (yummy heaven), going to Cloudy Bay to buy some wine and hitting the road for Picton where we were getting the ferry over to North Island.
The ferry journey was great with us all lying up on the sun deck. It was lovely and sunny but sadly too windy to play scrabble (although we did try). I had taken a travel sickness pill so was knocked out straight away and snoozed through most of the 3 hour crossing). After the pleasant ferry journey we faced a 5 hour car journey to Napier. Pierre, bless him, drove the whole way. We had a call from our friend Andy that had landed in Auckland that day from Sydney and was leaving Auckland at the same time that we were leaving Wellington. The race was on to see who would be first to the motel. Despite some bad traffic (or awkward traffic as they like to call it here) we were the victors, so had time for a shower while we waited for Andy to arrive, before heading to a bar called Shed 2, to meet up with an incredibly drunk (and text happy) Sam and co.
A night of drinking and chatting followed. Everyone mingled (friends from NZ, friends from London/Dublin and family) and had a great time. Sam was very very very happy (although I hear not so happy this morning for the 10am wedding rehearsal, poor love) and it was great to have almost everyone together (we have more people arriving today, at which point we will pretty well have taken over the motel! only 1 room is not occupied by wedding guests, so I hope the people there are tolerant and have a sense of humour, as we could get rowdy).
Today has been lovely with brunch by the port, a potter round Napier taking in all the art deco buildings, the sunken garden, the beach etc... As it is the last weekend of the Art Deco festival (it finishes on sunday and will have run for 9 days, it is the 75th anniversary of the earthquake that devestated Napier and led to everything being rebuilt in Art Deco style) there are people in 1920s outfits all over the place and loads of really gorgeous vintage cars. I am not even that in to cars, and I can appreciate that they are beautiful. We are hoping to come in to town tonight to check out more of the festival related activity, as it really should be something and everyone here is so friendly (people in costume are more than happy to pose for pictures). Quite surreally there is a London Bus here too (going to Harrow Rd, starts at Tottenham Court Road) - think it is a little bit lost! Next time you are standing at a bus stop wondering where all the buses are, they may well have taken a detour to the anitpodes (explains a lot! I expect to see a 37 in Australia - rubbish bus route)
I had better head off now, as I dread to think how much this is going to have cost me.
Want to say big HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY to Hannah for Saturday (18th). I am expecting an e-mail with all the gossip from your party love!
Right, now I just need to work out where the pool is, as I need a refreshing dip... umm must be in the direction of the beach! Yes, I know that was me gratuitously rubbing it in! Sorry : )
Well, when I left off Sam & I were heading to Mount Eden (great views of Auckland, I took lots of photos) and having lunch (Belgian bar/restaurant where I had the hugest pot of the largest mussels I have ever seen, couldn't finish them all!).
That evening Tom & Sam, Ruth & Stephan were going out with Tom & Ruth's dad & his wife for dinner so Glynis and I had a lovely quiet girls night in, making exciting recipes with the left over food, drinking white wine and watching chick flicks (or straight to Stephs as Jo Lambert likes to call them). That was a real treat as I can't see me getting the opportunity to do that again any time soon.
The next day it was an early start as Sam & I went to her parents salon to get our hair done (Sam was having a practice run of her wedding hair). I had the loveliest massage first (it's a hard life I know) and just gave up trying not to drool. I must have looked like one of those dogs with major saliva control problems by the end. After that I got lots of my hair chopped off and my head felt so light and floaty it was fab (you should have seen the piles of hair on the floor, it was liberating to get rid of it). Don't panic Mum, I haven't gone for a crew cut or anything, I can still just about tie it back in to an action pony tail.
After that we headed over for Sam to have the final fitting of her wedding dress. OK, I admit it that I did almost cry when I saw her. The only thing that stopped me was Sam looking at me getting teary saying "don't you dare, of all my friends I thought you wouldn't blub, I don't want everyone crying at my wedding" or something like that. So I pulled myself together, but she did look absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to see her tomorrow with all her make up and flowers etc.. I am definitely taking tissues to the wedding!
After the fitting we went for a spot of lunch, popped round to her sister's place so I met the adorable nieces (soon to be flower girls) and than headed over to Auckland Airport to meet Jo B's plane in from Sydney. Sam and Jo had a short time to catch up in the airport before Jo & I had to go get our little plane (Jo was kind of worried when she saw it) over to Nelson
The flight was wonderful (jo is now a convert to the joy of little planes) and Max & Pierre were in Nelson to meet us. As it was evening, it was literally a case of picking up the keys for our cabin at the campsite (very nice, had our own kitchen and everything), dropping our stuff off and saying hi to the bikers in the cabin next door (against stereotype I think we were more noisy and disruptive than they were!).
The hunt for dinner was interesting as it was gone 9pm (shock horror!) so most of the restaurants had closed their kitchens (Jenny, does this remind you of our trip round the Deep South or what!) but we finally found a nice Thai place where we got some take away and a sneaky bottle of wine. It turned in to quite a late night with the 4 of us drinking, chatting, listening to music (my Ipod speakers are fab - long live ipod) and generally mellowing out.
the next day we woke up to glorious sunshine. Now if we had known that was going to be the only sunny hour that day we would have run to the beach in our pyjamas! Sadly we were oblivious (I should have known better given the trend so far of having 4 seasons in 1 day here) and missed the sunny window. Now comes that time to thank the guys from Fox for the travel scrabble that they gave me as part of my leaving present. Without it we may well have gone completely mad! As it was Jo was very grumpy, with Max closely following in the "unimpressed with general quality of weather"stakes. I think I annoyed them by not minding, as unlike me they don't have months of travel ahead of them
The next day was glorious but we were leaving the Nelson area to go to wine country (Marlborough region, place called Renwick near Blenheim). We had the best time! The weather was lovely (sunny with a breeze, exactly what we needed), we found the most wonderful place to say called Watsons Way Backpackers, where we could rent bicycles for the day for a few quid complete with helmets and we explored loads of the vineyards, sampling some really lovely wines. In the end Cloudy Bay was probably our favourite, very closely followed by Herzog and Allan Scott (where we had a gorgeous lunch). So it is all swings and roundabouts, bad day before, lovely day after. We needed it.
