Jo's NZ adventures

Great Barrier, the long version

2010-11-14T11:59:00.000+13:00

I'm not entirely sure why I decided I wanted to go to Great Barrier Island, but I'm glad I did. I got up very early on Thursday and had a relatively uncomplicated journey down to Auckland, arriving in plenty of time to check in. The baggage allowance of 15kgs turned out to include hand luggage, so after ditching a few kilos of stuff I was a mere 9kgs over. Actually it only cost me $13.50, which isn't too bad.

The plane carried six passengers and the pilot and was a bit squashed. It was unfortunately cloudy until the very last minute, when we broke through the cloud to see the island below, green and rugged.

I hadn't planned much beyond arriving on the island so it was lucky that the island's shuttle bus was there and able to give me a ride down to my accommodation. Fiona, the driver, was Scottish and said she'd arrived on Great Barrier eight years ago while travelling around the world. She was supposed to stay for a month, but ended up calling her mum and telling her the journey was over as she'd “found paradise”. On first sight the island was certainly impressive, all rolling green mountains and white beaches with crashing turquoise surf.

Nobody was in at my B&B, Pigeon's Lodge, but there was a note on the door and keys in the door to my unit. I flopped and read through the information folders, deciding eventually to wander down to the nearby shop and see if there was anything edible for lunch. There wasn't, really, but sandwiches were advertised and sandwiches were shortly forthcoming as the shop owner made me some to order.

After a bit more thought I resolved to hire a car in order to be independent. There is a bus that does a run up the island every day, but only once and if you miss it you're stuck. Hiring a car meant I was able to do what I wanted, stop for photos, and also get out for dinner (there was nowhere to eat out closer than 3km away). The very sweet lady in the car hire place let me have two days plus a few hours for the cost of two days, so I was quickly mobile in a little Toyota and tootling down the road that goes as far south as you can go.

I looked at nice views and had a couple of short strolls, then was virtuous and did the nasty hill sprints I was told to do for rowing. Ugh. Dinner, a bit later, was in the Irish pub (there's always an Irish pub) which wasn't actually terribly Irish but did serve a superb piece of snapper and a nice chocolate brownie.

On Friday I was served breakfast on my private deck, all very civilised, and then got in the car and headed north. Via a few short stops for photos and a brief side-trip for a view down “Windy Canyon” I eventually reached Port Fitzroy where there's a little shop. Dumping the car there I set out for a tramp. It had been trying to rain and still looked as though it could so I carried waterproof trousers and jacket and an extra layer, all quite unnecessarily as it turned out.

Really I should have driven to the start of the tramp as it took me a good 40 minutes to run out of road – not that it's busy road, but it was driveable. The track I wanted to take is being repaired, but close scrutiny of the notice indicated it was nominally open, so I went for it.

The walk began very pleasantly, through bush alongside a stream, but after a bit got steeper. There was a bit of a scramble where the track basically vanished for a short distance, and later more scrambles up rocks and very steep bits. En route I stopped to look at the remains of a kauri dam – these were built in the early 20th century for the timber company that was logging kauri from Great Barrier's forests. They built these enormous structures across the river, felled the trees, and let them float down until they were behind the dam. Then they tripped the dam and let the logs float downstream. Not many survive but the one that does is very impressive.

After about two and a half hours of tough walking I got to the bottom of some steps. Apparently, 860 steps, straight up to get to the summit of Mount Hobson/Hirikamata, 621m above sea level. I thought they were never going to end! I also thought I was reasonably fit but was huffing and puffing and dripping sweat by the time I finally, exhilaratingly, got to the top. The cloud had completely cleared and the views all around were spectacular. Unlike many viewpoints Hirikamata is really and truly the highest point on the island, and thus the highest point for some miles, so you can see in all directions – right across to Rangitoto in Auckland harbour, in fact. It felt very good to have reached the top!

After a break I started down a different track, although there was another long steep flight of stairs to contend with. This track had evidently been repaired recently because all the steps were in brilliant condition. A bit further down it got slightly slippy and I fell quite hard (but without injuring myself) before I found a stick to help me the rest of the way. I'm so bad at downhill and by the end of the walk was plodding a bit with sore feet and legs, but the track was also very pretty, through a number of different sorts of woodland with some good views back towards the summit.

Eventually I made it back on to the road and about 800m from Port Fitzroy was picked up by a kindly truck driver – hitching is very acceptable on Great Barrier as everyone knows everyone. Leaving your car and house unlocked is also fine. I realised when I got back to my car that I'd left the windows open the whole day, but it didn't matter (also, I was carrying all my valuables!)

The drive back to Tryphena took well over an hour, via the restaurant I was planning to eat at which recommends booking. They didn't seem that busy but I told them I'd be back and hurried to my B&B for a lovely shower.

At the restaurant the couple and their elderly mother who had been on my flight out were there, so invited me to join their table. That made for a pleasant meal with nice conversation, which was good after a day alone in the bush when I'd only seen two other people the entire time. I had another nice chat with Jim and Anne who own the B&B when I got back there before finally crashing.

My last day was a bit slower, thankfully, as my legs are really quite achy! I did a bit more tootling about in the car, looking at one of the surf beaches; and a short walk along a bit of the Tramline track, which follows the route of the tramline built by the timber company to pick up the logs they'd floated downstream. There was another short and easy walk (I did it in trainers, boots would have been a joke) to the Kaitoke Hot Springs, a natural hot stream running through the forest down to the Kaitoke Swamp. For a while I had the glade all to myself, and luxuriated in the warm water listening to the birds singing and the water bubbling away until a family arrived and broke my solitude.

Annoyingly I had some time to kill, even after I'd filled the car up with very expensive petrol and had a milkshake, so drove a little way to a beach I hadn't visited and wandered there for 20 minutes until it was time to catch the tiny plane back to Auckland. It was a glorious day so this time the views were incredible, and I even saw a whale.

I'd considered getting the bus into Auckland but in the end couldn't be bothered. It's not like I like Auckland very much. So I whiled away the hours at the airport with a shower and very slow duty free shopping and then messing around with pictures on my computer and blogging. Remarkably time passed quite quickly, and as I write it's only half an hour until boarding and then the interminable journey back to wet, windy London.

(And as I post it's half an hour until boarding again in Hong Kong … getting there!)

Great Barrier Island

2010-11-11T17:24:00.004+13:00

I'm on Great Barrier Island, which is the largest island in the Hauraki Gulf but has just 650 inhabitants. Lovely and quiet (although has mosquitoes, so I'm trying not to scratch my bites). I was slightly badly-prepared having not booked a shuttle from the airport or a hire car, but there was a shuttle lady there who took me to my accommodation and a hire car place just down the hill from where I'm staying so I later went there and got one. Spent the afternoon driving the roads south as far as I could go - some nice views - and then doing the hill sprints I was told to do by my coach! Am feeling virtuous and ready for a nice meal at the local pub, where it's open mic night. :) Off tramping and exploring tomorrow.

Baby waterfalls

2010-11-10T21:11:00.002+13:00

As promised I did the waterfall walk today. Although everything else I'd read had said 6km from Waitangi the sign said 5km, and there were markers each km. The round trip was still probably near 16km, counting from the hostel! It wasn't a very hard walk though, a nice track through bush and across a boardwalk through a mangrove swamp. The waterfall wasn't very big either but was a nice enough place to stop, take a few photos, eat a banana (couldn't see the rumoured cafe) and walk back from.

In town I visited the library where there was an appalling art exhibition - some overly-Photoshopped photos and bad paintings, Dad and I together could have done much better - and an interesting "history room" with photos from Paihia's history and some folders detailing the development of the town. That was a nice backdrop to visiting the pretty little stone church, built by the descendants of the first missionary to be based here, Henry Williams. I wandered around the graveyard and marvelled at the yellow pohutukawa tree by the road. All the pohutukawa are starting to come out. Paihia is going to be stunning when they're all in flower.

Having some time to kill I rented a kayak for an hour and had fun combatting the waves and wind round the little islands just out in the bay. It was good to be on the water. Then I repacked my bags, sorting out stuff I don't need for the final couple of nights as I think they're going to tell me my suitcase is too heavy to fly to Great Barrier. I've packed it in a separate bag inside the case, ready to whip it out if need be. Then dinner - I've been pretty good this trip and have eaten "in" a few times, plus a couple of bbqs at Kylee's and a cheap Thai in Wellington, so these last days I'm splashing out on proper dinners, expense be damned. Tonight's was lamb shank and a sticky date pudding. And an Otago Pinot. Nice.

Up early, to drive to Auckland to catch my plane. Am terrified I'll get stuck in traffic so am leaving plenty of time.

Waitangi

2010-11-09T19:56:00.003+13:00

I had a proper lie-in this morning. My Cambridge hostel had a high window without a curtain so I woke before 7am every day when the sun got up. Today I slept until 8 and then dozed for a while longer.

Eventually I got up, had breakfast and went along to Waitangi. It's a couple of kilometres from Paihia along the coast. Waitangi is hugely significant for New Zealanders as it's where the treaty that essentially founded modern NZ was signed, back in 1840, between the British and the Maori. The British didn't exactly hold to its terms, unfortunately, but it's used these days as legislation to determine land ownership and other Maori rights. The grounds where the treaty was signed now houses a marae, a war canoe and the house where the British Resident used to live with his family. And a big flagpole. I did a guided tour, which was interesting enough, and wandered around taking pictures for a bit afterwards. The Treaty House (the former residency) had a beautiful garden in full bloom with some gorgeous roses. The marae smelled of sweaty feet, although that might just have been me ... however the carvings were beautiful. The canoe was pretty awesome too, the largest waka in existence - it goes out every Waitangi Day.

There's a 6km walk to a waterfall from near Waitangi which I considered doing in the afternoon, but decided eventually to do it tomorrow in lieu of paying for a boat trip of some description - they're all hideously expensive and it seems daft to pay to swim with dolphins when I did that on my overnight Spirit of NZ voyage right at the start of my time in NZ, or pay to visit Roberton Island when I've been a guest of Jim and Terri who live there. The only really tempting trip was a sail on the R Tucker Thompson which is a locally-based topsail schooner, although I've also sailed these waters on Soren. So in the end I'm ditching the expensive trips and am going to walk to the waterfall tomorrow, which I think is a round trip of about 16km. Luckily there's a cafe at the waterfall so I don't need to carry lunch. :)

After a stop at the supermarket for dinner and a bit of procrastination at the hostel I drove to Opua as I was pretty sure Soren was still there. She was/is, but a little too far offshore to really hail her. I looked from the quayside and it was so very good to see her whole and healthy and seaworthy, when the last time I saw her she had a big hole in her side and no deckhouse.

So that was today. Fairly quiet, but the odd quietish day on holiday is, in my books, a Good Thing.

World Champs

2010-11-08T18:09:00.000+13:00

It's a little funny watching international rowing at a place you know well, and remembering your own close races as two crews fight it out for a world championship gold. But it's nice too, particularly when there's a good atmosphere and the whole crowd is willing their crew on to victory.

Such was the World Championships at Karapiro.

I drove up from Wellington on Wednesday, leaving at about 9.30am after picking up my friend Kylee's rowing machine from another friend and somehow jamming it into my car. The drive was okay, although by the end I was pretty tired. Although I've driven the road to Cambridge from Wellington a number of times I've never had to do the whole thing myself. The mountains were pretty with snow and the weather was good, but nevertheless I was glad to find my hostel/motel in Cambridge. I went to Kylee's for dinner with the erg, caught up with her and other rowing friends, and finally crashed with great relief!

There had been a rumour that racing was starting early on Thursday so I got there in plenty of time – two hours beforehand, in the end! It was interesting watching the crews practice though and we got to see replays from the previous day. Racing eventually kicked off with semi-finals and proved to be of high quality. NZ's Mahé Drysdale gave everyone a heart attack by having issues with his official boat stickers before his semi, and then stopping the race a few strokes in. He was lucky the judges didn't disqualify him.

After lunch it was time for the adaptive finals and the first sign of the strong Kiwi support, for their single sculler Danny McBride. GB got its first medals – a gold for Tom Aggar, in a superlative display, and a silver for the LTA mixed coxed four just on the line. The loveliest moment of the day was when one of the guys in the Italian intellectually disabled four grabbed one of his crewmates; bunches of flowers, took his own and ran over to give them to the Italian girls cheering their silver medal. It was adorable.

I woke on Friday to rain which was continuing as I went to the course. Kylee got me into the grandstand for the morning session using her grandparents' tickets (there were loads of spare seats anyway) and I escaped the rain. By lunchtime the sun was out with a vengeance but the wind was also rising and there were more than a few mutters about the lanes being unfair as racing continued. Two more golds for GB, with dominant displays from the lightweight men's double and the women's quad, but disappointment for the lightweight women's double who never managed to get into the race, and the men's four who led before being rowed down by crews in perhaps more favoured lanes. They ended up fourth after a storming finish from the Kiwis.

In the evening I went to a dinner for Wellington Rowing Club at the Cambridge Raceway, where we always stayed for regattas and where a few people are staying this week.

On Saturday I missed the D/C/B finals at the rowing in favour of doing the Hobbiton movie set tour as it's really close. I had to sign a confidentiality agreement promising not to tell anyone about the tour as there's a risk of being sued, but suffice to say it was very good. Hobbiton being rebuilt for The Hobbit looks lovely. I got to stand under the Party Tree and look up at Bag End and really imagine being in the Shire. There's a lovely coincidence about the farm they chose – it's just off Buckland Road. The road wasn't named after Tolkien's Buckland (home of the Brandybucks) but after a Mr Buckland who settled the area over a century ago. How's that for coincidence?

The tour ended with a sheep shearing demonstration, which I wasn't expecting to enjoy but did. It was quick and efficient. The shearer hauled out a gigantic wether (young male sheep), which surprisingly didn't fidget too much, and sheared it. Then he let out three lambs and let people bottle-feed them, which was a cute end to the tour.

Back at the lake it was heaving. I couldn't find anyone I knew, until after I'd had a pie for lunch and found a spare spot on the grass I discovered I was sitting next to someone I did know from Wellington. The wind had turned tail and was much more even than yesterday. The racing proved to be spectacularly good, apart perhaps from the pointless coxed pair event that kicked off the finals. The GB lightweight women's quad failed to show but the other four British crews in finals all medalled – the men's lightweight four holding off an exceptionally close field to win gold, Hodgy and Reed leading Murray and Bond all the way only to lose the gold in the last few strokes, the women's pair rowing a blinder to win silver, and Alan Campbell winning a solid bronze. The atmosphere when the Kiwi crews were racing was extraordinary. My little voice screaming for GB probably got a bit lost. But I had fun. It was nice to see the Kiwi rowers being treated like celebrities, just as the GB four was at Eton; girls screaming for Mahé and the pair and teenagers anxiously waiting for autographs.

On Sunday the crowds came back. I got there for the frankly slightly pointless C and B finals (Singapore versus Peru in the lightweight men's singles, woohoo) but the A finals were again superb. The Kiwis got off to a good start with a silver in the lightweight women's singles, then the British women's double won gold in commanding style. The men looked like they were going to emulate the women before the Kiwi double just stormed through in the last 400m; I've never seen a finish like it and the crowd went completely mad. The eights finished things off – the British women just finishing out of the medals while the men left things a bit late to catch up a superb German crew but did win silver.

I stayed for the closing ceremony, which involved prime minister John Key appearing to give the British team the team trophy (yay) and was followed by a Maori ceremony involving four waka (war canoes) and a mass haka.

In the evening it was back to Kylee's for another barbeque and then farewell to my Wellington friends. This morning I set off early for the drive to Paihia. I stopped in Auckland hoping to see the Soren Larsen come in from her voyaging, but no ship – turns out she's up here in Opua, for some reason, although moored out in the harbour so I haven't bothered trying to go and say hello because I only realised when I was out for a lovely run along the coast and by the time I'd have got there it would have been dinnertime. I might see if she's still there tomorrow. Otherwise I'm going to try and catch her in Auckland, before going home.

Paihia is wonderfully quiet and I'm in a lovely hostel. Had fish and chips for dinner. Mmm. Tomorrow I'm planning to go to Waitangi, which is just a couple of kilometres walk. Wednesday I might go for a walk, or possibly hire a kayak, or even both. I'll see how I go.

Still here!

2010-11-07T08:47:00.003+13:00

Apologies for the lack of blogging, no internet access where I'm staying so no way of spending hours writing about what I've been doing.

Short version, to be followed by a longer one later this week: rowing, yay. Hobbiton, pretty. Suncream depleting quickly. Windy!

Springtime in Wellington

2010-11-01T17:06:00.005+13:00

The sunshine has come out for my brief stay in Wellington - today has been absolutely gorgeous. (Don't worry, Mum, am wearing suncream).

I spent yesterday being a proper tourist. Mooched around the City Gallery for a bit; for once the modern art was actually worth seeing (well, most of it). Then I caught the ferry to Matiu/Somes Island which is a nature reserve. Once upon a time it was a quarantine station for people, then a WW2 internment camp, and then a quarantine station for animals. Eventually they closed the quarantine station down, after a little longer the Crown returned the land to the local iwi, and now it's managed by DOC. It's completely predator-free and full of birds and geckos and lizards. I saw loads of kakariki (parakeets, awfully cute but in the habit of flying away rather than posing for photos) and various other birds, plus lots of skink and geckos. There are tuatara on the island but I didn't see any of them despite keeping an eye out. Had a good walk around, explored the old quarantine station and the WW2 gun encampments, and then caught the ferry back to the city.

In the evening I met some rowing friends for dinner. That was nice.

Today I woke to glorious sunshine so after a yummy breakfast grabbed my camera and walked up Mt Victoria. Lovely views across the harbour today. Next stop was my former workplace, for coffee and a chat with my ex-colleagues, and then lunch with my old editor who is thriving in his new job (hurrah). Yummy lunch too, at a Hare Krishna restaurant. Bit of shopping, coffee and postcard writing, wander back to the B&B via the liquor store for wine to encourage me to self-cater a bit over the next week (this may be false economy as I spent $40/£19 on a Martinborough pinot noir, but you can't get a decent Martinborough pinot at home and I wanted some).

After that I read on the sun-soaked deck for a bit, backed up photos, and am generally chilling. Meeting friends for a run in an hour or so. Off up to Cambridge tomorrow.

What time is it?

2010-10-31T16:52:00.002+13:00

After a looooong flight, safely arrived in Wellington (well, with the fun addition of the usual bumpy landing.) Everything went on time and to schedule apart from the slowest moving queues for biodiversity checking at Auckland ever. I seriously thought I was going to miss my connection for Wellington, but then things finally got moving so I didn't.

Being back is weird. Weird, because it feels like coming home. Like nothing's changed (although it has, because there are a couple of new blocks of flats and they're building an enormous boatshed for waka ama right next to the rowing sheds). Hoping tomorrow and Tuesday to be able to catch up with friends, do a bit of sightseeing, and bit less zombie-fied.

In a week's time ...

2010-10-24T09:17:00.003+13:00

I'll be on a plane, looking out for my first glimpse of NZ again. Re-reading my blog I miss the place, and the wonderful two years I spent there. A fortnight back there won't be enough. But a fortnight is all I have - a dash around the country, seeing friends, watching rowing world champs, tramping and sightseeing. I can't wait.

Last leg

2009-06-25T15:10:00.002+12:00

I'm at Singapore's flashy Changi Airport (free wireless!) waiting for my flight home. It's on one of the new Airbuses so I'm geekily excited about that, and I managed to get an aisle seat with leg room to save my leg from going dead like it did on the way here.

Singapore was fun, though exhausting. It is boiling hot here and very humid, making it a bit uncomfortable. Also I had to trek round in flip-flops/jandals as I haven't yet replaced my trainers, which were on top of the deckhouse roof and accordingly went overboard when we got hit by the wave. Not the best footwear for a whole day! Anyway I managed to see the national museum, do a spot of shopping on Orchard Road, and see Little India, Chinatown, the colonial district and Raffles, and of course the Arab/Malay district where I was staying, as well as catch up with my friend Lauren who I used to row with in the UK. It rained yesterday which took some of the humidity away but made it harder to take photos!

It's a very multicultural sort of place, though the cultures are dominated by Chinese and even Little India was ringed by Chinese shops and people. Everything's very colourful and busy and smelly - the smells of various different foods, medicines, that sort of thing. Chinatown is quite touristy and there's a lot of hassle from stallholders as you walk by (hint, photo people, if I'm carrying a digital SLR I probably already have a spare battery ...) I was extremely annoyed to have to fork out $50 for breaking a lacquer boat thing in one shop - backed into it with my bag and it went flying. I don't know why I couldn't have broken something small and cheap!

Anyway, duty free calls so I'd better get moving. Next stop, Heathrow.

Onwards!

2009-06-22T14:07:00.001+12:00

Time in the Cooks at an end - a lovely relaxing ten days. At the airport now; plane to Auckland then on to Singapore. :) Home on Thursday though.

Made it!

2009-06-13T08:34:00.000+12:00

Well, I'm in Rarotonga at last - after a pretty horrible flight actually. We had some nasty turbulence and all the while I was looking down at a nice Force 6/7 sea below and thinking it was perfect sailing weather. I normally don't have too much of a problem with turbulence but yesterday it was pretty unpleasant. However I slept like a log, it's warm, and I'm off to Aitutaki this afternoon for five nights and doing nothing.

I just wish the ship and her crew were here too.

The Wave

2009-06-10T17:22:00.001+12:00

None of us actually saw the wave that ended the Søren Larsen's voyage to Rarotonga. Those of us on watch, standing aft by the helm, had automatically looked away when the helmsman Boris remarked “wave coming”. Those in the deckhouse were preparing breakfast and those below were asleep, or catching a few more minutes in the warmth of their bunks.

So the first we knew of the devastation that a few seconds and several tonnes of water had caused was the loud cracking noise, swiftly followed by the sight of various bits of fruit and wood floating by. I noticed a jacket with a bright orange hood, but couldn't see anyone in or close by the jacket. Then we looked forward.

