Hello from Hamilton in the middle of the north island, about 100 kms from Auckland. We have just had an awesome few days in Raglan, which is on the west coast, 30kms from Hamilton. Raglan is a surfing mecca, apparently. It was featured in some film back in the 70's and has really reliable waves and is a real laid back surfy town. We stayed in a holiday park on the beach which was way cool. It was our first time actually staying in Biff but it was all fine. The only thing of any note about the holiday park was the toilets. They were an entomologists wet dream!! The first night i went to use the showers i shared them with a grasshopper, 4 beetles and a ton of moths. They didn't bother me though, even when i tried to shower them down the plug hole! The awesome sunset made up for it though. (i will post some sunset pics soon as i have nearly enough for a whole Facebook album!)
The first day we were there we walked into town, crossing a big bridge over the harbour. Tons of kids, some as young as 4 (with arm bands on - FFS!) were jumping off the bridge into the sea below. It was a good 20 feet drop. I was super tempted to give at a go but Kate vetoed it, oh and i didn't have my swimming shorts either. Got some cool pics of a kid jumping out of a tree into the harbour too. The town of Raglan has a population of 2700 peeps so it was dead quiet. Lots of little cafes, bars and surf shops which we explored. We also booked ourselves some surf lessons for the following day.
It was a pretty rough night in Biff. His bed is really comfortable and there is tons of room but for some reason i didn't really sleep. It was going to be my excuse too if i sucked at surfing. The surf school came and picked us up and transported us to our class room near Whale Bay, just up the coast from Raglan. After about half an hour of classroom talk i felt pretty confident I'd find surfing a piece of piss. We then jumped back in the van and headed to the beach. We got wet suited up, grabbed our boards, had a few last practice 'pops' on the beach then all ran off into the surf. I got lulled into a false sense of security nearly straight away. My first wave was cool. I just rode it in on my belly before falling off about 20 metres from the beach but my next wave i actually stood up and rode the wave all the way in! On my Second wave!! The instructor spotted this and ordered me to swap boards with Kate. So Kate gave me her little board and that was that. It took me another hour before i stood up again and rode a wave. The smaller board was way less stable and the deck was real slippy. I watched Kate for a while and she wasn't fairing much better than me, falling off nearly every time she tried to stand. I did see her ride one wave in and we all gave her a cheer. I then watched her a bit later and, i don't know how she did it, but she rode in a wave standing with her feet together, facing the shore with both arms out, pretty much the exact opposite of what you are supposed to do. She totally looked like Jesus Christ on the cross, but on a surfboard. I damn near pee'd my wetsuit! It looked so funny! She made it though and the hours of ribbing i gave her later didn't seem to remove that fact.
After a few hours surfing we headed out to the deeper water but we were all knackered by now and all fell off a lot. It was good fun though and definitely something i would do again. I ache like a BEE-ATCH today though. Can't turn my head and my shoulders and back are super stiff. Oddly it feels like i have broken my pinky toe on my right foot too. I'll live though.
So, we are in Hamilton now. Just relaxing this afternoon, gonna have a meal later then head back out to the coast tomorrow to Kawhia. We're there for one night then we head over to Waitomo. They have the glow worm caves there but we might do some abseiling and black water rafting (floating along underground rapids!). Should be fun.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Sunday, 1 March 2009
The real adventure begins...................
So today is the last day we have at Danny and Catherines in Whangarei. Tonight will be our first night sleeping in Biff. Sounds kinda rude but I'm really looking forward to it. We will miss being at Danny and Catherines though. They have been awesome and have shown us some amazing things this last week. We will miss the food. Catherine has cooked us a few meals and Danny is pretty good with the BBQ. It's pot noodles and pasta for the next few months for us! It's kinda tricky cooking a roast dinner on a piddly little hob and a microwave. Might be good for our waist lines though. We'll miss just sitting out on their deck with a few beers watching the sunset over the hills and the harbour.
But, most of all, we will miss the fart competitions. We watched a British documentary the other day called "I can't stop farting" about these people who have excessive gas and how it affects their every day lives. It said that the average person only trumps 5-10 times a day which i thought was quite low. So, we decided to have a competition to see if we could beat the average between the 4 of us. I won the day with 14 trumps but our group average was 9. Danny let me down with only a measly 7 pumps. I thought the big guy would be like me, a sophisticated fart robot.
We had a good day yesterday. Danny and Catherine are volunteer snorkel guides at the local Marine reserve. They have an initiative here to introduce kids and locals into the sea life in the local waters. Gives awareness and aids conservation. So we met them in the morning and headed out for a bit of more snorkeling. Visibility was poor due to the monsoon from the previous few days which had churned up lots of silt. The girls did see a 6 foot wide sting ray though and Danny and Catherine saw a 8 foot wide sting ray called Raymond. It was awesome. We then had a BBQ on the beach and spent the rest of the day relaxing.
We head off to Auckland today to collect our post, then head on to a place called Raglan on the west coast. It's a town famous for surfing so we're gonna give it a try. Wish us luck.
Might be a while before another blog as not sure when we will get online again.
Peace
D
XXXX
But, most of all, we will miss the fart competitions. We watched a British documentary the other day called "I can't stop farting" about these people who have excessive gas and how it affects their every day lives. It said that the average person only trumps 5-10 times a day which i thought was quite low. So, we decided to have a competition to see if we could beat the average between the 4 of us. I won the day with 14 trumps but our group average was 9. Danny let me down with only a measly 7 pumps. I thought the big guy would be like me, a sophisticated fart robot.
