Started a new site

I must apologise for the inordinate length of time that Its taken to update this blog. It must be 4 months. Quite simply it's been a tough few months and I think the medical profession would say that I've been sufferng from depression since I arrived back (not that I asked them of course!).

I've decided to start a new blog site to continue the story but as it's not NZ related, it didn't seem appropriate to continue posting on this site. Therefore, if anybody is remotely interested, my new blog site is...

http://www.weirdweekends.blogspot.com/

Feel free to click over there if you ever feel the urge.

J

Homeward bound !

Now that surprised you didn't it ?? It certainly surprised me !! I've spent an age trying to come up with a title for this one and I wrote this post in my head numerous times on the flight home. It was perfect, eloquent, precise, interesting, laugh out loud funny and..... clearly totally forgettable as sitting here now I can't remember any of it. Still, I'll do as I always do and make it up as I go along, then read it back at the end to see if any of it makes sense.

I should have titled this ‘At Home’, having taken the very hard decision to cut short my trip and return to the UK, which is where I'm writing this. It's much harder to write about NZ from here and I've already re-written this paragraph three times. The words just seemed to flow much easier when I was there. I was always on a one year plan and as it was, I didn't last that long. I won't go into detail on a public web space as to my reasons for returning but suffice to say that it was entirely the right decision under the circumstances and one that I'm hugely disappointed that I had to make.... but also one that I don't regret at all.

So the questions I'll pose are these "was it worth it ?", and "Am I going back?" The honest answer to both is...... that I don’t know.



New Zealand is a visually stunning place, probably unique in the World for the diversity of landscapes, seascapes and wildlife. I don’t think anywhere else has it all in one location and all so accessible. I don't think anywhere has it in such abundance and with free car parking to boot! Consumerism around the World would generally mean that the car parks would be chargeable by the hour and the natural vistas hidden from the road by strategically placed lines of trees and shrubs... or a visitor centre forcing you to pay the entrance fee to take in the view. I didn't witness any such activity in New Zealand, most likely because there are so many views to be had, it would be impossible trying to hide them !
There's no doubt that New Zealand has familiarity for a Brit. The union flag appears on the Kiwi flag, some of the landscapes look like Cumbria on a sunny day in August, they drive on the same side of the road as us, drive similar cars, speak the same language, watch the same TV programmes, they adore their 'pie and chips' and 'fish and chips' and just about anything with chips if the truth be told. The place is familiar and yet it's also so different. Let me give you a number of examples, You get sunburn but without any sunshine, in fact you get sunshine, period. You go Christmas shopping but you do so in sunglasses, t-shirts and shorts. You have a Christmas dinner but it's barbecued on the beach in the height of Summer. You watch Liverpool v whoever, live from Anfield but you do so at 1AM in the morning having spent the day atop a volcano. Terry Wogan's on the radio but he's now your drive-time radio host. Do you see what I mean? Familiar but different !

Because of the early curtailment of my adventure, there are many things that I wanted to do but didn’t get the chance. I wanted to visit Wellington & Christchurch and see the Southern Alps. I wanted to take a boat trip out to the Fjords of Milford Sound, and visit both the Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers. I wanted to pitch a tent in the Coromandel. I wanted to Bungee in Queenstown and Skydive in Taupo. I wanted to see the migrating sperm & humpback whales in Kaikoura. I wanted to buy a boat and fish in the ocean or maybe just kayak in the bays.

I did however get to tramp in the bush, and I dipped my toes in both the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean. I ate New Zealand pies & fish and chips (the two accepted national dishes), I sat on the beach and watched the surfers, went in search of Orca, scaled more than one volcano, more than once,
viewed Auckland from the Sky-tower and other lofty locations, had a close encounter with elephants, Orangutan's, dolphins & penguins, saw a kiwi bird(captive - but it still counts) met some truly lovely people, wandered open jawed through some amazing parks and took some memorable photo's, several of which have graced these posts over recent weeks.

New Zealand was as lush as I always thought it would be, maybe arriving at the end of a wet Winter was the reason for that. I enjoyed spending time with the Kiwis, and I admire their can-do, "no worries" approach to life. It’s a refreshing change from our own society and something we could all benefit from emulating a little more perhaps. The kiwis were without exception helpful, polite, friendly and welcoming and above all, totally genuine throughout my time there. I was taken by the lack of obvious crime, that I could walk anywhere and not feel threatened, that the teenagers would smile and say hello as they passed, that the school children would look as immaculate in their uniforms at the end of the day as they had at the start. That children's evenings would be spent riding bikes, fishing or having a kick-a-bout in the road with jumpers for goalposts, just like I remember from my own childhood but sadly lacking these days back home.

I liked the beer (although I probably didn't have anything like as much as I needed to form a true opinion). I liked the freshness of the food, and the vibrant colours of the groceries on the shelves. The bread was tremendous. I liked the fact that a delivered Pizza was cheap at $9.95, (£3.50) but I resented the higher cost of most foodstuffs and practically every consumable item in the shops. I also resented the lack of choice on offer, both of these, a consequence of living in one of the most remote countries on earth I guess ? I only really food shopped at Pak 'n' Save though – I couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to traipse all over town to visit the butchers, the bakers, the fishmongers and the greengrocers, like my parents did in the UK when I was growing up and like the locals do in New Zealand now.

