Travelling Tornado: December 2007

Did I really do that?

No it was not an accident. I have always had a daring silly streak and what better way to feed it than jumping from a plane at 12,000 ft with a manic 20 year old sports sky diver !? Well its been a year of changes and ups and downs for me this was one of the most spectacular uppers and downer of 2007. A real injection of Adrenalin which took a good 24 hours later before i could walk talk and think properly again but one of the most awesome things I have challenged my self to...think i could become an Adrenalin junkie and sky dive addict. It was a really peaceful and relaxing experience in a way that i can not yet find the words for.

Falling through the rain clouds prickles and stings !

Yes thats me upside down, spinning round and round ...my tandem jumper treated me to some sports tricks

Smooth landing...big smiles !

return to earth still able to walk...just ! Gareth ensures I am intact.

A true kiwi family Christmas

After two wonderful weeks around Auckland and the Northland I bid a sad farewell to Hannah and Gareth and headed South to say a happy hello to Palmerston North. My Aunt Sue after marrying Bob emigrated to New Zealand over 30 years ago, since then they have made the country their home having 4 children (my cousins !) who now have families or their own (my second cousins... I think !?) I was soon to realise how wonderful it is to be part of such a big close family especially during the festive season... I had a sense of having missed out all these years. It also hit me that I actually have more family ties in New Zealand than I do in the UK ! I was welcomed with a big family dinner on the first evening which was to be followed by many more.

I have very fond memories of my time in Palmerston North too many to recall here. Bonding with my cousins and realising which family traits we share was a highlight...the sarcasm with Rob, the wicked sense of humor and giggle with Pete, love of shopping with Robyn and a general outlook on life with Jo.

A first pint with Aunt Sue in the local "British" pub

Snuggling with macca the dog and Sushi the cat by the fire side

Meeting the kids at the park for the annual end of school Xmas picnic was fun !

Happy times are had at the Hodgson house on the very comfortable garden deck

Robyn, me and Jo in front of the new spa on the new deck at Robbies place (Robyns Boyfriend)

(Below) me in the spa after much wine... just prior to the camera going swimming ...

Tyler and Ben...how gorgeous !

Hannah and I enjoyed getting all arty in the garden with some creative photography !

Jo and I, a happy snap on the stroke of midnight happy 2008 ! Yes...Very drunk !

Ben on the giant mouse wheel...loads of fun !

Hannah and the Christmas Whale in the pool

A Xmas day family photo from left to right Hannah, Conner, Jo Ben, Meridy, Sue, me, (back row Left to right Matt, Bob, Rob and Pete. Christmas day was spent at Sue and Bobs then over to Jo and Matt's opening presents along the way...a big Xmas dinner of BBQ and salads and mutton ham went down well with lindaur wine and beer !

Pete celebrates Xmas morning with 4 pints of beer in the one glass !

Toasting marshmallows on Xmas day evening

Little Ben plays with fire...

On boxing day I headed off with Rob and Meridy for some time in and around Wellington which is currently running as my favourite city in the world. They have just bought and moved into a very nice home which we spent time around looking at paint samples and deliberating on which trees to test the chain saw on ! Meridy and i enjoyed a very hard day at the spa having massages and facials (a lovely Xmas gift!) whilst Rob got stuck into the DIY...its a hard life !

A sunset stroll with Rob to the top of the hill behind Robs new place

Spending the first time with all my New Zealand family together in the same place at the same time and being Christmas and New Year made it really special and fun time. I loved being around my younger family Hannah, Conner, Ben and Tyler who made Christmas so exciting, fun and very special for me. Being with family and close friends in New Zealand has given me a time of real reflection. Feeling safe and being able to truly relax gave after the lone travel gave me some much needed thinking space in preparation of all the readjustment in the UK to come. A big thank you to the Hodgson and Baas tribes for making me feel welcomed and instantly part of the family and for the food, beds, beer, wine, Xmas gifts but most of all memories. I have never been so sad to leave a place.

As I write at Auckland airport on new years day its only 1 month until UK reality bites, a cold winter and working again...well best not to think about that now...after all I have another three countries to go...