Once we had tasted enough and were feeling saddle sore (don't think the others were as bad as me though, my bum is far too padded to cope with those uncomfortable bicycle seats, you would think that my natural padding would help, but on the contrary it just gave me a larger area that was in pain) we headed back to the packpackers for some cheese, wine, grapes and scrabble, followed by some petanque (I still suck, never could get the hang of that game, I throw like a girl).
We eat at a local pub before heading back for another game of scrabble (I think we might be addicted), while writing rude notes about the noisy Canadian girl who you could probably have heard talking back in London. Loved the bit where a woman came storming out of her room wearing nothing but a towel and asked her to turn it down a bit. We would have done that, but already felt a bit like old farts since we weren't pissed and were playing scrabble. To be fair she did seem very sweet, just that her volume control was obviously damaged by the alcohol.
The next day we had a bit of a lie in (until 9am - yes mum I now consider 9am a lie in!) before checking out, heading to the chocolate factory to check it out (yummy heaven), going to Cloudy Bay to buy some wine and hitting the road for Picton where we were getting the ferry over to North Island.
The ferry journey was great with us all lying up on the sun deck. It was lovely and sunny but sadly too windy to play scrabble (although we did try). I had taken a travel sickness pill so was knocked out straight away and snoozed through most of the 3 hour crossing). After the pleasant ferry journey we faced a 5 hour car journey to Napier. Pierre, bless him, drove the whole way. We had a call from our friend Andy that had landed in Auckland that day from Sydney and was leaving Auckland at the same time that we were leaving Wellington. The race was on to see who would be first to the motel. Despite some bad traffic (or awkward traffic as they like to call it here) we were the victors, so had time for a shower while we waited for Andy to arrive, before heading to a bar called Shed 2, to meet up with an incredibly drunk (and text happy) Sam and co.
A night of drinking and chatting followed. Everyone mingled (friends from NZ, friends from London/Dublin and family) and had a great time. Sam was very very very happy (although I hear not so happy this morning for the 10am wedding rehearsal, poor love) and it was great to have almost everyone together (we have more people arriving today, at which point we will pretty well have taken over the motel! only 1 room is not occupied by wedding guests, so I hope the people there are tolerant and have a sense of humour, as we could get rowdy).
Today has been lovely with brunch by the port, a potter round Napier taking in all the art deco buildings, the sunken garden, the beach etc... As it is the last weekend of the Art Deco festival (it finishes on sunday and will have run for 9 days, it is the 75th anniversary of the earthquake that devestated Napier and led to everything being rebuilt in Art Deco style) there are people in 1920s outfits all over the place and loads of really gorgeous vintage cars. I am not even that in to cars, and I can appreciate that they are beautiful. We are hoping to come in to town tonight to check out more of the festival related activity, as it really should be something and everyone here is so friendly (people in costume are more than happy to pose for pictures). Quite surreally there is a London Bus here too (going to Harrow Rd, starts at Tottenham Court Road) - think it is a little bit lost! Next time you are standing at a bus stop wondering where all the buses are, they may well have taken a detour to the anitpodes (explains a lot! I expect to see a 37 in Australia - rubbish bus route)
I had better head off now, as I dread to think how much this is going to have cost me.
Want to say big HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY to Hannah for Saturday (18th). I am expecting an e-mail with all the gossip from your party love!
Right, now I just need to work out where the pool is, as I need a refreshing dip... umm must be in the direction of the beach! Yes, I know that was me gratuitously rubbing it in! Sorry : )
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Beers, wine and a spot of sun worshipping
Well after a mellow day on Friday, the evening turned in to a bit of a party. Sam was out with a couple of her oldest friends, they were surprising her so she didn't know what the evening had in store for her.
Tom, Ruth, Stephan (Ruth's boyfriend, also frequenty referred to as the German) and I watched the rugby (Hurricanes vs the Blues - Hurricanes won, so that is a win for Wellington over Auckland) at home while eating a lovely meal that Glynis made for us all and drinking a fair bit of wine. Once the match was over we decided to go out and hit the bars round Ponsonby. Starting off in a Belgium bar with copious amounts of Leffe (always a killer especially on top of wine) before heading to a late night bar called Gold near my hostel on Ponsonby.
Stephan was on the NZ version of Hells Kitchen (would love to see some of the clips) as one of the contestants. Some of the production guys from that programme which was filmed Ponsonby way, were also out and about and found us in the bar. I was definitely feeling very merry and basically told poor Stephan that he was cooking for us all Saturday night. Sam joined us too, turned out that she was in a club just down the road after a lovely meal with her friends. It was a good night with a tad too much beer to be good for me, but I did discover that I am a lot more nimble at getting on to the top bunk bed and through the Japanese obstacle course after a few drinks, which is worth knowing for future reference.