We had a good day yesterday. Danny and Catherine are volunteer snorkel guides at the local Marine reserve. They have an initiative here to introduce kids and locals into the sea life in the local waters. Gives awareness and aids conservation. So we met them in the morning and headed out for a bit of more snorkeling. Visibility was poor due to the monsoon from the previous few days which had churned up lots of silt. The girls did see a 6 foot wide sting ray though and Danny and Catherine saw a 8 foot wide sting ray called Raymond. It was awesome. We then had a BBQ on the beach and spent the rest of the day relaxing.
We head off to Auckland today to collect our post, then head on to a place called Raglan on the west coast. It's a town famous for surfing so we're gonna give it a try. Wish us luck.
Might be a while before another blog as not sure when we will get online again.
Peace
D
XXXX
Friday, 27 February 2009
Body boards, Woolleys Bay and Monsoons
Wow, what a day we've had. Crowded House (the very famous NZ band) wrote a song called four seasons in one day about the very changeable NZ weather. Yesterday we woke up to fairly calm, sunny conditions. We had decided to have a nice chilled out morning and sleep off the effects of coming 2nd in the pub quiz and drinking the whole houses content of alcohol from the previous night (causing Catherine to sleep in the garden, where she fell!). We then planned to head to Tutukaka for a spot of lunch then go to Matapouri for a spot of body boarding. We loaded up Biff with our new wet suits and Danny and Catherine. We had borrowed a few body boards from friends and i was really excited about going in the sea again.
We had lunch and noticed that it quite quickly begun to cloud over and spit with rain. No problem, i thought as we were going to get wet anyway. We then drove to stunning Matapouri Beach to go look for the Mermaid pools, which are these secluded deep rock pools which are good for snorkeling in. The walk to them though was treacherous. We had to climb under a huge rock, then shimmy along a thin ledge above a ten foot drop into what was now, quite rough seas. The weather was deteriorating fast and the girls decided to not risk the ledge shimmy and possible death from falling into the wild sea and headed back to the relative calm of the beach. Danny and me pushed on though and did our best impression of rockhopper penguins. We made it to the mermaid pools which I'm sure would've been spectacular if not for the sea thrashing against the rocks and the wind now howling. We tentatively made our way back to the beach to hook up with the girls again.
We watched the waves for a bit then decided to head further up the coast to a better spot called Woolleys Bay. Yep, i travel half way round the world and still can't escape the bloody Woolleys!!
Woolleys Bay was a lot smaller than Matapouri but the waves seemed a lot bigger and there were plenty of them. By the time we got into our wetsuits it was hammering it down. Luckily the water wasn't too cold.
Now i always thought body boarding looked easy. You waited for a wave, lay on your board then glide back to shore as the wave breaks. Well, i wasn't anything like that. First we had to get to the point where the waves were breaking which was only about 50 metres offshore. That was difficult as every time you tried to move you were buffeted by a 4 foot high wall of water. Kate and Catherine stayed closer to shore and managed to ride a few little waves but Danny and i were out for the biggens. I waded out, jumping over waves and getting a nose full of salt water for my efforts. I decided to try and duck under the waves with my board as i have seen surfers do on TV. Not being the most graceful of people my first attempt at diving under a wave was nearly the end of me! A big 6 foot sucker headed straight for me, i held my breath and dived just as the wave broke in front of me. I completely under estimated the strength of the wave which slammed my body board into my face and tumbled me backwards! After a few backward rolls and a second to clear my head i tried to right my self in the surf. Just as i got back to a standing position and broke the surface to take a breath another big sucker slammed into me, pushing me back under. I thought about panicking but was re assured when my feet found the soft sand of the ocean floor. This allowed me to thrust upward and break the surface for a precious gasp of air. Phew, slow painful drowning avoided.
I then composed myself and managed to ride a few waves before getting very tired and heading back to shore. Maybe it was because i narrowly averted death or because i had ridden a few waves but my confidence was high. So high that i tried to do a sort of acid drop on my board in the shallows. A acid drop, for those of you not familiar with skateboarding, is when you run then jump into the air, putting your board under you with your hand then land on it and ride away. I managed to execute it very well but my trailing leg slipped off and dug into the sand whilst my leading leg slid away on the board. This meant performing a sort of funny split type thing, twisting my knee and scrapping it on the shingle below. I hobbled away to the laughs of Kate on the beach who had seen it all and deemed it hilarious.
Having Biff at the beach was a god send because as we all finished the weather was now a huge storm and it allowed us to get changed in relative comfort, warmth and privacy. As we drove home the weather just got worse and worse and by the time we did get home we were in the middle of a full blown monsoon! It was raining hard and the wind was bending trees and blowing the rain sideways! We decided we would leave cleaning Biff til the next day and stay in for a delivered curry.
Tomorrow we are supposed to go on a tree top assault course but i imagine if the weather stays like this we won't be able to. In that case we're heading off to the cinema to watch Slumdog Millionaire which i hear is totally boss!
Take care y'all and beware the offer of body boarding. It's a lot harder than it looks. Especially in a monsoon.