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

A gay dolphin, meeting god and climbing a volcano !

Continuing back to Auckland via the west coast a few very important stops were made Firstly to the renowned giant Kauri trees which were spectacular and strangely spiritual...

Mighty Tane Mahuta is the world's largest living Kauri tree he resides in Waipuoa forest and is named after the Maori god he is over 2000 years old ! bet hes seen a thing or to ! The Kauri trees are protected and the wood is very valuable so hopefully Tane will survive.

Next stop was Oponi a little town where nothing much happens and were everything revolves around a deceased dolphin named by the locals as Opo. There is a fantastic not to be missed film you can see at the information centre which almost made me have an accident in my pants because I was laughing so hard !. This film is a must see should you ever visit NZ ! The actual story of opo is rather sad and mysterious... The dolphin which frequented oponi and became NZ biggest tourist attraction causing blocked roads etc during the summer of 1955 became a kind of flipper friendly character swimming with locals and performing tricks...so special was the dolphin to the town that they erected several signs " please do not shoot our gay dolphin" for fear that he (later found to be a she) would be harmed. After four months of increased tourism and fame for the area opo the dolphin was found mysteriously dead washed upon local rocks...the conspiracy theories still rage today... opo was buried with full Maori honours and a statue was erected in his memory...other than Opo fame there is no reason to stop in Oponi.

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After a great time in the Northland I arrived back with Hannah and Gareth then woke to a spectacular day so headed off to Rangitoto the local volcano on a 25 minute ferry ride from Auckland harbour. Walking around the volcano is really hot as the black volcanic rock holds the heat and bonces back at you The views across Auckland from the crater are amazing and well worth the effort of a sweaty walk !

Views from the top of the volcano

Bay of Islands and beyond...

After a 5 hour twisty bus trip to Paihia north of Auckland I found a bed to lay my head and set about on an explore of the town. The town is basically a gateway to all that the bay of islands has to offer beautiful scenery, boat trips, swimming with wild dolphins, fishing trips and all that jazz...however the day i arrived all had been cancelled due to bad weather..."very unusual for this time of year" at once I could see how the area would be outstandingly beautiful and a completely different place given some sunshine however I have to admit that for the four days I was around the area the mist wind rain and churned up brown waters apparently caused by the Fiji cyclone really reminded me of a windy cold day in the lake district which was rather sad. Not to be put down by the situation myself and three other lone traveller woman i met in the hostel made our way to the pub. where as luck would have it was happy hour and we won several prizes including a horse trekking trip ! Well that was the next day of activity sorted come rain or shine.

After a horse trek I explored the Waitangi treaty grounds it was here on February 6th, 1840, that the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between Maori and the British Crown. The treaty has been a source of debate ever since. It seems to me that the British got a pretty good deal. The Maori guides at the site were open about the tension that exists over the treaty and encouraged debate with you which was really insightful. The tension partly exists due to the small fact that until the treaty was drawn up the Maori language had never been expressed in the written form.

The grounds are beautiful and really worth visiting regardless of the sites significance. Apparently each year on the 6th Feb the grounds attract thousands of people for a reenactment of the treaty signing and a celebration of culture involving all the Maori tribes which sounds rather spectacular.

Tongue action ! The wonderful and entertaining traditional Maori carvings from all the Maori tribes in New Zealand are represented in the meeting house at Waitangi... yes, I took photos of all the carvings with tongues poking out !

Making it all the way up to the most Northerly point in NZ Cape Reinga was wonderful if not a hellishly long drive. I was inspired and some what comforted learning of the Maori belief that spirits travel on the wind to the cape and jump into the sea from the ancient tree on the rocks to continue thier journey to the spiritual after life, families make a pilgrimage to the cape as part of thier grieving process.

Being a windy day I was lucky to experience the meeting of the Tasman sea and Pacific ocean which have different tidal pattens resulting in the waters meeting or crashing at different levels (see background of photo). The maori refer to this as the meeting of Te Moana-a-Rehua 'the sea of rehua' with Te Tai-o-Whitirea ' The sea of Whitirea' Rehua being male and Whitirea being female.

cyclones !