The pies were sumptuous, delicious and numerous too. I loved the freshly caught fish and freshly made chips. They were outstanding compared to the frozen "keep them warm until closing time" practice of British chippies. Watties beans were not the same as Heinz, despite being the same manufacturer. I loved the coffee, milder than in Europe, and I loved the enormity of the coffee cups (France, please take note !) I loved the EFTPOS payment system, as close to a cashless society as I've ever encountered anywhere in the World. I loved the fact that bank receipts would appear in my bank almost immediately and not 3 days later. I loved the 7% interest rate paid to me for my savings but not the charges levied with every transaction.

I loved the warmth of the sunshine during the day, and the crystal clear view of the sky at night. I hated the cold that descended so quickly in the evening, and the speed with which the house cooled as soon as it went dark. I also never got used to the brevity of twilight. One moment it's bright but with a fading sunset, the next moment it's night, which always left me wondering "what happened to tea time"?? I loved the fact that the features on the moon looked different, due to the change in angle that I was now viewing it from. I hadn't expected that and certainly hadn't noticed it on previous trips to the Southern Hemisphere. I liked that. I liked that a lot !



I loved the ease of driving, the modern automatic cars that, once placed into "waft-o-matic" would just cruise down the wide, mostly empty, straight roads without the stresses experienced in the UK. In the main I found the kiwis driving standard to be courteous, unhurried and easy going and certainly was no-where near as I bad as I had been led to believe. I never really got used to the right-turn-rule, but only fell foul of it once. I also didn't get to grips with the steering column stalks being on opposite sides which consigned me to forever going round corners with the windscreen wipers on !

The TV, with the exception of Sky, was very poor, but as I was there for such a short period of time, it wasn’t a problem. I did however love the live Premier League games on 2 or 3 times a week, although watching it in bed overnight or more often, before breakfast, was something that remained a novelty throughout! In fact I saw more live football whilst I was away than is ever possible in Britain, such is the way of broadcasting rights.

I loved the beaches of Torbay, Milford, Mission Bay and St Heliers. I loved the cottages with the ocean, lake or river views. I could easily see me returning one day to live in one of those houses.
I didn't like the sectioning, resulting in having neighbours where both your front and back gardens should be. I didn't like the flimsy construction of many properties, the lack of both double glazing and central heating and nor did I like the ridiculous, no scandalous, cost of renting. But my overall thoughts ? New Zealand, I loved it. In fact I love most things about it. The negatives, as far as I can tell, are easily fixable with little more than time, money and effort or at least, by not living in Auckland. Auckland was a great place to visit but like London, I personally wouldn't want to live there. The New Zealand I came to see has bigger skies, less cars, less people & less shops. It's out there for sure and you really don't have to look hard to find it either.

As heart wrenchingly disappointed as I was to return, I love being back here too. Driving around the other day I was struck by how green it was, and how vibrant were the many shades covering the Autumnal fields, hedgerows and trees. The traffic is not quite as sparse as New Zealand, but its light and slow where I live so it's seldomn a problem. I love the fact that there is rolling, open countryside to the left of me and town facilities to the right of me. I like the convenience of British life, online shopping, a wide choice of...well, everything, nothing is ever "too far away". The trains, the buses, the motorways, the airports. That I can be in both the Lake District or Europe in a couple of hours. I love the fact that my family & friends are nearby and that I, and they, can drop in at any moment. I love the robust houses, central heating, double glazing. I love the fact that I can look out of MY kitchen window and not be able to read the neighbours newspaper on THEIR dining room table !

The trip was just a one years big adventure for me, nothing more, nothing less. I didn't really expect to come back however but, having done so, I may return one day to continue. I didn't get homesick once, you can never tell in advance how you're going to feel but for me, homesickness was never an issue although maybe I wasn't away long enough....These also aren’t the ramblings of a homesick virgin traveller either, I’ve bragging rights from trips to many dream destinations. I’ve watched the Space Shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral, climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, cheered on Ferrari in both Monaco & Melbourne, boarded the Star Ferry in Hong Kong, watched the surfers from Wakiki Beach, Honolulu, strolled the "Walk of Fame" on Hollywood Boulevard, slid, out of control and mostly on my backside, down a French Alp, watched the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace, Oslo, played - and lost - in a Vegas Casino, rafted through the Grand Canyon, surveyed Paris from atop the Eiffel Tower, scuba dived with sharks, rays and turtles on the Great Barrier Reef, attended a NATO Military conference in Brussels, sailed along the canals of both Amsterdam and Bruges, crossed the Charles Bridge in Prague, hiked through an alpine forest in Slovakia, taken a cruise ship to the Bahama's...twice and performed numerous other activities, in numerous other countries. I didn’t go to New Zealand to add it to this list, but because I’d thought of nothing but living there for the last couple of years.

