Let the travels begin

Four weeks seems like a good length of time to travel, until you open a New Zealand guidebook. Although I’ve been around most of the North Island and parts of the South Island over the last year, there are still far too many places to try and fit in before I go.

Now that I’ve finished my year of work, I’ve set off on my travels and I’m so excited about everything I’ll get to see.

South Island

I’ve started by taking my car across the Cook Straight to the South Island. 

The ferry crossing was nice and smooth and I had a long chat with a farmer based in Marlborough and her sister about life in New Zealand.

I will spend the first two days hiking and kayaking in the Abel Tasman National Park. Then start driving down the West Coast. Mid-week I’ll be spending the day walking on the Franz Josef Glacier.

Carrying on down the West Coast, I drop into a town called Wanaka for a night before meeting up with my friend Emily in Queenstown. We’re going to head out to Milford Sound and probably fit in some extreme activities, which are a big part of the draw of Queenstown for tourists.

After Em flies back to Wellington, I’ll start heading back North. I hope to fit in a bit of surfing and a night at Hamner Springs before taking the ferry back across to Wellington.

North Island

After a day catching up with people, a group of us are off to Taranaki, which my Mum and I visited while she was out here. We plan to climb to the summit. I’ll then carry on up and spend some time surfing at Raglan and maybe visit Lake Taupo in the centre of the North Island.

Home

Assuming I survive all of that, I fly over to Sydney for a couple of days before finally flying back to England towards the end of March.

If that itinerary hasn’t left you thoroughly sick of hearing about my travels, I’ll try and blog and upload photos regularly so check back here over the next few weeks.

The drive from the ferry up to Motueka this afternoon has already provided the first few photo opportunities.

Final few weeks in Wellington

The last couple of weeks have been action packed as I’ve tried to fit in as much as possible before I finish my time in Wellington.

After the excitement of the Sevens, a quiet next weekend would have made a lot of sense. A group of us decided to meet up and watch a fireworks display for the end of Chinese New Year and go for a karaoke session. I never have a desperate desire for karaoke, but was happy to go with the flow. The venue was a booth in the upstairs of a Korean restaurant that felt a lot like someone’s sitting room. Safely out of the public gave and after quite a few beers it was a great laugh. We carried on to a few bars afterwards and I didn’t make it home until five am. Sunday was spent moving very slowly and enjoying a bit of all too rare sunshine on the beach.

The next weekend was another busy one. After work on Friday evening we went to watch the first Twenty20 game in the South Africa tour of New Zealand. It was a close game with the Black Caps (NZ’s team) winning in the last over. On Saturday the centre of town was turned over to a music festival called Homegrown, which showcases Kiwi bands of all different genres. It was a fantastic afternoon and evening soaking up the sunshine and the music. After a year here I’d heard of quite a few of the bands, so it was great to set to see them live.

In between all of this we were searching for a new flatmate to take over my room and I was selling off the bulky things I’d bought on Trademe, the local ebay. In a reversal of the process I went through to find a flat last year, we spent several weekends interviewing prospective flatties. It all got a bit disheartening when we had a procession of people who couldn’t read the add (‘no students’ apparently wasn’t clear enough), couldn’t string a sentence together or didn’t know when to stop talking! Eventually we found a laid back Scottish guide called Alisdair who’s now settling in to what was my room.

I was also wrapping things up at work, trying to tie up at least some of the loose ends on things I’d been working on and hand things over. A big new project has started up in the last few months and so rather than gradually winding down, I found myself rushing around with urgent meetings and briefings. It’s strange to look back on a whole year of working in a role that was both similar and different to what I was used to back in England.

During my final week I had something on almost every evening. Not long after I arrived, I was told about how John, who was here on secondment the year before me, had jumped into the harbour with a few other people shortly before he left. Not to be outdone, I was keen to do the same and on Tuesday evening got the chance.

Getting ready to jump

Here goes nothing

This one didn't end quite so well!

On Wednesday evening we went to watch Back Benchers being filmed. Then on Thursday a whole group of us went along with Helen to see what the Zumba class she has been raving about was really like, it was much more exercise than I expected.

My final weekend came round all too soon. Friday was my last day at work and so we had some farewell drinks at the end of the day. I’ve been immensely lucky to have landed in such a friendly and supportive team (and I’m not just writing that because some of them may read this post!). It made a huge difference, particularly when I first arrived, to enjoy going in to work and getting to know my colleagues. My manager put together the most incredible leaving present, an apple photobook with all the pictures off this blog along with others from trips and nights out through the whole year. It’s going to be a treasured memento of my year out here.

Saturday was mostly spent sorting through all the stuff I’ve accumulated and trying to pack my bags for travelling. In the evening, Harry and I went to see Hugo, which is great, and grabbed some dinner. Then it was back to more packing.