The deckhouse, where the galley was situated, a cosy little shelter against the elements, had all but disappeared. In its place was wreckage. Over by the port shrouds Dave, the newly-recruited second cook, was hanging on to a rope looking shaken. The engineer was covered in blood, Paul the cook was clutching a beam above his head, white as a sheet, and volunteer crew member Andrew was staggering around at the top of the companionway.

My watch hurried forward. We persuaded Jarren the engineer to go aft and get below, and Dave to follow him. Andrew had disappeared down the companionway and purser Amanda was looking up, shock all over her face. The mate, Nic, began calling orders – get the main companionway covered, get lifejackets, tell the captain, get everyone awake and in the port saloon. We tried to get Paul to go below but he kept clinging on to his beam, apparently unable or unwilling to move.

About this time I realised that not only had we lost the deckhouse, but the whole midships section of the starboard rail had vanished. Instead of a comforting wooden bulwark between us and the raw power of the Pacific, there was just slippery deck. I got myself over to the companionway and started helping with the hatch cover. Two of the deckhands, Hannah and Heather, appeared on deck with lifejackets, and shortly afterwards the ship's carpenter Rusty arrived with hammer and nails and we got the covers on.

I went aft after that to find out what should happen next. Amanda came on deck doing a muster – the bo'sun, Cubie, was unaccounted for and I remember looking with horror into the waves and wondering if she had been in the deckhouse when the wave hit. None of the debris was to be seen; we'd already sailed on past it and past any hope for someone swept overboard. Luckily Cubie was shortly found forwards. Voyage crew member Neal pointed out that the gas seemed to be on in the galley, so Nic darted forwards into the wreckage to turn it off. Captain Jim was on deck, calm as he surveyed the scene. Nic called me forward again to hang on to the ropes that had been attached to a destroyed pinrail, while she went further forward to find out what the damage was there. One of the doors on the forward hatch had been torn off, so she and Cubie sealed the hatch with more plywood.

We shifted the mainsail over to turn around and begin heading back towards New Zealand and our hopes of rescue. I got a lifejacket on, and together with deckhand Kent went to fetch more lifejackets from the locker, on top of the deckhouse roof. We got spares, too many to carry, and I never found out if anyone went back for those extra lifejackets or if they went overboard.

The next job was to clear the deck of debris, lash down things that we could use, and throw food and personal items sloshing around on deck into the food net below the deckhouse roof. At the same time we had to get the manual bilge pump (fondly known as Divine Brown for the colour of the water it throws out, or alternatively The Gusher) going. That involved people pumping and someone holding the valve down to keep it primed.

About this time someone pointed out there was smoke rising from the main hatch, just aft of where the deckhouse had stood. Luckily the second mate Ally was below with a radio and a fire extinguisher dealing with it – a small electrical fire in the ship's larder, Botany Bay.

All the while Rusty and Ben the chippies were using bits of debris to cover up places where water was getting in below – mainly where the timberheads, vertical supports along the ship's side, had been torn off.

The biggest job with regards to getting rid of the debris was shifting the aft wall of the deckhouse into the sea. The wall had landed half across the main hatch, all in one piece including the door, so Kent sawed through the frame above the door to make it more manageable and a bunch of people hefted it over the hatch and over the side.

After that the biggest job was really keeping the pump going. On the starboard side, clipped on safely, was a queue of people waiting to take their turn, 50 pumps each. On the port side, also clipped on, was me with a bucket and Ben with a sea bucket, trying to keep the pump primed. Reasonably early in this effort came the sound of an aeroplane from above – the New Zealand air force's Orion, diverting from a flight to Samoa to check us out. It was incredibly good to see the Orion and know that someone was keeping an eye on us.

Mid-morning Nic came around and told all of us to go below and collect any personal belongings we might want to take with us if we had to leave the ship. The request brought the possibility of abandoning ship rather close. Down below the power had been cut due to the fire, and water was sloshing from side to side as I slipped and slid down the saloon to my cabin. The question of what to take was a tricky one – in the end I grabbed my camera and computer bag, already packed, threw in travel documents, my wallet, and my battered old teddy bear that's travelling home with me. Then I slipped and slid all the way back aft and went back to the pump.

It was also about mid-morning that we sighted the MV Tarago, a cargo ship operated by the Norwegian company Wilhemsen Line. The Tarago was en route to Auckland and diverted to escort us; they stuck by us all day, all night and most of the next day until a police launch arrived to take over. The massive bulk was a very welcome sight on the horizon, particularly while the weather remained heavy. During the morning there was also a pod of whales swimming about in our wake; normally I'd have been thrilled but there were other things to worry about!

A little later on I managed to cut my finger on something after a slide across the deck, which by now was covered in oil from the bilge. I swapped places with Cubie and went to find a bandage, and afterwards had a short sit down and a breather. I wasn't sure how much longer the adrenalin rush would last and, having been up since 3.40am anyway, was pretty knackered.

At 11.30am Nic drew up two groups of five people and told us to pump half an hour on, half an hour off, which at least gave us the chance to sit in the relative warmth of the navigation room and eat something. Paul, assisted by Andrew, had retrieved some wraps, tuna, mayonnaise and cheese from the larder and we all munched our way through wraps and chocolate (a seriously large amount of chocolate got eaten that day and the next). I wasn't actually that hungry, but felt I ought to eat something.

As the pumping shifts went on the deckhouse became creakier and creakier. The starboard side had semi-collapsed when the wave hit, but we were expecting the port side to go at any moment. Piers, the captain due to relieve Jim in Rarotonga, and Cubie cut the seizing that linked the aft davits – metal supports for lifting things – to the mainmast shrouds. If the deckhouse collapsed we didn't want it taking the mast with it. By about 2pm the creaking was bad enough that Jim pulled us off the pumping. We all crowded in the navigation room and Jim gave us an update on the situation: a helicopter was on its way with extra, powerful pumps for us and we should stay out of the way unless needed for the helicopter operation.

The chippies were detailed to go and reinforce the main companionway and forward hatches from the inside, and rig a tarpaulin under the main hatch in case the deckhouse came in and caused the main hatch to give way or for the glass to break. I had no job for the time being, so curled up in a corner in Jim's cabin and tried to get warm. I was soaked to the skin (as was everyone) but there didn't seem any point in getting out of wet weather gear quite yet. The helicopter arrived and deposited its load with several loud thuds on the deck above my head. Others joined me in Jim's cabin and, snuggled damply together with lifejackets as pillows, we tried to get some sleep.

I succeeded and woke about an hour later to find Nic organising people to set the lower topsail and setting four three-hour watches for the rest of the trip. I went up on deck, but there were enough people and I was frozen, so ended up going to my bunk, taking off wet things, and falling asleep properly.

By the time I went on watch at midnight the weather had begun to calm a little, but it was freezing cold. The bilge pumps helicoptered in had worked a treat, but had been turned off for the night, so we got to stay warm with a couple of short stints on Divine Brown again. Then back to bed.

I woke about 10am the next morning to a much more cheerful ship. Everyone had slept, the chippies were constructing a makeshift galley on deck out of the pitch pot and its small gas canister, the sea was significantly calmer, and Nic and Cubie had retrieved the kettles from the ruins of the galley. Best of all, the kettles worked, so we all had hot drinks followed later by hot food – wraps again, this time with scrambled eggs and tinned spaghetti. It was sunny and warmer and we were actually sailing home.

Had a bit more sleep after watch, but not quite enough – I got up on the call of “food”, only to get caught out passing tin plates of curried fish and couscous to others and having to wait 45 minutes for my portion. Slightly annoying, but my own fault and I really shouldn't have been so grumpy about it. The police launch had arrived by this point and was following off the starboard quarter. Nic was still giggling about their request on arrival that we make sure everyone knew how to use our lifesaving equipment – given that we'd spent most of the previous day in lifejackets it was really a superfluous thing to say.

When we were woken for the night watch it was dead calm. The 9-12 watch had taken in the sails once the wind had died. Despite both the middle and main staysails having small tears in them they had survived the whole trip magnificently. The bilge didn't need pumping and we were keeping a watch forward again. I was able to call my parents at about 2.30am as we approached Whangarei Heads to reassure them everything was okay.

The anchor was dropped early the next morning in the river near the dockyard in Whangarei, and the plywood sealing the forward companionway was taken off with much hammering. The cooks had done a big pan of sausages and rescued some oranges and pineapples, and we feasted in the morning sun while waiting for the Customs man to arrive. In the meantime the boat was launched. Nic drove off and came back with the Customs man, Søren's owners Steve and Rosie, Jim's wife Terri and a long-time friend of the ship, Miranda. We all felt enormously sorry for Steve and Rosie as they sighted the damage for the first time and there were hugs and a few tears as the newcomers came aboard.

While the Customs man did his thing we all got a tour of the outside of the ship from the boat. It was sobering to see the damage, and there was renewed relief that we'd all made it. We went ashore after Customs had left, for a wonderful brunch in a Whangarei café, savouring the coffee and good food. Later on we moved Søren upriver, back to the berth she had recently left after refit, her home until she's ready to leave again.

We were initially very lucky for the wave to hit how and when it did, causing no damage below the waterline and early enough for very few people to be in the deckhouse. The early hour also meant we had the whole day to stabilise the situation. However that everything else went so calmly and smoothly is due to Jim, Nic, and the rest of the crew. Jim led from the front – at the helm for hours, and later on cleaning the heads – and was utterly unflappable throughout. His calmness was passed on down and though I think we were all scared at least some of the time, we all knew what was going on, and we worked together to make sure we were all safe. It wasn't an experience I care to repeat but it's one I'll definitely remember.

Søren's now set for several months of repair in Whangarei, but the shipwrights are talking positively of getting her back to rights. I've hung around for the week, which has been mostly spent cleaning and getting food and other stuff off the ship for storage. We also took down the square sails and all the staysails except the upper staysail – some need repairing and the squares need safe storage. Demolition of the deckhouse began today and there's not much left now. Meanwhile the crew is dissipating, and a whole bunch of people left this morning. It's not the ending we all wanted.

Pictures are on Flickr as usual and I'll be adding more videos tomorrow hopefully.

Off we go - again!

2009-05-27T22:19:00.001+12:00

We finished our refit today - after a month of very hard work, the awnings came off, the staging came down and Soren Larsen looks like a ship again. At high tide tomorrow we set off for the Bay of Islands where we'll get fuel, a few more people, and clear Customs. On Friday, we set sail for Rarotonga. Again. Hopefully this time, after all the work that's been done on filling in seams and plugging leaks, we'll get there! I'll check in again when/if we do. :)

Almost done

2009-05-25T15:54:00.003+12:00

The refit's nearly over; we're working now on getting the ship back together and shipshape before leaving Whangarei. The original plan was to sail down to Auckland tomorrow, but the weather forecast is nasty so we're staying put until Thursday morning. This is good as it gives us a little longer to get things done and dusted. Hopefully we'll then be able to clear Customs in the Bay of Islands and not have to travel further south before heading towards the Cooks. We've all got a half-day off today or tomorrow, so I've been uploading photos again; won't get another chance.

It's been a fun month though tiring and I've come down with a bit of a cold now. I've completely lost my voice, which is a pain because it's difficult asking questions and telling people where the black enamel's gone! :)

On Saturday we all got dressed up in outrageously unfashionable clothes from the opshop and went out to celebrate the bo'sun's 30th birthday. She left quite early but the rest of us had a blast at the Irish pub - including Captain Jim in a fetching yellow Hawaiian shirt! Good fun, but everyone slept in yesterday morning and spent the day nursing headaches. However we all worked a full day too on top of the hangovers.

Anyway, last batch of photos on Flickr. Will upload plenty more from Rarotonga, weather gods permitting.

A week to go

2009-05-17T15:45:00.004+12:00

We're planning to finish the refit next Sunday, leaving us a few days to tidy up before setting sail for Rarotonga. It looks like we'll be good to go, which is a relief.

The last couple of days have been fine, a blessing after a week of rain. The sunshine means we've been able to repaint the starboard side and the starboard waterways (the bits of the deck next to the hull) and finish the caulking on that side too. All the new hanging knees are up inside the ship, and we're cracking on with the cabins. It's all looking good.

Today's my day off, potentially the last one before we go (though there's another tentatively scheduled in for a week on Tuesday). I borrowed one of the ship's bikes and cycled up to Whangarei Falls, which are pretty impressive, and then on down to the AH Reed Memorial Kauri Park, a nice bit of bush with a canopy walk through a kauri grove. It's nice to get off the ship occasionally and breathe in fresh air untainted by the paint fumes!

More pictures up on Flickr.

Dolphins and paint

2009-05-14T19:45:00.003+12:00

Work aboard Soren continues apace - two weeks until we're due to set sail. After turning around on Monday, we spent a day or so putting up the awnings again and now most of the crew are busy scraping paint off the port side of the ship. The caulking team spent yesterday and today, which were mostly fine, finishing off the open seams on starboard and I helped the mate with painting the side. That involved some amusing manoeuvres with paddles in the ship's boat as well as getting wet feet on the wooden staging things we have to put over the side. Generally I think we're still on schedule, but the rain has not been helpful.

Yesterday there was a huge pod of large dolphins swimming upriver. They swam up about lunchtime and came back an hour or so later. Some were being especially acrobatic. That lifted everyone's spirits (together with the lovely weather). Dolphins are always nice to see, and it's good to see them so close to the ship.

Turned around

2009-05-11T19:10:00.003+12:00

A fortnight into the refit, we turned the ship around today. That involved quite a lot of work - taking off the frame supporting the awnings, taking down some of the awnings and tarpaulins lining the ship's side, casting off the mooring lines and weighing anchor (covered in grey gloopy Whangarei mud). Captain Jim turned the ship on a dime, beautifully, and we went back in bow first. We dropped the anchor again only to give the guys who work at the shipyard a heart attack; they reckoned we'd dropped it on their railway that lifts ships into dry dock. Jim disagreed, but we lifted it again anyway to keep them happy and attached a long rope borrowed from the dockyard to the bows. It's shackled around a pohutukawa tree on the opposite bank and should enable us to bring the starboard side out so we can get it painted. The awnings and so on are mostly up again, and work's already begun on the port side. Meanwhile below decks we're wrestling with the appalling paint job that had been done in the ship's larder - it's all peeling, so we're trying to find the quickest way to get it off before repainting it properly. Anyway, all on schedule still, which is good news.

Opshop excitement

2009-05-06T19:45:00.003+12:00

It's possible I've been aboard too long - the highlight of today was a trip to the hospice shop in Whangarei where you could buy a whole bag of clothes for $1. Bargain! I got some clothes to trash while painting and thus preserve my own.

Otherwise the refit is progressing well, I think. On deck there are big holes where they're raking out the seams and then re-caulking them, and the holes in the hull are slowly being filled up by other caulkers. I spent yesterday and the day before rolling oakum; oakum is hemp, tarred with Stockholm tar. It comes in bales of ribbons and smells lovely, but it has to be rolled into ropes before you can use it. Rolling is incredibly dull but we need loads of it, so we're taking turns.

Down below the cabins are slowly starting to look presentable, with new paint and varnish. They should be lovely when done.

On Sunday we're turning the ship around to start work on the other side.

A day in the life of a refit

2009-04-30T19:33:00.003+12:00

So we're several days into repairs now, and settling into a routine.

At 7.15am the captain comes round and wakes us all up - fifteen minutes until breakfast. At 7.25am he comes round again and tells us it's five minutes to go, in case of snoozers.

Up on deck one of the cooks has put out breakfast. There's always cereal, coffee and tea, and toast, and something cooked too; usually eggs of some description. Just before 8am there's a brief meeting. Captain Jim gives a weather report and any notes, and then first mate Nic assigns jobs to everyone and we go and get started. Currently I'm involved in making over the starboard cabins, which all got water damage during the storm/leak affair and needed a refresh. So I've been sanding and chipping and grinding and generally getting thoroughly mucky.

At 10am the conch is blown and we all down tools for morning smoko - coffee, tea and fruit. By 10.20am we're back at work, until the conch goes again for lunch at 12.30pm. Recently every meal has involved beef as the freezer containing all the beef broke down, so the cooks are trying to get through it. Today we had pasta with a beef and pumpkin sauce.

Just after 1pm we're back to it for a hard graft until 3.30pm, which is afternoon smoko. The cooks try to bake something to eat for this one; today we had mini eclairs which went down enormously well. Then back to work again until about 5.45pm, when it's clean-up time to leave the ship tidy for the night. Dinner's about 6.30pm or 7pm, and we all eat together in the deckhouse or on deck, before settling down to check email, read or play music, and have showers! The ship's currently got three guitars, one ukelele, and two South American recorder/flute things. I want to get a fiddle if I can find a really cheap one. I think the ship needs one.

By 9 or 10pm we're all in bed, ready for the next day.

I think things are running generally to schedule; the plan is to turn the ship around on May 10th or 11th to start work on the port side.

In Whangarei

2009-04-29T20:08:00.002+12:00

I'd hoped to be in the middle of the Pacific by now, but there you go, life sometimes throws a spanner in the works. A few days out from NZ Soren caught a Force 8, and then a Force 10, and the end of the tale was a very leaky ship. The captain decided repairs needed to be made and turned us around. We got back to the Bay of Islands last Thursday and came down to Whangarei on Sunday night. I'm now hanging around to help with the repair work. So far a sort of stage has been built down the starboard side of the ship, with an awning over the top, and the waterways (scuppers, and other bits) have been taken out. We've also attacked the ship's larder, emptying it completely, and have begun makeovers on the starboard cabins. It's filthy work but fun enough!

Now I just need to sort out my journey home - getting there, slowly.

Last few days on land ...

2009-04-14T12:57:00.001+12:00

Back in New Zealand. As little as I like Auckland it's nice to be back – it kind of feels right.

Had a lovely Easter weekend in Sydney however. On Saturday, shortly after I arrived from Katoomba, my friend Jess and some of her friends and I all went off to Cockatoo Island for the night. Cockatoo Island is pretty much in the middle of Sydney harbour, not far from land. When the Europeans first arrived it was used as a prison for convicts transported from Norfolk Island; later it became a reformatory school; and then a shipyard until the 1990s. In 1992 they closed the shipyard down and it's been empty until recently. A couple of years ago they reopened the island to the public and you can get a ferry there during the day. At night you can camp – they have tent sites as well as quite a lot of permanent tents, and there are barbeques for cooking. We got a couple of the permanent tents and pitched two ordinary ones and had a very pleasant evening, first exploring the island a bit and then just hanging out, chatting and playing cards. Slept okay apart from being woken by the rain in the night and the kids doing an Easter Egg hunt at about 6.30am (there were a number of families there. Annoyingly the kids all stole the little chocolate eggs thoughtfully placed outside each tent by the campsite managers – but one of Jess's friends very kindly gave us all Easter bunnies, so there was chocolate after all.)

In the afternoon, after we'd packed up and left the island, we did a walk along the coastline from the Spit Bridge to Manly. It's a good walk, about 10km but not generally difficult, with pretty views back towards the city and even some Aboriginal petroglyphs along the way. There were also some decent-sized lizards, pelicans and lorikeets to be seen. Australia does have interesting wildlife!

Yesterday morning, after dropping people off at the airport and the railway station, Jess and I went to the Royal Easter Show. Sydney has found a good use for its Olympic park, hosting shows there a lot according to Jess, and the whole central chunk of it was taken up with the show. We spent quite a bit of time in the food hall sampling things, but also watched a couple of heats of single-handed sawing in the woodchop arena (seriously – they race to see who's the fastest at sawing through a log) and managed to catch glimpses of the pig racing. We wandered around the smelly enclosures for the alpacas, llamas, cows, horses, sheep and pigs as well as the flower show where there were an enormous number of amazing dahlias on display. We finished up at the food hall again for a lunch of more samples! On the way back to Jess's we had a swim in her local outdoor 50m saltwater pool – it's a lovely pool apart from the salt, which I'm not a huge fan of really. Then the airport, and the flight back to Auckland, arriving at midnight as the Aussie flights tend to.

Today I'm trying to sort out my luggage for sailing, but tomorrow hopefully I'll get a chance for a last bit of sightseeing before leaving NZ. If it's nice, I'm planning to visit Rangitoto. If it's not, I might go to the Antarctic centre or maybe the museum again.

Currently uploading photos after finding a cheap internet cafe with an actual fast connection. Woohoo.

Blue Mountains

2009-04-10T21:33:00.003+12:00

So my Good Friday was spent "bush walking" (hah!) in the Blue Mountains. I did walk, and it was nice, but it wasn't what I'd call bush walking with the road pretty handy most of the time! I've been spoiled in NZ's isolation I think.

To start off with it was pretty quiet, apart from two groups of Japanese tourists shouting (really, shouting, quite unnecessarily). However as the day went on and I walked towards the must-see sights it got busier and busier. Hordes of Asian tourists - Chinese and Japanese as well as Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi - many dressed entirely inappropriately for a walk on anything except a high street. I saw dresses, handbags, and every sort of footwear including flip flops, ballet shoes, suede boots - but very few decent trainers or walking boots. The Europeans and Aussies were marginally better-equipped. I think the source of the problem was two-fold; one, the visitor's centre at Echo Point where there's a nice lookout, and two, "Scenicworld". Scenicworld (who named it, they need shooting?) has a cable car, a funicular railway, and a sort of horizontal cable car, and attracts loads of people. At the bottom of the cable car and the railway there's a boardwalk around what used to be the Katoomba coal mine, which was interesting, but, again busy.

So I walked most of the day, to see some waterfalls and the Three Sisters (rock formations) and down the Giant Staircase (878 steps, I wasn't walking up it!). Got the funicular railway up to the top of the cliff. It's the world's steepest and I thought it might be fun, which it was, though I didn't feel the need to scream as some other passengers did. Took a couple of pictures of other people for them and got generally irritated at having to avoid people taking pictures of themselves/girlfriends/boyfriends/friends/family in front of perfectly good views. The most random shot of the day was that of a Chinese lady who had asked me and an Aussie couple (who'd just climbed up a long flight of steps and were knackered) for help. She wanted a picture of herself and the Aussies in front of a sign. Nothing special about the sign ... I duly obliged, though I was as puzzled as the Aussies!

It was actually a pretty nice day, but would have been nicer with fewer people around.

Uploading to Flickr is ridiculously slow. I'm persevering, but I think it's unlikely I'll get anything from Brisbane or here up before I get back to Auckland.

