Yay! Summer...

Seasons greetings from Brisbane. Loving the weather here! I was afraid I had gotten too used to the cold after 6 months in NZ, but I took to the heat like I had never left. Weather has been quite pleasant actually, around 27-28deg by day, and nice breeze in the arvo. Saw Ben yesterday at the airport, passing through from Bowen to Chch. He was loving the weather too!Decked out in a wife beater (aka singlet) and thongs (aka jandals/flipflops!). Wish we could move to QLD! Went to watch my brother play beach volleyball and I felt like a tourist, kookaburras and stuff in the gums, sandflies buzzing my ankles. Love it. Be great to go diving in the warm water too. Apparently water temp is a balmy 24deg on the Gold Coast. Anyway, just thought I'd say g'day, Merry Christmas and all the rest! better help mum with the roast and start getting ready for Midnight Mass....

Abel Tasman photos

Just outside Anchorage Bay

Anchorage

Rissa

Sarah

Cleopatra's Pool

Abel Tasman

I met up with Sarah in Nelson on the weekend and we headed over to Abel Tasman National Park for some sea kayaking and walking. What a top spot - emerald waters and spectacular boulders, not to mention REAL golden beaches - that's right, sand! None of these pebbles you get in Wellington.

Saturday we hired a double kayak and joined a guided tour, which I am not a huge fan of, but the guide was ok. Cheesy jokes galore, but it was good to have someone make you a plunger coffee on the beach. At one stage we all rafted together and got out a large piece of tarp and literally sailed across one of the bays, which was a nice rest from paddling.

Saturday night we stayed on this floating backpackers which was quite a novelty for both of us. It was quite busy but because we were late arriving all the bunks were full, meaning we got a double room all to ourselves, which was nice. All meals were included and they put on a good BBQ that night. Breakfast was good ole Weetbix and toast then we made our own sandwiches and jumped in the dinghy to be dropped on the beach for our 2nd day - the walk.

We got started reasonably early, but we spent a little too long exploring sites around Anchorage, meaning we didn't really leave the area until 11am, and we had to meet a water taxi at 3pm! The walking times as a guide were 4-5hrs, so we really powered into it. The first leg, Torrent Bay to Bark Bay, wasn't too bad and we arrived at 12:45pm. By this stage we were starving and had talked about nothing but food the whole way, so we paused here & devoured our sandwiches. This was the longest leg, 7.8km, so we though we had made pretty good time. If we could keep up this pace, we thought the 6.1km from Bark Bay to Onetahuti would be achievable in 2hrs.

Not wanting to leave it to chance, we set off after our 15min break and were met with a steep climb. With full tummies & legs more accustomed to pushing the pedals in a car than climbing hills, we were puffing! After an hour, it seemed the climbing part was over, but it didn't feel like we had made a lot of ground, and we appeared to be quite a long way inland, with only an hour to get to the beach and meet our water taxi!!! So we stepped kept the momentum up & pushed on, much to the protest of our knees on the sometimes steep downward slope. We reached our pickup point with 20min to spare and flopped on the beach. It was so nice to dig our hot feet into the cool sand. Our water taxi arrived right on time, and we climbed aboard along with a couple of other walkers and kayakers. Somehow the skipper managed to load 6 double kayaks and 2 singles along with all the passengers and the gear... must have been a sight to see! we got back to base and drank copious amounts of tea before heading back to Nelson, where I left Sarah to explore.

I am getting some photos developed today - yes, developed!! - they were shot on FILM!! - so hopefully some of them turned out ok. They are being scanned and burned onto CD as well, so I'll put some up here later.

First day of Summer...

Sarah arrived on Friday night and brought with her some lovely weather, so we can actually say we've had at least one day of Summer weather now. Any show of sun here brings out the teenies with their weenie shorts and singlets but not me... the wind was stilly chilly!! but I did manage to get a good dose of sun and Sarah even a little burnt on her nose. Saturday we went to Petone and wandered along Jackson St, and Sarah had lots of fun taking photos of the buildings. We had lunch in my favourite cafe, Lemon Squeeze, before heading into town, where we spent most of the time shopping!!