Peace
D
xxxx
We had lunch and noticed that it quite quickly begun to cloud over and spit with rain. No problem, i thought as we were going to get wet anyway. We then drove to stunning Matapouri Beach to go look for the Mermaid pools, which are these secluded deep rock pools which are good for snorkeling in. The walk to them though was treacherous. We had to climb under a huge rock, then shimmy along a thin ledge above a ten foot drop into what was now, quite rough seas. The weather was deteriorating fast and the girls decided to not risk the ledge shimmy and possible death from falling into the wild sea and headed back to the relative calm of the beach. Danny and me pushed on though and did our best impression of rockhopper penguins. We made it to the mermaid pools which I'm sure would've been spectacular if not for the sea thrashing against the rocks and the wind now howling. We tentatively made our way back to the beach to hook up with the girls again.
We watched the waves for a bit then decided to head further up the coast to a better spot called Woolleys Bay. Yep, i travel half way round the world and still can't escape the bloody Woolleys!!
Woolleys Bay was a lot smaller than Matapouri but the waves seemed a lot bigger and there were plenty of them. By the time we got into our wetsuits it was hammering it down. Luckily the water wasn't too cold.
Now i always thought body boarding looked easy. You waited for a wave, lay on your board then glide back to shore as the wave breaks. Well, i wasn't anything like that. First we had to get to the point where the waves were breaking which was only about 50 metres offshore. That was difficult as every time you tried to move you were buffeted by a 4 foot high wall of water. Kate and Catherine stayed closer to shore and managed to ride a few little waves but Danny and i were out for the biggens. I waded out, jumping over waves and getting a nose full of salt water for my efforts. I decided to try and duck under the waves with my board as i have seen surfers do on TV. Not being the most graceful of people my first attempt at diving under a wave was nearly the end of me! A big 6 foot sucker headed straight for me, i held my breath and dived just as the wave broke in front of me. I completely under estimated the strength of the wave which slammed my body board into my face and tumbled me backwards! After a few backward rolls and a second to clear my head i tried to right my self in the surf. Just as i got back to a standing position and broke the surface to take a breath another big sucker slammed into me, pushing me back under. I thought about panicking but was re assured when my feet found the soft sand of the ocean floor. This allowed me to thrust upward and break the surface for a precious gasp of air. Phew, slow painful drowning avoided.
I then composed myself and managed to ride a few waves before getting very tired and heading back to shore. Maybe it was because i narrowly averted death or because i had ridden a few waves but my confidence was high. So high that i tried to do a sort of acid drop on my board in the shallows. A acid drop, for those of you not familiar with skateboarding, is when you run then jump into the air, putting your board under you with your hand then land on it and ride away. I managed to execute it very well but my trailing leg slipped off and dug into the sand whilst my leading leg slid away on the board. This meant performing a sort of funny split type thing, twisting my knee and scrapping it on the shingle below. I hobbled away to the laughs of Kate on the beach who had seen it all and deemed it hilarious.
Having Biff at the beach was a god send because as we all finished the weather was now a huge storm and it allowed us to get changed in relative comfort, warmth and privacy. As we drove home the weather just got worse and worse and by the time we did get home we were in the middle of a full blown monsoon! It was raining hard and the wind was bending trees and blowing the rain sideways! We decided we would leave cleaning Biff til the next day and stay in for a delivered curry.
Tomorrow we are supposed to go on a tree top assault course but i imagine if the weather stays like this we won't be able to. In that case we're heading off to the cinema to watch Slumdog Millionaire which i hear is totally boss!
Take care y'all and beware the offer of body boarding. It's a lot harder than it looks. Especially in a monsoon.
Peace
D
xxxx
Thursday, 26 February 2009
New Zealand, some differences
OK, so we have been here in the north of NZ for a few weeks now. Again, not really enough time to really know a country but there are some very obvious differences between life here and life back home.
It is very odd being so far from home and everyone speaking English. I sometimes feels that I'm actually not in NZ at all, I'm really in Shepherds Bush. Every time someone speaks to me in a Kiwi accent i have an uncontrollable urge to order some drinks! Although there are far less Kiwi bar staff in London these days. It's actually a very different accent to the one you hear back home which i guess has become a bit Anglo-fied. Nah, the real Kiwi accent is much broader, almost South African, and everyone says either "mate" or "bro" at the start and/or end of each sentence. Example - "Hey mate, how's it all going bro? Sweet as, eh? Hey, you a skater bro?" which was said to me in a skateboard shop yesterday. All very cute.
New Zealand food so far seems awesome. Very English influenced with Fish and chips (although no cod or haddock, it's all snapper or dory) and Pies everywhere but also quite eclectic. We are obviously in the Pacific ocean here and have a lot of Islanders and Asians so there are a lot of Japanese, Korean and Chinese places to eat and not that many curry houses. I've yet to sample a Hangi, which is the Maori way of cooking with a hole in the ground but I'm sure we will at some point. They love there cheese here too (Smoosh cheers!!) and you can have it on everything, it's even in their pies. I had a mince and cheese pie while i was drunk last week and i think it was quite nice!?
No where in NZ is more than 105 miles from the sea so fish is everywhere. But not like in Japan where they are truly obsessed with it, and eat every last bit, even the eggs! Here it's more of the traditional, fillets of fish and no baby octopuses on sticks. They are very environmentally aware here too and regulate all there fishing, unlike Japan.
You can also get milkshakes here. Japan hardly had any. Here though they have some different flavours. You can't get vanilla but you can get lime. Now, lime flavoured milkshake may sound odd and it certainly looks weird (cos it's bright green!) but OMG, it is so nice. Really refreshing on a hot summers day.