Saturday morning I woke up feeling surprisingly OK, if a bit groggy, given both the limited amount of sleep and the alcohol consumed. I headed over to Sam and Tom's for a spot of breakfast. Stephan took over cooking, so our cooked breakfast actually looked like something you would get in a very posh restaurant. Tasted fantastic too, and made us all feel a lot more human. As the sun was out (had been pretty rainy on Friday) we decided to head to the beach. We went to Maraitai (pardon the spelling, I am going the phonetic route, sounded a lot like a Mai Tai but with an r in the middle) where we swam in the sea, lounged in the sun and generally relaxed (I know, I was obviously in need of some more relaxation.. hehe).
The view was fantastic and there is something really decadent about just basking in the sun, reading a book and supping on a cold beer. After the beach we headed in to Auckland again, as we needed to go shopping so that Stephan can prepare us a masterpiece for our dinner. Sam's parents were going to be joining us now, so Stephan was making dinner for 8. I felt a bit guilty for stitching him up with having to cook, so I decided that I had to buy all the ingredients. We came back armed with squid and duck and other fantastic things. I was hungry just thinking about it. Ruth and I helped out in the kitchen. I got some top tips (on chopping, how to prepare squid, how to prepare duck breasts etc..) which was fantastic really. Felt like I was at chef school.
Suffice it to say the food was amazing and looked like a masterpiece. We all sat outside in the warm evening breeze eating by candlelight (covered in mossie spray, those little suckers still managed to have a bit of a Steph feast anyway, but I took some out, which was satistfying). I even tried some Hokey Pokey ice cream afterwards, as I was reliably informed that this was a very New Zealand dessert, it was yummy, kind of like butterscotch but different.
I headed back to the hostel around midnight absolutely exhausted and hoping that the odd red patches wouldn't turn out to be sunburn. As I have no sore spots this morning, I think it was just my skin going red with shock from being in the sun and I have gone back to my normal off white shades.
I am now at Sam & Tom's updating my blog. Today has turned out to be very hot and sunny so the factor 30 will be making an appearance today. Tom has just mowed the lawn so that I can have a practice run putting up the tent that they are lending me to take to Nelson, as Jo & I will have to put it up in the dark, as it will be evening by the time we land. Can't believe that I am off on a short flight tomorrow and that I will be seeing Jo, Max and Pierre. I think that we will definitely have a giggle.
At some point Sam & I are popping to the shops to get some more paper for the menus etc at the wedding and than we are going to go out for a girlie lunch maybe round Mount Eden. Tom & Ruth will be at the airport picking up their Dad who arrives this afternoon. I suppose that I will have to pack my stuff at some point today too (rather than trying to do it in the dark without waking anyone up early tomorrow morning). I have a 9am massage appointment tomorrow (oh the hardship) and a hair cut booked afterwards, so I should actually look presentable for the wedding (major temptation to get a lot of my hair chopped off, it is just too hot).
That is pretty well all the news for now. I am still having a lovely time. Hope that you are all having good weekends.
Tom, Ruth, Stephan (Ruth's boyfriend, also frequenty referred to as the German) and I watched the rugby (Hurricanes vs the Blues - Hurricanes won, so that is a win for Wellington over Auckland) at home while eating a lovely meal that Glynis made for us all and drinking a fair bit of wine. Once the match was over we decided to go out and hit the bars round Ponsonby. Starting off in a Belgium bar with copious amounts of Leffe (always a killer especially on top of wine) before heading to a late night bar called Gold near my hostel on Ponsonby.
Stephan was on the NZ version of Hells Kitchen (would love to see some of the clips) as one of the contestants. Some of the production guys from that programme which was filmed Ponsonby way, were also out and about and found us in the bar. I was definitely feeling very merry and basically told poor Stephan that he was cooking for us all Saturday night. Sam joined us too, turned out that she was in a club just down the road after a lovely meal with her friends. It was a good night with a tad too much beer to be good for me, but I did discover that I am a lot more nimble at getting on to the top bunk bed and through the Japanese obstacle course after a few drinks, which is worth knowing for future reference.
Saturday morning I woke up feeling surprisingly OK, if a bit groggy, given both the limited amount of sleep and the alcohol consumed. I headed over to Sam and Tom's for a spot of breakfast. Stephan took over cooking, so our cooked breakfast actually looked like something you would get in a very posh restaurant. Tasted fantastic too, and made us all feel a lot more human. As the sun was out (had been pretty rainy on Friday) we decided to head to the beach. We went to Maraitai (pardon the spelling, I am going the phonetic route, sounded a lot like a Mai Tai but with an r in the middle) where we swam in the sea, lounged in the sun and generally relaxed (I know, I was obviously in need of some more relaxation.. hehe).
The view was fantastic and there is something really decadent about just basking in the sun, reading a book and supping on a cold beer. After the beach we headed in to Auckland again, as we needed to go shopping so that Stephan can prepare us a masterpiece for our dinner. Sam's parents were going to be joining us now, so Stephan was making dinner for 8. I felt a bit guilty for stitching him up with having to cook, so I decided that I had to buy all the ingredients. We came back armed with squid and duck and other fantastic things. I was hungry just thinking about it. Ruth and I helped out in the kitchen. I got some top tips (on chopping, how to prepare squid, how to prepare duck breasts etc..) which was fantastic really. Felt like I was at chef school.
Suffice it to say the food was amazing and looked like a masterpiece. We all sat outside in the warm evening breeze eating by candlelight (covered in mossie spray, those little suckers still managed to have a bit of a Steph feast anyway, but I took some out, which was satistfying). I even tried some Hokey Pokey ice cream afterwards, as I was reliably informed that this was a very New Zealand dessert, it was yummy, kind of like butterscotch but different.
I headed back to the hostel around midnight absolutely exhausted and hoping that the odd red patches wouldn't turn out to be sunburn. As I have no sore spots this morning, I think it was just my skin going red with shock from being in the sun and I have gone back to my normal off white shades.