Last state-hopping complete

2009-04-09T19:40:00.004+12:00

Well, I'm now in the Blue Mountains in the small town of Katoomba - staying at a really rather nice YHA, which is large but extremely clean and comfortable, and has wireless. Yay. I am uploading some photos to Flickr but it's taking a long time - dunno why, but I'll get as many online as I can. Sitting on the sofa is about all I should be doing right now anyway as I managed to bash my head standing up too fast earlier on; whacked it on the bunk above mine. Bit of a headache, but I don't feel sick or anything!

Katoomba seems to be a nice little place. There are some walks to do, so that's tomorrow sorted, and I might go to the cinema too because they have a big one (and an Olympic-sized pool according to my map, which just reminds you you're in Oz - no town this small in the UK would have a 50m pool. Most wouldn't have any pool.) It's a tad hippyish, with several organic/wholefood cafés - had a lovely salad for lunch - and a crystal shop and that sort of thing. But not in a bad way.

New South Wales is, anyway, my last Aussie state before going back to NZ. It has been a bit of a whirlwind highlights tour, but it's been fun.

Better day in Brisbane

2009-04-09T00:03:00.002+12:00

Another quickish update from Brisbane, after a really lovely day. Possibly my miserable mood was to do with the fact I'm a bit toured-out, after so many organised days in a row. I do like my independence, and today I did just what I wanted and it was great.

The run I sort of planned last night didn't happen, but I just about walked the same distance I'd thought of running with stops en route for culture and photographs. Went to the contemporary art gallery, which had a big exhibition of contemporary Chinese art that was really good - thought-provoking and visually interesting. Their contemporary indigenous section wasn't half bad either. Skipped the main art gallery, but wandered around the Queensland Museum (like the contemporary gallery, free entry). Then on to Brisbane's South Bank, a blatant rip-off of London complete with a big wheel, though there's a beach/lagoon thing instead of a Tate Modern and a Globe! It was nice though to wander around and watch the ibises - for some reason they're everywhere here, like pigeons in London but a bit more interesting (though smellier). Got the ferry across the river a while later and walked back through the Botanic Gardens and the city's shopping district, both of which were nice.

Just got back from a very pleasant dinner and catch-up with my former colleague from London, again on the South Bank; up at 7am tomorrow to catch my plane to Sydney.

Sailing (a bit) the Whitsundays

2009-04-07T22:29:00.003+12:00

A quickish update from Brisbane - no more photos until I find wireless, which may not be until Sydney.

Spent the last couple of days on a yacht cruising the Whitsundays, which was fun enough with a nice bunch of people but didn't quite live up to my (possibly too high?) expectations. I maybe should have booked earlier to ensure the right boat, but didn't. The boat I was on is indeed a fast racing yacht, what I wanted, but the company's just split off from another company and clearly maintenance (or lack of) could be a reason. The yacht was a little run down, and right at the start our skipper couldn't get her in forward gear - kind of essential for leaving the harbour. They fiddled with the engine until they'd mended it, but that meant we were late leaving, and we only motorsailed the first afternoon under a gennaker despite all the other boats around sailing properly. Partly we were late, but also, we discovered when we asked, the mainsail had a tear in it. Actually I don't think the skipper was terribly impressed with a ripped mainsail either, it was his first trip with the company (see how I keep getting first-trip guides?) and he wanted to sail too. Additionally another yacht out at the same time had too many passengers on board for beds, and we had spare beds, so we had to meet up with her at night. That meant a decidedly more "party" atmosphere than I'd been looking for and I think the same went for most of the others on board - though not the four Swedish girls travelling as a group! Not that the socialising wasn't fun, but it meant less sleep than I'd been hoping for. Still a bit short.

Day two started with a trip ashore to see Whitehaven Beach and go for a swim, all togged up in stinger suits to guard against jellyfish. Lovely beach, absolutely white, turquoise sea, the works, so that set us off to a good start. Then we motored to a snorkelling/diving site, which was okay though not up to the standards of the reef further north. Visibility was a bit cloudy, but there was a lot of fish. I did see a fair bit of coral damage however, mostly algae of some description. :( After that we motored to a different mooring, had dinner, and then linked up with the other boat again. The party went on well past my bedtime and was noisy past the time I was trying to get to sleep. Grrr.

Today we started out with a morning snorkel - a quick one, as pretty shortly after getting in we started seeing jellyfish. We all made a fairly sharp exit from the water, despite the stinger suits! Then, thank heavens, we set both sails (the skipper had, I think, realised there were grumpy passengers on board) and had a good sail back to Airlie Beach. Wasn't long enough though and there wasn't a huge amount of audience participation. I helped a bit with the main halyard and that was it. However, a nice end to the trip.

Back in Airlie, a quick swim and a shower helped to freshen up. I'd planned to catch the local bus to the airport but on arrival at the bus stop realised I'd misjudged that one. Hadn't booked a shuttle. Had to get a taxi. Some $78 later, regretted the taxi and my uncharacteristic mismanagement. It's not like I'm skint yet, but the fact remains I didn't want to spend that on a taxi fare! Add to tiredness and by the time I finally got to the backpackers tonight I was thoroughly miserable. However, I decided trying to save a few more dollars would be silly while being miserable, and discovered a really excellent pizza, a glass of red wine and an icecream (lots of favourite food) have cheered me up a lot.

Tomorrow I plan to try and go for a morning run to get some decent exercise, and then I'm just going to wander around Brisbane for the day. I've contemplated going to Australia Zoo but then I wouldn't see anything of the city, and it's a long way and expensive. So I'm not going to bother. In the evening I'm meeting a former colleague for dinner, which I'm very much looking forward to.

Off sailing

2009-04-05T12:58:00.002+12:00

I'm in Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays, off sailing shortly for two nights. Airlie Beach, frankly, isn't really my type of place and the bar was right below my dorm room last night - though I did manage to get to sleep despite the music blaring out. (I put earplugs in and they fell out during the night! I knew there was a reason I don't like earplugs.)

Weather's a tad variable now, but there is some wind which is what's important when sailing. Still extremely warm.

Uluru, etc.

2009-04-03T23:31:00.001+13:00

Day 1

I was picked up for the Uluṟu tour bright and early and we were on the road after formalities soon after. We were a mixed bunch of one Brit (me), an Irishman, a Chinese couple, six Germans and three Austrians – so German was the majority language, though English the lingua franca. Our guide, Chris, turned out to be a Kiwi from the Hawke's Bay on his first trip as a guide (he'd obviously been on the tour himself a few times while training). He did a good job too, telling us about the landscape and the plants and so on as we drove away from Alice. We stopped at a camel farm first; I don't think any of our group did one of the short $5 rides but we stretched our legs and looked at camels, an emu and a couple of kangaroos in an enclosure for a bit. Central Australia is full of feral camels, over 500,000 of them at least and all descended from the camels brought out by the early European settlers and explorers. We spotted a few on the tour, by the side of the road and once a couple crossed in front of us.

Shortly after the camel farm we turned off the main highway on to the Ernest Giles road, 100km of unsealed bumpiness. We passed lots of “rivers” - being dry riverbeds – and collected firewood for the night's campfire. Chris showed us how to look for witchety grubs under acacia bushes. A small snake appeared and slithered away (I didn't see it) and he had better luck with the second bush, finding a hollow root where a grub had been though there was no grub. Apparently they're easier to find after rain.

Lunch was had at King's Creek Station. Like many of the cattle stations in central Australia, it doubles as a campsite, shop and petrol station – they've all been supplementing their income from tourism for about 60 years. It was in the 1960s that some farmers alerted a bloke called Jack Cotterill to the existence of King's Canyon, or Watarrka as the Aborigines call it, and tourists started heading out there. The canyon was our afternoon's walk, about 5.5km round the rim. It's red rock, in various weird shapes but predominantly looking like beehives (the old-fashioned sort, or resembling the NZ parliament building). We were there late enough that the light on the rock was really beautiful, particularly at the end of the walk when the sun was setting.

That meant it was dark by the time we got back to King's Creek. The campsite was a couple of kilometres down the road, and we discovered on arrival that one of the connectors providing power to the shelter had fallen off. Chris set about trying to fix it while the rest of us unloaded food from the back of the van.

Chris had been fiddling with the wires for about five minutes, trampling the sand by the truck while a couple of people provided torchlight and the rest of us looked on. I didn't see it happen, but suddenly Chris was calling for water and pouring it on his leg – a small snake had appeared from nowhere and had bitten him just above his sock. He wasn't sure if he'd been properly bitten or not and was initially going to carry on with getting the camp ready while he waited to find out if his leg was getting sore. (Cue “what!” from yours truly, who had visions of him collapsing in front of our eyes.) Luckily he saw sense and decided to get us all back to the station. He got his leg bandaged – by a medical student, though he didn't realise it at the time – and enlisted the Irishman's help to drive the van back. En route he spotted a quad bike from the station and called the guy over; he radioed ahead so when we arrived some of the station hands were out with their torches and help. They'd called the local nurse, who was based some 40km away, and they held Chris's hand and looked after him until she arrived.

Once she'd got there a couple of the station hands and three of us went back to get the food we'd unloaded, scanning the sand intently with very large torches for snakes. Because we didn't have the camp set up, and we hadn't eaten, the station put us up in little canvas cabins and let us use a kitchen and barbeque. We ate burgers and sausages at 10pm before collapsing into bed, exhausted after a slightly more dramatic day than planned.

Day 2

By the time we got up for breakfast at 6.30am a rescue team had arrived – Brad and Tony, who had driven overnight from Alice and had got to the station at 2.30am. But they were both up before us. Brad was there to mend the broken power and drive a ute back to Alice, while Tony was our replacement guide. We'd swapped new boy Chris for an old timer; Tony being your typical Aussie bush bloke with a long long beard. He was less talkative on the loudspeaker in the bus, but knew his stuff on our walks and was also very good at avoiding crowds. All about timing, he said.

We drove from King's Creek to Yulara, or Ayers Rock Resort, arriving by lunchtime. Yulara – it means “howling” in the local language – was purpose-built in the 1980s to control tourists, replacing a different settlement on the other side of Uluṟu. That place is now an Aboriginal community and is closed off, you need a permit to visit. Yulara has several hotels, a campsite, and, though we didn't see it, a shopping centre. In the middle of the desert. The organised tours have a separate campsite and our particular spot was away from the crowds, thank heavens. It's just starting to get busy right now, so it wasn't too bad generally but the campsite was full.

After lunch we headed to the Uluṟu cultural centre, which explains the significance of the site to the Anaṉgu people as well as the various “stories” associated with the rock. There are two major ones – one about a big battle between two snakes, and one about an interrupted ceremony. The centre also explained the history of the national park, which these days is run as a jointly managed effort between the Anaṉgu and the Australian government. They have rangers of both Aboriginal and Australian origin, and try to strike a balance between tourism and preserving the lifestyle and traditions of the local people. It seems they're doing a reasonable job and the centre was interesting.

Then we went out into the heat to see the rock itself. It's really an extraordinary thing, this huge lump of sandstone sticking out of the desert. The actual rock is really grey but it's covered in layers of red dust. It's not regular in any sense, with lots of bits sticking out and caves and so on. There's rock art, a major waterhole, and various places you can't take photos of because they are sacred to the Anaṉgu. The base walk is 9.4km but it was way too hot to do it all, so we did bits of it and drove around most of the rest. The climb was closed due to the heat – they shut it if the temperature is forecast above 36ºC. I wouldn't have climbed anyway; partly because they ask you not to, and partly because frankly it looks terrifying and horrible.

We were done with our walking by about 5.30pm. Tony took us to the sunset viewing point and showed us a good spot, again away from the hordes of coach passengers who settle down at tables with linen next to the coach park. We opened our fizzy wine, made Buck's Fizz and watched the rock change colour until the sun went down. It was rather lovely.

Getting back into the bus Tony said to me, “watch where you're sitting, there's a kangaroo tail in there”. Lo and behold there was indeed, a frozen tail in a plastic bag which he'd bought to cook. Not the nicest thing to see.

Back at the campsite Tony got the fire going and as a group we prepared a massive feast to cook on it – we had all the food we didn't eat the previous night as well! There was a big pot of vegetables, cooked slowly with spices; some pasta with spinach and feta; chicken; and kangaroo mince. And some garlic bread which I cooked in some embers. It was all fantastic, even the kangaroo which tasted somewhat like venison. Felt a bit stuffed afterwards and was happy to fall into my swag for the night. A swag is a sort of leather sleeping bag affair. There's a mattress and pillow inside, and you add your sleeping bag and zip yourself up so only your face is exposed to the night air. It's remarkably comfy and despite the snake incident of the previous night I wasn't at all worried. I think I'd been reassured by Tony's insistence that Chris's bite was absolutely extraordinary (and by now we knew he was safe and had come to no harm) as well as the fact it's a well-used campsite and they wouldn't let you do it if it wasn't safe. Some of the others felt a bit nervous though I think. It was nice lying there looking at the stars, with the fire gently burning behind me, and I slept pretty well through the night.

Day 3

Up even earlier on this day in order to have breakfast and pack up before sunrise. We went to a viewing point near Kata Tjuta, otherwise known as the Olgas, where you can see both Uluṟu and Kata Tjuta. Uluṟu gets the sun behind it, so is silhouetted against the sky, while Kata Tjuta gets the morning sun on red rocks. It was fairly busy but not uncomfortably so.

As soon as the sun was up Tony got us into the bus again so we could get the walk around Kata Tjuta done before it got too hot. Again they close it at 11am if it's forecast to be warm. We were on the track before 8am. The path's called the Valley of the Winds walk and near the beginning it was extraordinarily windy, but later on it was much more sheltered. Kata Tjuta is a collection of large dome-shaped rocks, essentially; but that doesn't quite do it justice.

Tony showed us how the various rocks in the area were formed, using pebbles to illustrate. Basically there was a big flood once upon a time which washed debris into a pile, creating the composite stone of Kata Tjuta. The sandstone of Uluṟu was left on its own, as was the nearby mesa of Mount Conner (which we'd seen on the road the previous day).

On the walk we saw a couple of dingoes up ahead, and a short while after two kangaroos in the bush. I was delighted when one of them bounced away, though my pictures are dreadful. I really wanted to see a wild kangaroo bouncing.

The walk takes you up to a sort of saddle, a divider between two gorges in the formations. Here all Tony's careful crowd-avoidance went to pot because we got up there at the same time as a horde of American teenagers arrived from the opposite direction. There seemed to be hundreds of them. Not fun. We left before they did, because they were coming back the same way they'd come and we wanted to get ahead.

We had lunch at the campsite again and then hit the long road back to Alice, stopping a few times on the way for drinks, stretching, and kangaroo tail for those that wanted it. I really didn't, it looked disgusting as it's all fat and sinew. No proper meat on it.

The last stop was at “Jim's Place”. Jim Cotterill is the son of Jack (see day 1) and he runs a roadhouse about 90km from Alice Springs. He's a down-to-earth Aussie in his 60s and he owns a singing dingo. Dinky the dingo and Jim do a little show for those who are interested. Basically Dinky was a victim of dingo poisoning – all his family was killed but Dinky was rescued, about eight years ago. He grew up in Jim's household as a dog, basically, and got used to the Cotterill daughters playing the piano. Soon they discovered Dinky would “sing” along to the music and learnt to hit the keys with his paws. Of course word spread and now Dinky's a worldwide celebrity with a question in the Aussie version of Trivial Pursuit. We had a performance – a bloke from another tour group played the piano. Dinky began to whine and then got up on to the keyboard and began to howl. It was totally out of tune and time with the music and we all found it completely hilarious. Jim said dingoes are very communicative, and basically Dinky is using music as a way of communicating with the family. There's a few videos on YouTube.

We got back to Alice about 6.30, time to shower and do laundry before a last meal as a group. Everyone was very nice and despite the various language barriers we got on well – I found myself helping the Chinese couple with rental car booking queries at the airport the next day because they were on the same flight as me. But I was exhausted after all the early starts, and was happy to collapse into bed!

Great Barrier

2009-04-02T22:31:00.002+13:00

Another quick entry - wireless is down at my otherwise lovely hostel in Cairns, so I can't upload the long entry I did about Uluru (etc). Yesterday morning I went to Alice Springs' telegraph station, which was very interesting and really worthwhile and I survived the walk! Today I went snorkelling on the Great Barrier, and managed to find a small operator. They were really good, we did three dives and saw loads of different coral and fish and best of all a green turtle that swam around us for ages. Lots of fun. Tomorrow off to Cape Tribulation, a rainforest area further north.

Back from the Outback

2009-03-31T23:15:00.003+13:00

Back from my trip to Uluru (etc). It was fun. It was also baking hot and I am heartily sick of flies - they're everywhere! Everything went smoothly apart from the not-so-minor matter of our guide getting bitten by a snake on the first night while trying to connect power in the campsite. Luckily the snake only caught the top of his sock and no venom got into the bloodstream, but he still had to go to hospital back in Alice before they'd confirmed that. The company was brilliant and sent a relief guide out to us, so we didn't miss out on anything except one night's sleeping under the stars; the station the campsite was on put us up in little cabins for the night because it was getting so late.

Anyway, more when I have wireless, when I'll also upload some of the very many pictures I took!

Too hot!

2009-03-28T18:58:00.002+13:00

In Alice Springs. It's too hot. Way too hot. I'm melting. I tried to go for a walk to the old telegraph station and gave up after ten minutes - now I'm planning to get up early-ish when I'm back here after my Uluru trip and go first thing in the morning, when it might actually be cool enough, or I might have acclimatised a bit. There are also quite a lot of annoying flies. However my hostel has a (small) pool and I think I'll have a dip after finishing emailing and so on.

Mmm, wine

2009-03-27T20:59:00.001+13:00

Slightly sozzled (only slightly) after a day's wine tasting in the McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills. A small tour group, which was nice, and a mixture of ages and nationalities, also nice. We did five wineries, morning tea, olive oil tasting and lunch. The McLaren Vale's not too far outside Adelaide; it has around 85 wineries apparently but most of them are boutique, small family-owned businesses rather than the multi-national conglomerates.

First stop after morning tea was the Fox Creek winery where we had a tour of their very modern sheds before tasting several whites and I think seven reds, including a fizzy Shiraz which was yummy. After that, Woodstock Wines (named after the Oxfordshire village) – I particularly liked their expensive $60 Shiraz and their dessert wines, but the grenache rosé was pretty good too. We had lunch at Woodstock, one of those antipasto platter affairs.

The next two wineries after lunch – Hugo Wines in McLaren Vale and Petalumba in the Adelaide Hills – made me worry I'd drunk too much because they weren't as good. Not terrible, just not quite as good as the first two. Luckily winery number five was superb. Arranmore Wines is a tiny little operation producing 1000 cases a year and run by one man, who knew his stuff and made excellent wines. Up there it's colder than down in the vale, so the wines reminded me far more of the stuff I've been drinking in NZ – especially as he makes a rather nice pinot noir. A good last stop actually.

Off up to Alice Springs tomorrow. I hear it's hot.

Port Adelaide

2009-03-26T20:48:00.001+13:00

Port Adelaide was small, but I enjoyed my trip out there anyway. The maritime museum was excellent, especially the section on immigrants to Australia – I particularly liked the reconstruction of steerage cabins through the ages and the ketch they have in the main lobby. Not a large museum, but a nice one. The rest of the town is very, very sleepy with old port buildings dotted about; the port itself is somewhat industrial and ugly. There's a community of bottlenose dolphins living in the estuary but I didn't see any. Anyway I had a nice wander.

Got back to the hotel early enough to make a trip to the aquatic centre worthwhile. I do love the fact that in Australia you can guarantee a 50m pool – Adelaide's was busy with the local swim squad but there were three public lanes and they weren't too busy. (The centre also had two leisure pools and a diving pool.) A bonus was the white parrots or cockatoos I saw in the surrounding park en route and on the way back from swimming. You wouldn't find those in the UK, or indeed NZ!

Adelaide

2009-03-25T23:13:00.000+13:00

The Overlander, Tuesday 24 March

On the train on the way to Adelaide. Miles and miles of very flat, very brown Aussie scenery rolling by (I'd say rushing, but it'd be wrong as this train doesn't rush, it rolls). There's still a good couple of hours left in the journey and then I somehow have to find tonight's motel ....

Melbourne was fun, good to see friends and relax a bit. Yesterday I spent the morning wandering around the shops with Bea (on holiday from the UK). Nice to see proper shops, it's one thing Wellington doesn't have in abundance. Bought a new wide-angle lens as mine has died; it will probably be fixable but I'm not staying anywhere long enough to get it fixed and I found a decent deal on a Sigma 10-20mm digital lens. Bea and I met up with Helen for a yum cha lunch, which was highly enjoyable. I like being a lady what lunches. :) After that we split up as Bea had already been to the city museum and I wanted to go. I got to play with the new lens outside and inside the museum, which is beautiful from an architectural point of view and interesting from a cultural point of view. I didn't bother with the generic science/natural history galleries because you do get those everywhere and went straight to the Melbourne gallery, telling the city's story. I followed that with the Te Pasifika gallery (small, with a variety of canoes and other Pasifika artefacts including a kiwi-feather cloak from NZ) and the Aborigine gallery. That raised the question of whether it's right for museums in other countries to hold indigenous artefacts in their collections. The Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders don't think it is – I'm of two minds. Human remains should, I reckon, remain in their home countries. Bits of rock and objects given by indigenous peoples to explorers and collectors is a slightly different matter; I understand the point of view that those things belong to the tangata whenua (to use the Maori term for people of the land) but if every nation on earth took that view we'd be a very closeted species, unaware and unappreciative of the greater world on our doorstep. Especially because relatively speaking not that many people get a chance to travel outside their borders.

Finished the museum with the forest gallery, which was a rather good sort of giant aviary full of trees and tree ferns and other plants, waterways, birds and some animals and so on. I managed to arrive just when the alpine copperhead snake was being fed its weekly dead mouse – a very scrawny little white creature – so I watched for a while. Still don't like snakes. I preferred the pretty little birds twittering about among the trees.