My advice to everyone is go there. Sell the car to fund the trip, re-mortgage, take out a loan, play the Lottery but you must and I mean, must, visit this place if only for your annual holiday.

Be prepared for wonder. Be prepared for scenery of such beauty that it will take your breath away. Be prepared for overwhelming friendliness. Be prepared to step back to a simpler, more relaxed era. Be prepared for a country that’s fiercely proud of itself. Be prepared to find that you can be more sociable than you had ever previously thought. Be prepared to take far more pleasure in simpler things, and forget the conditioning of consumerism.

But also be prepared to realise that it is different, despite the obvious similarities, and that perhaps it may just not suit you. Be prepared for the high cost of living and the woefully low salaries. Be prepared to micro-budget for everything and also to forgo the little luxuries that you've previously taken for granted. It's easier said than done, believe me... I know !For some, the grass has been, and will always be greener over there, for others it won’t.

I haven't included any "Things I've learned this week" section on this occasion as quite simply, this post is entirely about the things I've learned. I have in summary, learned a lot about New Zealand and I've learned a lot about me. I'm massively richer for the experience if poorer in the bank balance but undeniably, It's been a blast and who knows what will happen in the future, where it will occur and where life will take me? Whatever happens, it'll no doubt be an equally life changing experience.

I think I'll carry on this blog to record my future exploits, even though it was set up to record my time in New Zealand. I've enjoyed writing it immensely and I've had nothing but positive feedback from those of you who've read it. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart ! I may well go back to live in New Zealand in the future so I can continue the theme of the blog at a later date, I still have my visa after all. Should I return, I doubt that it will be to Auckland (too expensive and not the NZ I came to see) and I'll finance the trip differently to make the numbers add up next time. So until I post again, take care, god bless and much love to you all !

John

More scenery, beaches and television news programmes !

I hadn't posted for a few days so I thought I'd remedy that. This week has been a non stop round of appointments, phone calls and voice mails as I've been trying to sort out work matters and house rentals. Still I've also taken time out to enjoy the sunshine and see some more of the Auckland sights.

Last weekend we had the start of a glorious stretch of weather, the wind and rain of my first week had gradually given way to sunshine, blue, almost cloudless skies and temperatures well into the 20's. In short a tremendous British Summers day but in an early Kiwi Spring. According to all the observers (of which there appears to be one at every turn) the weather will stay like this, largely until April or May of next year.



I went to Milford Beach which is on the North Shore on Sunday. It wasn't my intention to go to the beach but I had seen a house in the area and went to see the agent to arrange a viewing. The office was closed as it turns out that the owner was out doing viewings with potential clients. She advised that she'd be back in a couple of hours. As it was such a nice day and the waters of the Harbour were glistening in the sunlight, I decided that there were worse places to wait than the vista before me and so headed off to kill some time. Milford beach was busier than any other New Zealand beach I had come across but as this was a Sunday afternoon and one of the first really nice weekends for several weeks, it was maybe not a surprise. It was a typical beach scene, more reminiscent of the beach holidays from an Enid Blyton novel, you know the sort where children are playing with footballs & Frisbees, dogs paddling and swimming in the shallows, rock pools with inquisitive barefoot boys with their jeans rolled up to their knees, looking into them for crabs or other crawly things. The beach was wide and sandy for the most part, in the distance it was possible to make out the black jagged lava of a long distant volcanic eruption. On the horizon were the numerous small islands that surround Auckland, on the water a host of tiny craft trailing white water behind them as they busied themselves to unknown destinations.



Surrounding the beach were numerous properties, most of them freshly whitewashed for the Summer and gleaming a newness that at times seemed almost unreal, such as this pretty cottage in the photo. This was certainly the way to spend a Sunday afternoon in late September.
The house I eventually went to see was rather disappointing as many of them subsequently seemed to be. Houses, certainly in this part of NZ, are of a generally flimsy construction. Most of the older properties are of the "clapboard" variety you've seen a million times on American films. These houses can easily look old and tired if the painting has been put off too long. The bleaching of the sun, the cracking of the paint, the grime from a winters rain all take their toll. Add to that the lack of insulation, the omission of double glazing and the glaring miss of not installing central heating can all make the properties here cold, damp and a bit musty smelling. Modern houses are a little more robust in their construction, adopting what is termed here "brick and tile". These also seldom have central heating or double glazing but are better protected from the cold nights and the winters. It has to be said at this point that Auckland doesn't ever really get cold as such, but even on a baking hot day like today, as soon as the sun has set the temperature can plummet quite sharply. New Zealand can have some rather extremes of temperature. The lady doing the weather on one of the channels last night commented that in Dunedin (South East of South Island) they had an overnight temperature of -1 and a daytime high of 23 degrees ! In fact the weather bulletin here is a very drawn out affair, regardless of which channel you watch. They insist on giving you a 5 day forecast for each of the main towns and cities across the country. This also follows a full analysis of the weather that each town and city had experienced that day.