I am now at Sam & Tom's updating my blog. Today has turned out to be very hot and sunny so the factor 30 will be making an appearance today. Tom has just mowed the lawn so that I can have a practice run putting up the tent that they are lending me to take to Nelson, as Jo & I will have to put it up in the dark, as it will be evening by the time we land. Can't believe that I am off on a short flight tomorrow and that I will be seeing Jo, Max and Pierre. I think that we will definitely have a giggle.
At some point Sam & I are popping to the shops to get some more paper for the menus etc at the wedding and than we are going to go out for a girlie lunch maybe round Mount Eden. Tom & Ruth will be at the airport picking up their Dad who arrives this afternoon. I suppose that I will have to pack my stuff at some point today too (rather than trying to do it in the dark without waking anyone up early tomorrow morning). I have a 9am massage appointment tomorrow (oh the hardship) and a hair cut booked afterwards, so I should actually look presentable for the wedding (major temptation to get a lot of my hair chopped off, it is just too hot).
That is pretty well all the news for now. I am still having a lovely time. Hope that you are all having good weekends.
Friday, February 10, 2006
Another chilled out day, sorry!
OK I didn't quite get round to doing anything hugely exciting today. It has been a really muggy day so you over heat moving around and the air is thick with an imminent storm (well if the weather forecast is right there should be one hitting any minute, lovely!)
After a nice relaxing evening at Sam and Tom's yesterday with more good food, wine and even a bit of brainstorming, I had a nice long sleep (only waking up as people got up, one of the poor guys in my room had to get up at 4am to go to work, didn't envy him that at all, was quite nice lying in bed hearing him move about knowing that I didn't have to get up in the dark).
When I finally surfaced, made it past the obstacle course to get out my bed (the Japanese guy in the bunk below me likes to spread his stuff all over the place, I am sure in an attempt to make me break my leg or something) and had a shower - I decided to head in to town. Sam had pointed out that since me and Jo are going to be camping on South Island we might want to invest in some sleep mats so that we don't wake up battered and bruised every day, so I headed back to in to town to invest in some (11NZ$ - complete bargain) as well as getting the happy couple their wedding present (decided to go off wedding list but am quietly confident that they will like what I got them).
Saw my favourite sign of the day which read "Life is too short to drink bad wine". Good point, well made. Umm wonder what that shop was selling.
Also spotted lots of Walk the line posters, what can I say, I'm sad but I love that film and a person just can't switch off! It opened here yesterday... lucky New Zealanders.
I stopped for a lovely spot of Japanese food for lunch (Sashimi and Chicken teriyaki - a winning combination in my book) before braving the hills again. I am currently refusing to get the bus but keep torturing myself by climbing up everything. I consider it practise for when I go hiking, plus I don't have access to a gym here and I really need the exercise if only to work off over indulging on food in Hong Kong.
Of course once I got to the top of the main hill, I stopped for a cold beer and a bit of a read (Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore" well worth saving for my trip, a fantastic book so far).
Nothing else really to report, and the above is pretty mellow so no thrilling news to share with you all. The forecast for tomorrow is really good though weather wise and being Saturday looks like we are all going to head to the beach. This will be my first proper beach trip of my travels (well went to beach in Hong Kong but that was more to take photos of it rather than to lie on it and turn scarlet). I have my factor 30 (what can I say, I burn easily) and am ready for a bit of sun worshipping and a swim.
Hope that all is well with everyone.. Feel free to e-mail if you want to chat. I've been very good at getting back to those of you that have checked in so far. My mum wrote me a lovely long e-mail and I know that must have taken her hours (sorry that I'm not around to type stuff for you mum)
Tatty bye for now
After a nice relaxing evening at Sam and Tom's yesterday with more good food, wine and even a bit of brainstorming, I had a nice long sleep (only waking up as people got up, one of the poor guys in my room had to get up at 4am to go to work, didn't envy him that at all, was quite nice lying in bed hearing him move about knowing that I didn't have to get up in the dark).
When I finally surfaced, made it past the obstacle course to get out my bed (the Japanese guy in the bunk below me likes to spread his stuff all over the place, I am sure in an attempt to make me break my leg or something) and had a shower - I decided to head in to town. Sam had pointed out that since me and Jo are going to be camping on South Island we might want to invest in some sleep mats so that we don't wake up battered and bruised every day, so I headed back to in to town to invest in some (11NZ$ - complete bargain) as well as getting the happy couple their wedding present (decided to go off wedding list but am quietly confident that they will like what I got them).
Saw my favourite sign of the day which read "Life is too short to drink bad wine". Good point, well made. Umm wonder what that shop was selling.
Also spotted lots of Walk the line posters, what can I say, I'm sad but I love that film and a person just can't switch off! It opened here yesterday... lucky New Zealanders.
I stopped for a lovely spot of Japanese food for lunch (Sashimi and Chicken teriyaki - a winning combination in my book) before braving the hills again. I am currently refusing to get the bus but keep torturing myself by climbing up everything. I consider it practise for when I go hiking, plus I don't have access to a gym here and I really need the exercise if only to work off over indulging on food in Hong Kong.
Of course once I got to the top of the main hill, I stopped for a cold beer and a bit of a read (Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore" well worth saving for my trip, a fantastic book so far).
Nothing else really to report, and the above is pretty mellow so no thrilling news to share with you all. The forecast for tomorrow is really good though weather wise and being Saturday looks like we are all going to head to the beach. This will be my first proper beach trip of my travels (well went to beach in Hong Kong but that was more to take photos of it rather than to lie on it and turn scarlet). I have my factor 30 (what can I say, I burn easily) and am ready for a bit of sun worshipping and a swim.