Next stop, just before it closed, was Cook's Cottage. Some time ago some Melburnians decided to buy the old stone cottage once lived in by Captain Cook's parents, dismantle it, and ship it from Great Ayton in Yorkshire all the way to Oz. As you do. It now stands incongruously amid the palm trees in a Melbourne park, complete with an English-style cottage garden and very non-English birds flitting about. In the interests of being a complete Cook geek I had to go inside for a quick look.

The sun was beginning to set, turning the churches and modern architecture a lovely golden, and I sat in Federation Square for a while people-watching and waiting for friends. Helen took us rowing that evening, a short outing in a coxed four on the Yarra which was fun. Always good to get out in a boat.

Up early this morning to catch the train, and I've generally relaxed all day. Comfortable seats, alternating between reading, scenery watching, snoozing and eating. Could be worse ...

----

Adelaide, Wednesday 25 March

Back from a day exploring Adelaide; my feet hurt!

Caught a taxi to my hotel from the train station last night – it was raining and I really had no idea where I was! Only the taxi driver appeared to have no idea either and had to consult a map before putting the hotel address into his GPS thing. Sometimes I miss London cabbies.

I'm staying in North Adelaide, which is a nice neighbourhood with lots of really pretty Victorian houses and a main street with plenty of restaurants and so on. However it's also within walking distance of the city proper, and that's where I headed this morning. Booked a wine tour in the McLaren Vale for Friday before hitting the Central Market, a large covered market with lots of fruit, veg, meat, cheese and bakery stalls. I didn't need to buy anything but had a lovely wander around (and a really good coffee).

Then I went to a contemporary arts gallery called the JamFactory – they have a glass studio attached – some lovely pieces of glassware, jewellery and a great exhibition of quirky creatures made out of glass. I carried on being cultural at the South Australian Museum, mainly for the Aboriginal cultural gallery; lots of art and other objects from across Australia. The art gallery next door was good too, though had a baffling range of art from across the world. I actually liked the contemporary Aborigine art best. So I went on to the national Aboriginal cultural centre, Tandanya, where they were changing exhibits so there wasn't much to see. Aboriginal art is awfully expensive.

Finished the day with a wander through the Botanic Gardens, especially the rose garden. I do love roses and they had lots of different ones, including some test roses. A funny little bloke driving round on a quad bike told me I ought to be taking pictures of the test flowers because they might get chucked out if they're not successful. He was actually the third random old Aussie bloke who's struck up a conversation with me in the past few days. In Melbourne on Monday after I'd said bye to Bea one old guy told me we looked very relaxed and was I on holiday; and then earlier today outside the state library another man suggested that I go round the back to look at the old police buildings (I did, it was a good suggestion).

I'm planning to catch the train tomorrow morning to Port Adelaide and go to the maritime museum, and then if I'm back in town early I might check out the aquatic centre and have a swim.

In Melbourne

2009-03-22T16:34:00.006+13:00

I've left NZ for a few weeks and am now in Melbourne on the start of my Australian travels. Staying with a friend from rowing at home, who's been out here for a while, and there are a couple of other mutual friends here too so it's been good to catch up. In a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing we did a team triathlon this morning - I did the 750m swim, which was a bit scary because of the chaos at the start. However I managed to overtake quite a few people and did a good time, and as a team we think we were the first or second quickest female team. Annoyingly they decided to merge the male and female teams as all male on the results so it's hard to tell for sure.

Melbourne still tomorrow, before heading to Adelaide by train on Tuesday morning.

East Coast

2009-03-20T15:47:00.002+13:00

Gisborne, Tuesday 17 March (update from the last post)

Spent the late afternoon walking around Gisborne's hill Titirangi and seeing Cook-related sites. There's a memorial up roughly where Cook landed – a memorial and a bit of grass, right next to a logging yard. A container ship from Hong Kong was loading. I couldn't help wondering what Cook would have made of it all now. It was, slightly, depressing. Cook's achievements were such that he rates more than a stone memorial in a logging yard. I think he'd have been happier with the Endeavour.

After seeing the memorial I climbed up Titirangi for views of the town and the bay, and down to the very large marae below it. Back towards the holiday park I paused at the statue of Cook and the one of his cabin boy Young Nick, who first spotted NZ. I bet Nick never realised what he did and how important it was.

Fish and chips for dinner. Mmm.

---

Te Araroa, Wednesday 18 March

When the Lonely Planet said the amenities blocks here at Te Araroa Holiday Park needed an upgrade, they weren't kidding – I feel like I've gone back in time. Back in time with the price, too – just $12 for me and my little tent for the night. The whole day in fact has been a bit back-in-time; the East Coast seems as though it hasn't moved on much from the 60s or 70s. Faded buildings, old vehicles, farmers driving quad bikes around, roads that need improving, no mobile reception and no internet. Instead of modern stuff which you can do without, there's miles and miles of wild empty beaches, green green hills, sheep and cows, and trees. Not much else. The main industry appears to be logging – timber trucks kept passing me all day on those windy roads carrying their cargoes to Gisborne. Apart from that, it's agriculture or road maintenance, apparently. I did a feature on East Coast schools at one point and I remember they were predominantly low-decile, overwhelmingly Maori and trying to deal with all sorts of problems. You can see why, driving the coast. Everywhere's so isolated. I turned down into Waipiro Bay, a ten-minute narrow windy road off the main state highway, and there's a school down there. The town's just a few houses, the church is in disrepair, and yet they're trying to run a school.

Despite the general run-downness of the coast, however, it's stunningly beautiful in a very North Island sort of way. Lots of evidence of seismic activity in the landscape. I imagine it must have looked relatively similar when Cook got here, though there was probably more bush and less grass. My first stop this morning was Cook's Cove walkway, going to a cove he landed in in late October 1769. There's a random plaque on a block of concrete overlooking the cove, informing you that Endeavour took on wood and water and Banks and Solander collected plants. It was a nice walk, first up through farmland and then down through bush, and there was a rather nice hole in the rock to look at as well.

Had lunch by the Tolaga Bay wharf, the longest pier in the southern hemisphere, built in the late 1920s and rather run down now. It's long out of use except by fishermen.

I'd planned to stop a lot more than I did – I missed the turnoff for Whangara, where Whale Rider was set and filmed, which was a bit annoying. I thought I'd stop in Tokomaru Bay, after Tolaga, but there wasn't anything to stop for. Waipiro was a nice little diversion and I'm glad I did it, though was puzzled by the road back to SH35 which was sealed for a bit, then unsealed, then sealed for about 50m, then unsealed, and so on. Made no sense whatsoever.

After that I planned to stop for an ice-cream in Ruatoria, but even the Lonely Planet was being rather kind to what turned out to be a very depressing sort of place, and I turned round and got out of Dodge.

Once I'd arrived at tonight's holiday park (and had pitched my tent away from the pig and two piglets that were nosing around) I went for a nice walk on the absolutely deserted beach and watched the surf for a bit. That was lovely. Then it started to rain, and absolutely chucked it down for a while.

---

Awatiri, Thursday 19 March

It seems like today's been a long day, but I'm ultimately chilled out thanks to 40 minutes in the hot pool attached to tonight's holiday park and some lovely Hawke's Bay rosé. Blogging offline while sitting outside (mainly because that's the only way I can a) sit and b) have the computer plugged in to recharge) and it's warm and sunny. Lovely.

Woke up at 6am and wondered what I was doing getting up before dawn, before remembering that I wanted to be the first in the world to watch today's sun rise. I was a bit late leaving according to the timeplan the holiday park guy gave me, but the road was fine – only partially unsealed – and it was getting light by the time I reached the East Cape (having successfully avoided running over one rabbit, two unspecified birds, and a large dog en route). I was worried I'd missed the best of it, so hurried up the stairs to the lighthouse. It's supposed to take 25 minutes, I did it in ten. Up there were six or seven people who'd been more sensible than me and had camped by the roadside at the bottom of the hill, and together we watched a beautiful sunrise by a very well-maintained lighthouse. It was all rather lovely.

Had breakfast back at the park, packed up my things and hit the road. I wasn't sure how much I'd stop – there seemed to be things of potential interest on the map and in the Lonely Planet, but things that say they're interesting aren't always and vice-versa. In the end I didn't stop much at all. Some things that seemed interesting weren't signposted, and by the time you notice them they're gone. Others (the church in Tokere, for instance) were somewhat dilapidated and I didn't bother stopping. I did however pause in Ruakorere[CHECK] where there's a beautiful little church built in 1894 by the shoreline. Definitely worth a look. Their graveyard was a family one, for many generations of Stirlings, and a sign asked you not to go in. Also I had to take my shoes off to go into the church, to protect the carpet.

After that, I didn't stop at all until Opotiki apart from a coffee at Te Kaha. Nevertheless it was a great drive, with more stunning East Coast scenery – deep green bush bordered by the bright blue Pacific. The interior looked pretty mystical and spooky, cloud-clad and dark. I'd like to go and look at the Ureweras at some point. On the way I passed loads of little marae, all beautifully carved and well looked after. In fact the marae are a lot better looked after than the churches, which says a lot for community spirit and not much at all for religion out here. It would have been wonderful to get a look inside the marae, but unfortunately – unlike churches, which invite you in for a wander around – marae are the sort of places you need invitations for. There's clearly a strong Maori spirit that still influences the East Coast, and with slogans adorning a lot of the vehicles around people are evidently proud of who they are and where they've come from.

Around lunchtime I arrived in Opotiki. I'd planned to stay the night here but it was way too early and the town way too small. I had a wander down the main street, looked at the old buildings and the nice church, put more petrol in the tank for tomorrow's drive to Auckland, and carried on! I paused at the nearby Hukutaia Domain, a small space devoted to native plants and trees, where there's a half-hour bush walk through some lovely bush. Lots of tree ferns and so on. There's also a puriri tree which is estimated to be well over 2000 years old (!!!) that used to be used as a “burial tree” by the local hapu. They dug up bones a few years after death and re-interred them inside the hollow trunk. There was an earthquake some time ago that exposed the bones, so the iwi moved them and lifted the tapu on the tree and now you can go and see it. It's an extraordinary old tree, all gnarled and knotted, with a great hollow bit inside. I wished I'd had a tripod; my photos are all a bit blurry. Anyway I liked the walk and the domain and the tree and was glad I'd made the detour.

As I was so early I decided to carry on past Opotiki and cut down tomorrow's drive to Auckland. After a bit of Lonely Planet and map-consulting I settled on Awatiri, just off the road north towards Rotorua, where the holiday park has hot springs. It's a nice holiday park and the hot springs pool, a proper swimming pool size, was wonderful. I soaked and relaxed for a while. $15 well spent!

---

Auckland, Friday 20 March

Finally in Auckland after a sloooooow drive up this morning. Lots of traffic, lots of slow traffic. However I didn't get lost in Auckland despite the diversion in place and got the car back only half an hour late (which wasn't a problem).

Have repacked my bags for Australia and I catch an early flight to Melbourne tomorrow. :)

Flickr all updated.

Sunshine in Gisborne!

2009-03-17T16:00:00.004+13:00

For the first time in a few weeks, I'm boiling - despite waking to rain this morning and having to pack the tent up in the rain, the sun finally came out by the time I got to Gisborne and it's now pretty hot. It's supposed to be sunny here so I'm pleased, and am camping again. I missed out on Te Mata Peak however, there was no point visiting a lookout when rain was all that could be seen.

So far I've just been to the museum, which was nice enough though small (they were renovating a bit of it so I missed that, but on the plus side, entry was only $2). Am going to walk up to the lookout point after this, I thought I'd wait until it was a little cooler. I'm debating whether or not to go to the cinema this evening - not sure I can be bothered really! May just chill out with the rest of yesterday's wine. :)

Tomorrow I head up the East Coast, with plans to sleep in Te Araroa and get up to be the first in the world to see the sunrise on Thursday.

Back up north

2009-03-16T19:41:00.002+13:00

I'm back in the North Island after my southern travels. Got back to Wellington on Friday afternoon, which was weird because it felt like coming home though I had no home to go to! The flight was wonderful - it was mostly clear, so the pilot took us the "scenic route" and I had lovely views of mountains and the West Coast from my window seat the whole way. (See Flickr for pictures.) I didn't see Mount Cook because it was on the other side of the plane, but we had better views the rest of the time on my side so I didn't mind. It's amazing how narrow the island is - you can see right across.

Once in Wellington I went straight to the aquatic centre, where my club was hosting the NZ masters long course nationals. Friday was all long distance, and I wasn't swimming but did help out on the registration desk. Saturday I swam some sprints and relays, which was fun, and handed out lunches. :) In the evening we had the meet party, also fun as our social occasions always are. Sunday was just the morning and I was mostly timekeeping, feeling terribly official! The meet went exceptionally well and as always at masters' events I was inspired and impressed by the older competitors - we had two 92-year-olds swimming and they're just remarkable. To be still getting in the pool and racing, albeit extremely slowly, at that age, is amazing.

Caught up with friends in town during the afternoon, which was a perfect sunny windless Wellington day. I shall miss Wellington, it's a superb place to live.

This morning I popped into work to say a final goodbye and find out how things were going, which was nice. Oddly it felt rather as though I'd never left, despite me being there in shorts and t-shirt all ready to head off on the next stage of travelling.

After that I picked up my rental car and headed north towards Hawkes Bay. The drive was a bit slow though the scenery was pretty and I didn't arrive in Havelock North until 3pm (via getting slightly lost twice and a stop for groceries in Masterton!) I pitched my tent for the evening before dashing off on a whistlestop tour of three of the local wineries - I'd planned to cycle, but there wasn't time to work out where to hire a bike and I probably wouldn't have made it anywhere before the cellar doors closed if I'd cycled. So I drove, and was a bit careful about what I tasted, and anyway it wasn't far. I went to Craggy Range which has an exceptional location next to Te Mata Peak (I plan to go up there tomorrow morning) and exceptional architecture - really a beautiful building. Good wine too, though they produce wine from grapes grown around NZ and I tasted a Martinborough sauvignon and a Central Otago pinot as well as Hawkes Bay chardonnay, syrah and cabernet merlot. I got a bottle of the latter and am drinking it now - it's yummy, though was far too good for my dinner (a left-over freeze-dried lamb fettucine thing I never ate down south). After that, on to Te Mata Estate and then I just had time for Black Barn before all the cellar doors closed.

The weather's perked up, thankfully; it rained a bit en route but was nice this afternoon and is dry now. Hopefully it'll stay that way until I hit Auckland on Friday!

Chilling in Glenorchy

2009-03-12T18:11:00.001+13:00

I really did next to nothing on Wednesday morning. The weather was iffy again, so I just went for a wander around the Glenorchy walkway, which circuits the town. It was a nice enough little circuit.

After lunch I did a horse trek – it sounded like a nice thing to do and I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see whether or not I was still allergic to horses. Apparently I am; it didn't take that long for the sniffles to start. But it wasn't unbearable so I coped okay. My horse was an obstinate beast called Winston who likes to follow the guides and be second in line – when other horses tried to get in front he got snippy about it and it took me a while to work out how to control him properly. We trekked up the Dart River in the direction of Paradise, but didn't get as far as Paradise itself. Lovely views up into the mountains and lots of willow trees (which Winston tried to eat).

Had dinner at the hotel for the second night running and then read a trashy crime novel they happened to have handy – it was really bad, but diverting for a couple of hours.

This morning it was clear, so I hurried out to the lagoon I walked past yesterday and took some photos before the bus back to Queenstown. I've mostly mooched since getting back; done laundry and so on. I considered doing a jetboat trip but I'm not that fussed and would rather spend the cash on something else really.

Tomorrow it's back to Wellington for masters nationals (swimming) at the weekend, a final catch up with Wellington friends and then up round the East Coast on Monday.

The Routeburn Track

2009-03-12T18:09:00.000+13:00

Day 1

I spent the night before doing the Routeburn stressing about the fact I'd forgotten to pick up my hut tickets from the Doc office in Queenstown and hoping the bus driver would be happy to stop at the Doc office in Te Anau so I could get them there. As it happened I shouldn't have stressed, because the bus stops at Doc in Te Anau anyway! So that was all all right.

Instead, the weather was the thing to worry about. A short way out of Queenstown it started to rain and didn't stop until Te Anau, when things looked a bit brighter for a little while. But once we got on the Milford Road it really looked bleak. At the Divide, where the track begins, it was still raining and there was a bedraggled Belgian girl there who said she'd decided to turn around from Lake Mackenzie Hut and not go over the top of the saddle. That concerned me and the German girl who were there, but we shrugged our shoulders, donned waterproofs and set out.

In actual fact it didn't matter about the rain too much that first day, because the track is mostly through bush and is relatively sheltered. The sun even came out for a bit just below Key Summit and there were mountains through the mist. All very atmospheric, though the clouds rolled in again by the time I'd climbed the detour to Key Summit and that was mainly a trip to see alpine plants.

Had lunch at Lake Howden Hut, which was packed with walkers on the guided tour. I'm afraid I can't see the point of doing the guided walk unless you actually can't carry a full pack (they provide food and accommodation, which reduces the stuff you have to carry quite considerably). The Routeburn is not a track you could easily get lost on.

After lunch the track continued on upwards through lots of lovely bush and past the truly majestic Earland Falls. The falls were, as expected after all the rain, in absolute torrents and walking past them was like walking through an extremely cold shower! Pretty amazing though especially for a waterfall fan like me. I managed to get some shots from a distance when I'd walked a little further.

As I got closer to the hut the rain got harder and it was a relief to see the smoke rising from the stove and the thought of warmth and dryness awaiting. Earlier arrivals had already got the fire going and there were a lot of wet clothes and boots drying by the stoveside. The atmosphere was very convivial and it was nice warming up and chatting to the other trampers. There was a wide range of nationalities and ages and most people were very friendly.

Later on the hut warden, Clive – I think he was probably British by birth, as he didn't have much of a Kiwi accent – gave his famous introductory talk. My companions on the non-kayak trip had already done the track and told me that the Mackenzie hut warden did this talk. He was brilliant, full of mad stories about the track and people he claimed to have seen on it; drily and effortlessly funny. I don't believe his tale about worms that bore holes in the rocks on the track (the holes, seen the next day, are way too large and regular to have been formed by anything except mechanical means) but the stories about the woman walking the track in a bikini and jandals could be true, as could the one about the Japanese guy who wanted to cycle the track and ended up carrying his bike all the way from Lake Howden. Anyway Clive's talk sent us all off to bed in a cheerful mood.

Day 2

When I got up on day 2 it was cloudy, but the cloud quickly began to dissipate to reveal snowy mountains surrounding the hut. Utterly stunning, and it got better as the day continued. I set out all wrapped up though because it was chilly and showers were still forecast; the layers came off gradually as I climbed up towards the Harris Saddle. The path went through a bit of bush and then came out, with views down to Lake Mackenzie and the hut below. It zigzagged upwards before turning a corner, with new views into the next valley and across to the next mountain range. Absolutely stunning. By now I was also at the snow line from the previous night's fall, which meant prettiness right by the track too.

The track basically kept on upwards to the Harris Saddle, where there's a day shelter (and a slightly fancier one for the guided walkers!) It was still clear, and only just past noon, so I dumped my pack and armed with a camera went on up to Conical Hill, a viewpoint above the saddle. Quite a lot above actually – Harris Saddle is at 1255m and Conical Hill over 1500m, and the track is steep and rocky. I puffed and panted my way up there and on the way back passed a lot of other people puffing and panting. But it was worth it, with 360º views around and the mountains all dusted with snow. We were so lucky with the mostly clear skies.

After the saddle the track skirts Lake Harris (I rather liked the name!) before beginning its descent. I don't like downhill very much and not after a morning of uphill, so made somewhat heavy weather of the last 90 minutes to Routeburn Falls Hut. The falls themselves were beautiful and also running full thanks to the rain the previous day.

Routeburn Falls Hut is pretty flashy, with single bunks – none of the traditional Doc long mattresses – and a large kitchen/common room. It was also cold! The stove wouldn't light properly and after a while shivering in the main room I retreated to my sleeping bag to warm up, and then added extra layers to stay warm over dinner.

Spent the evening chatting to some of the other trampers going in my direction – the German girl, Stephanie, who'd been on my bus to the Divide, a French guy who'd also done the Caples Track before the Routeburn, and an Israeli couple. It was good fun, though the Falls hut warden was nowhere near as eloquent as Mackenzie's Clive. I think she may have been new, she seemed rather nervous about the whole talking in public thing. We also spent some time trying to identify the languages on a big sheet on the wall welcoming people to the hut and wishing them happy Christmas, which was diverting.

Day 3

The glorious weather of the previous day had vanished in gales and rain by the time I got up. Everyone going in the opposite direction was looking decidedly miserable at the prospect of crossing the saddle in the gales. We were glad we were going down through bush.

Had an unhurried start because the bus wasn't until 2pm, though I left as much time as the sign said it would take because of the whole going downhill slowly thing I have going. Actually the track wasn't too steep and it was fairly easy walking the whole way to the Routeburn Shelter, through more bush and across a number of somewhat swingy swingbridges. I dawdled a lot but still made it down an hour quicker than the official sign suggested. We were all glad to see the bus when it arrived.

Just outside the car park we came upon the larger bus carrying the guided walkers, which had managed to go off the road and land itself half in a ditch in an effort to stay out of the way of our track transport bus when it was coming the other way. The guided walkers were shivering in the rain while everyone offered opinions as to the best way to get it out of the ditch – eventually messages were put through to the local farm to call for a tractor. We continued on to Glenorchy, where I got off the bus and checked in at the hotel to my splash-out double room to myself, had a hot shower and did very little for the rest of the day!

Safely off the Routeburn!

2009-03-10T17:11:00.003+13:00

A quick post from Glenorchy - will post more when I'm back in Queenstown and I can type up an entry before using internet time! The Routeburn was wonderful, despite rain on Sunday and today. Luckily those days were mostly in the bush, so pretty sheltered and survivable in the wet. Yesterday was lovely, mostly clear and sunny with amazing views at the Harris Saddle. Felt very sorry for everyone at the hut this morning setting off to climb up there in rain and strong winds! It's nice though to be in civilisation with a warm room and a hot shower. :)

Ready for the Routeburn

2009-03-07T21:02:00.002+13:00

Not a bad day, all told, with a rushed bit in the middle. Slept like a log in my tent but was woken by the fire siren (sounds like an air raid siren) at about 7am – some sort of event going on, apparently. Got up and had a leisurely breakfast before packing up the tent and going to dump bags at tonight's hostel.