This strikes me as rather odd as for example, how interested is someone in lets say, New Plymouth as to the weather experienced today in Invercargill ? And before someone says, that someone in Invercargill would be interested in that, I'll ask "wouldn't they already know what the weather was like earlier today ?" Surely a look out of the window every so often is all that would be required to ascertain the climate. I for one, wouldn't wait until the evening bulletin to hear that today I could have sat outside of my office at lunchtime and enjoyed fresh North Westerlies with a high of 22 ! Suffice to say the weather bulletin seems to take at least 10 minutes during which time you busy yourself with something else until they get to your bit, only to discover that you've missed your bit as you weren't paying attention. You'll have to make do with looking out of the window instead tomorrow. They say the British are obsessed with the weather but the Kiwis have a weather bulletin that's longer than some advertised programs and they even have a weather channel that broadcasts forecasts continually on satellite.

Whilst I'm talking about the weather, although I've long since forgotten how I got onto this subject, I think that the news bulletins should be given due mention. Now in a half hour National news bulletin you'll get around 5 minutes of news, mostly NZ related but you do get the occasional International story. After that you get around 15 minutes of sports news featuring every single sport you can possibly think of. If there is a kiwi playing somewhere and doing well at it, that's a bonus and you're guaranteed that it will be covered in microscopic detail. If a kiwi boy wins an egg and spoon race at the school sports day then expect to see if on the National news complete with footage, expert analyse to rival that of Alan "shocking defending" Hansen and Mark "Lawro" Lawrenson, interviews with all concerned and then some personal glowing quip by the sports anchor to finish. Amazing ! After the extended sports news (extended even further due to little Kevin in Otago winning the under 7's sack race for the 3rd consecutive year) you then have your 10 minutes of weather. At the end of the half hour National News you know that the Australian Prime Minster met the leader of Fiji and discussed something but you didn't catch, what, you know the lifetime achievements of both a kiwi unicyclist in Peru, and a juggler who used to live in Christchurch but now lives in Borneo, the weather that someone else had today but you didn't and that's about it! Informed ??? Er, no, not really.

There is a half hour sports program that immediately follows the news and overly long sports and weather. It's presented by two guys who sit behind their desk and discuss the sporting achievements of the last 24 hours. This is basically a repeat of the 10 minute sports news you saw moments earlier in the main news programme but it fills airtime and includes items you didn't see in the main sports news such as Little Kevin in Otago's (remember him?) younger sister who seems quite good at skipping and may be a bit of a under 7 star herself in the future if she flunks her school lessons and keeps practicing! This programme is very watchable for the two smug & sarcastic presenters who bask, no.....revel in the sporting misfortune of others. If they can find a clip of someone injuring themselves rather badly then they'll show it in normal speed, slow motion, super slow mo and reverse angle. They'll get out the "Andy Gray Sky Sports" graphics package and draw arrows all over the screen for you, move draughts around a little green felt board showing you the passage of play that led to the injury. It's amazing stuff. Last nights show featured a woman judge getting speared in the leg by a javelin during a practice round at some athletics event. I kid you not, they actually showed this at 7pm, complete with the woman's tears and clearly obvious distress. Our boys were loving it. This was quickly followed by a fight between two racing drivers who had clearly taken each other off the track and culminated in one of the drivers physically kicking in the windscreen of the other car to get at the driver. Our hosts were beside themselves, they couldn't have grinned any wider if they'd stuck coat hangers in their mouths !

The previous night they were obviously delighted to have found footage of an American Female racing driver who had crashed her motorcar at tremendous speed, in a quite astonishing manner. The fact that she miraculously had survived such an impact was a story in itself but our hero's took the view that women shouldn't be driving racing cars and dismissed it as an accident waiting to happen. Thereafter followed quips and comments about women drivers in general. The only thing that would have pleased them more as far as I could see, was if she had burned alive right in front of the camera crew for the guys to analyse and replay numerous times !

They're on now as I'm writing this and one of the guys has just said that anybody cycling down Auckland water front wearing Lycra should be run over ! I'm not sure that's the sort of advice that you'd hear on the BBC.

Where was I ?? Oh yes, Well after a great Sunday on the beach I had numerous appointments this week but managed to find a couple of hours to visit "One Tree Hill". Now One Tree Hill is actually "No Tree Hill" as some Maori Activists chopped the solitary Monterey Pine tree down in 2001. The pics below show the park in all it's finery.



The hill is a Volcanic cone, as you've no doubt come to expect and sits 213 metres atop Cornwall Park which is Auckland's largest park. I have to say its absolutely beautiful. The weather was glorious and many of the trees were out in impossibly pink blossom. The sort of pink that Barbara Cartland always promoted. The gardens are extremely well kept with numerous little tracks and lanes leading off into various corners of the park.



