We’re now in Queenstown, the bungy/jetboat/extreme capital of the Southern Hemisphere after a mad week of Kiwi Experience. Against better judgement we did a 12000ft tandem skydive on Sunday morning, freefalling for 45 seconds. Very strange feeling that you just can’t describe but, despite being scared stupid, I want to do another just so that I can know what to expect and appreciate things like seeing the plane disappear above you so quickly. Amazing feeling.
Far too much to summarise here...
We’ve finally left Wellington so I’ll have no excuse for being so slack in posting to this thing. It was a strange feeling waving goodbye to the place - we’d made friends, had cool jobs and it was very tempting to stay but it was time to move on. It was beautiful day for the ferry trip across Cook Strait: the sea was flat and the sun was shining. The highlight of the trip was a young German boy breaking his glasses and then running to his mother crying (what we could hear) “my glasses are...
The British and Irish Lions were humbled in the test series in Australia; England are currently being completely annihilated in the Ashes cricket series against Australia; The Sydney Olympics were an unqualified success and Australia was just voted the second best country on Earth to live in. Kind of makes you want to be Australian, doesn’t it? Well, I’ve just heard from my second/third(?) cousins from Melbourne who barely know me but have offered to meet Sue and me when we get there in...
Less than four weeks to go in Wellington before we leave for the South Island. This is despite Sue’s employers begging her to stay at least until Christmas and even offering to help talk me round! She’s flattered and it was quite tempting to stay - after all, we’ve both got good jobs we enjoy and love the place - but we’d just be delaying the inevitable and could miss graduate recruitment deadlines. And, of course, we’re missing home.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the Marystaple gig on...
This is starting to get a bit rugby dominated but, hey ho, we are in Rugbyland after all. Sue and I had a mad day on Saturday when we finally got to see the All Blacks. We took our first train since England into Johnsonville for a pre-match house barbeque at one of Sue’s workmates. We also had our first taste of green-lipped mussels - apparently unique to NZ - which (fussy) Sue did very well not to spit in the chef’s face, bless her. She coped much better with the beer. The atmosphere at...
We had a great time watching NZ v Australia in the World Cup Play-Off, despite the embarrassing lack of quality on show. Unsurprisingly the Kiwis lost and reminded me of a mid-nineties Arsenal: not very talented but hardworking and committed. The rugby was excellent on Saturday too (with Joanna at the Backbencher) with the All Blacks thrashing Argentina and then the British Lions deservedly beating a dirty, whingeing New South Wales team. Roll on the first test!
The All Blacks have just begun their international season which means Kiwis can get back to their favourite passtime: watching and criticising their beloved ABs. NZ thrashed Samoa in the first match but not well enough to stop everyone worrying about playing Argentina, let alone France at the end of the month (which Sue and I are going to). Likely to cheer everyone up is the news that fly-half Mehrts is back on Saturday, Lomu’s back on the wing and Jerry Collins is in at Number 8.
It’s not...
It was strange watching my country re-elect its government while I sat at work on the other side of the world watching the results roll in over the Internet. I didn’t want to vote having been out of the country for the last seven months and in case didn’t fancy any of the parties. I can only really remember the previous couple of elections well but, from an early age, an election has always to me a constant media bombardment from politicians and their party spin machines. Largely avoiding the...
God it’s cold here. For some reason when we were planning our route through New Zealand we decided to move nearer the Antarctic for the winter. In wouldn’t be so bad except Wellington still hasn’t discovered central heating. Our flat has one small heater which competes with one of Sue’s fags to be the biggest heat source.
I should be looking forward to the coming long weekend but, because I’m technically a contractor, I don’t get the public holiday off. Lucky Susan’s an employee and so will be...
Football is a cruel mistress that continues to snatch my dreams away from me right at the death. Stupid twats.
So much to do with nzmusic.com which I’ll be helping to rebuild over the next four months. It’s the sort of project I’ve always wanted to get my teeth into so it’s about time I started putting my money where my mouth is.
