As I already mentioned we have been doing a mixture of practical and sociable since we arrived here, and it has certainly been a full few weeks. It was great that we had our own car within a few days of being here as Andrew's mum lives in the Eastern suburbs, his friends are mainly central(ish) and my parents were staying for part of the time in an apartment on the edge of the city centre. I am pleased to be able to report that I have just about got over the indicators and windscreen wipers being the 'wrong' way round!
Our wedding party on 16th went really well - the only hiccup was that the marquee was initially delivered to Andrew's mum's instead of 35km away to the park where the party was being held...luckily all went well otherwise! We had great weather and it was lovely that we were able to gather together approx 60 family and friends despite it being Christmas party season. As well as catching up with/meeting the rest of the Aussie contingent (including the newly arrived from England Jess & Co!) it was great that my mum & dad were able to be there as well as my friend Katherine who was in Melbourne on her way to spend Christmas with family in New Zealand.
Of course having first time visitors in town gave us an excuse to be tourists, and we all enjoyed exploring the city and heading out to the Great Ocean Road amomgst other things. On Katherine's last night here mum & I went with her to see the hilarious Dame Edna show - 'she' is a local after all, a good way for me to perfect my Aussie accent I thought! As for dad, it goes without saying that the highlight of his trip was going to the test match with Andrew on 27th, despite the result of course. Meanwhile Andrew's mum, sister and auntie took mum & I up into the beautiful Dandenong mountains, so we were well out of earshot of the Barmy Army!
Christmas Day itself was also quite a remarkable effort on the part of Andrew's mum and auntie, as there were around 20 of the family here for Chrstmas dinner. We all had a good day despite the rain and distinct lack of tropical sunshine!
Mum & dad left on 28th which of course was hard for me, but I'm starting to settle here despite feeling a very long way from home at the moment. Our main focus now is to get our own place sorted out, which is taking a bit longer than anticipated so far. We hope that this is just because of the time of year, but it seems that the area we're looing in is a popular one and we're only after a 6 month lease so it's just a case of being patient I suppose. In the meantime as all the estate agents are closed for the weekend/New Year we're just being distinctly lazy!
PS Problems uplodading photos at the moment so will put some online soon...
Saturday, December 30, 2006
New Zealand part 3 (in a nutshell!) - and all the photos
It seems crazy to think that it is only 3 weeks since we were in Nelson, a really pretty town on the northern coast of New Zealand's South Island. We were staying with Andrew's friend Eva, who I had heard lots about but never met as she left London shortly before I met Andrew. It was lovely to get to know her a bit, and hopefully she will take us up on our offer to visit Melbourne at some point in the next few months.
On Saturday morning we had a great time wandering round Nelson's lovely market - despite being frustrated that we couldn't carry more of the delicious food into Australia with us! - before heading out to the countryside. We stopped at a few wineries and then on to the beautiful coast. We then spent a really good evening with some of Eva's friends, and when we got up on Sunday it was time to go again. Much like our trip to see Em & Rod it felt like was time to leave almost as soon as we had arrived, but it was great to be there. We took the short flight across to Wellington on Sunday and spent a very lazy rest of day there before flying north to Hamilton on Monday.
This is where Mark, a friend from home who used to work with my brother, now lives. Again it was great to catch up and he seems really happy with his new life in NZ. He's only been there since August but I think the wide availabilty of adventure sports has helped him to settle there! Luckily for me Mark was working so he didn't have the chance to make us do anything scary; instead we had dinner in an excellent restaurant, and were made to feel really welcome by his housemates who loaned us their airbed for the night. Then it was a bright and early start on Tuesday for the bargain ($11 for us both!) 2 hour bus trip back to Auckland so that we could catch our afternoon flight to Melbourne.
Falling out of the Sky Tower in Auckland
Bubbling mud in Rotorua
One of the many Art Deco buildings in Napier
Early Christmas with Em & Rod
Feeding Miss Daisy
A stressful afternoon at the wineries with Eva
Gorgeous beaches near Nelson
Great views from the flight across the Cook Strait
Catching up with Mark in Hamilton
So they aren't the same country then?!