After that I needed to take the car back, so I went via Deer Park Heights. This is a private farm on a hill overlooking Queenstown with some really incredible views, a random movie set from an old Disney film, and several Lord of the Rings locations. And a lot of tame animals that are too used to being fed, including donkeys, pigs, llamas, deer and goats. It was worth it for the views though and I was quite glad I'd never made it up there on my bike yesterday as I had planned – the hills could have killed me!

Dropped the car off at the airport and then had to wait for the bus back to town, having ascertained that a taxi would cost me $35. That almost made me late for the 4x4 tour I'd booked into Skipper's Canyon, but I made it and managed to grab a sandwich for lunch too.

The tour – something I'd picked because I was intrigued by the rental companies' edict that rental cars are not allowed in Skipper's Canyon – turned out to be remarkably good fun, helped by a good driver/guide. The road itself is hair-raising, built in the 1880s over a couple of years (it's 16km long), still unsealed with vertical drops to one side. But it takes you into a really narrow canyon with wonderful views and the very very blue Shotover River below. We stopped for pictures a lot, Malcolm our driver told stories in a terribly Kiwi way, and we also paused to pan for gold by the riverbank close to the location for the Ford of Bruinen in The Fellowship of the Ring. Malcolm predictably had stories about getting horses down there, as well as another one from his boss concerning a utilities vehicle driving way too fast down that road in 1999, containing Peter Jackson himself. I found two small specks of gold in my pan, hardly enough to make a fortune! (We also got bitten by sandflies that then invaded the jeep. Grrr.) We had afternoon tea at the old Skipper's settlement, where a farmstead and a school remain, before heading back. It wasn't something I'd have seen alone and the others on the tour were good company, so all in all I'm glad I went.

Now I'm repacking bags so I can carry everything for the Routeburn, hoping I have enough clothes and food. Should be okay. I think.

Pictures on Flickr are all up to date.

Doubtful, but Remarkable

2009-03-06T17:06:00.003+13:00

Manapouri, Thursday 5 March

By rights I should be out in the middle of nowhere tonight, camping in Hall Arm in Doubtful Sound. Unfortunately I'm back in last night's backpackers after the kayaking trip got cancelled due to bad weather. There's a convergence of fronts from the Tasman creating storm warnings – today the sound was choppy and swelly, and it's supposed to get worse so they made a safety call and cancelled our trip. Annoyingly they cancelled once we were all togged up in wetsuits with kayaks packed, rather than any earlier. So we got the dawn boat ride across Manapouri – gorgeous – and bus drive over Wilmot Pass, and all the pre-kayak stuff and it was all looking quite positive for a while. Deep Cove, where you launch, is really sheltered so we couldn't see conditions out in the sound and our guide was relying on radio from a more senior guide who was out in the sound with a group. We were all ready to go when she radioed through cancelling our trip, at which point it was action stations to unpack kayaks and change into normal clothes in order to catch the cruise up the sound.

So we cruised instead of kayaking along with a huge number of other people, mostly aged grockles, on a big boat. Some of our group sulked. I tried not to sulk but wished I'd had my decent camera with me as my pictures aren't totally brilliant (and the battery died on me despite me charging it last night). Doubtful Sound is beautiful, but it would have been nicer to see it from a kayak and not a cruise boat. I also think we'd have had fun as a group, everyone was nice and we seemed to be getting along.

The meeting with the guide who'd made the cancellation decision was fractious, with a couple of the guys demanding more than the $100 refund (or kayaking Milford tomorrow) offered. Apparently their demands paid off later as I've now got $150 refunded. I would still go with the company again, and if I've got time when I'm back for World Champs next year I'm going to try and fit in the trip.

---

Queenstown, Friday 6 March

I decided to camp tonight instead of hunting for a backpackers here, which would have been tricky because it's Queenstown and always busy. Luckily it wasn't raining when I arrived so I set up my tent in the dry - then I rented a bike, and it started raining while I was out. It's still going. I haven't yet dared check the inside of the tent, but it should be waterproof if I set it up right, and I think I did for once! Hopefully the rain will stop later, anyway. It's kind of brighter now than it was ...

Not sure what I'll do tomorrow, I think it may depend on the weather a bit. As I start the Routeburn on Sunday (forecast is okay) it'll probably be a chilled-out kind of day.

Kiwis are brilliant

2009-03-04T15:15:00.004+13:00

Kiwi-spotting last night was a huge success. It was a lovely night (though a little chilly). The sunset on the boat ride out to the spotting site was wonderful, and we also saw albatrosses flying and landing by the boat. Once at the secluded beach the guy uses as his spotting place - there are three breeding pairs there - we got ferried ashore in a motor boat and then followed him through the bush in the dark with torches. All great fun. We saw one kiwi in the bush and then two on the beach; the ones on the beach were better because we were all able to fan out and watch them for a while in the single light of the guide's torch. So glad I managed to do the trip!

Today I've mainly driven to Fiordland; am staying near Manapouri. It's sunny and very very windy - stopped at a lookout point en route and couldn't keep the car door open, it was so windy! Hopefully tomorrow and Friday I'll be kayaking Doubtful Sound, so won't be updating until Saturday from Queenstown.

Birds, birds and more birds

2009-03-03T17:34:00.002+13:00

My day on Stewart Island has been excellent, and luck seems to be holding - I'd thought that I was going to miss out on the kiwis because it seemed impossible to get hold of the kiwi man, and the information office said he was booked. But just now he called and said he can take me, so kiwis beckon!!

I went for a brisk walk this morning out to a lookout point, to see NZ's oldest stone house (it's a little cottage, and it shows that I've been here long enough to be impressed by something from the early 1800s now!) I carried on to the water taxi wharf for Ulva Island - cutting the time a little fine actually, but a bit of running up and down the many steps made sure that I made the taxi at the time I'd booked it.

Ulva is a wildlife reserve, predator-free and packed with birdlife. I saw most of the birds on the little booklet you can get, including kaka, green parakeets, bellbirds, really cute little tom tits and Stewart Island robins, and saddlebacks. Got some moderately decent pictures too, though many came out blurred. Am trying to put a few pics on Flickr while I'm here but it doesn't half slow down the internet.

Anyway, off for a quick shower and then fish and chips for dinner before kiwi watching.

The Catlins

2009-03-02T20:24:00.004+13:00

Catlins, Saturday 28 February 2009

In the loveliest backpackers possible – quiet, clean, almost luxurious, new bathroom fittings, a nice kitchen ... and a twin room to myself. Bliss. I thought I was going to have the whole place to myself for a while, but am sharing with a nice older Dutch couple and a younger couple of uncertain origin. I've got laundry done and have also backed up a bunch of photos, so am right up to date and prepared for a good night's sleep. Hurrah.

Day in the Catlins was nice despite overcast weather. It rained for a bit this morning and then there was just very low cloud all day, but it was at least warm. Starting out this morning I missed the petrol stations in Dunedin and had an anxious few miles with the empty light flicking on and off until I found fuel in Mosgiel. Phew. I had an indifferent coffee in Balclutha (smaller than I'd imagined, for some reason) and then pushed on to Nugget Point. There's supposed to be a wildlife viewing hide but it's closed at the moment, however the little walk up to the lighthouse was worth it. Very wild. After that, I stopped in Owaka, purchased my obligatory kiwi (knitted, adorable, needs a name) and went to Jack's Bay for lunch.

Nearby there's a blowhole which is 200m inland but was utterly cool – 55m deep and the sea was pounding the sides. An awesome noise and sight. Also, I may have solved the blisters problem with tape and Icebreaker. Should've known Icebreaker would be the answer.

Onwards on the teeth-crunching gravel roads to Purakanui Falls, which were beautiful. The bonus of lots of rain, I suppose. I was annoyed though by the two ladies with dogs, walking them along the track despite the very clear “no dogs” sign at the start. After that, Matai Falls, which were prettier if possible though smaller. I do like a good waterfall.

Then I found my way to the hostel – which is the wrong word for this place really, was thrilled at how nice it was, and have spent the evening eating well, drinking Pinot Gris and chilling. It's a hard life.

----

Curio Bay, Sunday 1 March

Horrible weather. Blowing a gale outside with intermittent rain, so have retreated to tonight's hostel – a beach house with a nice view of Curio Bay. Glad I'm not camping, it's freezing.

Diary interrupted suddenly to dash on to the beach and watch Hector's Dolphins surfing. They actually swam around beyond the break, waited for a wave, and then surfed in on it. Remarkable. Extremely brilliant. In 45 minutes or so I'm going to head up to Curio Bay in the hope of seeing some hoiho come ashore; earlier on there was a solitary early arrival on the beach but it'd be good to see more.

Another steady sort of day, no point pushing it really. It rained torrents overnight so McLean's Falls first thing were spectacular and gushing water. After a good coffee (hurrah) in the café near the falls on to Cathedral Caves, which are very big and you can walk around inside them. Photos dreadful though, I forgot to take my big flash which might have helped (have barely used it since I got it). Also getting repeated problems with the wide angle – whatever Error 99 is it's annoying me.

Had a picnic by the Waikawa Museum, didn't go round the museum really or look at the amateur art exhibition in the village hall! Did have a look at the cute old church which would have been nicer without the local craft gallery inside it ... then to Curio Bay, which I reached at a low enough tide to explore the fossilised forest as well as take lots of pictures of the aforementioned penguin. I had this crazy idea that the fossil forest was actually just lots of fossils, but it turned out to be an actual forest, fossilised, and you can see the knots in the wood and all sorts in the stone. Fascinating really.

Plan for tomorrow – visit Slope Point, and then drive round the coast to Bluff from where I catch the ferry to Stewart Island in the hope of adding to my endangered wildlife viewing list.

(We did see some penguins in the rain, and then more dolphins over dinner in the bay.)

----

Oban, Monday 2 March

On Stewart Island. It's quiet. The hostel has free internet, which is extraordinary and very cool. A little slow but not drastically. Got the 5pm ferry here, checked in, washed my trousers and walking socks, showered, dashed out for dinner at the local pub - had to eat in the bar because the restaurant was full, a slight annoyance but I got to local-watch which is always amusing. Saw a kaka(po?) on the way back to the hostel; no camera but I'm sure there'll be more tomorrow.

The weather was, finally, better today - woohoo. I discovered a random waterfall walk that I think was recommended in the visitor's book at Curio Bay. It was a lovely walk but kind of adventurous with lots of slippery bits and two streams to cross that were deep enough to necessitate taking off boots. I was ankle-deep in mud at a few points and my trousers got completely covered in the stuff. The waterfalls were spectacular in a primeval sort of way but my camera lens fogged up because it was pretty humid!

Once I'd de-booted and taken off the bottom half of my trousers (thank heavens for walking trousers) I carried on to Slope Point, the southernmost bit of the South Island. It was, mainly, very windy. But I liked it more than coach-ridden Cape Reinga really. Next stop, and the last bit of the Catlins to see really, was Waipapa Point where sea lions lived. I saw two, both doing the "we're just sleeping and aren't interested in being interesting today" thing.

That was about it - the drive to Bluff was spectacularly uneventful and the ferry ride over to Stewart Island equally so really. Going to spend the rest of the evening catching up, reading, and an early night to make the most of my day here.

More pictures to go on Flickr when I can.

Otago

2009-02-27T17:42:00.000+13:00

Otago Peninsula, Thursday 26 February

A rather shabby but comfortable enough backpackers (my first choice was full) on the Otago Peninsula, which apparently is full of German speakers.

Meandered from Oamaru here, stopping where it took my fancy. First stop was the Moeraki Boulders, which were way too busy with loads of people, none of whom were paying the slightest bit of attention to anyone else so getting photos without people was extremely difficult. Doable, but difficult. I planned a coffee at the restaurant but they were a) packed and b) inefficient, so I walked away and didn't pay the $2 fee to see the boulders (Doc doesn't make you pay it so why should you?)

After that, I turned off for Shag Point where there were some seals, some bright green kelp, and some gulls with fluffy chicks. Awww. Then it was lunchtime, so I turned off at Karitane and found a spot by the beach which was pretty enough. That led to a lovely coast road drive, crossing and re-crossing the railway line.

Had to drive through Dunedin but it turned out to be relatively painless and easy. Then on to the peninsula road, which hugs the coastline closely. Decided to stop at Larnach Castle (“New Zealand's only castle”) as the weather wasn't looking too hot and it would be indoors. It was actually a worthwhile visit. The gardens were quite pretty and the castle itself very attractive in an elaborate Victorian sort of way. Lots of carving and plasterwork and that sort of thing, pretty tiles on the floor and great views from the castellated tower. I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would, which is always a bonus.

I reckoned I still had time to spare, so drove to what the Lonely Planet described as the “impressive Chasm” - without explaining what the Chasm was, though I had a pretty good idea which wasn't too far off the mark. There was a long dirt road and then a hill with a lookout, which I failed to get to after reaching a overgrown patch of gorse that was not worth battling through. The Chasm proved – as I'd guessed – to be a sort of gully in the cliff. The angle of the lookout point was such that I couldn't see the bottom, but looking the other way was good too with the turquoise water foaming at the foot of the cliff.

Then to the hostel, including hazardous parking on a steep hill and scary departure for the penguin reserve. My penguin tour was led by a squeaky-voiced lady named Rhonda who talked quite fast but quite simply, presumably for the benefit of the furriners in the group (two other Brits, three Japanese, one American or possibly Canadian and four French). She was a little on the annoying side but am sure she meant well. First we saw the penguin hospital, sheltering some underweight juveniles rescued from further down the coast. After that into a bus to the reserve, where Rhonda led us at breakneck pace from one hide to another to find penguins. The first few were not particularly visible, bits of them being hidden by foliage and the like, but right at the end we saw a parent penguin and its very cute chick right close up. I only wished I'd had a tripod to get less wobbly shots, some are a bit blurry. Anyway it was worth doing to see the penguins up close rather than a million miles away.

Tomorrow on to Dunedin.

----

Dunedin, Friday 27th February

Not much done today. Weather better than anticipated and I wished I had shorts on rather than jeans. Nice hostel with odd name of Hogwartz (one assumes the z is to prevent any sniffiness on the part of JK Rowling or associates). Anyway, despite the silly name it's spacious and clean and I have a double bed. :)

Had a nightmare finding my way around Dunedin and initially, instead of trying to get to the hostel, went to the museum and paid for two hours' parking. The museum was pretty good, a variety of exhibits including a particularly good one on the South Island. Then I found my way (eventually) to the hostel and parked on the horrid narrow street behind it, which I'm not leaving until tomorrow morning!

Lunch, art gallery – free, with a good selection of European paintings that you could get right up close to. I stuck my nose up to a Monet, a Constable or two, a Pissaro, plus some Gainsboroughs and Reynolds and wondered where the security was. Bless NZ. Next stop the cathedral, which was extremely English and had the organist practising plus some annoying Japanese tourists being noisy and taking photos of each other in the nave. Grrr.

I wandered up the main street to the university campus, by which time the sun had come out, and took photos of the clock tower and the also very English-style old buildings. They so copied Oxford and Cambridge in building Otago.

Tomorrow, the Catlins for a complete change of scene.

More penguins!!

2009-02-25T22:24:00.002+13:00

It's been a quiet sort of day, I couldn't be bothered doing much and actually there isn't much to do in Oamaru. But what with Nationals and leaving Wellington and everything it was nice to have a day with no cares or concerns.

After a swim in the morning - a nice, clean, modern but shallow pool - I wandered around town a bit. Found the Victorian corner; a couple of streets of original buildings which were very photogenic (see Flickr). After that, the art gallery, which was between exhibitions and what there was was a bit indifferent. Some of the professional stuff I honestly couldn't really tell apart from the school children's art also on display. After that, on to the North Otago museum, which wasn't huge but had some moderately interesting displays of things from Oamaru's past. And a huge album of old photos, which I had fun flicking through for a while.

Then on to the Whitestone cheese factory for a slice of utterly wonderful but very rich cheesecake (felt a tad sick afterwards). I contemplated going to the cinema, but eventually couldn't be bothered, so took grocery shopping back to the hostel and mooched for the afternoon - reading, sorting photos out and uploading them, that sort of thing.

Just got back from blue penguin watching. There's a colony out by the harbour and they've built a viewing gallery with orange lighting - so you can see the penguins coming ashore after a day's fishing. :) It is extremely cute to watch them waddling up the rocky ramp and across the path to their breeding colony. They're quite noisy and a little smelly (not so bad though). Also, lots of rabbits and a lone seal that didn't bother the penguins much. The lady who owns the hostel said I'd see penguins walking back afterwards, but I didn't. I was annoyed about the no-photography rule at the colony however. In the past there's been too many idiots with flashes they couldn't turn off, so they've banned all filming and photography, which frankly is seriously irritating for people who can use their cameras properly. So, no pics of cute little blue penguins unfortunately.

Tomorrow, onward to the Otago Peninsula via the Moeraki Boulders, and more penguins - another yellow-eyed colony.

Penguins!!

2009-02-24T20:49:00.002+13:00

Today it didn't rain too much - at last. This was good because it meant that I was able to do stuff en route to Oamaru (though I've gone for a backpackers instead of camping because rain is still forecast, and there's no point being masochistic in order to save a few dollars). Once we'd got up in the morning it began to clear, so I jumped in the car and drove to the Tasman Glacier. I wasn't very impressed by the not-at-all Blue Lakes (green ponds) but the glacier and the lake were stunning with lots of atmospheric stormy light and clouds - and the top of the mountain clearing. Highly worth seeing. After that I drove out of the park, stopping a couple of times to snap the peak of Aoraki emerging.

I had lunch in Omarama then turned off SH83 at Benmore Dam, which is New Zealand's second-largest dam and Lake Benmore the largest manmade lake. It's a phenomenal piece of engineering, with a massive earthworks and gallons and gallons of water. I was quite impressed.

Unfortunately I was less impressed with the Takiroa Maori rock art I briefly stopped at - scrawls on a wall, not much to compare with older rock art such as that in France or Aborigine art. Later on I paused to look at the Elephant Rocks, a location in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe that seemed bigger on screen. Still, odd-shaped rocks are always worth looking at.

Got to Oamaru about 3.30pm and checked into my hostel, which is one of those slightly eccentric ramshackle ones. However it's clean and the owner is friendly and it's right in the centre. Had dinner out because I couldn't be bothered cooking and then went to see the yellow-eyed penguin colony. I've got the wrong week really as apparently they're moulting, so most of the penguins aren't leaving their nests. Accordingly I only saw two or three in the hour I shivered in the hide, buffeted by a very strong wind, but it was worth it and the volunteer keeping an eye on things was highly knowledgeable and very entertaining (also, Scottish). He had lots of stories about penguin antics and explained how they climb up the cliff from the beach to their nesting spots. Incredible really. I got a couple of blurry pictures with my telephoto. Tomorrow I'm going to see the little blue penguins in the evening, after a day exploring the delights of Oamaru - it's your standard Kiwi town really, with some old interesting harbour buildings and a cheese factory and a museum. I might go swimming too, because there's also an aquatic centre that looked nice from the outside.

Still raining ...

2009-02-23T16:58:00.002+13:00

Still in Mt Cook. It's still raining. :( Nevertheless we went for a walk this morning to Hooker Lakes, which have icebergs in them from the Hooker Glacier. We could just see the glacier and the lower slopes of the mountains. Unfortunately the new cushions for my heels failed to work and I have blisters again - am hoping my skin will toughen up before doing the Routeburn.

Pictures now on Flickr.

Officially on holiday

2009-02-22T17:29:00.002+13:00

Update from Mount Cook, which despite being in the middle of nowhere has good fast internet. :) Unfortunately it's raining quite hard so the mountains are mostly hidden in mist, but the forecast is better for tomorrow so we ought to be able to go for a walk.

Nationals are now over - they went okay, better than we originally expected. We came fifth in the club coxed four final, after a nightmarish run-up including an injury to our stroke two weeks before the regatta. It was a reasonably close race and we rowed it well, so we were pleased. On a club level we picked up two medals (gold in the men's club double, silver in the men's club quad) but missed out on a few more quite narrowly which was a shame. However everyone had a good time I think. It was a shame the weather turned nasty on Friday, with the nice sunshine of earlier in the week turning into heavy and cold rain, and wind too. They managed to get through the whole programme eventually by squashing Saturday's racing together, so we didn't have to race on Sunday (phew). Party Saturday night was a lot of fun.

Plan for the week is a day here tomorrow, hopefully a walk to Hooker Lake, then down to Oamaru and Dunedin afterwards.

Quick update from Twizel

2009-02-16T13:41:00.000+13:00

Twizel, despite being in the middle of nowhere, has a wifi internet thing which I can just pick up from the lovely house we're staying in. It's a bit unstable though and I'm having issues with Gmail (which I'd put into "offline" status, and now I can't get online again), but it's better than nothing I suppose.

Anyway, the weather so far is okay though the wind got up yesterday afternoon and made the lake unrowable for a while. It's warm and sunny however. It's weird rowing here on a lake of such extraordinary turquoise colour - it's like Tekapo and Pukaki, which you pass on the way south, something to do with sediment coming down from the mountains in the glacial water. I've taken pictures but will wait until I have a better connection to upload them. Between rows we're chilling and popping into town for coffee and cake; yesterday we went for a swim in a swimming hole nearby. Cold, but nice. Racing starts tomorrow. Eeek. Will try and get online again later in the week.

Quick update from Twizel

2009-02-16T13:30:00.000+13:00

Packing

2009-01-31T17:31:00.002+13:00

Just a quick one to say I'm still here, just very busy with rowing (two weeks until Nationals, eeek) and packing my life up. The latter is always hard work. Will blog regularly while travelling though, I hope!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T21:26:00.002+13:00

I am not going anywhere for the next few days. I feel like I've been away ages, though in fact I've been home for two nights during the past ten days. Queen Charlotte Track, then training camp, then Sydney for New Year. The latter was a good decision; it was great to see my friend who lives there and the fireworks and atmosphere lived up to reputation. I do like a good fireworks display and it was magnificent. Hope everyone had a great night and are looking forward to a lovely 2009. I expect it'll go by as quickly as 2008 did.