Sue and I made it to a gig on Friday night - my first in far too long - at the local university. We’d had a few beers with Joanna and Richard (who’s in the capital for...
Panic’s over, depression’s over and all’s okay again. Started my new job at Morse Media, a funky web design/development company in the centre of Wellington. It’s quite a small company with just four full-time employees but everyone’s really nice, they’re excellent designers and know what they’re talking about. My main work’s going to be ColdFusion development on their Kiwi music portal, nzmusic.com and help them scale up the database. It’s provisionally for a week’s trial but hopefully I’ll...
Still no job and, although I’ve just had my third personnel agency interview in successive days with positive feedback and test results, it’s starting to piss me off. The only job I’ve (jokingly) been offered is sorting bottles of urine for some testing lab. That’s what it’s come to! Doesn’t help that Sue’s just started a month-long office job leaving me bored in the flat with only god-awful Kiwi TV for comfort.
Went to Te Papa, the free national museum, over the weekend. Throughly impressed...
I wonder what life would be like if I were Mr T? “You don’t hear nothin’ but your pea brain rollin’ around in your head!” (via Davezilla and Little Green Footballs)
Settling in to Welly. Sue and I have been badgering the many recruitment agencies with phone calls and emailed CVs and have a few positive leads. I’ll actually have to be a bit more mindful of what I write here though: in an interview at Lacey Lee on Tuesday my consultant had read this weblog and knew all about me! Bit unsettling but no harm was done and I think it helped him get a better picture of me. Sue’s got a day’s work this week and I’m crossing fingers about a few opportunities. Need...
Haven’t written in a week but that’s because we’ve been such busy bees. Napier, as I said, was a fab little town. We explored Art Deco buildings, played lots of mini golf (Sue, sadly, coming out on top by one pathetic stroke), visited the Mission wineries (partaking in an excellent Pinot Gris and Geburztraminer) and a small brewery. Left, spent one day in Palmerston North visiting the NZ Rugby Museum and arrived in our new home, Wellington, on Saturday.
Within five hours we’d found ourselves...
Can’t recommend White Island, New Zealand’s only active marine volcano, enough. The obvious comparison is that it was like walking on Mars. We were guided through drained sulpherous lakes past massive vents that shot out superheated invisible sulpher dioxide that created clouds that blocked out the sun. We saw green lakes, odour-less sluphur deposits and walked through the ruins of a mining company’s attempts to build a factory that had fallen victim to an eruption. You could tell it was a bit...
Moving on to Whakatane today after a good week in Rotorua. On Tuesday we went to the hot-water barium Polynesian spas - very relaxing, much like a really hot (44C) bath and apparantly good for you. Wasted Wednesday morning by getting up at 5.45am to see Arsenal getting knocked out of the Champions League but it meant that we could drive to Waiotapu Thermal Reserve to see the Lady Knox Geyser erupt at 10.15. Thought its regularity and accuracy was a bit strange and (sadly) it turned out that...
We had an unpleasantly stressful and eventful journey to our first “stop”, Rotorura, yesterday that included almost running out of petrol, being given a hire car with a radio/tape player that doesn’t work (for three weeks!) and broken/lost sunglasses. We’re staying at the Kiwi Paka YHA youth hostel along with a couple of coach-loads of schoolkids who generally enjoy running around and shouting at each other. Mental note to self: no more YHA youth hostels.
Rotorura’s a big town built on and...
Not much time to write (sorry). Have scanned some new photos in - scroll to the bottom of the page - and will write some explanations as soon as I can. Hopefully the filenames will give you some idea.
Where’s your Year Ending In One now, eh?!
Why do you always think of something witty and damning to say after the event? I’m unlocking the hostel door to my room at 7pm last night when this old woman with a German accent comes out of her room and says, “I would like to ask you to shut and open your door quietly please. No noise.” I shrug, she disappears and I go back down the corridor to find Sue and then return a couple of minutes later. The door swings close behind me, not noisily but...