Oh, and what a joy to eat New Zealand lamb again. I always remember as a kid seeing NZ lamb everywhere and it was lush. Much nicer than the lamb we get at home.
The beer here is well nice and i love the fact that everyone supports homegrown beer. There is bud and becks but I've not seen anyone buy it. It means that the local beers are really nice. Shame we don't do that at home anymore. Most beers are imported from Europe, USA and Australia and it has meant that UK beer is all now rubbish or difficult to really find. It packs a punch here but to be fair I've not really had a hangover on it yet. Danny reckons it's because they purify it and cut out all the additives and all the rubbish. All good with me.
I've mentioned the scenery but it isn't really that different from back home. It's just so abundant here. At home you have to be in specific parts like Scotland or Cornwall to see the good stuff whereas here it's Scotland or Cornwall around every corner.
There seems to be a lack of deodorant here too! I've never smelt so much bad BO. Especially from the Moari's. It's available, I've seen it in the shops but it just seems hardly any guys here buy it and they reek! We went out the other night and some Maori guy started to hit on Kate. He was on the other side of the dance floor and every time he lifted his arms it was like a meltdown at Chernobyl! Birds were dropping from the skies it was that bad! It just doesn't seem to be high on their agendas. Grim.
The people here though have generally smelt OK and have been really nice. It's all a very laid back sort of culture, which suits me fine and i imagine it is very easy to make friends here. Unlike parts of London where everyone walks with their heads down in fear of looking the wrong way at someone. That always annoyed me. How can you look at someone the wrong way? with your eyes on your elbows? or in the palms of your hands like that creepy monster in Pans Labyrinth? Then yeah, OK i can see that being a problem worthy of a good kicking, but not because you looked at someone for too long or something, or had an air of indifference in your eyes. Stupid London.
Anyway, if i think of anything else I'll let you know. I'm off now to keep discovering. Going body boarding this afternoon. I just hope I'm not harpooned by Japanese fishermen. I'd hate to have my cock served up with rice and seaweed!
Sweet as.
Darrell
xxxx
It is very odd being so far from home and everyone speaking English. I sometimes feels that I'm actually not in NZ at all, I'm really in Shepherds Bush. Every time someone speaks to me in a Kiwi accent i have an uncontrollable urge to order some drinks! Although there are far less Kiwi bar staff in London these days. It's actually a very different accent to the one you hear back home which i guess has become a bit Anglo-fied. Nah, the real Kiwi accent is much broader, almost South African, and everyone says either "mate" or "bro" at the start and/or end of each sentence. Example - "Hey mate, how's it all going bro? Sweet as, eh? Hey, you a skater bro?" which was said to me in a skateboard shop yesterday. All very cute.
New Zealand food so far seems awesome. Very English influenced with Fish and chips (although no cod or haddock, it's all snapper or dory) and Pies everywhere but also quite eclectic. We are obviously in the Pacific ocean here and have a lot of Islanders and Asians so there are a lot of Japanese, Korean and Chinese places to eat and not that many curry houses. I've yet to sample a Hangi, which is the Maori way of cooking with a hole in the ground but I'm sure we will at some point. They love there cheese here too (Smoosh cheers!!) and you can have it on everything, it's even in their pies. I had a mince and cheese pie while i was drunk last week and i think it was quite nice!?
No where in NZ is more than 105 miles from the sea so fish is everywhere. But not like in Japan where they are truly obsessed with it, and eat every last bit, even the eggs! Here it's more of the traditional, fillets of fish and no baby octopuses on sticks. They are very environmentally aware here too and regulate all there fishing, unlike Japan.
You can also get milkshakes here. Japan hardly had any. Here though they have some different flavours. You can't get vanilla but you can get lime. Now, lime flavoured milkshake may sound odd and it certainly looks weird (cos it's bright green!) but OMG, it is so nice. Really refreshing on a hot summers day.
Oh, and what a joy to eat New Zealand lamb again. I always remember as a kid seeing NZ lamb everywhere and it was lush. Much nicer than the lamb we get at home.
The beer here is well nice and i love the fact that everyone supports homegrown beer. There is bud and becks but I've not seen anyone buy it. It means that the local beers are really nice. Shame we don't do that at home anymore. Most beers are imported from Europe, USA and Australia and it has meant that UK beer is all now rubbish or difficult to really find. It packs a punch here but to be fair I've not really had a hangover on it yet. Danny reckons it's because they purify it and cut out all the additives and all the rubbish. All good with me.
I've mentioned the scenery but it isn't really that different from back home. It's just so abundant here. At home you have to be in specific parts like Scotland or Cornwall to see the good stuff whereas here it's Scotland or Cornwall around every corner.
There seems to be a lack of deodorant here too! I've never smelt so much bad BO. Especially from the Moari's. It's available, I've seen it in the shops but it just seems hardly any guys here buy it and they reek! We went out the other night and some Maori guy started to hit on Kate. He was on the other side of the dance floor and every time he lifted his arms it was like a meltdown at Chernobyl! Birds were dropping from the skies it was that bad! It just doesn't seem to be high on their agendas. Grim.