Anyway, pictures and commentary from the walk!

To get to the Queen Charlotte Track you have to take a water taxi from Picton out to Ship Cove, in the outer Marlborough Sounds. Ship Cove has huge historical significance as it was where Captain Cook anchored, reprovisioned and repaired the Endeavour and his later ships during his voyages to New Zealand. I don't think it's changed much from 1770, when Cook first landed. There are some carvings and a memorial, mixing Maori and European in acknowledgement of the importance of the site. I felt oddly choked up standing on the beach, imagining what Cook must have thought as he sent his men to refill water casks from the stream that still runs down to the sea.

I lingered a little and then set off, on the first day of the 71km track. It goes straight up and you get good views almost from the start. At the first proper viewpoint I met a couple of baby weka and their aggressive mum (she tried to bite my ankle, though I wasn't really anywhere near the young bird). Weka are reasonably rare, flightless, native birds but they flourish on the track.

Days one and two were quite easy, both short and I was at my destinations by 2pm. I stayed in the backpacker sections of the resorts en route - basically very nice hotels that are a collection of luxury cabins by the shoreline. The QC isn't true wilderness like some tracks, but you're away from cars entirely until the last day when you cross the road from Picton once. The bonus is you don't have to carry food as there are restaurants to eat in as well as hot showers and comfortable beds. :)

Here's Punga Cove, day two:

Unfortunately Christmas Eve was wet. Very wet. It rained all day and I missed all the best views as it was the highest part of the walk.

My waterproof jacket wasn't, my boots got soaked too, and quite honestly I was rather cold when I reached Portage Bay that night. I felt sorry for the couple encountered in the day's second shelter, who were camping. But a hot shower and pizza for dinner did wonders and Christmas Day dawned sunny and calm. The track kept crossing between views of Queen Charlotte Sound and Kenepuru Sound - the latter deep and green and still.

But by this point I had very bad blisters. I don't know if my boots fit more badly than I thought - I tend to get minor blisters on my heels on day walks, but I always assumed it was because I've got quite soft skin on my feet. Apparently not. I need to investigate better socks/boots/cushioning before going travelling next month; I'm doing the Routeburn Track and I can't go through those blisters again. The last 11km (there were markers every 5km, counting down from 71km, right along the track) hurt a lot and I mainly plodded. Pretty views though. I was extremely happy to see the 1km marker and happier to see my lovely backpackers at road's end. There was a wonderful shower and a soft bed awaiting me and I mainly lay and ached for a while, before being social with the other guests after dinner. Oh, and they had a twelve-week old kitten (and a tolerant Old English sheepdog):

The next day I flew home to Wellington. The blisters are healing okay now, thank heavens, as are the blisters on my hands from rowing!!

To finish: blurry picture of Sydney fireworks. Couldn't get the camera to work right:

And Bondi Beach on New Year's Day. A popular destination.

Sunshine and pohutukawa

2008-11-29T17:22:00.001+13:00

It's warm today - windy, but properly warm - so I went to the beach for a bit this afternoon and had a swim. It was a little too rough to swim well though. And the first pohutukawa are starting to come out, which is great because I think they're incredible.

But how did the year go so quick?

Dolphins!

2008-11-27T08:12:00.002+13:00

There was a little pod of dolphins out in the harbour this morning when we went out rowing - cue a little girly excited squealing. They don't come in that often. Apparently they were out off the South Coast last night.

Also there seem to be a lot of penguins about at the moment, more than last year anyway. I always like seeing a little head pop up before the penguin disappears underwater.

Elections and summer

2008-11-21T18:30:00.002+13:00

I realised I never blogged the election. It happened. I was very curious about election night - the coverage was okay, I guess. I was mostly entertained by the incredibly small size of some electorates; it turns out NZ is a country where a 5000 margin is a big one, and the new PM John Key won the most electorate votes (18,000). Bless. Anyway, we have a new government now after Key managed to create a coalition in record time, very savvily bringing the Maori Party on board. That helps make what was a group of parties leaning heavily right a lot more centrist, as the Maoris are traditionally more left-inclined. Key's got the brains, but the question is whether he has the experience to pull this off. If he weren't a conservative millionaire white ex-financial trader he'd be NZ's Barack Obama ... now that election I found I did care about, very much, and I'm thrilled with the result. I just hope Dubya hasn't left the US in such a state Obama can't fix as much as he wants.

Meanwhile, it's really summer now and it's lovely. :)

Weekend away!

2008-10-27T22:26:00.002+13:00

About the only location I really wanted to see in NZ was Edoras. I've done the ones near Wellington and they were great, but Edoras is unique. So I assigned the long weekend to go and tick that box. It lived up to all expectations.

October's not really peak tourist season over here, and an LOTR tour is a bit touristy to attract many Kiwis, so I had my trip all to myself. :) This meant we did what I wanted. Sunday dawned dry after a night of rain where I was staying in the little town of Geraldine – but as we drove up the valley the snow got thicker on the ground. The poor little lambs looked a tad cold, but lively enough.

We came through the little holiday settlement of Lake Clearwater, where kids were enjoying the unexpected snow, and carried on over the brow of a hill. And there, just like that, there was the magnificent valley with Mount Sunday – Edoras – in the middle.

Driving along we got a number of views hopefully tallying with movie shots, and had morning tea overlooking the mountain (though really, compared with what's around, it's a small lump). My guide André explained that Mt Sunday's basically a lump of hard rock sticking out of the ground that the long-ago glacier which formed the valley was unable to squash. He gave me the option of climbing it; I wasn't about to say no and wasn't bothered by the prospect of getting wet feet wading through the many little streams crisscrossing the valley floor. Boldly we set out, and after a few river traverses and a steep climb up, reached the top.

There's a survey marker about where the Golden Hall was built which is much-graffited (but hey, if you're going to graffiti anything, best to graffiti something manmade). I rather liked this question:

And my guide found what has to be about the only reminder of filming left up there:

It's a bolt, sawn off as far down as possible. I found it completely impressive that not only did they manage to film out there – it's a long way from anywhere – but also that there really was no impact on the land. André said initial scepticism on the part of locals was helped by Peter Jackson's general efforts to minimise that.

Across the valley and up and bit there's the gorge where they superimposed Helm's Deep longshots.

We stopped at Erewhon Station for lunch. Erewhon was named by a 19th-century settler named Samuel Butler (who later wrote books about this area), and it really is “nowhere” backwards. It couldn't be more isolated really. Out at Erewhon these days they're breeding merino sheep, Aberdeen Angus cattle, and Clydesdale horses, which they occasionally use for pulling stuff like in the old days. One of the horses had a foal. (Awww).

The plan was to eat lunch in the woolshed, but they'd just been shearing and it smelt of wool and dirty sheep. :( So we had a quick look, including the old shearing engines, and came out again.

Lunch was outside the old homestead building, now derelict, but attractive in a faded sort of way – I like old buildings.

After lunch, we went off-road. Two valleys converge at Erewhon, rivers running down from the mountains, and the plan was to cross the headwaters of the Rangitata river. Normally there are no problems but it's not yet high season, and it's spring so the snowmelt has made the river stronger and higher than usual. All the tracks were basically washed away, so we had to start from scratch. There were a couple of tricky moments but we got across – bumpily – and refreshed ourselves in the little trampers' and hunters' hut owned by Mesopotamia Station, the farm on this side of the valley. (Well, André had done all the work, but I was happy to eat brownie anyway).

Then it was back along the edge of the valley through Mesopotamia Station. André told me about the family that have farmed the station for over 60 years and the current issues with the Department of Conservation, which is buying a vast tract of this land and looks set to change the way they've been farming for so long. When we reached the station itself we met the farmer (on his son's quad bike!) A very typical Kiwi, down to earth, but naturally worried about his lambs given the harsh weather overnight (though by this point much of the early snow had melted away). André said if he was doing a tour on a weekday and was passing Mesopotamia at the right time, he'd stop in at the farm to visit the two children and their teacher so the kids got to meet lots of people despite their isolation from the outside world.

Then it was back to civilisation for us.

It was pretty much a perfect day – incredible weather and mindblowing scenery. It's pretty wild out there; I came away with immense respect for both the early settlers who travelled up with basic gear and first farmed it, as well as those who are still farming today. It's untouched and spectacular, and I don't think you need to be a LOTR fan to appreciate it!

During the rest of the weekend I did a couple of walks to waterfalls, ate good food, and visited friends in Christchurch today to round off a very pleasant break!

Summer's here!

2008-10-12T16:50:00.002+13:00

Well, it probably isn't quite yet, but this weekend's been very summery. Warm - up to 18C today - and sunny. I've spent most of it on the water, rowing, driving a launch and coxing some novices just now. Way to kick off the summer freckles. :) It was a good weekend for penguin-spotting, too; I saw one little blue penguin swimming around on Friday morning, and two today. One was really close to the boat. They're incredibly cute little birds.

But we could have done without the hordes of recreational water users not paying any attention to what else is out there ...

Earthquakes

2008-10-09T21:58:00.002+13:00

TV3 are doing an earthquake series. I missed last night's mockumentary about what would happen in Wellington if an 8.2 hit, but am watching the follow-up which is following a family as they pretend an earthquake has hit. There's a cheerful presenter hovering around knocking over bookshelves and so on as the family go through survival motions. It's rather sobering really - this isn't a joke in any sense, this could happen, and the earthquakes have been frequent and strong recently. Though that said Geonet hasn't recorded one since Sunday ... don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But I have my emergency supplies of a big bottle of water, ready meals that don't need water to cook, and I know where all my camping gear is, so I'm okay really. I think.

Still, it's scary. And even when I go home it'll be scary, because when the big one does hit I'll be thinking of my friends here. Wellington's a lovely city but it's badly-placed for a big earthquake.

ARA Libertad

2008-10-06T20:03:00.003+13:00

Last week an Argentinian naval frigate, the ARA Libertad, turned up in Wellington. She's on a round-the-world tour and was here for a week, open to the public on afternoons. I fitted in a visit on Friday during my lunchbreak, along with half of Wellington - she was packed with people, including those who thought they knew stuff about ships and didn't (the old gent informing his family she'd be able to make above 20 knots under sail easily, and the ladies, looking at the mizzenmast and the various lines around it, who commented, "clearly they don't climb the rigging anymore". Well, not straight up the mast, ladies ...) I refrained from being an insufferable know-it-all and concentrated on taking as many pictures as I could (I ran out of time and memory space). Here are a few.

Rain of the Children

2008-09-27T17:43:00.000+12:00

Haven't been to the cinema for ages but got there this afternoon. Went to see a film called Rain of the Children, a quite extraordinary documentary by Kiwi filmmaker Vincent Ward. 30 years ago Ward - then 21 - spent two years living with an old Maori woman named Puhi and her son, filming them. He wanted to find out more about her and discovered she had lived through one of the most significant periods in NZ history. She belonged to the Tuhoe tribe (nowadays fiercely independent) who come from the Ureweras on the East Coast of the North Island. In the early 1900s, shortly after her birth, a prophet named Rua led the Tuhoe people back to their sacred mountain Maungapohata and established a settlement there. He was trying to save them from the various Western diseases brought by the British settlers, and they also believed the tribe had been cursed because there had been natural disasters and so on. So Rua set up this town literally in the middle of nowhere. Puhi was married to his eldest son when she was only 14. But shortly after that the town was raided by policemen, and from there on in her life became fraught with bad luck. She - and the tribe - ended up believing she was cursed. She had 14 children and most of them died, she was married three times, and her last son was mentally ill so she spent her old age doing absolutely everything for him. Ward's reconstructed her life and the film's a mixture of archive photographs, his film from 1978, him revisiting her home, and interviews with the Tuhoe people about Puhi and her son. It's absolutely fascinating, especially when you consider it all happened not that long ago. And it's clearly a very personal film for Ward himself. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I did feel however that if we were viewing Rua through Westernised, contemporary lenses (which we can't), Maungapohata would have been seen as a cult. He was a healer, a prophet, the self-proclaimed leader of his people, and he took as wives women who were apparently barren in order to give them children (yes, really). But I think cult is not an applicable word really because of the time and place in which he lived.

Snow-capped mountains

2008-09-22T21:59:00.001+12:00

I went up to Lake Karapiro (near Matamata) at the weekend to row - NZ masters championships. For a change, I was practically the youngest person there as you have to be 27 to compete in masters rowing. It was a lovely, relaxed, fun weekend and I won two shiny gold medals - in the 'A' (or 27-35 year old) pair and four.

On the way back yesterday afternoon it was sunny and clear, and we had absolutely amazing views over the Desert Road past the mountains. Despite grumbling about me being a tourist our designated driver kindly stopped a couple of times for me to take some photos.

Ruapehu:

Ngauruhoe in the wing mirror (the only one of several of these I tried that came out focused):

Ruapehu again:

And Ngauruhoe again:

Needless to say, apparently they've had a great ski season on Ruapehu ...

A meme

2008-09-22T21:06:00.004+12:00

I got tagged for this by my friend Jody. I'm supposed to tag other people, and am going to fall back on "whoever reads this". Only let me know if you do?

1. What are your nicknames?
I used to be Harry at school, and then I went to uni and there was a Harriet so I became Jo. Despite the fact none of my family have ever used it, I'm Jo to pretty much everyone else I know. Online, I'm Eledhwen, after Tolkien.

2. What was the first movie you bought in VHS or DVD?
Schindler's List, on VHS. Also my first CD.

3. What is your favorite scent?
Just after it's rained.

4. What one place have you visited that you can't forget and want to go back to?
Probably because I'm so far from it at the moment, Snowdonia. I know I will go back so that's all right.

5. Do you trust easily?
Too easily, for a journalist. But I know that, so can force myself to be cynical.

6. Do you generally think before you act, or act before you think?
Depends on the situation.

7. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
Not on a personal level. On a wider level, the world's a bit too unsettled at the moment.

8. Do you have a good body image?
I think I do. Despite my legs being completely all over scars - and I've stopped caring about that - I'm reasonably happy with the way I look.

9. What is your favorite fruit?
Raspberries.

10. What websites do you visit daily?
The Guardian online, NZ Herald, stuff.co.nz, my email accounts, and theonering.net.

11. What have you been seriously addicted to lately?
Sleep.

12. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
I admire Jody a lot - she's making an effort to fulfil her dreams and she's always positive.

13. What's the last song that got stuck in your head?
I had the last movement of Brahms's German Requiem in my head at a swim meet the other week. Not easy to race to.

14. What's your favorite item of clothing?
Pyjamas. They're comfy.

15. Do you think Rice Krispies are yummy?
No, they're tasteless, but fun because of the snap crackle and pop!

16. What would you do if you saw $100 lying on the ground?
Pick it up, see if anyone had dropped it recently, and then probably spend it.

17. What items could you not go without during the day?
Coffee.

18. What should you be doing right now?
Nothing much.

Oh, that's ridiculous!

2008-09-16T18:02:00.002+12:00

The finance minister Michael Cullen - who's far from stupid, and when he was tertiary education minister had a good reputation - today said that the opposition leader John Key couldn't run the country because he used to work for Merrill Lynch.

*Scratches head*

I fail to see how Key's former employment has a lot to do with his fitness to be PM. It was eight years ago, and he was just one of many ML employees. He's not responsible for ML's sale today.

Mini-quake!

2008-09-14T21:48:00.000+12:00

There was just a little earthquake. Very short. But distinct. I'm certain I don't like them now.

From Geonet - it was a 5.2, 90km deep, 60kn south-west of Wanganui - which I think puts it somewhere in the Cook Strait. No wonder I felt it. That's four earthquakes rating 5 or above on the Richter scale in a month ... seems like a lot to me. Thank heavens they're all so deep.

It's election time!

2008-09-12T18:59:00.001+12:00

Helen Clark announced the general election today - November 8th. It's looking like a National victory, but we'll see.

I'm quite excited, really, though I can't vote!

Random thoughts

2008-09-02T22:09:00.001+12:00

Not much news really, life continues and spring is, at last, on its way.

There was an earthquake yesterday - 5.8, 80km deep, quite a long way away from Wellington. About 1.20pm everyone went "ooh, did you feel that?" and a moment later "and that?" Apparently I was the only person in the office who didn't feel it! I wonder if I'm less sensitive to motion or something? It would explain why I don't get travel sick, at least.

Slightly worryingly that's the third biggish earthquake in 10 months - the 6.8 near Gisborne before Christmas, a 5.9 in Hastings last week, and then this one. Luckily they've all been deep, but does this mean we're gearing up for the Big One that we're overdue? Or does it mean NZ's faultlines are shaking off something and we'll avoid the Big One? Still not used to earthquakes ...

Went swimming this evening as there's a meet at the weekend and I haven't been for a bit. Ended up fighting with a lot of sloooow swimmers - problem with going straight after work is that the local swim squad takes up half the pool and there are only two lanes for swimming properly, and they mark them "medium" and "slow". So you always get a lot of slow blokes who don't want to go in the slow lane but are actually very slow. It's always the women who move, never the blokes.

Jamie Oliver's on TV showing people why junk food is bad by getting Gunther von Hagen to dissect an obese corpse. It's really disgusting. I'm hungry, but I don't think I'll touch that chocolate I bought this evening!

And I took my bike to the shop today to get handlebar extensions fitted. It's an attempt to avoid getting cramped hands when I cycle. The guy also discovered my brake pads were worn through and told me I needed it serviced. Which is an expensive, but necessary, pain. I like the extensions though, they're great. :)

I miss the BBC

2008-08-09T19:44:00.002+12:00

Hurrah, it's the Olympics, and the weather's awful so a good excuse to sit in front of the television/TVNZ's live internet streaming and watch sport. Right?

Right. But here's the rub: they spent hours earlier on showing random volleyball matches, but now the rowing's started they seem to be only interested in showing the Kiwis. I want to watch the Kiwis, but I want to watch the Brits too and if they keep flicking away for an ad break, or for highlights of the cycling where neither the Kiwis or the Brits are really featuring, I can't! It's deeply annoying. And none of the Brits are drawn in the same races as the Kiwis at this stage.

The ad breaks also did for me last night when I was watching the opening ceremony, because they kicked in once the athletes' parade had begun and we got further and further behind the live coverage. I fell asleep and missed the Kiwis entering so went to bed once I woke up to the Chinese team arriving. Watched highlights today instead.

So oh for the BBC and ad-free, continuous coverage without incessant interruptions from boring presenters.

Back in NZ

2008-07-13T15:20:00.001+12:00

It's a lovely sunny day in Wellington - nice to see the sun after a week of horrid rain in the UK! Am rather tired after the looooooooooong flight but it's good to be back. Whether I'll still think that tomorrow morning at work remains to be seen!

I aten't dead

2008-06-26T22:23:00.003+12:00

To quote Terry Pratchett. Just busy. And, mostly, ill, thanks I think to a chilly winter, weird Southern Hemisphere viruses and a very uninsulated flat. Not that that should stop blogging, but there you go.

Anyway, I last posted in May, apparently. Since then I've spent very few weekends at home and very few weekends where there hasn't been something going on. The weekend after the last busy weekend there was a swimming meet in Levin (wonderful Levin ... well, not, but the meet was fun). The weekend after that a friend visited and we went to see Indiana Jones, which was gloriously cheesy and looked great on the big screen at the Embassy. And a bonus spot of Weta Workshop wizards Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger waiting to see the film too (they're the special effects and creatures people behind LOTR).

The weekend after that was Queen's Birthday weekend, with a day's holiday. So I jumped on the plane to Auckland and hired a car and drove to the Coromandel Peninsula, where I had a wonderful few days. It wasn't too busy, I had nice cosy hostels to stay in and found some nice places to eat. Spent some time walking, seeing the countryside and so on. The highlight was getting up early on the Monday morning and walking to Cathedral Cove as the sun rose. It rained, but it had stopped by the time I got there and I had the whole beach to myself for half an hour. Mine were the first footsteps on pristine sand. It was beautiful and quite magical.

Then I had a free weekend, which was a novelty. The next weekend my friend Jess popped over from Sydney and we went to see England play the All Blacks - England lost, predictably, but it was an experience and there was a good atmosphere in the stadium. We also had fantastic seats, so I felt suitably pleased about my seat-buying abilities. We'd planned to go and see penguins on Sunday morning at Kelly Tarlton's, but they'd cancelled the free shuttle to get there so we mooched around Auckland instead.

Last week there was a corporate rowing camp in Wanganui - my crew ended up not going but I went anyway and rowed a bit, took a double out with Erika, coxed a bit, and learned how to drive a coaching boat. The last was very good fun. We had a gorgeous day on Saturday and then it tipped it down on Sunday - incredible weather!

And now I'm packing and sorting stuff out ahead of going home for a fortnight to catch up with people and have some summer.

So, that's me, not dead.

Busy weekend #1

2008-05-11T19:03:00.002+12:00

Lots of busy weekends ahead; this weekend was the first. Spent yesterday swimming, in choir rehearsal, and at rowing prize giving; spent today at choir concert.

Rowing prize giving was good fun, at the Skyline restaurant at the top of the cable car with lovely views of the city. Shame about the cold, damp weather. We had a nice buffet dinner and the prizes were both serious and comedic. As a crew we won the submarine prize for sinking our VIII - though it wasn't our fault - and I was pleased and surprised to get "Best female club rower", although really when there's only five of you the odds were good! I've got a wooden trophy described by the mayor as an axe in a block of wood, plus a little engraved cup to keep.

Choir concert went well. We were singing Handel's Israel in Egypt, a hefty oratorio with some lovely themes. A great guest director and seriously good orchestra and soloists made for a good performance. Someone in the audience cried "Bravo!" as we finished, which was flattering.

Afterwards I had to go and fetch my trophies from a friend's house, so had a long walk uphill before a shorter one downhill to home. Am exhausted!