Hope that all is well with everyone.. Feel free to e-mail if you want to chat. I've been very good at getting back to those of you that have checked in so far. My mum wrote me a lovely long e-mail and I know that must have taken her hours (sorry that I'm not around to type stuff for you mum)
Tatty bye for now
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Bye bye Hong Kong, Hello Auckland
Well it is now Thursday and I haven't updated since Sunday night, but hey I'm travelling these things are supposed to be sporadic.
My Monday was pretty chilled. Christina was at work so Jo and I met up for coffee, a wander round Victoria Park, a few piccies of the Noon day gun (which we found after it made me jump out of my skin when it went off at Noon) and a walk round the human mass and chaos that is the Causeway Bay area. We soon go tired of the sheer noise and mass confusion that is the main shopping area and headed back towards my hostel to find a quiet restaurant where we could sit, eat very slowly and sup on a few beers. That made us feel a lot more human so next stop was Quarry Bay and the ZenithOptimedia offices to say a proper good bye to Christina as Jo was leaving that night and as Christina was going to be working late I wouldn't see her again before I left the next day.
After that another coffee was in order before Jo and I headed back to Central and I saw her off on the Airport train (wasn't really a tearful farewell as we knew we would be seeing each other again in a week in Auckland).
I was exhausted as I hadn't slept hugely well the night before so I headed back to the hostel, picking up some food on the way and promptly fell asleep. Had a quite dinner watching Monk and 24 on TV while eating dinner before packing all my stuff up and heading back to bed for a good night's sleep.
The next day was pretty uneventful. I checked in my luggage in the morning at the train station (love that you can do that) and pottered around some of the big malls by the waterfront. I even watched a movie (Fun with dick and Jane - well there was nothing else on in English) before heading to the airport and Auckland-ward
My flight was pretty long and boring. The plane that I was on (Air NZ) looked very 80s with only the main screens for the cabin, boy did I miss the Virgin Atlantic inflight service. Despite the lack of entertainment I couldn't get comfortable so really didn't get that much sleep. By the time we arrived in Auckland I was very happy to get off the plane and take advantage of the hiking boot cleaning service they provide as you come in to the country (who knew that my boots could present a potential bio-hazard but I did manage to bring back half of the dust from the Atlas mountains following my trip to Morocco in September, so they did need a good clean).
Sammie D was there to meet my flight, it was so cool to see her, she had popped out of the office to come over and get me which was above and beyond the call of duty! She dropped me off at the Ponsonby Backpackers where I slept for a good 5 hours before having a shower and heading over to Sam & Tom's for a nice leisurely evening BBQ and some rose.
Well that was yesterday, today I chilled out with Tom's mum Glynis as she was working on Ruth's (Tom's sister) bridesmaid dress, we had a nice spot of lunch and I headed in to Auckland to get some proper walking sandals. Job done, I grabbed a coffee and read for a while before trekking up hill back to the hostel. Am now in a store round the corner from the hostel. Should really head back, dump my stuff, give my hair a brush and head over to Sam & Tom's again for another chilled out evening.
Tomorrow I may well have a more action packed day.. not sure what I'll do but it is bound to be fab!
Sorry that I don't have any more exciting things to report but I needed a break.
My Monday was pretty chilled. Christina was at work so Jo and I met up for coffee, a wander round Victoria Park, a few piccies of the Noon day gun (which we found after it made me jump out of my skin when it went off at Noon) and a walk round the human mass and chaos that is the Causeway Bay area. We soon go tired of the sheer noise and mass confusion that is the main shopping area and headed back towards my hostel to find a quiet restaurant where we could sit, eat very slowly and sup on a few beers. That made us feel a lot more human so next stop was Quarry Bay and the ZenithOptimedia offices to say a proper good bye to Christina as Jo was leaving that night and as Christina was going to be working late I wouldn't see her again before I left the next day.
After that another coffee was in order before Jo and I headed back to Central and I saw her off on the Airport train (wasn't really a tearful farewell as we knew we would be seeing each other again in a week in Auckland).
I was exhausted as I hadn't slept hugely well the night before so I headed back to the hostel, picking up some food on the way and promptly fell asleep. Had a quite dinner watching Monk and 24 on TV while eating dinner before packing all my stuff up and heading back to bed for a good night's sleep.
The next day was pretty uneventful. I checked in my luggage in the morning at the train station (love that you can do that) and pottered around some of the big malls by the waterfront. I even watched a movie (Fun with dick and Jane - well there was nothing else on in English) before heading to the airport and Auckland-ward
My flight was pretty long and boring. The plane that I was on (Air NZ) looked very 80s with only the main screens for the cabin, boy did I miss the Virgin Atlantic inflight service. Despite the lack of entertainment I couldn't get comfortable so really didn't get that much sleep. By the time we arrived in Auckland I was very happy to get off the plane and take advantage of the hiking boot cleaning service they provide as you come in to the country (who knew that my boots could present a potential bio-hazard but I did manage to bring back half of the dust from the Atlas mountains following my trip to Morocco in September, so they did need a good clean).
Sammie D was there to meet my flight, it was so cool to see her, she had popped out of the office to come over and get me which was above and beyond the call of duty! She dropped me off at the Ponsonby Backpackers where I slept for a good 5 hours before having a shower and heading over to Sam & Tom's for a nice leisurely evening BBQ and some rose.
Well that was yesterday, today I chilled out with Tom's mum Glynis as she was working on Ruth's (Tom's sister) bridesmaid dress, we had a nice spot of lunch and I headed in to Auckland to get some proper walking sandals. Job done, I grabbed a coffee and read for a while before trekking up hill back to the hostel. Am now in a store round the corner from the hostel. Should really head back, dump my stuff, give my hair a brush and head over to Sam & Tom's again for another chilled out evening.