The weekends here in NZ are going fast...after a busy Saturday shopping, gardening and baking a Christmas cake followed by a wet Sunday relaxing, baby sitting and knitting I set off on Monday morning with a full back pack and a head full of ideas and headed North with the most Northerly point, Cape Reinga, New Zealand on my radar.

Now then, without being typically British sounding I must make a comment about the weather situation here in NZ. I know many people will be sitting reading this on a dark dull very cold morning at work so I don't want to appear ungrateful for my position here in a New Zealand summer. However, I seem to be catching the tail end of a 'cyclone' everywhere I go...This 'cyclone Rita' first effected my India travel plans only two weeks into my trip...it then followed me sneakily changing identity and name to 'Lekima' to the beaches of Vietnam then to the beaches Thailand then to the North West Australia and now it seems 'cyclone Damen' it has come via Fiji to meet me in the North of New Zealand, causing churned seas, high winds and lots of rain. Its determined to catch up with me where ever I go ! Don't get me wrong it is only ever adding interesting elements to my travelling experiences but I am getting a little sick of extreme weather conditions 'for this time of year' type comments wherever I go !

Note to readers who did not study wether systems in geography lessons ... A tropical cyclone is a meteorological term for a storm system characterized by a low pressure and thunderstorms that produces strong wind and flooding rain. nice eh ?!

Waiheke Island

After a brilliant weekend with Hannah and Gareth I headed to Waiheke Island whilst they headed off to work (boo ! tried to get them to call in sick ...) Auckland has lots of little islands hidden off its coast which seem to make for little trips the harbour and beyond. Waiheke was a 35 minute 'fast cat' ride from Auckland and it was a beautiful day. Arriving on the island I did a nice walk on the wonderful interpreted board walks which weave around the island and found a bed for a couple of nights at 'kiwi house' a notch up from a hostel with towels and blankets !

Famous for sea kayaking,the centre greets you as you pull into the harbour

Clear views across to Auckland city from Waiheke

The pretty harbour area from above and giant flax plants

An old knarly pohutukawa tree in xmas bloom on the beach

The island has lots of beautiful sandy beaches

Waiheke is an inspiring place, its only a small island but has an abundance of little vineyards producing mainly Merlot and Shiraz (becoming a bit of a wine buff!) I did taste some of the red wines but felt they could do with a few years cellar time to really be 'ready'. The island also produces lots of yummy fat olives and exquisite olive oils.

Another feature of the island is the sheer number of artists who live and work on the island which makes for some really creative ideas. The resource trust which takes recycled waste from the island, develops creative and educational projects (http://www.junktofunk.org.nz/) for schools and the community they have some inspiring ideas which I will be taking home to develop with me. There is a great storytelling centre set up by the talented NZ story teller Tanya Batt (http://www.imagined-worlds.net/) and to top it off a wonderful gallery space, little cinema (with an eclectic collection of old sofas for seating) which I explored in depth and made some new friends with great ideas on a very rainy second day on the island.

Its not all glamour ! look how wet and windy it was !

New Zealand fish and chips (pronounced here as "Fush 'N' Chups") are in a whole different league to a British chippy, you enter the shop, choose the piece of fish you fancy they weigh it and batter it and fry it fresh with your choice of potato or wonderful kumera fries (sweet potato) Yummy !

The Coromandel

After a long week at work Hannah and Gareth still found the energy to whisk me away for the weekend up to the Coromandel peninsula. Luckily the weather was fantastic and we enjoyed aqua coloured ocean, brilliant blue skies and white sandy beaches, swimming a little hike and much needed relaxation time (for H and G anyway !).

Stopping at the pohutukawa festival (the pohutakawa is a large native tree known as the NZ Christmas tree due to its big red flowers which bloom at this time of year) for some blues on the beach.

We headed along the twisty roads through the hills and sheep to witness some of the most spectacular views across the peninsula to Auckland and the islands beyond.

Heather and Hannah always dress with coordination in mind !