All of this needs to fit into two 23kg suitcases (except the furniture)

This morning (Sunday) I was entered into the Round the Bays Half Marathon. I was running with Carina (of cupcake and previous half marathon fame) and the goal was to help her get her first sub-2 hour time. We had good conditions, without too much wind and ran a great pace finishing in about 1:56 (the results are published in the paper tomorrow so they haven't yet loaded them online...grr). Angela and a couple of friends all ran the seven km course and so we got to meet up at the finish line. I would have loved to spend the afternoon relaxing and having a few well earned beers with everyone, but had to dash off to load my car up and make a start on my trip.

Back Benches

There is a pub opposite the New Zealand Parliament called the Backbencher. Every week when Parliament is sitting a live political panel show is filmed there. MPs from all the main parties appear on the panel and answer a topical mix of questions.


I've watched the show quite a few times and wanted to go and see it live at least once before leaving Wellington. Helen, Harry, Emily and I all made it along last night. You can see proof here (depending on whether access to NZ tv on demand is blocked by country)


When I booked the table for dinner they didn't tell me we'd be right in front of the audience camera all night. We lived in slight fear of being put on the spot either with about something we'd never heard of or to give a political opinion, fortunately we managed to avoid eye contact every time the roving host came near.


It turns out that a pub is actually a really bad place to watch a live show being recorded. Although you can't really hear it on the recording, there was so much background noise it was hard to follow some of the debate.


As well as the panelists, we saw the Speaker of the House who popped in for a drink and after the show we got chatting to the main host, Wallace Chapman, for about 10 minutes.


Another entertaining evening in my last week (I'll try and post about the last few weekends and the other evenings this week, which have all been pretty packed, but no promises that I'll manage to find the time).

Christchurch - 22/02/11

At 12:51pm a year ago today a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand's second largest city.

The scale of the damage quickly became clear. Much of the centre of the city was unrecognisable and many residential areas, particularly in the East, were devastated. Search and rescue teams and memebrs of the public worked tirelessly in the days that followed to find survivors. The final toll was 185 dead and over 11,000 injured.

In the days, weeks and now months that followed the quake, Christchurch residents have had to come to terms with the fact that their city will never be the same again and New Zealand has had to deal with the loss and impact of a tragedy on this scale.

The earthquake has highlighted the very best of the Kiwi spirit - an outpouring of generosity from donations and fundraising to volunteers to clear mud and rubble; a community spirit that has provided support and comfort to those who need; and, a resilent spirit that will see Christchurch rebuilt and life go on. It will take many years, but a vibrant new Christchurch will emerge and go from strength to strength.

The earthquake happened only a few days after I arrived in New Zealand. I was fortunate to be safely away from the damage and danger in Wellington. The event has marked my year in many ways. I have worked on aspects of the recovery and renewal of education in the city. Over the year I have been to see the city several times and spoken to many people who live there now or were caught there during the quake. Through the efforts they have put in over the last year I have learnt much about what makes New Zealanders such a great people.

Today is a time to remember what happened at 12:51pm on Tuesday 22 February 2011.

Wellington sevens

The first weekend in February was a long weekend to mark Waitangi Day. It was also the weekend of the Wellington Sevens. The Sevens is a Wellington institution and a must do on the global calendar of any serious fancy-dress fan. Part of the World HSBC Sevens Series, it's gained a reputation as one of the biggest fancy dress parties in the World. Apparently there's also some rugby going on in the background.


Tens of thousands of Kiwis (and a few expats) descend on the Wellington stadium for two days in some of the most impressive costumes I've ever seen. In the two days I noticed only two people at the tournament not wearing fancy dress...truly spectacular!


Helen, Harry, Angela and I decided to find a theme with four characters. After much deliberation we settled on Wizard of Oz. We had a mix of bought and home-made costumes. I was the tinman, which involved two cans of silver car spray paint, two pots of silver face paint, lots of cardboard, red material and about a week of evenings to prepare. It turned out to be quite a good choice as we only ran into a couple of other groups who had chosen the same (among 35,000 people in fancy dress that represents pretty good odds).

Costume components

Getting silver

The end result

We're off to see the wizard...after another beer

The effort that some people had gone to was incredible. The ideas ranged from traditional to topical, via trashy and truly bizarre. I didn't take many photos, but the newspapers got plenty.

Before we even got to the stadium

Lego men was a popular theme

These guys don't look to happy with their outfits

After the end of the rugby on the Friday night we headed into town to party. I eventually made it home about 5am. Getting up the next morning and doing it all over again was pretty hard!