The people here though have generally smelt OK and have been really nice. It's all a very laid back sort of culture, which suits me fine and i imagine it is very easy to make friends here. Unlike parts of London where everyone walks with their heads down in fear of looking the wrong way at someone. That always annoyed me. How can you look at someone the wrong way? with your eyes on your elbows? or in the palms of your hands like that creepy monster in Pans Labyrinth? Then yeah, OK i can see that being a problem worthy of a good kicking, but not because you looked at someone for too long or something, or had an air of indifference in your eyes. Stupid London.
Anyway, if i think of anything else I'll let you know. I'm off now to keep discovering. Going body boarding this afternoon. I just hope I'm not harpooned by Japanese fishermen. I'd hate to have my cock served up with rice and seaweed!
Sweet as.
Darrell
xxxx
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Biffs first test
So we left Auckland, finally. Although I totally loved it and can see why it consistently appears high in "the best city to live in" poll (which I believe Vancouver usually tops) but it is just another big city. Same sort of thing as say, London or New York with it’s hustle and bustle and just way too many people. It soon got tiresome hearing people roll out of the bar across the street at 5am and whooping and hollering. God that makes me sound old but believe me, it got old very fast.
So we were quite keen to load up Biff, hit the road and head up to see our mates in Whangarei. It was about a 165km drive and our first real test for Biff. We weren’t anxious but when a van is as old as Biff is there’s no telling what can go wrong. I must admit, being a pessimist, that I half expected Biffs engine to fall out as we were driving up some of the steeper hills on the way. Thankfully Biff did his job well and seemed to handle the hills quite well considering, with all our gear in him, he now weighs over 3 tons! The drive up was amazing. Almost as soon as we left Aucklands sprawling city limits we were up in the hills surrounded by lush green rainforest's before hitting the coastal road and it all flattening out and we could see the impressive formation of the Whangarei Heads of in the distance. I must admit that Biff is so easy to drive. He doesn’t have such luxuries such as Air con or power steering, and to be fair he rolls like a boat when you take a corner but it was a joy just cruising along at around 80kph. Managed to get him up to 110kph and could have gone faster downhill but he’s certainly built for comfort, not speed – just like me really! It is like trying to park the Isle of Wight though but I’m sure we will get used to it.
Amazingly Kate remembered the way to Danny and Catherines in Onerahi, which is one of the suburbs of Whangarei. It was great to see them again and their house is gorgeous. It’s like an old white plantation style house perched on top of a hill overlooking Whangarei harbour. It has 4 bedrooms so there is plenty of room for us. We dumped our gear and as it was such a lovely day we headed straight to the beach. Danny drove us to Ocean Beach and I got my first real look at the southern Pacific. The beach, by NZ standards, was packed!! With over 20 people on it! These Kiwis don’t know what a packed beach is. We wandered along the beach, Kate and Catherine in their elements, what with them both being marine biologists. Danny and me climbed up on the steep cliffs and were greeted with an amazing view down the coast. Vivid green hills rolling down to gorgeous white sands and clear azure ocean. Certainly beats Bognor Regis! We headed back and stopped at a pub for a beer and some lunch. We sat in the beer garden which was on the estuary and watched gulls, terns and herons. The Quays in Mychett looks like it overlooks a rubbish tip in comparison!
We got back, got changed then headed out to downtown Whangarei to meet a few of Danny and Catherines friends for a meal. We had Italian then meet up with a few more mates in a few bars. Whangarei doesn’t have a thriving club scene like Auckland but it had plenty of bars and some decent live bands. Everyone we met was really friendly. I left one of the pubs with my camera and tried to take some pics of the outside but gave up when loads of randoms kept waving at me and posing for the pictures.
The next day we drove north to Baylys Beach and to go and see the huge Kauri trees in Waipoua (not sure on that spelling) forest. Baylys beach was again packed with over 6 people there! I can get used to these packed beaches. The Kauri forest was stunning! It’s so bizarre seeing the sea, green rolling hills and dense rainforest all within 10 minutes of each other. We stopped to see Tane Mahutu which is the Maori name for a big ass Kauri tree. It meant God of the Forest and as the name suggests he was a pretty big tree. 16.5m wide trunk and 55m tall! Kauri trees are the 2nd biggest, after the great redwood sequoias of north America. It’s one of the reason NZ became colonised so quickly as Kauri wood is super strong and perfect for building huge boats.
The next day was a day we had been looking forward to for a while. We were going to go snorkeling in the Poor Knights Marine Reserve off the Tutukaka coast just north of Whangarei. Our trip was called the perfect day and it didn’t disappoint. I thought that it was a big claim calling it the perfect day and worried that we would be left wanting. We got onto our boat which was huge and again, by NZ standards, packed with over 25 people! The boat was big enough to hold 100 so we had plenty of space to spread ourselves out. The boat trip to the islands was just under an hour. The islands have a marine protection perimeter of 800 metres and once you get into the reserve you have to behave. No peeing, pooing, touching, splashing or anything or you can get fined $250,000 and get locked up for 6 months! We moored up in a secluded bay, grabbed our wetsuits, snorkels and fins and were off! The best thing about the poor knights is the diversity of fish and coral, probably why it is considered one the the top ten dive sites in the world. We snorkeled into caves and under arches with thousands of tame fish no more than a few centimetres from your face! Danny summed it up well by saying it was like swimming through jelly tots! We saw some big King fish, eagle rays and a strange blue fish which my marine biologist friends still can’t find the name of. I reckoned we have found a new species and put forward that we should call it an Orangutan tit fish as it had floppy pectoral fins. The girls vetoed it though. It wasn’t until we got out that the skipper informed us that a few snorkelers had seen some pretty big sharks over by one of the arches we were snorkeling near. I declined the offer of going back in to see them. Screw that!!