Tomorrow I may well have a more action packed day.. not sure what I'll do but it is bound to be fab!
Sorry that I don't have any more exciting things to report but I needed a break.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Missing post from 4th Feb
Well I have noticed that in my hurry to write up my post yesterday and still make it out in the evening, it looks like I made a mistake and didn't post it properly. Well it wasn't here when I posted my last post, so essentially this one needs to be read before post no 8 (Salsa, Going Bananas etc).
My mum and Eva took me to the aiport on Thursday to see me off. The flight over was pretty uneventful and I really enjoyed the inflight entertainment (Virgin have way cool inflight, it was a shame that I needed to sleep as I had enough stuff to watch for several more 12 hour flights (although was more than happy to get off the plane when we landed). Jo Boffey's BA flight landed a few minutes after mine so we meet at the luggage carousels and headed in to Hong Kong Central on the Airport express. Christina met us there and before I headed off to check in to my hostel in Causeway Bay we arranged to meet up that evening for a meal and drinks with Charlie too.
My hostel is OK in that it is very clean and feels safe. My room is small and the bathroom tiny (first time that I have ever seen a shower that hangs over the toilet), but it is kind of cosy with it and the people who run it are very friendly (well I think they are, they smile a lot but I really don't understand Chinese so hard to have a meaningful conversation),
That evening we met not far from Central station for a lovely Chinese meal in a place called "Rat Alley" although still not sure if that is the real name or Christina winding me up. Charlie was in good form and he was great catching up with everyone. After food we went for Vodka jelly shots at Al's diner to perk us up before heading to a russian bar called balalika. We doned furs and climbed in to a freezer to drink vodka shots - not what I had been expecting to be doing in Hong Kong but good fun. Once we were too chilled to stay in there we headed to the main bar where we had a few more drinks before calling it a night. Not bad after a night flight and with some incredibly mixed up jet lag style symptoms. Slept like a baby that night before getting up late and meeting up with Christina & Jo again.
We went for some fabulous dim sum near statue square on the water front. We had to wait to get in (long queues going on) but it was worth the wait as the food was fantastic.
After dim sum we for a long stroll round Hong Kong island and had a fantastic time taking in the sites and having a great time looking in the more interesting shops (paper shops were my favourite with every product you can imagine made out of paper so that it can be burned when people die and taken in to the after life with them). We walked for ages so that we could work off the food that we had eaten. When we decided that our feet had enough of a work out, Christina & I went for a foot massage, which was fabulous
After that we headed back to Christina's flat to meet her husband and her cat before heading out on the town. that is where this blog ends and the one below starts.
Lets hope this one posts OK
My mum and Eva took me to the aiport on Thursday to see me off. The flight over was pretty uneventful and I really enjoyed the inflight entertainment (Virgin have way cool inflight, it was a shame that I needed to sleep as I had enough stuff to watch for several more 12 hour flights (although was more than happy to get off the plane when we landed). Jo Boffey's BA flight landed a few minutes after mine so we meet at the luggage carousels and headed in to Hong Kong Central on the Airport express. Christina met us there and before I headed off to check in to my hostel in Causeway Bay we arranged to meet up that evening for a meal and drinks with Charlie too.
My hostel is OK in that it is very clean and feels safe. My room is small and the bathroom tiny (first time that I have ever seen a shower that hangs over the toilet), but it is kind of cosy with it and the people who run it are very friendly (well I think they are, they smile a lot but I really don't understand Chinese so hard to have a meaningful conversation),
That evening we met not far from Central station for a lovely Chinese meal in a place called "Rat Alley" although still not sure if that is the real name or Christina winding me up. Charlie was in good form and he was great catching up with everyone. After food we went for Vodka jelly shots at Al's diner to perk us up before heading to a russian bar called balalika. We doned furs and climbed in to a freezer to drink vodka shots - not what I had been expecting to be doing in Hong Kong but good fun. Once we were too chilled to stay in there we headed to the main bar where we had a few more drinks before calling it a night. Not bad after a night flight and with some incredibly mixed up jet lag style symptoms. Slept like a baby that night before getting up late and meeting up with Christina & Jo again.
We went for some fabulous dim sum near statue square on the water front. We had to wait to get in (long queues going on) but it was worth the wait as the food was fantastic.
After dim sum we for a long stroll round Hong Kong island and had a fantastic time taking in the sites and having a great time looking in the more interesting shops (paper shops were my favourite with every product you can imagine made out of paper so that it can be burned when people die and taken in to the after life with them). We walked for ages so that we could work off the food that we had eaten. When we decided that our feet had enough of a work out, Christina & I went for a foot massage, which was fabulous
After that we headed back to Christina's flat to meet her husband and her cat before heading out on the town. that is where this blog ends and the one below starts.
Lets hope this one posts OK
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Salsa, going Bananas and Anthony Hopkins' taxi driver
Well it is now Sunday evening and I am feeling a bit tired if I am honest. Of course this is the result of a good girlie night out yesterday. Following on from my last post Jo, Christina and I headed over to the "dark side" AKA Kowloon for a spot of Korean BBQ. As with all our meals so far we let Christina order, as she knows her stuff (best tour guide I have ever had!) and the meal was fabulous. In the middle of the table where hollows and inside those was the BBQ area. We were brought a lovely mix of side dishes plus beautiful slices of beef that we (well mainly Christina) cooked for ourselves. Wrapped in lettuce leaves with a fantastic sauce, the meat was fantastic and I really enjoyed the whole meal. While we started off with a beer each, Christina soon introduced us to the joys of Ginseng Rice Wine. It was lovely but far too easy to drink, so two bottles later we were ready to head back to Hong Kong island and Wan Chai for a bit of partying.