On Saturday morning we had a great time wandering round Nelson's lovely market - despite being frustrated that we couldn't carry more of the delicious food into Australia with us! - before heading out to the countryside. We stopped at a few wineries and then on to the beautiful coast. We then spent a really good evening with some of Eva's friends, and when we got up on Sunday it was time to go again. Much like our trip to see Em & Rod it felt like was time to leave almost as soon as we had arrived, but it was great to be there. We took the short flight across to Wellington on Sunday and spent a very lazy rest of day there before flying north to Hamilton on Monday.
This is where Mark, a friend from home who used to work with my brother, now lives. Again it was great to catch up and he seems really happy with his new life in NZ. He's only been there since August but I think the wide availabilty of adventure sports has helped him to settle there! Luckily for me Mark was working so he didn't have the chance to make us do anything scary; instead we had dinner in an excellent restaurant, and were made to feel really welcome by his housemates who loaned us their airbed for the night. Then it was a bright and early start on Tuesday for the bargain ($11 for us both!) 2 hour bus trip back to Auckland so that we could catch our afternoon flight to Melbourne.
Falling out of the Sky Tower in Auckland
Bubbling mud in Rotorua
One of the many Art Deco buildings in Napier
Early Christmas with Em & Rod
Feeding Miss Daisy
A stressful afternoon at the wineries with Eva
Gorgeous beaches near Nelson
Great views from the flight across the Cook Strait
Catching up with Mark in Hamilton
So they aren't the same country then?!
Updates!
Finally the time has come to get our blog up to date - life has well and truly got in the way of the internet over the past few weeks! We're now having a quiet few days to catch up with ourselves a bit, so at last here are some updates for you...
Thursday, December 21, 2006
We haven't forgotten...
This has to be the longest we have gone without posting so thought we should at least say hello...
We're now in Melbourne so really busy catching up with everyone, being tourists with my mum & dad, finding somewhere to live etc etc. A friend of Andrew's sorted out a car for us before we arrived which has been great. Armed with our shiny new copy of Melways (equivalent of A to Z) I'm starting to have a vague clue of where I am, despite getting used to driving with trams being quite a challenge at times!
More updates and loads of photos (including NZ and our wedding party) to follow very soon. In the meantime we really must start Christmas shopping...
We're now in Melbourne so really busy catching up with everyone, being tourists with my mum & dad, finding somewhere to live etc etc. A friend of Andrew's sorted out a car for us before we arrived which has been great. Armed with our shiny new copy of Melways (equivalent of A to Z) I'm starting to have a vague clue of where I am, despite getting used to driving with trams being quite a challenge at times!
More updates and loads of photos (including NZ and our wedding party) to follow very soon. In the meantime we really must start Christmas shopping...
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Leaving New Zealand
Part 3 of our week in NZ and some photos to follow soon, but in the meantime a quick hello from Auckland airport where I'm using up the last few dollar coins for internet instead of burning holes in the credit card in Duty Free!
We're due to board our flight to Melbourne in less than half an hour, and it is very odd to think that we're now going to be staying in one city for several months. It's sad that this stage of our trip is over, but we really can't wait to unload the backpacks. More importantly we're really excited about catching up with everyone and looking forward to our Melbourne wedding party on Saturday. It's going to be a busy few days!
We're due to board our flight to Melbourne in less than half an hour, and it is very odd to think that we're now going to be staying in one city for several months. It's sad that this stage of our trip is over, but we really can't wait to unload the backpacks. More importantly we're really excited about catching up with everyone and looking forward to our Melbourne wedding party on Saturday. It's going to be a busy few days!
Monday, December 11, 2006
NZ in a week part 2
The historical significance of Napier is pretty straightforward - in 1931 there was a huge earthquake which all but flattened the city, and it was completely rebuilt. Therefore pretty much everything was built in Art Deco style, so much so that there are 90 buildings of interest in a 90 minute walk! As I mentioned earlier the hostel there was another a highlight of our stay, not only well equipped and friendly but also in a really interesting building. We definitely needed to take note of the tour office guide's instructions to look up as we wandered round the town (or maybe city? - everything seems very small here!) and we really enjoyed it all.