We then headed into Rikoriko cave which is the largest sea cave in the world and has amazing acoustics. Lots of famous people have recorded music in it and it even hid a marauding Japanese submarine during the second world war! Ended the day with a BBQ back at the house and to be fair, it was a pretty good day. Not perfect. That would have involved dolphins and some form of oral sex (not from the dolphin though). A pretty damn good day though!
Yesterday Danny and Catherine had to go back to work and left Kate and me to fend for ourselves. We spent the day Pimping out Biff. We packed all our clothes and crap into his tons of storage cubby holes and then gave him a wash inside and out. We added a few things like a fan and stuck down a few little rattly bits. We then stuck loads of stickers on him and window jellies to brighten him up. Kate had to have lots of penguin and seahorse jellies and we also put some flower jellies on too. All looked pretty good and certainly livened up the inside. We have a few more bits and bobs to do today then we’re gonna head off to Whangarei falls which are the most photographed waterfalls in NZ.
I’ll let you know how we get on. Miss you all lots. Have been trying to upload some pics to this blog but it's being a dick and won't let me. You'll just have to look at my Facebook pics.
D
XXXX
So we were quite keen to load up Biff, hit the road and head up to see our mates in Whangarei. It was about a 165km drive and our first real test for Biff. We weren’t anxious but when a van is as old as Biff is there’s no telling what can go wrong. I must admit, being a pessimist, that I half expected Biffs engine to fall out as we were driving up some of the steeper hills on the way. Thankfully Biff did his job well and seemed to handle the hills quite well considering, with all our gear in him, he now weighs over 3 tons! The drive up was amazing. Almost as soon as we left Aucklands sprawling city limits we were up in the hills surrounded by lush green rainforest's before hitting the coastal road and it all flattening out and we could see the impressive formation of the Whangarei Heads of in the distance. I must admit that Biff is so easy to drive. He doesn’t have such luxuries such as Air con or power steering, and to be fair he rolls like a boat when you take a corner but it was a joy just cruising along at around 80kph. Managed to get him up to 110kph and could have gone faster downhill but he’s certainly built for comfort, not speed – just like me really! It is like trying to park the Isle of Wight though but I’m sure we will get used to it.
Amazingly Kate remembered the way to Danny and Catherines in Onerahi, which is one of the suburbs of Whangarei. It was great to see them again and their house is gorgeous. It’s like an old white plantation style house perched on top of a hill overlooking Whangarei harbour. It has 4 bedrooms so there is plenty of room for us. We dumped our gear and as it was such a lovely day we headed straight to the beach. Danny drove us to Ocean Beach and I got my first real look at the southern Pacific. The beach, by NZ standards, was packed!! With over 20 people on it! These Kiwis don’t know what a packed beach is. We wandered along the beach, Kate and Catherine in their elements, what with them both being marine biologists. Danny and me climbed up on the steep cliffs and were greeted with an amazing view down the coast. Vivid green hills rolling down to gorgeous white sands and clear azure ocean. Certainly beats Bognor Regis! We headed back and stopped at a pub for a beer and some lunch. We sat in the beer garden which was on the estuary and watched gulls, terns and herons. The Quays in Mychett looks like it overlooks a rubbish tip in comparison!
We got back, got changed then headed out to downtown Whangarei to meet a few of Danny and Catherines friends for a meal. We had Italian then meet up with a few more mates in a few bars. Whangarei doesn’t have a thriving club scene like Auckland but it had plenty of bars and some decent live bands. Everyone we met was really friendly. I left one of the pubs with my camera and tried to take some pics of the outside but gave up when loads of randoms kept waving at me and posing for the pictures.
The next day we drove north to Baylys Beach and to go and see the huge Kauri trees in Waipoua (not sure on that spelling) forest. Baylys beach was again packed with over 6 people there! I can get used to these packed beaches. The Kauri forest was stunning! It’s so bizarre seeing the sea, green rolling hills and dense rainforest all within 10 minutes of each other. We stopped to see Tane Mahutu which is the Maori name for a big ass Kauri tree. It meant God of the Forest and as the name suggests he was a pretty big tree. 16.5m wide trunk and 55m tall! Kauri trees are the 2nd biggest, after the great redwood sequoias of north America. It’s one of the reason NZ became colonised so quickly as Kauri wood is super strong and perfect for building huge boats.
The next day was a day we had been looking forward to for a while. We were going to go snorkeling in the Poor Knights Marine Reserve off the Tutukaka coast just north of Whangarei. Our trip was called the perfect day and it didn’t disappoint. I thought that it was a big claim calling it the perfect day and worried that we would be left wanting. We got onto our boat which was huge and again, by NZ standards, packed with over 25 people! The boat was big enough to hold 100 so we had plenty of space to spread ourselves out. The boat trip to the islands was just under an hour. The islands have a marine protection perimeter of 800 metres and once you get into the reserve you have to behave. No peeing, pooing, touching, splashing or anything or you can get fined $250,000 and get locked up for 6 months! We moored up in a secluded bay, grabbed our wetsuits, snorkels and fins and were off! The best thing about the poor knights is the diversity of fish and coral, probably why it is considered one the the top ten dive sites in the world. We snorkeled into caves and under arches with thousands of tame fish no more than a few centimetres from your face! Danny summed it up well by saying it was like swimming through jelly tots! We saw some big King fish, eagle rays and a strange blue fish which my marine biologist friends still can’t find the name of. I reckoned we have found a new species and put forward that we should call it an Orangutan tit fish as it had floppy pectoral fins. The girls vetoed it though. It wasn’t until we got out that the skipper informed us that a few snorkelers had seen some pretty big sharks over by one of the arches we were snorkeling near. I declined the offer of going back in to see them. Screw that!!