All tracks ultimately seem to lead up to the volcanic peak that is One Tree Hill. As you'd expect the park was full of joggers, cyclists, ramblers, lovers, dog walkers, school children on field trips and pram pushing mothers. Unexpectedly, there's also a large herd of cattle that seem to spend their day munching the vegetation, oblivious to the city sprawl that surrounds them. There were picnics visible in every direction. It was truly the best park I've ever visited and certainly one that you'd want on your doorstep for those lazy days when you feel you should be doing something but not sure, what.



Due to other appointments, I didn't have time to reach the summit and as usual, the camera battery died before I'd quite finished but a delightful place nonetheless as the above pictures show and amazingly is only 5 minutes from the Central Business District.

The following day and still beaming with the delights of One Tree Hill, I thought I'd compare that to Mount Eden, another of Auckland's centre piece attractions and probably the most complete looking Volcano on the Auckland mainland.



The view from the top is immense due largely to it being the second highest peak in Auckland, (only One Tree Hill is higher) affording views both of the Pacific Ocean and the CBD to the East and the Tasman Sea to the West. The Volcano itself has a staggering crater which falls steeply away from the cone of the volcano. The cone itself is thick with vegetation on all sides and, like One Tree Hill, also has a herd of cattle. The above photo shows the volcano's crater. The photo below, shows a more expansive view of the Mount Eden area around the cone.



There had been a thick fog that morning and even though it had largely cleared, a few fingers of fog still lingered in some of the more Westerly locations. Viewed from above this gave the city suburbs an eerie look. I walked around the summit and cone for maybe an hour before heading off for further appointments in the city.

That was a rather long post so my apologies for boring you all senseless. I've a few things to sort out over the next few days so I don't know when I'll post again or from where ! In the meantime, I'm going to go out now and try and find some Lycra wearing cyclists to run over.. We're allowed to apparently, they said so on the telly earlier !

John

Kiwi Radio

It's Friday night and today I picked up my new car, a Mitsubishi or Moulinex something or other. In fairness it's a very nice car as you can see from the picture which is, after all, why I bought it ! However, I can't help but think that it's made by a food mixer manufacturer rather than a car company. Somehow Mitsubishi just doesn't conjure up the same images as a Subaru Impreza or a Honda NSX. The most intriguing thing about the car is the radio. This car, as all of them here seem to be, has been imported from Japan. In fact it's so new to NZ, I had to personally go to the licencing centre today to register it and pick up some number plates. Anyway, I seem to have wandered off the point. The problem with the car radio is that it is in Japanese. Now I don't mean it says Sanyo on the front, I mean that all of the dials and buttons are in Japanese and I can't understand any of it. You see, Japanese was never one of my strongest subjects, there was never any call for it in Bebington ! After a random depression of several buttons suprisingly, and unexpectedly, brought it to life, I noticed that it covers a radio frequency range that is largely outside the broadcast frequencies of Kiwi radio stations...Or any other countries for that matter. I can receive a staggering total of 4 stations, 2 of which are talk radio stations, 1 is a hard rock music station and the only other, a hardcore hiphop station.

In fact, nothing that I can ever conceive that I'd want to listen to. Ever. And whilst I'm at it, and after travelling the World I can say this with a great deal of authority, but why, when a radio auto tunes does it always find the rubbish radio stations that you would never EVER want to listen to ? I remember in the UK, driving around unfamiliar areas -usually for work - and tuning the radio by pressing that button that seeks out the strongest signals. On every single occasion the slightest press of that button and the radio would, as if guided by a laser, go straight to Radio 3. Now I have nothing whatsoever against Radio 3. I'm sure it's a wonderful channel, staffed by cheery, happy, contented people who are highly trained professionals but I have never, and I mean never, come across anybody who listens to it or has ever listened to it. Yet even the mere thought of changing channel via that little search button and the radio jumps instantaneously to Radio 3. It doesn't stop there either, another deft press of the search button, it runs up the frequencies.... and Radio 3 ! Another deft press, Radio 3. Another press, Classic FM, another press, BBC local radio, another press, some welsh language channel, another press, Radio 3 ! Why can't radios, ever auto tune to popular music stations playing popular music ? How come those channels are bypassed by the search facility as if they're not even there ? Now I'm not a big fan of conspiracy theories but I'm convinced that a higher authority is at work here. There has to be ! Anyway, I needn't worry too much now as firstly, I can't possibly pick up Radio 3 in Auckland on a standard Japanese car radio. Can I ? Surely not ? Please for the love of God tell me I can't ! Secondly, I won't have that problem in the Moulinex given the almost non existent list of radio stations it's capable of picking up. I've got more chance of picking up the Coastguard, the Fire Service and local CB Radio enthusiasts than I have, Britney Spears !!