Napier's location on the coast adds to its appeal, and although I couldn't imagine being there for ages it is definitely worth a visit, especially as there is also a good selection of cafes and shops. We therefore made further attempts to get used to the fact it is definitely now nearly Christmas as there seemed to be tinsel everywhere! My parents will be joining us for Christmas in Melbourne, and it was very odd to speak to them in Napier and realise that we'd all be together again in under a week.
Anyway, we still had a few miles (or should I now say kms?) to cover before then! After a brief stroll round Napier's museum, on Thursday afternoon we headed another hour or so south to Waipukurau where my friend Emily is now living. For those of you who don't know Em, she used to work for the company I was at when I first moved to London and quit work to start her round the world trip nearly a year ago. Her original plan was to be back in the UK in time for Christmas, but then she met a Canadian guy in Japan and currently lives with him on a sheep farm in New Zealand...never let it be said that life is predictable!
It was great to catch up with her and to meet Rod (thanks to you both again for looking after us so well) and I have to admit that I can see the appeal of life on the farm. As you will see when we manage to upload some photos, Daisy the 8 week old lamb who they are hand rearing is a very lovely addition. Also, the lamb Rod cooked us for dinner was excellent - on second thoughts perhaps I wouldn't be too good at farm life after all...
Unfortunately we were only able to be with them for one evening before we moved on, but we had a great night complete with Christmas crackers and too much wine. The next day's early morning wake up call from Daisy was not quite so good (I think it was 5am) but Em & Rod are clearly far more used to early starts than we are as breakfast was on the table at 7am. Em then took us into town for our 9am bus, and we were off on our way to Wellington.
Friday was a dreaded travel day! After a delayed 4 hour bus trip, we headed out to the airport to catch the short (25 minute) flight to Picton in the South Island where we had then planned to catch another bus to Nelson where Andrew's friend Eva lives. Unfortunately we missed the bus due to a delayed flight, so Eva had to come to pick us up from Picton, about a 4 hour round trip which finally got us to her place at about 11.30pm. Thanks again Eva! Despite the hassle of travelling we saw some lovely countryside along the way to Wellington, and were really pleased to be able to have the chance to see a little bit of the much talked about South Island.
Napier's location on the coast adds to its appeal, and although I couldn't imagine being there for ages it is definitely worth a visit, especially as there is also a good selection of cafes and shops. We therefore made further attempts to get used to the fact it is definitely now nearly Christmas as there seemed to be tinsel everywhere! My parents will be joining us for Christmas in Melbourne, and it was very odd to speak to them in Napier and realise that we'd all be together again in under a week.
Anyway, we still had a few miles (or should I now say kms?) to cover before then! After a brief stroll round Napier's museum, on Thursday afternoon we headed another hour or so south to Waipukurau where my friend Emily is now living. For those of you who don't know Em, she used to work for the company I was at when I first moved to London and quit work to start her round the world trip nearly a year ago. Her original plan was to be back in the UK in time for Christmas, but then she met a Canadian guy in Japan and currently lives with him on a sheep farm in New Zealand...never let it be said that life is predictable!
It was great to catch up with her and to meet Rod (thanks to you both again for looking after us so well) and I have to admit that I can see the appeal of life on the farm. As you will see when we manage to upload some photos, Daisy the 8 week old lamb who they are hand rearing is a very lovely addition. Also, the lamb Rod cooked us for dinner was excellent - on second thoughts perhaps I wouldn't be too good at farm life after all...
Unfortunately we were only able to be with them for one evening before we moved on, but we had a great night complete with Christmas crackers and too much wine. The next day's early morning wake up call from Daisy was not quite so good (I think it was 5am) but Em & Rod are clearly far more used to early starts than we are as breakfast was on the table at 7am. Em then took us into town for our 9am bus, and we were off on our way to Wellington.