Sydney for Anzac Day

2008-04-29T21:43:00.002+12:00

Friday was Anzac Day over here - poppies in April, which I can't get used to because poppies are for November. It's a big thing, with dawn services and themed TV and memorials, in commemoration of the day in 1915 when thousands of Aussie and Kiwi soldiers landed at Gallipoli in Turkey, many of them losing their lives. It's a public holiday both here and in Australia, so I took the opportunity to hop across the Tasman to visit friends in Sydney. It was a fun weekend - we did the traditional Aussie barcrawl in the suburb of Balmain on Friday afternoon, along with the rest of Sydney. Everywhere was packed! And they were all playing a traditional gambling game which is only allowed to be played on Anzac Day, called Two Up, which involves two old pennies being tossed. You bet with your mates on what way they'll land. It's that simple - and it seemed like total chaos. We didn't really understand what was going on and contented ourselves with drinking beer and watching in bemusement.

The next day I went dragon boating with one of my friends, who's recently taken it up. She assured me the sessions weren't long - yeah, right! We were on the water for a good 90 minutes and it was really difficult. Using lots of muscles I don't normally use, plus it's been a while since I did any decent exercise owing to this cold (which stripped away my voice to a croak for the entire weekend). I enjoyed it, though, and it was a glorious day to be out on the water.

After brunch we headed to the Australian National Maritime Museum because I wanted to see Endeavour as a museum ship. She was undergoing some maintenance - apparently they'd had the mizzen mast out to check for rot, and she was missing her forecourse yard - but was looking lovely nevertheless, all decked out 18th-century style. The guides were good too, and my friend seemed to enjoy herself. :) Afterwards we wandered around the museum a bit, particularly enjoying the rowing section. As we came out the sun was just setting and everything was coloured a beautiful pink (see pictures below).

We had dinner that evening in a posh Chinese restaurant near Circular Quay, with views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Two of us had wanted steak but the other of us is veggie, so we picked the restaurant with the best veggie options - as she pointed out, half of them weren't actually veggie, for example the noodle soup with a pork stock base. Lucky she checked!

On Sunday morning we started off with a swim in a nice, open-air, 50m saltwater pool. Annoyingly I hadn't brought swimming things with me, so I borrowed a costume and hat from my friend. She didn't have spare goggles though, and after half an hour my eyes had gone rather bloodshot and my vision was cloudy. Really unpleasant, but it cleared up eventually (phew).

We met up with a friend of mine from school who I hadn't seen for ten years but is currently working in Sydney - hurrah for the wonders of modern technology and social networking - for brunch, before a wander around the Covent Garden-esque Rocks district which has a Sunday market full of jewellery and art and so on. Then to the Opera House, to take plenty of pictures, although we missed the tour because there wasn't quite time.

All in all, an excellent weekend.

Pictures:

Cook's cabin:

Outside the Maritime Museum - HMS Vampire:

Darling Harbour at sunset:

Night views:

Many pics of the Opera House:

And a ferry, to finish off with!

Rainbow Warrior

2008-04-12T16:43:00.004+12:00

The Rainbow Warrior (mark II, obviously) is touring NZ at present to highlight climate change. Because NZ emissions are skyrocketing, the country hasn't committed to an emissions target under Kyoto, and nobody seems to care. Given the almost complete lack of basics like double glazing, decent insulation, and central heating in this country, coupled with a major agriculture industry, second-hand cars and far too much reliance on planes (I'm guilty there) it's not surprising Kiwis are among the worst per capita emitters of carbon in the world.

Anyway, Greenpeace wants the politicians to act now, and want Kiwis to get behind the campaign, so they're taking the ship around. I went on one of their tours today (I confess I was more interested in the ship as a ship, but then I'm a ship geek).

Rainbow Warrior II is a three-masted schooner, converted from a fishing trawler for campaigning purposes. She carries 15 crew, 12 of whom are allowed to get off the ship and go and be activists when that's the task at hand (leaving three on board to operate her at all times). There's a whole mix of nationalities apparently. We got a history of ship and organisation, a talk on climate change, a chat from the South African captain, a video and an invitation to join Greenpeace, and a story about Dave the Dolphin:

the figurehead.

I didn't join, though I sympathise with the aims; I'm doing my bit by not having a car, recycling, turning things off, wearing jumpers before I turn heating on, and reusing bags (obsessively). And I'm still not 100 per cent convinced about the rather crazy-dangerous ways of protesting, which while peaceful do put people's lives at risk.

Anyway it was an interesting tour.

End of the summer

2008-04-05T10:58:00.002+13:00

Autumn is definitely here. The weather's been all right this week, but cooler - and it's raining now. I even turned on my heating for a bit earlier in the week. Clocks go back tomorrow.

Mum pointed out I haven't blogged for a bit. There's not been a whole lot to blog about really; life's been a bit quieter which is nice! Back trying to swim regularly and there are some meets coming up - usually good fun.

I spent Easter in Australia with friends from rowing at home. Flew to Melbourne and then we drove 540km through Victoria up to the town of Mildura, which is on the Murray River that borders Victoria and New South Wales. They have a little regatta there every Easter. It was fun; won a medal in the masters doubles (my first masters race rowing!) and a pot and a 9th share of A$1000 in the women's open eight. The mixed eight was less successful winnings-wise but fun - racing with four old gents, one of whom had an Olympic bronze from 1956. If I'm still rowing in 50 years I'll be a happy person. We all went out in the evening, and then we drove back the next day and spent Easter Monday pottering around Melbourne. A nice trip.

That's about it really - going to Sydney for Anzac weekend in three weeks and I'm planning to spend the Queen's Birthday weekend at the start of June in the Coromandel - it's doable in three days, and I found cheap flights to Auckland.

Akaroa

2008-03-03T21:38:00.003+13:00

I spent the weekend with Mum and Dad on the Banks Peninsula at the weekend - named by Cook, who thought originally it was an island, and almost colonised by the French but not quite. The main peninsula town Akaroa still has French street names though and we had a lovely dinner in a slightly mad French restaurant. The weather, however, was not good. Flying into Christchurch on Friday evening gave a hint of what was in store ...

So when we got to Akaroa on Saturday it was raining and the harbour cruise on a ketch we wanted to do wasn't happening. We did however get onto a normal cruise in the hope of seeing some of the harbour's wildlife - Akaroa harbour is basically the crater of an ancient extinct volcano. We were lucky. It was pelting it down with rain, but it was calm and we saw dolphins! Lots of dolphins. They're very rare Hector's Dolphins, only found in NZ. They're quite small and very lovely to watch, and we had loads around us for a while including some baby ones. :)

And I took a video too with my little camera, here.

We also saw a couple of penguins, lots of cormorants, shags and seagulls, and visited a seal colony where some pups were happily playing despite the rain. All very nice, and nicer to go to our lovely b&b (Maison de la Mer, with friendly hosts and a cute dog) afterwards.

We had dinner at a restaurant called C'est la Vie (Au Bout du Monde), which was brilliant - quirky little place with two set sittings and the menu on a blackboard on the door. Wonderful food, would highly recommend it!

The sun was briefly out the next morning so I got some photos of Akaroa looking pretty.

And you gotta love Kiwi humour.

Tired today though after a late night back - the weather had turned during the afternoon and was foul; the flight was bumpy and the landing absolutely terrifying, with 50 knot winds buffeting us around. Ugh. No fun.

How I nearly crashed on live TV ...

2008-02-27T21:47:00.002+13:00

Nationals are over - no more rowing for a bit. :( Nice to have a break though and not have to be at training or wherever. The regatta didn't quite go to plan - we were very pleased to reach the pairs final, but finals day dawned with horrific cross-winds and the race was incredibly tricky. Steering did not go well, we got blown off the course - (un?)luckily by that point we were far enough behind that this didn't get caught by Sky Sports, who were screening the finals live. The fours final was equally bad. Oh well. We had fun, we raced pretty well, and the party was good ...

Mum and Dad are here now, which is lovely - saw them last week in Cambridge and will see them this weekend in the South Island. Hope the weather ends up being better than forecast though!

One year down

2008-02-12T21:47:00.000+13:00

Well, today's one year exactly since I arrived in New Zealand with three bags, no job and nowhere to live except (temporarily) R&E's very short-term floor. Twelve months on I have a life here, and it's not a bad one. So here I'll stay, for a bit longer at least (Immigration willing ...)

Nationals next week for rowing. Heaven knows how it'll go. Fingers crossed.

Abel Tasman

2008-01-12T21:23:00.000+13:00

So, Abel Tasman. My rowing friend Anna is here on holiday - she was going kayaking in Abel Tasman (north of the South Island) and as I don't start back at work until Monday I joined her. We did a three-day trip - a day's guided kayaking, a day's freedom kayaking, and then a walk to the end of the national park. Quite glad there wasn't more kayaking as our shoulders ached somewhat by the end. We had reasonable weather, but not perfect; it was a bit windy. However it didn't rain, which is the main thing when you're camping.

The guided day started out a bit stressfully as the bus from Nelson dropped us in the wrong place, so we were late arriving, but managed to pack our stuff into our kayak quite quickly. Once we got on the water (us, in a double kayak; two parties of one double and a single; and our guide Tom in a single) we set off paddling. It was quickly apparent that Anna and I, having rowed together and being generally quite good in boats, were quite fast. The singles were all quite fast and so was one of the doubles, but the other double wasn't. We lost one of the threesomes at the first stopping point as they were on a freedom rental, and carried on. The park's really stunning; a coastline of green bush, absolutely golden sand, and rocks. Lots of birds and seals. We eventually made it to our campsite under kayak steam by about 4.30pm, after tackling what they call the "Mad Mile" - an exposed point where the waves can get rather choppy. We'd left our guide and the slow double to walk that bit, and me and Anna and the other single paddled round against the wind and in properly big waves. It was a bit scary, but getting round the corner to the beautiful sight of Anchorage beach, with yachts anchored and calm waters, was great!

Camped overnight in my little tent. Succeeded in cooking on the cute camping stove, slept appallingly, but somehow it was all worth it when we got up in the morning to find blue sky and calm water. The water got choppier out of the bay, and we had a break on Sandfly Beach (stayed away from the bits with sandflies).

Difficult launching the kayak again though. Went to see seals on Pinnacle Island. Had another break in Bark Bay, which had a lovely lagoon we went to explore - and we had it to ourselves, which was even better!

The wind picked up later, and after we'd explored another lagoon and gone to look at more seals on Tonga Island we were both a bit knackered. So we were quite glad to ditch the kayak, change into dry things, and eat before our walk to the night's campsite.

We slept at Awaroa that night - by the banks of a massive estuary we had to cross at low tide, early the next morning. Nice campsite, but positively infested with sandflies. Even though I plastered myself in insect repellent (natural stuff - Deet doesn't work either) they still got me, and I have bites all over my lower legs and ankles, on my back in the gap between t-shirt and shorts, and a couple on my arms. When we got up in the morning I was bitten instantly. Horrid things.

Anyway, we made it across the estuary with plenty of time to spare, and were actually at our end point by 10am. Luckily we got an earlier water taxi than the one booked, and then managed to jump straight on the bus to Nelson, so had a nice relaxed afternoon. Apart from the wretched bugs, it was a good trip - although showers and comfortable beds were very welcome!

Back to work on Monday. Boo. :(

Owch

2008-01-02T17:19:00.000+13:00

It was a) too windy for cycling and b) too nice to go to the gym today, so I decided to go for a run. Not sure why ... then I decided to run up Mt Victoria, which was even dafter! But I made it (walked a couple of steep bits) and then ran all the way down to Balaena Bay and back. Whew. Actually I enjoyed it and it wasn't too bad. Really hot though!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T22:28:00.000+13:00

Well, it's 2008. How did that happen?

New Year's Eve was rather nice; I flew up to Hamilton to spend a couple of days with my friend Lucy, who lives there currently, and our mutual rowing friends Anna and Claire, both visiting from the UK. They all met me at the airport and then Anna, Claire and I went to play tourist at Waitomo Caves (see entries way back in February ...) We did a different trip from the one R&E and I did back then, with this one being more relaxing and more inner-tubing. More glowworms too, though, and it was lovely floating down a river on the last day of the year gazing up at the stars in the ceiling. Very relaxing.

In the evening Lucy and her boyfriend threw a house party with a barbeque - it rained, a bit, but not too much, the food and company was good, and it was a nice chilled evening.

Today - this year! - dawned hot and sunny and glorious. We found a place for brunch before going to check on Lucy's BF's mum's cat and splashing in the pool. Before Anna and Claire went we had a wander by the river (Lucy was messing about with boats). Later Lucy dropped me at the airport, and I had a fantastic clear flight home.

Ruapehu:

The whole Central Plateau, looking back - shows how huge Ruapehu is compared to Ngauruhoe (the volcano-shaped volcano on the far left):

Ngauruhoe:

Sailing on the Soren Larsen

2007-12-29T15:43:00.000+13:00

Just before 10am on a warm Auckland morning a few days before Christmas, and a motley gang – crew is probably too kind a word at this point – gather on the wharf next to the Søren Larsen. There’s excitement in the air as everyone introduces themselves, instantly forgets everyone’s names again, and tries to work out if the ship’s captain is the likely young fellow in a crisp white shirt or the bearded chap in overalls next to him. Prompt at 10 Katy the purser comes ashore, welcomes us, and ushers us all on board for a Christmas holiday unlike any other.

The voyage crew for this December cruise in the Hauraki Gulf was made up of an assortment of people who have relocated – temporarily and permanently – to New Zealand from overseas and some Brits, Aussies and a Dutchman on holiday. Some of us fancied escaping a usual Christmas; others were a long way from home and family. Sailing experience ranged from yachting and voyages on other tall ships to, well, nothing. But on Søren we were all pretty much novices.

The morning sped by in a whirl of smoko, tour of the ship, safety briefings and lunch. We discovered the captain, Nick, was the overall-clad gentleman, Tatyana the cook was a very good cook, and we tried to take in everything our watch leaders told us. By the time the mooring lines were cast off our heads were full of nautical information and none of it really made much sense.

The wind was not really with us, but with the engine on we set some headsails and staysails and motor-sailed towards Waiheke Island, getting used to life on board. There was a little tacking to get past Rangitoto and its neighbour Motutapu, but by 1800 we were anchored and enjoying lemon fish and a few beers as the sun set, getting to know each other.

Nick warned everyone that Søren talks to her crew, and during the first night we discovered she’s rather a chatty ship. Nobody slept particularly well and there were a few bleary eyes in the morning. Just to wake us up, there was an “up and over” session for those feeling brave, interrupted by a brief, fierce rainstorm. Once everyone had made it to the fighting top and back down safely, the starboard watch went aft and the port watch forward and under the control of Nick and second mate Gareth we “sailed off the hook”, using headsails and the mainsail to execute a turn and head out into the gulf.

The day developed into one of fine sailing. With most of the sails set we hurried along nicely in the force 4 breeze, getting up to seven and occasionally eight knots. It wasn’t exactly sunny, but it was good fun, and only a few of the crew felt seasick. Nick set our course towards Little Barrier Island. We all took turns at steering the ship, at doing the safety round – how many little wire things showing in the bilge? How do you work out the wind direction? Has everyone remembered to close the little blue valve in the heads? – and at lunchtime we tried to eat soup on a slant.

After lunch the watches changed, although the quiet afternoon I planned with my Patrick O’Brien book didn’t exactly happen as there ended up being enough sail handling to involve extra hands. It wasn’t really quiet reading weather, anyway, so it was hardly the end of the world. We tacked a couple of times and headed back across the gulf to Kawau Island, north of Auckland off the Whangaparoa Peninsula. It didn’t seem as though we were within a very short distance of New Zealand’s biggest city as we anchored, again all under sail, in Burgess Bay.

Christmas Eve dawned bright, warm, sunny and almost wind-free. A good day for going ashore, according to Nick, who took us round the corner to Mansion House Bay. We spotted a little blue penguin swimming around as we came in; the crew kept talking confusingly about peacocks. But once we landed (and after I’d managed to toss a lifejacket in the water – sorry, Laura) there was a large white peacock sheltering from the sun. Out came the cameras, and we chased the peacock around for a while.

Kawau had several options for the would-be explorer. The mansion after which the bay’s named is a sort of museum, and there are plenty of walking tracks in the bush surrounding the park. Four of us decided to check the mansion out first. There was nobody at the desk, but the sign outside did say the house was open from 10am during the holidays. We left money and started going through. Halfway round the house the caretaker lady appeared on the stairs and told us it was actually closed – although she didn’t mind us seeing the little there is left. There was a lovely view of the ship from the balcony, and we coveted the grand four-poster beds in the main bedrooms.

After leaving the closed house, with the caretaker busy hovering, we set off on a walk through the bush. On the way we spotted a weka and some wood pigeons, and met some of the other voyage crew at the lookout over the old copper mine – together with some friendly yachties, who obligingly played photographer for us.

Back down at the house we indulged in proper flushing loos and ice-cream before the boat arrived (Gareth giving Gemma driving lessons) to pick us up. There was a spot of water balloon throwing from the ship, but very few missiles actually hit us.

Most of the crew spent the afternoon on board, sunbathing, reading and swimming. I decided to try a swim to the shore and back, and succeeded despite having problems with hair in the mouth, keeping a lookout for ferries, and the odd wave. Back on board there was smoko, and the crew rigged a rope swing from the course yard – attempted by quite a few of us, led by Doug.

Tatyana and Karson, aided by crew and voyage crew, spent most of the glorious afternoon tied to the galley making our Christmas dinner. It had been decided to do Christmas a day early due to the weather forecast – a sensible decision, as it turned out – so we sat down to fizzy wine, crackers, turkey and all the trimmings, and three Christmassy puddings. There were mince pies for the Brits, pumpkin pie for the Americans, and a Russian cake from Tatyana. Afterwards we returned on deck, replete in a seasonal fashion.

Christmas Day, true to forecast, turned out to be somewhat less sunny than its eve. We dawdled over a good breakfast. Some of the permanent crew were given a quick lesson in how to use the dinghy as a tug, and the rest of us had fun lobbing water balloons at them. Some hit. Some didn’t. However the bucket of water chucked over the dinghy definitely met its target.

Boat in, we raised anchor – once more under sail – and set out into the Hauraki Gulf once more. The wind direction was such that we were bound once again for Waiheke Island to the south. It was a little more sedate than earlier in the week, but that meant we could set more sail and soon the topgallant was flying too above all – cueing a spell on the bowsprit with my camera. Despite the efforts made the previous day, the galley did us proud again and we ate smoked salmon at morning smoko, and turkey soup for lunch. Later on there were dolphins, briefly.

By mid-afternoon we had anchored and stowed sail. It was grey and raining, but the mood aboard was good. When deckhand Ruth suggested a swim – after testing the water temperature and pronouncing it to be 20 degrees – there was a pretty good take up (although fewer went for the skinny dip option than originally proposed). The water was almost certainly not 20 degrees, we discovered on leaping in, but nevertheless fun was had and it wasn’t that cold, not really.

Dinner, for some of us, was bookended by a boisterous game of “Articulate” during which Katy and I discovered we were quite good at describing things without naming whatever we were describing, and cards. For how can there be Christmas without some sort of game?

Boxing Day 2007 should forever be known as Tacking Day in Søren Larsen history. The winds were not favourable, so we kept the square sails stowed and set headsails, staysails and the main as well as what Nick drily called the “die-sail”. Thanks to engineer Winch for keeping it going all day – definitely made life easier as we tacked. And tacked. And tacked again. By the fifth or sixth tack port watch were getting pretty good at shifting the main sail and staysails before moving to the braces and bracing round the square sail yards. By lunch, we were able to tack the whole ship while starboard watch tried to save their salad from blowing away.

The afternoon continued in similar fashion, except we moved forward to the single jib and faced increasingly strong wind and waves. Everyone got fairly soaked from the spray and it was a relief when we finally anchored. Nobody was particularly keen to go ashore, but there were several takers to help harbour-stow the square sails – rolling each sail up so it was neat on the yard. It took a while, but it was worth the effort.

Dinner was a fancy-dress party. Several of the guys seemed far too comfortable in slinky, glittery dresses, and Super Pumpkin and Coca-Cola Rescue Man faced a few fearsome pirates. It wasn’t exactly warm on deck though, so we retreated below for Nick’s farewell muster and the presentation of our lovely voyage certificates. After that, time for more games. The boys won Pictionary, but the girls triumphed at Articulate.

In the morning, a swift motor into harbour, and the voyage crew finally dragged themselves away from Søren after a last smoko. Five days had flown by in the company of some fantastic people – a truly memorable Christmas.

Pictures at Flickr.

Earthquake!

2007-12-21T08:30:00.000+13:00

So I was sitting on the sofa about 9pm yesterday, surfing with the television on, and we had an earthquake. Just a little one, or so I thought - the Christmas tree shook, the sofa shook, it was a bit scary and I froze (d'oh - next time I'm standing under a doorway like you're supposed to).

This morning it's emerged that what we felt here in Wellington was actually a 6.8 quake in Gisborne (six hours' drive away). Wow. Poor old Gisborne got it badly, with buildings damaged but no serious injuries. Luckily it was deep - apparently it was stronger than the 1987 Edgecumbe quake which I think killed people.

But I'd rather not go through that again. It was more scary than I thought it would be.

Pictures!

2007-12-16T16:53:00.000+13:00

I went out and took some pohutukawa shots this afternoon - they came out okay despite the wind that kept blowing around branches and me and my camera! It really was incredibly windy, and incredibly warm.

There's still quite a few pohutukawas to come out yet - three gigantic trees on the waterfront side of Te Papa, and a big one across the street from my flat for starters. But as I'm going away I'm not sure I'll get to see them, so I thought it worthwhile making the most of a sunny day.

I also got some shots of the wire trees outside Te Papa, which are brilliant (the trees, not the photos, though I am quite pleased with them too).

More pics on Flickr.

In other news: one week of work to go and then I'm off sailing on the Soren Larsen in the Hauraki Gulf for Christmas. And am seeing friends for New Year's Eve, and then going kayaking in Abel Tasman with a friend from home. So it might not be the most relaxing Christmas break, but it should be fun.

All good things come in threes ...

2007-12-13T20:09:00.000+13:00

11) Wellington's people are nice. Everyone's very friendly and easy-going in a Kiwi way. Makes the city a good place to live.