That was a very long introduction to come to the main topic of my post this evening, Kiwi radio. In the days when I could pick up kiwi radio in sufficient quantity to form an opinion, I was generally amazed as to the standard. It has a comedy value, seldom seen outside of sketch shows. Believe me Smashy & Nicey have nothing on these guys ! Take for example, yesterdays Drive Time "Traffic and Travel" report on one of Auckland's commercial FM stations and I quote this verbatim "Jeeez !!! It's all turned to custard out there" with that he made some reference to Barbra Streisand and played a record. You couldn't make it up ! Another DJ was teasing the listeners about some really big news that she was going to announce later if everybody stayed listening. I did, I could hardly contain myself. The tension was palpable and the news, following an impossibly big build up, lasting several hours.... "Tony Bennett is coming to Town". You could almost feel the collective disappointment all around Auckland. I'm sure Tony is a World Class entertainer with a huge fan base, probably with blue rinse in their hair and rather less teeth than the average hockey player, but I for one won't be rushing to put his dates in my diary. Another example of Kiwi radio that I heard this week, and this is repeated here almost word for word but I was laughing so much I nearly crashed the car so I may have missed a small bit of the dialogue " At 2:01 in Auckland Here's the news, Oh no ! Hang on, wrong button, how does this thing work ?.... the news is coming I promise, hang on. Do you want some weather instead ?? [Long pause of probably 20 seconds] That's got it, sorry about that, not sure what happened to the news there but don't worry there'll be another one along in an hour. Here's Will Young". Priceless !



The same guy yesterday had just run the daily competition where they trail a song to listen out for and to call in when they play it. This girl duly phoned in and won the money, $1,000 ( approx £330). Now radio DJ's always overplay any competition winnings with fake excitement and boundless enthusiasm, even for the most mundane of prizes. Not our friend, who, having received "going shopping" as the answer to his "what are you going to spend the $1000 dollars on" replied soberly with " well its only a grand, you can't buy very much with that" Again, priceless !! I swear these are true. Today, the winner said they were going to see their Grandchildren in the UK with the money to which he replied, "crikey, you won't get very far with a Thousand bucks, you'll have to try and win some more tomorrow". Class !

Another Jock always likes to come out of a record with some "interesting" fact about the artist, the producer, the songwriter or somone else connected with the record he's just played but he always seems to lose interest in his links halfway through them. We, it has to be said, have lost interest a long time before that. He starts his link lively enough and with great enthusiasm but rapidly seems to lose heart and trails off, often mid sentence, into some unintelligable mumble and just plays a record or a jingle without ever finishing his point. You've got to hear this guy, I only wish we didn't !

If I can find any radio stations whilst driving in the Moulinex, I'll keep listening on your behalf and will relay the best,erm, worst bits as and when I hear them.... so expect some more very shortly ! In fact I was going to go out to the supermarket this evening in the Moulinex but I don't think I'll bother, there's nothing on the radio and besides, it's all turned to custard out there.

John

House and Car hunting this week.

I'm writing this at 6:30pm on Wednesday night, I'm lying on the floor of my living room listening to Terry Wogan broadcasting his breakfast show from the UK, streaming on the web of course, whilst Sky News UK is playing to itself on the telly... Bizarre isn't it ? Ok, Ok I admit it, I haven't moved to NZ after all, I'm living in a bedsit in Hemel Hemstead :o) Seriously, God love the Internet & Satellite TV, it makes this whole exercise much easier to deal with. Even lying here typing this blog helps me keep in touch with all dear family & friends in various parts of Europe and also it gives the interested reader (assuming there is one somewhere, anywhere) an idea of how I spend my time and also lets you know that I'm still alive and breathing and still in charge of my faculties.



Anyway, I bought a car this week. It's cost me about £4,000 in UK terms and is a Mitsubishi (Don't they make food mixers rather than cars?) Lancer Cedia. I think in the UK it's sold as a Carisma but is more often seen in the States as a Dodge Colt. Nearly all cars here are Japanese as they're cheap to import and also the Japanese drive on the left, as do the Brits, Kiwis & Aussies of course, so the cars are easily transferable to NZ. They're also automatic which is perfect for the NZ roads. In fact driving here is really easy, the cars, the roads and the general discipline is very much like driving in the States. In fact NZ looks very much like the States in many respects, it's quite surprising really how similar it looks, the houses, the road signs, road layout, the retail parks. I pick the Lancer up on Friday as the rental car goes back on Saturday and I will endeavour to post a picture next week. It was really funny though, the car salesman offered me a test drive and then gave me the keys and said "I'm off for a coffee, come back when you've had enough" With that, he left me to get on with it ! Remarkable really, I could have sped off, never to be seen again. The insurance was a pleasant surprise as well, fully comp cost me a mere £180 which is less than half what I was paying in the UK.



I'm currently trying to find another place to rent. This one in Botany is great and I'd love to stay here but it's hugely expensive, basically twice the normal rental cost per week. However, it is fully equipped and was a superb place to crash after the flight as everything that I could want is available. Botany, as I've mentioned before, is a shoppers paradise but it's not really for me. I didn't move 12,000 miles to live within 2 minutes of McDonalds, Kmart and Woolworths. Anyway, I've been hanging out on the North Shore looking for houses as that area seems more like my kind of place. All but one of pictures today are from the North Shore. The two pictures above and the one immediately below are all from Torbay.



Torbay is beautiful with a long, wide sandy beach and pretty little cottages along the cliffs. Albany is lovely aswell but its different to Torbay as it's not right on the coast and is surrounded by native bush and reserves.