I arrived in NZ just after the Sevens last year and all year people had been telling me I had to make sure I went. Now I've been I understand why. It was a legendary weekend, like no other party I've ever been to. Oh, and New Zealand won in the rugby.

Scale of the universe

Random...but well put together and fun to scroll around in


http://htwins.net/scale2/


Check out how many Yoctometers there are in a Yottameter!

Tongariro crossing - the write-up

Last week I posted my photos from the Tongariro Crossing. I promised to follow up with some more details about the trip.


We ended up with a group of 8 of us going - only one Kiwi and the rest of us Brits living over here. The Crossing is in the same National Park as Mount Ruapehu, where I went snowboarding a couple of times in the Winter. We decided to stay in Ohakune, the same little ski resort town that is full of holiday places. Out of season it was a lot easier and cheaper to find a place. We ended up with a really nice Bach that was a converted railway building. Plenty of space and nicely furnished.

Our Bach

We travelled up after work on the Friday and arrived pretty early in the evening. As we needed to be up by 5:45 the next morning no one wanted to do much other than get their bags ready for the next day and then head to bed.


It was pretty painful waking up before dawn the next morning. The final preparations were broken up by someone burning toast and smoking the whole place out. We dragged ourselves outside to wait in the chilly dark for the shuttle bus that was taking us to the start of the walk.


There were two time options for the shuttle and we had chosen the earlier one. The Crossing can get pretty packed on a clear day and so the aim of the early bus was to beat most of the crowds. A second advantage was it gave us the option of adding in some extra bits to the route and still having time to make it to the shuttle back.


The first hour of the walk was flat as we approached the first mountain. Just as the sun rose above the ridge line we hit the 'devil's staircase'. A tough 200 metre climb up wood stairs. At the top of this we reached the side track to Mount Ngauruhoe. This was the first add on section and Jonathan and I had decided we were going to climb it.


Mount Ngauruhoe starts to look pretty daunting as you get closer. It might be familiar to some people as (heavily CGI'd) it featured in the Lord of the Rings movies as Mount Doom. We couldn't pass up the chance to say we'd conquered Mount Doom!

Mount Ngauruhoe

The ascent was pretty tiring, a mix of loose scree and sharp rocks and pretty steep. When we eventually made it to the summit we were pretty relieved although we then had to battle with the wind that kept threatening to blow us into the crater at the top. Luckily the views proved worth the effort. The day had kept clear and we had a panoramic views over the National Park and surrounding mountains. We also got to enjoy the hot geyser steaming away at the top. The journey back down was completely different to the slog up. After initially slipping and falling we mastered the 'space walking' technique of bouncing and almost running through the scree. Having taken over 90 minutes to climb up, we found ourselves back at the base in around 20 minutes.


Back on the main track we found it busier than first thing in the morning, but not too crowded. We walked across the expansive flat Southern Crater and then had a short climb up a ridge line. There was a bit of cloud building up behind us but it never caught up with us as we walked on to the next section of the Crossing.

View back across the Southern Crater from the ridge line

At this point the Emerald Lakes came into view. These three lakes are probably the most recognisable feature of the walk. Build ups of minerals in the water have given the three lakes a striking colour. 

One of the Emerald Lakes

A short walk on from these three lakes brought us to the larger blue lake. Skirting round this we left behind the volcanic scenery and entered into alpine surroundings for the next stage of the walk. Having started in tundra and with a forest section still ahead of us, it felt a little like four different zones in an alternative crystal maze (showing my age a bit there).


We were now firmly on the descent towards the end of the walk, although there was a short up still to come with some stairs as we skirted in and out of a gully. Although we had beautiful views out across lakes to the north of the park, including the giant Lake Taupo, we all agreed afterwards that we'd seen so much spectacular scenery by this point that we felt a little underwhelmed.


The last hour and a half was a straightforward walk along the path, eventually reaching the forest line. As we started to skirt alongside a stream Jonathan, who had walked the Crossing before, announced we were close to the car park and the end of the route. We had thought we might catch up with the others, who hadn't climbed Ngauruhoe, but by the time we arrived at the end they had been waiting for quite a while for the first shuttle bus home to turn up.


The main track was 19.4 km and once we'd added in the ascent of Mt Ngauruhoe/Doom it was a pretty good workout. I can't rate the walk highly enough and if you ever have the opportunity to get out here then make sure you include this in your itinerary. This website is a good source of information about the Crossing.


We got back to our Bach about 4:30. Once we'd all showered and changed we realised we didn't feel too tired and were starving. We headed to a restaurant and had a tasty meal before heading back to the Bach for a few drinks and a surprisingly late evening. The next day a hearty cooked breakfast was followed by convoying back to Wellington. I even felt good enough to go for a quick jog in the evening after we got back.