The plan was to go straight to Jo Bananas where Christina's friend Miles is a DJ but as we were walking there we went past a bar playing great Salsa music. It just felt right to go in there for a frozen margherita and a bit of a boogie. A live band came on so we were soon shimmying across the dance floor with a wonderfully mixed crowd (in Hong Kong, they don't care how old you are, bars aren't just for young people and you could see a couple of generations from the same family out together just having a good time, with an older couple really putting some of the youngsters to shame with their dance moves). It was brilliant. Sadly though at 1.30am the band had to stop performing, so the party was over there and we finally headed over to Jo Bananas.
What can I say, the tunes were cheesey, the drinks were flowing (thanks Miles), including a great big flaming pyramid of a drink that took the flaming sambuca to whole new levels, plus shots of stuff that tasted like squash, but quite blatantly wasn't. When we weren't dancing, we were people watching as you get a fascinating mix of people including a large number of working girls. Suffice it to say that it wasn't the drink making me feel queezy when I'd see a pretty young Asian girl leaving with a grey haired, old man. Of course the most fun we had was with Christina trying to work out who Jo might fancy and than trying to back her towards them while dancing (despite the near military precision of these moves, Jo was having none of it!)
At around 3am we decided to head home as we were meeting Phil T and his family for dim sum that following day at 12.30 and didn't want to turn up looking like the undead and stinking of booze (I may not work for ZO anymore, but your old boss, is always your old boss, and over the years he really has seen enough of my hangovers so didn't want to treat him to another one).
As the walls in the hostel I am staying in are paper thin, and there is someone in the room across the hall from me that seems to be rustling plastic bags all night long, I didn't get much sleep at all. So when my alarm clock went off at 10am I didn't exactly bounce out of bed full of the joys of spring (or Winter as it is here in HK). In fact 40 minutes later I was still struggling to unstick my eyes, but I finally made it in to the bathroom and under the shower which revived me. I decided to head to my rendez vous point with Christina & Jo a bit early so that I could get a Starbucks at Central station and sit updating my diary and sipping on it in Statue Sq (where we were meeting). It was lovely there as it seems to be where a lot of people go to have a picnic lunch and it was such a beautiful day, I just sat there chilling out and watching the world go by for a while. As Jo & Christina were running late, we got a taxi rather than a bus over to the South of the Island which is a whole new world. Beaches, greenery, expensive flats with fantastic ocean views. Our taxi driver had pictures of himself with the many celebrities that he had driven round over the years. I didn't recognise many as they were mainly Asian celebrities (a couple of Miss Hong Kongs and Asias in the mix) but he did have the great privilege of driving the wonderful Sir Anthony Hopkins in 1991. It was quite surreal to see a much younger looking Anthony Hopkins smiling awkwardly at us from the dashboard of the car.
We arrived at the restaurant around the same time as PT and his family and literally just sat down and the dim sum fest began. Phil's family is lovely and we had a great time chatting, watching his younger daughter look mischievous and eating far too much food. In fact eating too much seems to be a theme for my Hong Kong stay, as the food is excellent and just seems to keep coming. Christina says that life here does seem to revolve around food, which is reflected in the abundance of great restaurants that all seem to be busy. It has been good to walk around a lot, not only for the sightseeing but also for burning off all the food.
After lunch we said bye to Phil and family and headed down to the beach to just sit for a short while (the sun had really burst through and the day was lovely and warm). We then hopped on a bus to Stanley to: check out the market; be deafened by the drums that accompanied a dragon as it went round blessing all the stalls and finally head over to the waterfront to have a relaxing drink (Jo and I went for pints of beer, because quite sadly, within days of having left the UK, we were kind of craving "a pint" although we did redeem ourselves by drinking a pint of local vs European or American beer). We realised just how many dogs (canine, vs disparaging comment about ugly women, although on that note, there are some serious crimes against hair styling in evidence here - Esteban you would love it here if only for the mullet spotting) there are in Hong Kong.
Plus we noticed our first freak, as this older Asian guy with very badly dyed red hair stood in the middle of the street swaying, hand to his forehead, apparently transfixed by whatever he was listening to on his walkman. From the moves Christina's guess was that he was listening to Elvis, however now that I have had more time to think about it, I actually think that it was probably a David Hasslehoff CD, as I think that is more likely to induce a psychotic epidode. When he started heading towards the bar that we were in (this poor Husky puppy looked terrified when he came near him, even the animals could sense he was a loon) we decided that it was time to make a sharp exit and went to get the bus up to the Peak to take in the view over Hong Kong. Re the Peak, nice view, snapped a few piccies.
I am now in Christina's flat, she and Jo have popped out to the supermarket and Christina's is treating us to dinner at hers (Western food tonight though, we are craving things like cheese) and a DVD. It is very quiet here as her cat (he is gorgeous and Jenny you won't be surprised to hear that I have taken many photos of him) has temporarily stopped meowing (he'll start again soon, as he wants to be stroked but very hard to cuddle cat and type at the same time). So that is my news. Promise that future updates won't be quite this detail-tastic but am taking advantage of having good internet access here.
Two more days in Honkers before I head to Auckland. Christina has been great at making sure that we have seen all the most important sites so tomorrow I am thinking it will be a leisurely trip to Lantau to see the Big Buddha.
Bye!