The above picture is of Milford with it's gorgeous little marina right in the middle of the village. The following is of Lynfield, although not exactly on the North Shore, Lynfield was very pretty too as the picture below shows.



Anyway, I'm looking to find somewhere in either Torbay, Albany, Milford or Browns Bay so fingers crossed I'll get lucky ! I'm just waiting for a couple of agents to get back to me.

The weather was superb today. Officially it was 19 degrees but I can only assume that temperature was taken at 7AM down a mine shaft or some other darkened location as it was hotter than a Mexicans lunch! There wasn't a cloud in the sky for most of he day and even the daily breeze didn't cool things down by much. I'm going to have to take sun block out with me as my fair skin burns if I stand under a light bulb for too long.

Must crack on, Corrie is on in a minute (never used to watch it in the UK but when you've seen NZ telly, you realise that its one of the best programmes on, apart from the Premier League football of course)

Things I've learned this week :-

1. NZ Car insurance companies really do quote you happy.
2. NZ Car Salesman are a very trusting breed.
3. NZ streets look like mid town USA.
4. This is a truly beautiful country (OK I knew that already but it needs repeating)

By the way, feel free to leave comments by clicking on the "comments" link at the bottom of each specific post. It would be nice to know that someones out there !!


John

A trip to the Post Office, a book & a scenic drive !

Today was a fairly relaxed affair and I didn't rush to get up this morning. My main tasks today were to post some letters, one to the NZ Tax man and the other to a property agent in the UK. These two letters facilitated a trip to the Post Office, or PostShop as it's known here. Fortunately, the nearest postshop is just 2 minutes away in Botany Town Centre. The shops were crowded and it had to be said the selection of shops in Botany is amazing ! As an example, we've got 3 supermarkets within 200 yards of each other, Pak n Save, Countdown and New World and KMart over the road !

Anyway, the PostShop is located in a book shop (don't ask me because I don't know either) so once I'd sent the letters off I turned my attention to the host of books being offered for sale. I came across a book called "Auckland with a view" which is basically 50 scenic walks and days out around the Auckland area. This looked rather promising as it listed a lot of places to go and see and gave directions as to how to get there and where to park.



As I've got my SatNav with me, getting to anywhere is easy if I know the road name, but it doesn't tell me where I can and can't park so this bit of information in the book was marvelous. I made the purchase and after a good hours walk around the shopping centre and following the largest cup of coffee this side of Rio, I headed off, book in hand and SatNav switched on to find some of the views in the book. I first headed off to St Heliers as this is only down the road from me in Botany and its probably my favourite Auckland suburb so far.

The objective was to find Achilles Point and this was accomplished with consummate ease. The books author, Sue Hall certainly knows a good view when she sees one. St Heliers is a very pretty little village with stunning views over the harbour and faces the Volcano of Rangitoto directly. The picture at the top of the post is Rangitoto.



Achilles point has a viewing deck right out over the cliffs giving views right along the Tamaki Strait back towards, and beyond, the city and in the opposite direction towards Great Barrier Island and up to the Coromandel Peninsula way off into the distance.

After taking a handful of photo's, including the one above looking back towards Mission Bay, I went in search of my second target, Glovers Park.

Glovers Park is only about a Kilometre from Achilles Point and is actually the cone of another extinct volcano, giving it an amphitheater appearance. This is an awesome park, and was practically deserted apart from a Father and Son playing football (or soccer as they call it in these parts) until there was some sort of fallout and the child ran off crying and the dad stormed off in pursuit ! Hysterical !!!

The view from the top of Glovers Park was fantastic. The two pictures below are at the bottom and top of Glovers Park. This peak gave a loftier view than Achilles Point and also gave a much closer view of the extinct Volcano that is Brown's Island as well as Rangitoto which dominates the harbour skyline wherever you are in Auckland. I was the only person up there and the shelter of the bay meant that the wind was much less than it had been at Achilles Point, I sat and watched the World go by for a good 30 minutes, the sun was hot, probably more so now that I was out of the wind and there were barely any clouds in the sky. It was at this point that my camera battery died and I had to accept that despite the magnitude of the scenery, the photography would have to wait until another day.



Eventually, I tore myself away and quickly checked my book to see if there were any more views on my way back. There was ! I headed back towards Mission Bay and stopped off at Bastion Point and the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial. Mr Savage was NZ's First Labour Prime Minister and apparently was held dear to the hearts of the Kiwi's. I don't really care for that kind of history but the manicured gardens were really nice. the place was very busy with people just enjoying a relaxing late afternoon stroll, the weather was warm, Auckland was glistening in the low sun and all was well in the World. After a brief stroll about the park and a long admiring glance at the view, and it has to be said, some couple having sex behind a wall, I got back into the car and headed, once again, down Tamaki Drive towards the City. En route I saw the sign for Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Undersea World so, naturally, I pulled over and went inside.