Here is a photo of some of the public sculpture in the city... ball of koru (ferns) is suspended over a square near the performing arts complex.

Sunday we returned to the city and hired a double kayak and spent an hour paddling around the yacht squadron, avoiding getting run over by cray boats and the like!!! Lots of fun though. We then spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Te Papa (I think we managed to see about 2 exhibitions - the place is huge!!!).

Today Sarah is braving it alone and finding out some more about travelling down South - working out bus passes and stuff. While she's keen to stick around Welly, I'm going to try and get her out and down South to see more of real NZ. This weekend I'm hoping to team up with her either in Nelson to do the Abel Tasman National Park, or perhaps further South to get down to one of the glaciers.... we'll see. :-)

On the move & near-death experience with frypan...

Time for an update...

Well the past few weeks have been hectic and stressful to say the least so I should fill you all in.

Ben has left his job and is in the process of hunting for a new one. He has submitted a couple of applications and attended one interview, and I'm quietly confident he will get something decent by the New Year. In the meantime, he has arranged some work at barramundi farm in north QLD for the next 3 weeks, which he has been really looking forward to after being chained to a desk for the last few months. Before he left I moved house. It has been on the cards for a while, because although the place we were in in Petone was a great position, it was over-priced for its size, and we really weren't making the most of the position anyway! So now I'm a bit further out, a little bit closer to work and no longer walking distance to the cafe strip, but the place is $45 cheaper per week, carpeted and a bigger. Again there's no yard, but there is a waterfall behind the block! To make life interesting, last night I tried using the stove for the first time since I moved in, and tried out my brand new, you beaut, non-stick frypan. Next thing I know, there was a deafening explosion and the kitchen filled with smoke. The element had exploded and blew a hole right through my frypan!! I was so shocked I had to take some photos to record it. I was just lucky I had turned to get some oil out of the cupboard, and wasn't leaning over the stove at the time. The landlord has been good about, and has offered to replace my frypan, and hopefully it will be all sorted when I get home this arvo...

Looks like the frypan took a bullet for me doesn't it? Might hang it on the wall, as talking piece...

Oh, for a gas cooktop!

So I'm all on my lonesome at the moment, but Sarah arrives Friday evening, so I'm looking forward to spending time with her and showing her around. Will definitely post some photos of our travels!

November already!

Toby RIP 1993-2006

OK they've started playing Christmas jingles in the shops already, surely the Silly Season isn't here already?! Crazy times. I must be getting old because I've started listening to National talkback radio in the mornings...! Anyway, hope everyone is well. Our dog Toby had to get put down this week, which is really sad. He was about 13 I think? It was very hard, especially for my Dad I think. But he is at peace now and no longer in pain. He was a link to my childhood, I was still on the Island when we got him, and even named him, so it's a bit of an end of an era almost. I would like to get a dog or cat here in NZ, but would have to find a rental property that would allow it. I might get a cockatiel in the New Year. I've booked my flight back to Brissie for Christmas, 21st of December, looking forward to wearing shorts and T-shirts and airing out my feet! Haven't booked my return flight yet, am still deciding whether to spend New Years in Oz or NZ. In other news, Sarah is coming to visit in December, it will be great to see her and show her around a bit! Hopefully she will get some good weather while she's here. Last week there was SNOW on the hills and today my washing was blown all over the neighbours yard (galeforce winds... again). I know Sarah will be well-prepared anyway, cause she's spending Xmas in Canada this year!