We then headed into Rikoriko cave which is the largest sea cave in the world and has amazing acoustics. Lots of famous people have recorded music in it and it even hid a marauding Japanese submarine during the second world war! Ended the day with a BBQ back at the house and to be fair, it was a pretty good day. Not perfect. That would have involved dolphins and some form of oral sex (not from the dolphin though). A pretty damn good day though!
Yesterday Danny and Catherine had to go back to work and left Kate and me to fend for ourselves. We spent the day Pimping out Biff. We packed all our clothes and crap into his tons of storage cubby holes and then gave him a wash inside and out. We added a few things like a fan and stuck down a few little rattly bits. We then stuck loads of stickers on him and window jellies to brighten him up. Kate had to have lots of penguin and seahorse jellies and we also put some flower jellies on too. All looked pretty good and certainly livened up the inside. We have a few more bits and bobs to do today then we’re gonna head off to Whangarei falls which are the most photographed waterfalls in NZ.
I’ll let you know how we get on. Miss you all lots. Have been trying to upload some pics to this blog but it's being a dick and won't let me. You'll just have to look at my Facebook pics.
D
XXXX
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Introducing Biff
So after a long arduous labour i am pleased to introduce the lastest member to our family............Biff Brooks. He came into our lives at 10.34am on Friday the 20th of Feb, 2009. He weighs 2760kgs. Both Mum and Biff are doing fine.
We have a campervan! Finally. Picked up our not so little Biff thi
s morning from his previous home in Highland Park, which is a district of Auckland. He is massive!! We had to get a big ass van just to put all Kates shoes in. Nah, he is fully tooled up with a fridge, a microwave, hot and cold running water, a sofa and chair which fold out into a bed and of course, tons of storage. After we picked him up we took him out a little drive, ya know, to get to know him. We stopped off for lunch and to buy some essentials (plates, pillow, duvet, those sorts of things). We got back to Biff and started filling all his drawers and cubby holes with all
new gear when Kate asked me what that noise was? She said it sounded like running water. Now it was absolutely pissing down outside so i just assumed it was the rain. But no, Biff had wet himself!! Maybe he was anxious about having new parents but for some reason the hot water pipe had disconnected and was emptying itself all over the back of the van! Steaming hot water gushing everywhere. Managed to jam the pipes back together and clean up Biffs little accident. Kate is now sure we have bought a lemon but it was an easy fix and nothing was damaged, except Biffs pride.
s morning from his previous home in Highland Park, which is a district of Auckland. He is massive!! We had to get a big ass van just to put all Kates shoes in. Nah, he is fully tooled up with a fridge, a microwave, hot and cold running water, a sofa and chair which fold out into a bed and of course, tons of storage. After we picked him up we took him out a little drive, ya know, to get to know him. We stopped off for lunch and to buy some essentials (plates, pillow, duvet, those sorts of things). We got back to Biff and started filling all his drawers and cubby holes with all
new gear when Kate asked me what that noise was? She said it sounded like running water. Now it was absolutely pissing down outside so i just assumed it was the rain. But no, Biff had wet himself!! Maybe he was anxious about having new parents but for some reason the hot water pipe had disconnected and was emptying itself all over the back of the van! Steaming hot water gushing everywhere. Managed to jam the pipes back together and clean up Biffs little accident. Kate is now sure we have bought a lemon but it was an easy fix and nothing was damaged, except Biffs pride.We then went for a drive down to the coast to watch the boats bu
t as the weather was shocking we just sat in Biff and looked through his service history and started customizing him with stickers. He has had a lot of work done but as Kate pointed out, his is 18 years old. Hopefully that won't mean he'll be out all hours of the night then will sneak home stinking of alcohol, telling us he has gotten a mini cooper pregnant! I'm sure he'll be well behaved (famous last words!)
t as the weather was shocking we just sat in Biff and looked through his service history and started customizing him with stickers. He has had a lot of work done but as Kate pointed out, his is 18 years old. Hopefully that won't mean he'll be out all hours of the night then will sneak home stinking of alcohol, telling us he has gotten a mini cooper pregnant! I'm sure he'll be well behaved (famous last words!)So we leave Auckland tomorrow and head up to Whangarei to see Derby Danny and Catherine. Can't wait! We're gonna be spending about a week there which will give us plenty of time to explore, go snorkelling and finish pimping out Biff. I tried to convince Kate that he needs spinning hub caps but she's not having it.
So will update you all soon.
Peace
D
xxxx
Road trip for nothing
So we have a hire car at the moment so we can drive around the sprawling suburbs of Auckland looking for a Biff (campervan) which will be our mobile home for the next year. We looked at a few vans yesterday but the selection in our price range is limited so we decided to look further a field. To quote Finch from American Pie “God bless the internet” which is making this possible for us to find these vans. One that looked particularly nice was being sold in a town called Tokeroa. Now on the map it didn’t look too far but due to the fact that New Zealand doesn’t really have motorways, it was a 6 hour round trip. Well, we didn’t have anything else planned and have unlimited mileage on the car so we thought we’d go for a look.
