29/6/07 Te Kaha and Te Whanau a Apanui

I crawled out of bed this morning with a sore head and got ready to catch my bus. I would be exploring the East Cape this weekend.
Our driver was Halo, a bit of a friendly giant. He got me sorted on board and then I met my travelling companions for the next few days.
Selene and Ciaron from Southern Ireland, Duncan from Plymouth, Kayla and Andrea from Canada and Tomara from Holland. They all seemed like a fairly frinedly bunch.
We headed North East toward our first night stop over. We stopped for Ice Cream, $1 for a huge cone, I had hokey pokey (vanilla with crunchie bar mixed through). Then we had one more stop for photos before arriving at the Te Kaha homestead. This is basically someones house with a bunk room nearby. We unloaded our stuff and were introduced to the family over copious cups of tea. They were a Maori family of the Te Whanau a Apanui (tribe) although oddly there surname was O'Brien. There were 4 generations in the house including 2 year old Hennessey. The cutest thing I've ever seen, especially in his sleepy suit with feet!

When we arrived in Te Kaha, Andrea announced that somewhere between the Ice Cream place and here she had lost her 'fanny pack' containing her passport, credit cards, plane tickets and cash. She had begun to grate on me previous to this but I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Everyone was so helpful, finding out phone numbers, calling the local police and searching the bus, but Andrea managed to make a bloody drama about the whole situation and pretty much threw it back in everyones face. I bailed out and headed for the hot tub, which was practically in the sea, and a few bears later I was feeling suitably relaxed.
We were summoned back to the house for food, which consisted of home made fish, chips and bacon and egg pie. I was just like home. Then Chay, the head of the household, and his nephew Nathan sang us a traditional Maori welcoming song, with the whole family, including Hennessey joining in. We were then expected to sing songsin return. Several national anthems were performed and there was plenty of lubrication. Stories were exchange, traditions shared and a great evening was had. The night ended with a very drunk hot tub and a final few songs before knackered I crawled into bed.

25/6/07 Arrivals and Departures

My week started with a C-section. It was exactly the same as we do back home and you'll be glad to know that Kiwi babies have 1 head, 2 arms and 2 legs just like ours (well maybe not the ones in Glasgow).

On tuesday I handed in my assessment form to my supervisor so he could mull it over and sign me off before he went back to the UK at the weekend, for a conference. Suprisingly he handed it back to me about 10 mins later, having given me 3 S's and 1 M, all signed and everything. Score!!

So I'm gonna do a bit more work and not take the piss and bugger off yet.

On Wednesday evening I took the train to Pukekohe to see Phill and Shell Gill and family. I had a great evening with a home cooked meal which was so nice. I stayed over night and the following morning Shell took me for a tour of the area before dropping me at the train. They also lentr me a backpack and sleeping bag for my travels. It ws brilliant to experience authentic Kiwi family life and hospitality. Armed with plenty of helpful advice I headed back to town for a quick turnaround before jumping on an intercity bus to Rotorua, for the weekend.

I arrived about 6pm and found my hostel, The Hot Rocks. There was a swimming pool and indoor spa pools all heated by the natural geothermal activity. Because of the huge amount of geothermal activity the whole city has a really strong Sulphur smell.

I grabbed some food from the Fat Dog Cafe and then headed back to Lava Bar at the hostel. I was soon acosted by some locals and was taught to play a random card game with a swear-y name. Inevitably I ended up fairly drunk and having a great night. Then I realised that there was a queue of locals round the block, waiting to get in. This is obviously the place to be. I headed to bed the back of midnight and met the young couple sharing my room. Gill and Dave form Perth! It's a small world!

23/6/07 A weekend in Auckland

Got up early on Saturday morning so I could wander down to the farmers market in central Auckland. Having bought some very fresh and tasty fruit and veg I then headed to the Auckland Fish Market. It was amazing. A real foodies heaven. Endless cabinets of freshly caught fish. So fresh that the market didn't smell, even slightly. I didn't know what half the fish were, no matter how to cook them. I decided to play it safe and due to my limited cooking and preparation facilities I bought some tuna, scallop and veg kebab type things. I wandered back to my accommodation via the Viaduct basin area of the harbour. This is a very modern and semi-residential area that had been redeveloped for the 2003 America's Cup. It was clearly a very affluent area, made even more apparent by the number of huge yachts and powerboats moored in the basin. I took a few photos to email to dad as inspiration for my birthday present(!)

After dumping all the food in my room I took the short walk to Parnell, stopping for some lunch. Having explored the various shops and boutiques I wandered to the impressive Auckland Museum. There are galleries dedicated to Pacific and Maori art and culture, natural history, including Auckland's volcanic past, and New Zealand's past and current involovement in armed conflicts. I could have spent days here but after a couple of hours I left and headed across the Auckland Domain to the Wintergardens. There are 2 glass houses (one hot, one cold) and a fernery. It's like a very mini botanic gardens. In the glaas houses there were huge numbers of wierd and wonderful plants, some of which looked distinctly phallic (mum would not be impressed). The fernery was practically pehistoric in nature. I half expected a dinosaur to appear form behind the plants at any second. The gardens shut at 5 so I was duely kicked out. i walked backto my room and began to get dinner sorted. When I took my fish kebabs down to the communal kitchen to use the grill, there was a large group of students hanging around. We got chatting and there was a mixture of Kiwi and, oddly, German students. I was soon invited for a drink. After a couple I decided to head to bed early as I was going to wake up at 1am to watch the first race of the America's Cup in Valencia. It is a national obsession here, especially when team NZ are the challengers. It was a good race but by about half way it was clear that the Swiss had the upper hand. The Kiwi's lost the 1st race but in a 9 race series they had not lost hope and TV pictures still showed them in high spirits.

The following morning was a fairly early start again so I could go to the internet cafe and phone home. Then I hopped on a bus to Onehunga, a suburb to the south of the city. This is the location of Dress-smart an outlet shopping centre. It was fab, 4 tops, a pair of jeans, a piar of rip curl shorts and a bra for $120 which is less than 50 quid. Having plundered the place I headed back home feeling suitably reatil therapy-ed.

By this stage Rob and Kate wereback from the Bay of Islands. The 3 of us headed to Foodtown for supplies and I grabbed a pizza from the local takeaway on the way back. Very meaty pizza, yum! Early night as I have an early elective C-section (or Caesar as they call it here) tomorrow.