Staglands

Just a couple of pics after our visit to Staglands, a wildlife park north of Wellington. I wasn't expecting too much, but it's actually a well-set up place. There a lot of birds, including the very cheeky kea and their rare cousins the kaka parrots, as well as a lot of Aussie imports, as seen in the photos! Also some kune pigs (with a face only a mother could love!), a few shetland ponies for the kiddies to ride, a couple of donkeys, a massive Scottish Clydesdale horse, lots of ducks/geese/chickens/pheasants/turkeys/peacocks (!), rabbits and guinea pigs and of course a couple of sheep...needless to say, Ben was there for the trout pond! See me here with my new-found friend in one of the aviaries - scratch cocky! Note also I had a hair cut last week! While I'm here, I'd like to welcome Sarah (http://phototas.blogspot.com) and Lauren (http://laurenhelgen.blogspot.com) to the wonderful world of blogging! Also go to http://mick.keira.fotopic.net to see my cousin Mick and his lovely wife Keira's new baby Natalie.

My new friend in one of the aviaries at Staglands...

Scraaatch, cocky!

Just a quick hello!

Hey everyone, sorry I've been slack, had a lot happening so the blog has taken a backseat. Have posted a photo of Mt Ruapehu as we're driving up from Wellington and one of me at the snow (which I e-mailed to a lot of you). Apologies for the quality, they were taken on my mobile!
For those of you hadn't heard, my second weekend on the mountain was not as successful as my first. While they had a fair bit of snow meaning some powder on the upper mountain, it turned quite icey and therefore lethal on the lower slopes, particularly the beginner's area. That combined with a completely different board that caught an "edge" all the time meant I spent a lot of time on my arse, and did some pretty spectacular but unfortunately not deliberate mickey flips. I ended up hurting my shoulder, so it didn't end up being a very good day. Haven't completely given up, but with season ending in 2 weeks (some fields have already closed down South), I will have to wait till next season to improve my skills. The best thing about the day was the weather - it was so clear and you could see all the way to Mt Taranaki, very spectacular!

What else?

So apart from visiting Rotorua/Taupo, what else have I been doing? Well, I hooked up with a volleyball team fairly soon after arriving, but it's been pretty tough-going. Court volleyball is completely different to rebound beach volleyball, and I've been playing A-grade as if I needed things to get any harder!!! The team I've been playing with are excellent, and I'm surprised they've kept me on to be honest, as they'd do just as well without me. Now you're probably thinking I'm just being overly modest, but I hardly get to touch the ball except to serve, and tend to get more in the way than anything else. They play with A-grade Men's nets which are really HIGH so you really do have to jump to spike. And there aren't that many other females, which makes me wonder if I've stumbled in on a men's comp who have a few crazy girls playing to make up the numbers? The opposition have no qualms about spiking it straight into your face, and I think I'm lucky not to have had my nose broken or a blackeye yet. Certainly improves your reaction time! Also the court is great for your knees - have the lovely bruises to show for it - so I'll have to get knee pads or something. So why have I kept playing? well, I'm hoping I'll meet some more people and find a lower grade team to take me on. I still like volleyball, but I need to find a more social team to play in.

I also had my first game of indoor netball on Thursday night. I had never set foot on a court before so it was a steep learning curve for me!! Got a team together from work, most others had played before, so at least they knew the rules!! anyway, we lost of course but it was good fun and a good laugh so I'm looking forward to it being a regular thing. If I really get into it I'll probably drop volleyball altogether, save me driving across town as well, as the indoor sports centre is literally just down the road.

OK I'm procastinating from going through the reviewers' comments on my paper so I better go!

:-)

Birds of a feather...

Well, I was playing around with my new mobile phone (well new as in since I moved to NZ) and I wanted to put a unique ringtone on it. scrolled through my service provider's list of dowloads, but at $4.95 a pop I wasn't too keen on paying for something probably a thousand others had themselves. Now the person that sits in the office next to me at work has a cricket chirp as his ringtone - yeah not that original, but not too annoying (better than a cheesy action movie theme!!!). Anyway, got me thinking I wanted something along those lines, and I struck upon getting a Mopoke Owl (aka boobook, morepork or Ninox sp if you really wanted to get technical!). With a bit of searching, I was able to download a mopoke, whipbird and kookaburra - and all for free!! So I set the mopoke as my general ringtone and the whipbird as a text message tone. The kookaburra I saved for when my family calls me - which isn't very often, otherwise I'm sure the good ole laughing would start to grate on everyone's nerves after a while...