The plan was to go straight to Jo Bananas where Christina's friend Miles is a DJ but as we were walking there we went past a bar playing great Salsa music. It just felt right to go in there for a frozen margherita and a bit of a boogie. A live band came on so we were soon shimmying across the dance floor with a wonderfully mixed crowd (in Hong Kong, they don't care how old you are, bars aren't just for young people and you could see a couple of generations from the same family out together just having a good time, with an older couple really putting some of the youngsters to shame with their dance moves). It was brilliant. Sadly though at 1.30am the band had to stop performing, so the party was over there and we finally headed over to Jo Bananas.
What can I say, the tunes were cheesey, the drinks were flowing (thanks Miles), including a great big flaming pyramid of a drink that took the flaming sambuca to whole new levels, plus shots of stuff that tasted like squash, but quite blatantly wasn't. When we weren't dancing, we were people watching as you get a fascinating mix of people including a large number of working girls. Suffice it to say that it wasn't the drink making me feel queezy when I'd see a pretty young Asian girl leaving with a grey haired, old man. Of course the most fun we had was with Christina trying to work out who Jo might fancy and than trying to back her towards them while dancing (despite the near military precision of these moves, Jo was having none of it!)
At around 3am we decided to head home as we were meeting Phil T and his family for dim sum that following day at 12.30 and didn't want to turn up looking like the undead and stinking of booze (I may not work for ZO anymore, but your old boss, is always your old boss, and over the years he really has seen enough of my hangovers so didn't want to treat him to another one).
As the walls in the hostel I am staying in are paper thin, and there is someone in the room across the hall from me that seems to be rustling plastic bags all night long, I didn't get much sleep at all. So when my alarm clock went off at 10am I didn't exactly bounce out of bed full of the joys of spring (or Winter as it is here in HK). In fact 40 minutes later I was still struggling to unstick my eyes, but I finally made it in to the bathroom and under the shower which revived me. I decided to head to my rendez vous point with Christina & Jo a bit early so that I could get a Starbucks at Central station and sit updating my diary and sipping on it in Statue Sq (where we were meeting). It was lovely there as it seems to be where a lot of people go to have a picnic lunch and it was such a beautiful day, I just sat there chilling out and watching the world go by for a while. As Jo & Christina were running late, we got a taxi rather than a bus over to the South of the Island which is a whole new world. Beaches, greenery, expensive flats with fantastic ocean views. Our taxi driver had pictures of himself with the many celebrities that he had driven round over the years. I didn't recognise many as they were mainly Asian celebrities (a couple of Miss Hong Kongs and Asias in the mix) but he did have the great privilege of driving the wonderful Sir Anthony Hopkins in 1991. It was quite surreal to see a much younger looking Anthony Hopkins smiling awkwardly at us from the dashboard of the car.
We arrived at the restaurant around the same time as PT and his family and literally just sat down and the dim sum fest began. Phil's family is lovely and we had a great time chatting, watching his younger daughter look mischievous and eating far too much food. In fact eating too much seems to be a theme for my Hong Kong stay, as the food is excellent and just seems to keep coming. Christina says that life here does seem to revolve around food, which is reflected in the abundance of great restaurants that all seem to be busy. It has been good to walk around a lot, not only for the sightseeing but also for burning off all the food.
After lunch we said bye to Phil and family and headed down to the beach to just sit for a short while (the sun had really burst through and the day was lovely and warm). We then hopped on a bus to Stanley to: check out the market; be deafened by the drums that accompanied a dragon as it went round blessing all the stalls and finally head over to the waterfront to have a relaxing drink (Jo and I went for pints of beer, because quite sadly, within days of having left the UK, we were kind of craving "a pint" although we did redeem ourselves by drinking a pint of local vs European or American beer). We realised just how many dogs (canine, vs disparaging comment about ugly women, although on that note, there are some serious crimes against hair styling in evidence here - Esteban you would love it here if only for the mullet spotting) there are in Hong Kong.
Plus we noticed our first freak, as this older Asian guy with very badly dyed red hair stood in the middle of the street swaying, hand to his forehead, apparently transfixed by whatever he was listening to on his walkman. From the moves Christina's guess was that he was listening to Elvis, however now that I have had more time to think about it, I actually think that it was probably a David Hasslehoff CD, as I think that is more likely to induce a psychotic epidode. When he started heading towards the bar that we were in (this poor Husky puppy looked terrified when he came near him, even the animals could sense he was a loon) we decided that it was time to make a sharp exit and went to get the bus up to the Peak to take in the view over Hong Kong. Re the Peak, nice view, snapped a few piccies.
I am now in Christina's flat, she and Jo have popped out to the supermarket and Christina's is treating us to dinner at hers (Western food tonight though, we are craving things like cheese) and a DVD. It is very quiet here as her cat (he is gorgeous and Jenny you won't be surprised to hear that I have taken many photos of him) has temporarily stopped meowing (he'll start again soon, as he wants to be stroked but very hard to cuddle cat and type at the same time). So that is my news. Promise that future updates won't be quite this detail-tastic but am taking advantage of having good internet access here.
Two more days in Honkers before I head to Auckland. Christina has been great at making sure that we have seen all the most important sites so tomorrow I am thinking it will be a leisurely trip to Lantau to see the Big Buddha.
Bye!
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
BBQ 12th August
OK, this will be short but sweet. For those of you that have expressed concern re whether the annual summer bbq will be going ahead given my travel plans, it is. Panic not Leon, there will be tart etc...
Date for your diaries is 12th August - usual place, usual time, usual details.....
After my time in the antipodes, the home of the truly awesome bbq, it can only be better than ever!
Date for your diaries is 12th August - usual place, usual time, usual details.....
After my time in the antipodes, the home of the truly awesome bbq, it can only be better than ever!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