Now Kelly it turns out was inspired to be an Undersea film maker after watching Jacques Cousteau films as a child. He taught himself to dive, borrowed friends equipment and eventually made films of his own. He had this vision of turning a disused sewage tank on the outskirts of Auckland into an Undersea world with a moving walkway in a glass tunnel, the type you see at any public aquaria these days. He added to his plans an antarctic museum detailing the antarctic expeditions of Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen and also set up a colony of penguins as part of the experience. Unfortunately, according to the little film that was showing on loop inside the complex, Kelly died of heart failure only 2 months after his undersea World opened to the public so he barely got to see the fruits of his labours. Shame! Still, his memory lives on, the museum, penguins and undersea exhibit were enjoyable and are certainly worth a diverting couple of hours if you find yourself in Auckland. I left the building just moments before closing time and staggered, bleary eyed, from semi darkness into a low setting sun. The view of the sun setting behind Auckland CBD and the haze from the water would have made for a world class photo but despite my best efforts to coax one final picture out of the dead battery, the scene went unrecorded forever. Hopefully, next time I'll have both a working camera and the same atmospherics to reproduce the picture for a later post.

Anyway, that was a long winded way of saying that I don't have much to tell you today and that I just wanted to post the pictures.

John

Whale & Dolphin Watching

Well today I went whale and dolphin watching in the open waters of the Hauraki Gulf outside of Auckland. As I've come to expect, the weather was rather chilly and damp but I set off in high spirits none the less. Years of maritime activities had taught me that the temperature is always at least 10 degrees colder than you were expecting so I went armed with enough warm clothing to satisfy even the most ardent of antarctic expeditions. After the usual drive around looking for a carpark, did I discover - only after parking some distance away - that they had a patrons carpark on site ! Doh !



Anyway, as I had left loads of time for Auckland traffic (there wasn't any today) I was able to check in around an hour early which meant that I had plenty of time to wander around the Viaduct Harbour area in the Centre of town. This is clearly a well to do part of the City, most likely frequented by the Auckland well heeled and the odd Kiwi sport star (but don't ask me to name any). Apparently the highest paid Kiwi sport star is Tiger Woods caddie !

We were eventually called to order by the host for the day (I've forgotten her name, oops !) who introduced us to the skipper, Chris and the hostess with the tea, coffee and muffins, Helen, and boy did Helen had great muffins ! Anyway, I digress, we boarded and were soon underway.
There was a strong south easterly wind crossing Auckland harbour which reduced the temperature significantly when we were out on the open water. We headed North past the volcano of Rangitoto, a relatively new volcano that literally emerged out of the water only some 500 years ago. After that we passed the lovely Island of Waiheke with it's little coves and secluded beaches (mental note : must visit there one day very soon). Once clear of Waiheke the myriad of pleasure craft disappeared and the open waters of the Hauraki Gulf surrounded us.

All the while we had been keeping an eagle eye out for any signs of wildlife. We didn't appear to have any sonar gear or whale listening devices as our unnamed hostess was using her binoculars as the only method of tracking down the whales and dolphins.
There was a scientific approach being adopted though. The dolphins and Orca feed on fish and when they're feeding they chase the shoals of fish down and begin a feeding frenzy. This attracts the seabirds who are also partial to a fish or two. Therefore by watching the birds behaviour, you can be very neatly and quickly led to the dolphins and Orca... and so it was !

After no time at all, we had spotted some Australian Gannets diving into the water and circling overhead in significant numbers. Chris, the Skipper, turned the vessel and headed off towards them. Very soon after we spotted our first pod of Common dolphin. There were 2 initially and they immediately swam to the bow of the boat and rode the bow waves. After a couple of minutes they were joined by a third, then a forth and a fifth. The dolphins were clearly enjoying themselves and several were jumping out of the water in playful mood. They stayed with the boat for ages until eventually we decided to go in search of Orca (Killer Whales) who spend large amounts of their time in the waters of Auckland harbour. Orca are regularly seen around the Harbour Bridge right on the edge of the city !



Due to the strong wind and the strength of the tide, our intended search area was abandoned as it was just too slow and uncomfortable trying to battle the Ocean. We then went into more sheltered waters to the lee of Waiheke Island in pursuit of Orca but unfortunately, despite our best efforts we didn't spot any, nor any Blue Penguins for that matter ! The photo shows a well wrapped up me in thoughtful mood ! :o)

Whilst heading back to Auckland we passed NZL40, one of the America's Cup winning yachts. It was very impressive to see her out on the water, even if the strong wind meant that her sails were as reefed back as they could possibly go.



We sailed past Auckland waterfront and under the Harbour Bridge in one last attempt to see Orca but it was not to be ! We did however see a crazy fool doing a Bungee jump off the bridge and was presumably paying for the privilege !



After some 5 hours out on the water, we returned to the Viaduct Harbour to berth the boat. As we did so, the sun came out for the first time that day although as I'm writing this, I can feel that I've caught the sun, erm, cloud on my face after all.



A worthy day and one to definitely do again, maybe in the Summer when the weather is a little kinder and who know ? Maybe we'll get some whales next time.

And talking of the next time, Until then.

John