12) The railway station has awesome acoustics. We sang carols to commuters yesterday evening, and it was very nice.

13) The pohutukawas are all coming out across town. I'd heard about them - the NZ Christmas tree, all red blooms - but hadn't seen any until now. But all of a sudden they're everywhere, and they're stunning. I will get my camera out for them at the weekend.

In less good things: I don't know if they've changed the stuff they put in the swimming pools, but the past two times I've been swimming I've ended up with a really bad stuffed-up nose. After yesterday evening I spent half the night awake blowing it. Very unpleasant, and it's given me a headache. Boo.

More good things

2007-12-10T21:15:00.000+13:00

I'm feeling a bit tired tonight after too many mornings in a row getting up early - as we have to unload boats tomorrow morning this won't improve. But anyway, thinking of nice things will help.

7) There's a wonderful little sushi place in the Left Bank Mall off Cuba Street. California Sushi - they do lots of different sorts, but I like the salmon, teriyaki salmon and tuna best. Run by a small, terribly efficient, friendly Japanese lady.

8) The Embassy. Fantastic cinema. Big screen and even the cheap seats are comfortable.

9) Rowing on a calm day on the harbour. When it's windy it's nasty, but when it's not - like today - it's superb.

10) On similar lines, seeing mountains and sea every day. Makes a lovely change from London.

#5 in things I like ...

2007-12-06T21:27:00.000+13:00

5) There are some really great new sculptures outside Te Papa - made of wire, and each like a plant or a tree. They are extraordinary. I will try and take pictures at some point.

In other news: this story is just extraordinary!

More things I like ...

2007-12-05T22:28:00.000+13:00

4) The Deluxe Café next to the Embassy. Quirky atmosphere, awesome iced coffee.
5) Penguins!! There was a cute little blue penguin paddling about in the harbour this morning as we were rowing. Don't get penguins on the Tideway.

Long-expected update

2007-12-03T22:09:00.000+13:00

I do keep meaning to update this thing. But keep forgetting, or not getting around to it.

So, in reverse order, stuff what I have been doing recently:

- Went to a pole fitness class tonight with some of the girls from rowing. Not quite pole dancing, and quite tough on the upper arms. I'm going to be bruised tomorrow. We had a lot of fun, though; it's a tricky thing to master, flinging yourself around a pole. Suitably the class was on Vivian Street, which is Wellington's red light district (insofar as there are a couple of "gentlemen's clubs" up there). We're thinking of going again.

- Spent the weekend in wonderful Wanganui at a regatta. It was good racing generally, but we didn't do brilliantly. Lots of work to be done. I felt very at home though racing on a tidal river. We were all set for a big night on Saturday but we were all knackered (and a bit sunburned) so had fish and chips and crashed at our coach's parents, who were very welcoming. Long outing on Sunday morning, including a break at a nice little sandy beach with a swing!! (Still a long way downriver from Pipiriki where the kayaks stop though).

- I was meaning to post something I liked about Wellington every day. But I didn't get round to it. So I mean to start now, for December.

Three things I like about Wellington:
1) The lampposts along the bit of seafront running along the south side of Te Papa have holes in them, so when the wind is either northerly or southerly (ie, most of the time) they whistle. It's extremely cool. Makes them more than just functional.

2) Someone chalked poetry on that same bit of path, round Te Papa, last week. I didn't stop to read it, but I saw others stopping. Great idea.

3) It's said a lot, but it's true: Wellington on a nice day is a truly glorious city. Even if it's windy.

Of wind and waves

2007-11-17T15:56:00.000+13:00

We had one of the regular regattas between Wellington region rowing clubs today - despite a southerly being forecast, they stuck to the plan of holding it out at Petone instead of in the harbour. It started out great - hot, sunny, calm - but the southerly gradually strengthened and by the time we'd rowed one eights race (badly) and had gone out for the second there were white caps. The race was cancelled but we had to row back to the beach, waves coming in at every stroke. We thought we'd be okay, but just as we were getting towards the beach a few really big waves came in and that was it. We all jumped out; half the school rowers came dashing in to help us (which was really sweet, though mostly motivated by wanting a swim) and we all got out safely.

Wellington won the regatta. :)

I love fireworks

2007-11-05T21:46:00.000+13:00

Wellington's Bonfire Night fireworks display turned out to be superb. They set up barges in the middle of the harbour so there are vantage points all round. I watched from the rowing club balcony. A full fifteen minutes, with some I've never seen before like hearts! Although there's this "should we ban Guy Fawkes" debate going on (for starters, Kiwi friends, it's "Bonfire Night", but ...) it'd be a shame to lose such a great spectacle. The city was packed afterwards and I was very glad to be on my bike and able to nip between cars and dodge pedestrians!

Voyaging aboard the "Endeavour"

2007-10-15T21:51:00.000+13:00

My holidays are over - boo - back in Wellington and still a bit sleepy after a late night flight back from Sydney on Sunday.

Torunn and I did make it to Milford Sound after all; we set out early the day after my last post, and the road opened that morning. So we kept driving all the way there, and managed to get on a cruise on one of the smallest boats on the Sound. The light was gorgeous and although some of the waterfalls had dried up after a couple of days without rain, it was well worth doing. We spent our last day together in Queenstown, getting the gondola to see views and wandering by the lake.

From Queenstown I flew to Sydney, where my rowing friend Jess kindly put me up for the night and I played tourist on the ferry to her flat - the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge were all lit up and lovely. After a good catch-up, early the next morning I caught a plane to Newcastle. I was fascinated to discover that just like its English namesake, Newcastle is heavily dependent on coal. There were loads of gigantic coal ships at anchor in the bay, awaiting their turn to come in and load up with coal. It was, therefore, a rather suitable place to join the Endeavour as the original ship was once a collier brig from Whitby.

Endeavour is not an elegant vessel; she's too rounded for that. But she is beautiful, a faithful reproduction of the original, with very little metal around except in the "20th century" deck where the galley, mess, showers and heads, and the engine room are kept. That's the lowest deck on board, tucked away so when she's in museum mode all the public sees is the 18th century deck above. The wood does creak a bit, and she takes on a few inches of water in the bilges, but she's a lovely, lovely ship. And she has a lovely permanent crew, all friendly, helpful, encouraging and professional. We had a great voyage crew too - good mix of ages and backgrounds, and not too many snorers, which is crucial when you have 36 people all sleeping together in hammocks. Not much space between hammocks either!

The first day was spent training; a tour of the ship, safety briefings, helm orders, and "up and over" the fighting-top. Curiously Endeavour, like Spirit of New Zealand has safety lines running up the shrouds where the European ships I've sailed on don't. Personally I find it extremely frustrating to have to keep on unclipping and clipping the lanyards of the harness while climbing up - by the end of the voyage we, like the professional crew, had dispensed with those safety lines for the lower shrouds.

We set sail at 4pm, firing a couple of cannon off to thank the citizens of Newcastle for their hospitality, and motored out east until we had enough wind to set sail. The engines were off by 8.30pm and stayed off the rest of the voyage, apart from a short burst anchoring on Friday evening, coming off anchor on Sunday morning, and motoring the last short bit into Sydney. We never went very fast - even under Cook, Endeavour rarely manages more than about 10 knots in a strong wind. But we sailed, lots. On Thursday we had most of the sails set for a good long period and they sent the rescue boat out to take pictures of her, including film for an Aussie travel show called the Great Outdoors. The show had a producer, presenter, cameraman and soundman on board for a section in a January edition, so everything we did was filmed.

Unfortunately for some, she rolled a bit even when we were sailing. Quite a few sea-sickness victims. I was fine as usual (I know how lucky I am). Sail was taken in during the afternoon on Thursday and when we came on watch at 8pm rain was definitely on the horizon, with absolutely spectacular lightning to be seen in all directions. We all got kitted out in wet-weather gear and waited. All of a sudden the squall came on, wind up to Force 8 and we still had topsails up. So together with the permanent crew we wrestled them down - hauling on ropes we couldn't see as the wind howled and the rain poured down. Occasionally there was a bright flash of lightning, silhouetting the permanent crew as they climbed the shrouds to furl the sails. The wind died pretty quickly and by the end of the watch we wore ship (turning her) in winds that barely moved her.

More wind was forecast on Friday, so we kept most of the sails in and headed for land. The captain wanted to anchor in Broken Bay, north of Sydney, and we took the sails in and dropped the anchor in the early evening. A lovely little spot. After dinner he showed us some helicopter footage taken for a documentary on Cook, the Endeavour under full sail with a massive 18th-century Red Ensign flying from the stern and the crew in period dress. Gorgeous stuff, and very special to see it aboard the ship.

Our day ashore started late with a brunch (yum - all the food on board was really great thanks to Abi the cook and her mate Mischa) before we got ferried over to a nearby beach in the rescue boat. I was very excited to see goanas on the beach. Once everyone was on land Wally the engineer took us all for a walk in the bush - no tracks! - up to the ridgeline to look down on the bay and the ship. We were going to walk to a waterfall on a beach on the other side, but time and the track ran out. The bush was moderately thick, I got a splinter in a finger which still hasn't come out, and we had to dodge big red bull ants which are apparently horrid if they bite. I don't know how anyone survives in Oz!

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the beach. We went swimming and a couple of the crew rescued a Japanese couple from a goana intent on eating their picnic. The poor guy was just about to propose to his girlfriend too.

Back on board, we used up all the water storage spac (oops), and prepared for the evening's entertainment. Dinner was on the 18th-century deck, served by the crew in period sailors' clothes, with electric lanterns providing ambience. The captain served out our "wages", a spoonful of rum each! After dinner there was a "sods' opera", with contributions of songs, poems and skits from both voyage and professional crew. I haven't laughed so hard for ages - the talent was impressive and we had an good hours' entertainment.

On the last day we weighed anchor early and motored out of the bay, firing a couple of cannon as we went. We had sails set later that morning and we sailed in through Sydney heads in the company of hundreds of little yachts and various ugly speedboats. We had to take in sail once heading towards the bridge, which meant I got a great view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House from the main topsail yard. We fired our last cannon right under the bridge, causing a boom which echoed off the steelwork. And then we were into the museum wharf and tied up. The voyage ended with a beautiful rendition of "Leave her, Johnny, leave her" by first mate Penny and topman Ally. I'd have loved to have stayed for a celebratory drink with the crew, but had a plane to catch.

And that was that. Pictures going up on Flickr right now.

Missing Milford

2007-10-07T20:53:00.000+13:00

The weather has conspired against us - snow in the mountains above the Milford Road means we weren't able to go kayaking on Milford Sound today because the road was closed (and remains closed for the moment).

However we managed to fill in the day by going to the little cinema to see the film of Fiordland shot from the air, Ata Whenua. Very beautiful. Then we went to the Te Anau Glowworm Caves, only last night's rain stopped us from taking the boats at the end of the cave into the glowworm grotto proper. We did get into the caves though - awesome waterfalls - and we did see some glowworms. And we also got a boat ride there and back, so not a complete waste of time. We may also have got a refund but I'm not sure about that.

After the caves we had lunch before getting a shuttle bus to Rainbow Reach, a point on the Kepler Track, and walked back to Te Anau. It's about 11/12km all told, the path winding through beautifully lush forest on a lovely springy path. Nice walk.

Tomorrow, if it's clear, we're going to drive to the Divide on the Milford Track anyway to see the views and have a bit of a walk before driving to Queenstown. If it's not clear we'll just go to QT. Again, the weather dictates ...

On the road again in wet Wanaka

2007-10-05T20:06:00.000+13:00

Actually, looking out of the window it appears to have stopped raining again. Hurrah.

I'm away for a few days with my friend Torunn. We're driving southwards, ending up in Queenstown on Monday afternoon. The trip is going okay so far. Our flight out of Wellington was delayed yesterday but we got out eventually. Poor Torunn found the bumpy ride a bit much and wasn't too well; she recovered in the car though. Lucky there were two of is so I could drive!

We made it to Kaikoura in time to go and have lunch and see seals before going on our whale watch tour, which wasn't cancelled despite dour predictions from the guy who drove us from Picton airport to pick up our rental car. It was, however, somewhat swelly. The whale watching in Kaikoura is owned and operated by the local Maori iwi (tribe) and is terribly professional and modern. Nice comfy catamarans and flashy animated video to watch while the crew hunt for whales. Normally they expect to see one or two a trip. We were incredibly lucky and saw four. All sperm whales, the most commonly sighted whale off Kaikoura - attracted by the deep trench just off the coast and plentiful food.

Unfortunately Torunn's tummy was still a bit wobbly ...

After the whale watch we had a drive to get to Methven, beyond Christchurch, where we were staying. The clouds rolled in for most of the "scenic drive" annoyingly, but our hostel was nice and so was the pub we had dinner in.

This morning it was utterly glorious first thing and we could see the mountains behind the village. So we set off; first stop a forest to see NZ's biggest tree, a totara - 1000 years old and very big.

After that we pretty much kept driving. A couple of lookout stops once we were nearing Mount Cook - one at the incredibly blue and incredibly windy Lake Tekapo, and then shortly afterwards at the even bluer Lake Pukaki:

Bluer than it looks in that, actually; I need to adjust the colour a bit. We had planned to drive up to Mount Cook village but the clouds had rolled in over the mountains so there wasn't much point. Instead we stopped in Twizel, which is a bit of a dead end, and had lunch, and kept on towards Wanaka through a terrific rainstorm. We missed more views thanks to the rain, but by the time we'd got here and sorted ourselves out it had stopped so we went for a walk.

Tomorrow, Te Anau. Whether we make it to the Milford Sound or not is doubtful, they've been having snow that way.

Springtime in Aotearoa

2007-09-28T18:01:00.000+12:00

Since my last post spring has come to Wellington. At least it came last week, and we had three warm sunny days, and then it rained a lot, and today was lovely again. But flowers are blooming everywhere and it's definitely warmer. The clocks go forward tomorrow night.

The news at the moment is all rugby and violence. The police in Christchurch shot a guy dead the other night - nobody seems very sure why - but it seems to me they don't really have a leg to stand on. Apparently the officer was in fear of his life and the man had a claw hammer and was behaving oddly, but police are being broadly supportive of the officer's actions. Can't help comparing to the Jean Charles de Menezes shooting post-July 7th. Now that got rightly criticised, but I think the Met had more excuse to fire (on the face of it) than the Chch police did.

Of course both deaths are a tragedy; you have to question sometimes the wisdom of police carrying weapons.

Oh, and Ruapehu erupted on Tuesday night, out of the blue. One injury - the poor guy's lost a leg and is still not out of the woods.

Catching up

2007-09-16T18:20:00.000+12:00

I had a catch-up weekend: a bit of tidying up, a bit of laundry, a bit of admin-stuff at home, and also catching up on movies as I haven't managed to get to the cinema much recently. Yesterday I saw Ratatouille, which was just adorable. Pixar at their best. I tend not to like mice and rats much (living with mice running round your studio flat does that to a girl) but I found Remy, the hero of Ratatouille, utterly wonderful. Okay, he's a cartoon rat, but he was very ratty while being very cute. A funny, warm, beautifully-produced film.

Today, after the rowing club's open day (erg races on the balcony as the wind was too strong to row), I went to see Perfume: The Story of a Murderer at the lovely Embassy. Definitely my favourite cinema. It's a compelling, disturbing, intriguing movie with a silly ending. Annoyingly silly actually, as I think it detracts from the rest of the film. It's adapted from Patrick Suskind's novel of the same name, which I read ages ago and seem to remember enjoying, about a young man with an incredible sense of smell. Somehow the smells do come over on screen, through gorgeous cinematography. Ben Whishaw as the protagonist Grenouille is amazing - doesn't have much dialogue, but his performance is very physical and he doesn't need words really. Good supporting roles from Alan Rickman and Dustin Hoffmann, lovely setting, and a really creepy story as Grenouille goes about finding the perfect scent and distilling it - let's just say he thinks the perfect scent belongs to a girl. Highly recommended, although it does lose points for the ending (I think Suskind is to blame).

Mini-holiday, part 2

2007-08-28T21:06:00.000+12:00

Part two of the mini-holiday post.

After ice-climbing we had good pizza and indifferent wine in a Franz Josef bar, and then went back to the place we ate the first night for much better wine. We both slept like logs until the morning, and woke ready for our long drive across to Christchurch (about 5 1/2 hours).

It rained a bit, as it's wont to do on the West Coast, but by the time we were into the mountains it had stopped and was clearing up, and the views were beginning to be spectacular - vast snowy mountains on either side of the road. By Arthur's Pass village (the highest settlement in NZ at about 1000m) it was bright and sunny and gorgeous.

We went for a short walk after lunch to some waterfalls. I'm a sucker for a good waterfall and this was an excellent one, pouring down hundreds of feet. The light was tricky though, so my picture's not great. On the way back, views over to the mountains.

Back in the car, and on down towards the Canterbury plains through the mountains. I felt a bit like I was in Rohan - Mount Sunday/Edoras is further south, but it was the same sort of thing, with rings of mountains around flatter land. It was just amazing. I think it would be even better going the other way actually, but we weren't complaining.

Perhaps because of the views the distance passed quickly, and we got to Christchurch and another nice little backpackers. Gave up trying to decide what to do the next day and decamped to a restaurant, where we sat outside under heaters. I had mussels and Helen had lamb - very Kiwi! After that there was rather a lot of drinking, first in the restaurant and then in the nearby Irish pub.

In the morning we felt like fresh air (!) and exercise, and managed to hire bikes - the place we originally planned to get them from was closed, but judicious use of a phonebook meant we found a guy who drives around Chch with a trailer and delivers bikes to where they're wanted. He sketched out a route for us that would take us to the seaside, and we cycled along the idyllic river Avon (very pretty) to New Brighton. There we watched the surfers for a bit and admired patterns in the sand.

After that, back on the bikes to Sumner, where we ate fish and chips - unfortunately not the greatest, but all right - and sunbathed because it was such a glorious day. The sun was warm, but because it is still winter the sand was cool, an odd feeling.

We had time when we got back to Chch for a quick wander around the botanic garden:

We whiled away the evening in a nice pub before driving to the airport, because I had to come home. I was utterly exhausted, but it really was a great weekend.

A mini-holiday in the South Island

2007-08-27T22:21:00.001+12:00

So I got back last night from my mini-holiday, which was both great fun and pretty exhausting. I'm a bit bruised from the ice-climbing, but it was brilliant. I'm going to do two pic posts because as usual I took loads.

My friend Helen arrived on Wednesday, past midnight, and after a catch-up chat we got to sleep in order to get up bright and early on Thursday for our flight to Westport. I still can't work out whose bright idea it was to put an airport in Westport, which is a tiddly little town with one main street at the north end of the West Coast. Helen was a bit nervous to discover we were in a very small plane, but she relaxed once we'd taken off. It was a gorgeous clear day and the views across the South Island were just spectacular - right across the Richmond ranges towards Christchurch and Arthur's Pass National Park. Stunning.

In Westport we had breakfast and waited for the coach, which took us to Greymouth (the rental car places are all in Greymouth, not Westport). It was a fairly short journey and we stopped for 45 minutes at Punakaiki, where can be found the famous Pancake Rocks. They're layered, like a stack of pancakes. The sea comes in with tremendous force, creating blowholes. It's pretty impressive.

Back in the coach, we headed to Greymouth and picked up our car, and got on the road south towards the glaciers. On the way we stopped in Hokitika, where there's not a lot going on but there was a tree on the beach:

By evening we'd checked into our backpackers in Franz Josef - a cute little town. We stayed for the free soup they put on every night and then went for a walk to see glowworms. They were right at the end of a dark forest path, under a boulder and in the trees - we were glad we saw them, because we thought for a moment they weren't there!

Up early again the next day to drive the 25km to Fox Glacier. Fox village is a bit smaller than Franz, and the glacier is accordingly quieter. Plus R&E had recommended the Fox guides. We got equipped with boots and packs and so on, by our two guides - great ratio, two guides to the two of us! The boots were heavy plastic ones designed for the ice, which weighed a ton. Another short drive to the glacier car park and then we had a hike up to the ice proper, as you have to get on to it further up from the terminus because it's too steep where the glacier currently ends. Once at the glacier we donned crampons and harnesses and hats, and set out on to the ice!

Walking on ice is pretty tricky until you get the hang of it; you have to stomp your feet flat down. The guides create paths and steps in the glacier, mainly for the half-day walking trips, and have to keep making new ones because the glacier moves so fast (about 30cm a day) and melts and reforms. You can just see the steps to the left of this picture.

We did some easy climbs to start with on an ice wall - first just with crampons, and then with picks, and then the guides put out a rope and I belayed Helen while she climbed, and then we swapped over. It got easier each time. Tough on all of you though, legs and arms and we both bruised our legs scrambling over overhangs.

We had lunch, and then the guides put ropes out again next to a deep hole in the ice. And I mean deep. And also narrow. Here's me, being lowered into the hole.

And here's the hole, with me in it, though you can't see me!

And me trying to climb out.

The ice was really hard down there though, and I slipped a couple of times - thank heavens for the rope! It was just very difficult getting any sort of grip with crampons or picks.

After that effort Helen had a go, and then the guides practised rescuing her from the same hole. Then we explored some caves and crevasses.

Glacier and ice pics:

More tomorrow, from the journey across Arthur's Pass.

More pictures at Flickr.

Erm, yeah, hi - still here!

2007-08-14T20:50:00.000+12:00

I'm doing an awful job at keeping this blog up to date. Never mind.

The past month has been fairly busy due to rowing now being on properly - there's been a race, and a training camp - a choir concert too, and then there's this flu thing going round that I got full whack last week and am still recovering from. No energy, and coughing a lot. Stupid Southern Hemisphere winter.

On Sunday I fulfilled a long-held hope and saw Ian McKellen doing Shakespeare, in the RSC touring production of King Lear. It was every bit as good as I'd imagined it would be. The guy is a genius. He speaks Shakespeare so beautifully, with such understanding. Everyone else was excellent too, and the production (directed by Trevor Nunn) beautifully-staged. So all in all a good night.

Next week my friend Helen from rowing at home, who's currently in Oz, is coming for a mini-holiday. We're going south for ice-climbing and winter fun. :)