Friday was a dreaded travel day! After a delayed 4 hour bus trip, we headed out to the airport to catch the short (25 minute) flight to Picton in the South Island where we had then planned to catch another bus to Nelson where Andrew's friend Eva lives. Unfortunately we missed the bus due to a delayed flight, so Eva had to come to pick us up from Picton, about a 4 hour round trip which finally got us to her place at about 11.30pm. Thanks again Eva! Despite the hassle of travelling we saw some lovely countryside along the way to Wellington, and were really pleased to be able to have the chance to see a little bit of the much talked about South Island.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
How to do New Zealand in a week - part 1
We knew this was going to be a challenge, as most people we have spoken to are spending at least a month here!
Going back a week, we spent a day in Auckland which is a much nicer city than we expected it to be. Lots of people had said that there wasn't much to it, so we arrived there with no real expectations. We picked up lots of leaflets from our hostel - it's great that there is so much info available as we don't have a guidebook - and strolled into town. We quickly found that it is a really easy place to wander round, helped by the sunshine, and we headed up through the city centre and through a really pretty park to the Auckland Museum. This promised to give us an overview of all things Kiwi, and as we didn't know much about the country we thought it would be a good place to start.
There was lots of interesting stuff on display, but we weren't too impressed with the layout as it wasn't very easy to follow especially when trying to get our heads round the historical aspects. Nevertheless we came away knowing much more than we started with. It was also very odd to be listening to flutes playing Christmas carols in the foyer area (many a happy memory of my flute playing youth!) as up until that point I really hadn't realised that Christmas was only 3 weeks away...
Anyway, we then moved on the Sky Tower to get some good views of the city. I won't bore you with the details, but it is very tall and suffice to say I felt very brave standing on the glass floor even though it was 38mm thick! Some comedy photos to follow...And that was pretty much all we had time for in Auckland! I should also add that one of the things that struck us was how quiet the city is - it was hard to believe that it is home to a million people. However everyone we did meet was very friendly, something that has continued all week. Not only is tourism a big industry, but also there does seem to be a genuine friendliness which is really good.
Our next stop was Rotorua, about 4 hours away. When we were sorting out our trip we came across a company called Nakedbus, the Kiwi equivalent of Megabus in the UK with fares starting from just $1. We therefore weren't too sure what we were going to get for our very small amount of money, but it was all fine. Unfortunately the hostel in Rotorua was a little more shabby, but then really we only had ourselves to blame for booking into somewhere with a TexMex theme and as we were only there for one night we could live with it!
The town itself was pretty ordinary, but the big draw is the thermal springs in the area. There is a massive amount of geothermal activity in the region, and just wandering through a park in the town you can see lots of steaming pools and bubbling mud. As recommended by Nina who we met in Chile (thank you if you're reading this!) we decided to head the Polynesian Spa on Tuesday and spend some time relaxing in the rock pools. It was a really lovely way to spend a few hours, and I also had a massage to help soothe my very backpack weary shoulders. Sadly it was then time to return to the backpacks and another bus, this time to Napier.
As you know, we have travelled on a few buses in the past few months (I think we were up to about 140 hours at the last count) but this trip has won the prize for funniest bus driver... He started sharing local knowledge which was really interesting, but promptly ran out of things to say but just kept talking - for three and a half hours! We arrived in Napier totally exhausted, but it was another bizarre and entertaining experience to add to the list. We checked into our hostel which couldn't have been more different from the last one - Art Deco style which is what Napier is famous for and a former luxury hotel so much better than average - and felt quite happy that we were going to be staying in the same place for a whole 2 nights!
Going back a week, we spent a day in Auckland which is a much nicer city than we expected it to be. Lots of people had said that there wasn't much to it, so we arrived there with no real expectations. We picked up lots of leaflets from our hostel - it's great that there is so much info available as we don't have a guidebook - and strolled into town. We quickly found that it is a really easy place to wander round, helped by the sunshine, and we headed up through the city centre and through a really pretty park to the Auckland Museum. This promised to give us an overview of all things Kiwi, and as we didn't know much about the country we thought it would be a good place to start.
There was lots of interesting stuff on display, but we weren't too impressed with the layout as it wasn't very easy to follow especially when trying to get our heads round the historical aspects. Nevertheless we came away knowing much more than we started with. It was also very odd to be listening to flutes playing Christmas carols in the foyer area (many a happy memory of my flute playing youth!) as up until that point I really hadn't realised that Christmas was only 3 weeks away...