Orakei geothermal reserve

Above: Champagne Pond
Above: one of the Devil's inkpots (note eery steam drifting around!)
Above: weird green lake where all of it flows into...
Above: Inferno crater: the birth of a sinkhole?!

Above: The Hulk's equivalent to "little blue"?!

Hello everyone!

Finally, here are some images from NZ as requested/promised. I put them in a Bebo folder, but to save people having to sign up to (yet another) account, I thought I'd post some here as well. These photos are from Orakei geothermal wonderland. Cave divers - could this have been the Limestone Coast 1000's of years ago?! Note sinkholes - and the steam coming out of them!! the Champagne pool (it has the bright orange rim) is apparently 150deg at depth. And it's full of gold. So if you can invent an exposure suit that will protect you from the heat (?!?!), could be a great fundraising excercise for the club?

Anyway, feel free to leave comments etc. Miss you all!

PS weather is great here today - 11deg but yes there is SUN! :-)

Huka Falls and the Buried Village

Above: Huka Falls. The river narrow to this gorge and 1000's of cubic metres of water are forced through this narrowing (about 10m wide). This on the Waikato River, where all the hydro power plants are built. Hydro powers contributes to 60% of the North Island's power supply!

Above: Upstream from Huka Falls

Above: Bridge across the gorge upstream from Huka Falls.

Above: "Whare" (house) excavated and restored at the Buried Village, near Rotorua. This was once Te Wairoa Village, in a valley above Lake Tarawera, established by a Christian Missionary. It was abandoned during the land wars of the 1860's, then reborn a few years later as tourist town and gateway to the`magnificent Pink and White Terraces. People would travel to visit the Terraces and bathe in the geothermal pools. Mt Tarawera violently and unexpected erupted in June 1886, destroying this village and two others and burying them and the Pink & White Terraces in ash and mud. 150 lives were lost.

Above: Beautiful waterfall in the valley just below the Buried Village. It was very unexpected detour but well worth the steep descent and stairs! A stream is full of big rainbow trout.

less than 2 weeks...

Well another weekend has come and gone, and now I have less than 2 weeks left in Adelaide. I can feel the panic rising a little, I'm pretty sure my BP is elevated right now!! Despite my dwindling time still went diving on the weekend, probably my last in SA for a while since almost the entire club is going away next weekend. Felt sad washing my gear out and packing it away. Also found out it will cost A LOT of money to send the Dub back to QLD. I got here on backloading so was quite affordable, but I didn't think of the car manufacturers here so to go back the other way, I have to pay full price. Since my little car isn't worth that much to anyone but me, I don't know what's going to happen to it. I am going to ring my VW mechanic and see if he has any ideas. Dad is pretty disappointed too, he was looking forward to tinkering with it I know.

hello :-)

I started blogging a while ago (introduced to it by my good friend Rundave), but haven't been active for a while. I thought it would be a good way to keep in touch with some of you after I've moved to Land of the Long White Cloud. That way, rather than writing long and impersonal group e-mails, those of you who are interested can choose to visit and read my blog when you feel like it, and find out how I'm going and what I've been up to. At least that's the idea.

At the moment I'm still in Adelaide and frantically trying to get it all done before I go. Ben has got a nice unit lined up for us in Petone, right near the beach and close to shops, cafe's etc, so at least that is one thing less to do. I just changed the date that the removalist people are coming to collect my furniture to a a week later so I have a little more breathing room.

Anyway, I still have lots to do at uni, so I better get back to it!