Anyway, we then moved on the Sky Tower to get some good views of the city. I won't bore you with the details, but it is very tall and suffice to say I felt very brave standing on the glass floor even though it was 38mm thick! Some comedy photos to follow...And that was pretty much all we had time for in Auckland! I should also add that one of the things that struck us was how quiet the city is - it was hard to believe that it is home to a million people. However everyone we did meet was very friendly, something that has continued all week. Not only is tourism a big industry, but also there does seem to be a genuine friendliness which is really good.
Our next stop was Rotorua, about 4 hours away. When we were sorting out our trip we came across a company called Nakedbus, the Kiwi equivalent of Megabus in the UK with fares starting from just $1. We therefore weren't too sure what we were going to get for our very small amount of money, but it was all fine. Unfortunately the hostel in Rotorua was a little more shabby, but then really we only had ourselves to blame for booking into somewhere with a TexMex theme and as we were only there for one night we could live with it!
The town itself was pretty ordinary, but the big draw is the thermal springs in the area. There is a massive amount of geothermal activity in the region, and just wandering through a park in the town you can see lots of steaming pools and bubbling mud. As recommended by Nina who we met in Chile (thank you if you're reading this!) we decided to head the Polynesian Spa on Tuesday and spend some time relaxing in the rock pools. It was a really lovely way to spend a few hours, and I also had a massage to help soothe my very backpack weary shoulders. Sadly it was then time to return to the backpacks and another bus, this time to Napier.
As you know, we have travelled on a few buses in the past few months (I think we were up to about 140 hours at the last count) but this trip has won the prize for funniest bus driver... He started sharing local knowledge which was really interesting, but promptly ran out of things to say but just kept talking - for three and a half hours! We arrived in Napier totally exhausted, but it was another bizarre and entertaining experience to add to the list. We checked into our hostel which couldn't have been more different from the last one - Art Deco style which is what Napier is famous for and a former luxury hotel so much better than average - and felt quite happy that we were going to be staying in the same place for a whole 2 nights!
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Arriving in New Zealand
Thought we should let you know that we are safely in New Zealand. That meant a spectacular 16 hour time change, so our body clocks are confused to say the least. We left at 11pm on Friday and landed at the highly unsociable hour of 3.30am Sunday. The flight itself was fine despite a passenger panic as we took off because there were particularly strong chemical/burning smells in the cabin. The cabin crew assured everyone it was normal, but then of course there had to be someone who said he flew this route every other week and this had never happened before - which started everyone off again! It wasn't the most comfortable flight but true to form I managed to sleep for about half of it and the pretty rubbish film selection helped Andrew to doze off too.
Getting through Auckland airport was not as tricky as we thought it might be; we thought it may take a while as New Zealand is one of the tightest when it comes to protecting its borders from foreign bugs etc. Our boots and shoes had to be disinfected as we had been on farmland recently, but it wasn't a huge delay so perhaps there was some advantage in landing at such a silly time. We caught the very efficient shuttle bus straight to our hostel, where we had requested a very early check in. Unfortunately this was dependent on availabilty, unless we wanted to pay for Saturday night too. Fair enough really but we were still more than a little upset to be told at 6am that all double rooms were full until 10.30 check out. Fortunately we were able to get a twin instead and got some much needed sleep before heading out to explore Auckland.
More about that soon, and Rotorua where we now (Monday early evening) are.
Getting through Auckland airport was not as tricky as we thought it might be; we thought it may take a while as New Zealand is one of the tightest when it comes to protecting its borders from foreign bugs etc. Our boots and shoes had to be disinfected as we had been on farmland recently, but it wasn't a huge delay so perhaps there was some advantage in landing at such a silly time. We caught the very efficient shuttle bus straight to our hostel, where we had requested a very early check in. Unfortunately this was dependent on availabilty, unless we wanted to pay for Saturday night too. Fair enough really but we were still more than a little upset to be told at 6am that all double rooms were full until 10.30 check out. Fortunately we were able to get a twin instead and got some much needed sleep before heading out to explore Auckland.
More about that soon, and Rotorua where we now (Monday early evening) are.
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