We struggled our way out of the city through the traffic and hit the relative calm of highway 1. Well, it would have been calm except for the constant road noise! It seems roads in New Zealand are coated with a kind of tarmac that sounds like driving over a cheese grater. No joke it was literally like sleeping inside a jet engine……..on a building site where the workmen are using pneumatic drills………..and are being hit with tambourines by Howler monkeys…………..who are playing electric guitars with their Marshall amps turned up to 11!! OK OK, so that may be an exaggeration but believe me, it was frickin loud. Not usually a problem if you can turn up the radio but, maybe due to the hills, no station broadcasted for longer than 10 minutes before it all turned to static. No real loss to be fair as it seemed all radio stations here broadcast from the inside of a tunnel making the presenters all sounded like butch lesbians with cardboard boxes over their heads! All quite bizarre. Thank god I brought my ipod for the rest of our travels.
Thank god then for the scenery. The Lonely Planet, the well known travel guide, not to be confused with The Lonely Island – who wrote the awesome “Jizz in my pants!” song, recently claimed that the UK is the most scenic island in the world. I agree on some levels. I have not travelled the length and breadth of the UK but I’ve seen enough to say that we do live in a totally stunning little corner of the world. That said, I’m not sure The Lonely Planet must’ve paid much attention in New Zealand. We only drove 3 hours out of Auckland and were amazed by the scenery in places. It is difficult to describe, and a camera just won’t do it justice. It reminded me of parts of Wales, mixed with the Highlands of Scotland with a hint of the Lake District. All mingled in with teletubby land and Jurassic park! It’s so green and there is just so much vegetation. We passed beautiful rivers and rolling green hills and we’re not even in the scenic parts yet! I just can’t wait to get our van and explore the rest of the country.
So, we made it to Tokeroa and were thoroughly disappointed with the van we saw. Well over priced for it’s condition, no character and a old smelly diesel engine. We took it for a test drive and as I feared with it’s old diesel engine, it really struggled up the mellow hills around the town, there was no way it would cope in the southern Alps of the South Island. We soon sacked the idea and headed back to Auckland. We had seen another van last night and although we were initially sceptical about a private sale, we’ve made the guy an offer and he accepted. Yay!! So if all goes to plan we are picking up Biff on Friday morning. Just in time to leave Auckland and drive up to see Derby Danny and Catherine in Whangerei (pronounced Fongeray).
So, will post a few pics of our new addition after we pick him up and when we get to Danny and Catherines. Very excited. Just have all the fun stuff like sorting out insurance to do now. Yay!
Peace
D
XXXX
We struggled our way out of the city through the traffic and hit the relative calm of highway 1. Well, it would have been calm except for the constant road noise! It seems roads in New Zealand are coated with a kind of tarmac that sounds like driving over a cheese grater. No joke it was literally like sleeping inside a jet engine……..on a building site where the workmen are using pneumatic drills………..and are being hit with tambourines by Howler monkeys…………..who are playing electric guitars with their Marshall amps turned up to 11!! OK OK, so that may be an exaggeration but believe me, it was frickin loud. Not usually a problem if you can turn up the radio but, maybe due to the hills, no station broadcasted for longer than 10 minutes before it all turned to static. No real loss to be fair as it seemed all radio stations here broadcast from the inside of a tunnel making the presenters all sounded like butch lesbians with cardboard boxes over their heads! All quite bizarre. Thank god I brought my ipod for the rest of our travels.
Thank god then for the scenery. The Lonely Planet, the well known travel guide, not to be confused with The Lonely Island – who wrote the awesome “Jizz in my pants!” song, recently claimed that the UK is the most scenic island in the world. I agree on some levels. I have not travelled the length and breadth of the UK but I’ve seen enough to say that we do live in a totally stunning little corner of the world. That said, I’m not sure The Lonely Planet must’ve paid much attention in New Zealand. We only drove 3 hours out of Auckland and were amazed by the scenery in places. It is difficult to describe, and a camera just won’t do it justice. It reminded me of parts of Wales, mixed with the Highlands of Scotland with a hint of the Lake District. All mingled in with teletubby land and Jurassic park! It’s so green and there is just so much vegetation. We passed beautiful rivers and rolling green hills and we’re not even in the scenic parts yet! I just can’t wait to get our van and explore the rest of the country.
So, we made it to Tokeroa and were thoroughly disappointed with the van we saw. Well over priced for it’s condition, no character and a old smelly diesel engine. We took it for a test drive and as I feared with it’s old diesel engine, it really struggled up the mellow hills around the town, there was no way it would cope in the southern Alps of the South Island. We soon sacked the idea and headed back to Auckland. We had seen another van last night and although we were initially sceptical about a private sale, we’ve made the guy an offer and he accepted. Yay!! So if all goes to plan we are picking up Biff on Friday morning. Just in time to leave Auckland and drive up to see Derby Danny and Catherine in Whangerei (pronounced Fongeray).
So, will post a few pics of our new addition after we pick him up and when we get to Danny and Catherines. Very excited. Just have all the fun stuff like sorting out insurance to do now. Yay!
Peace
D
XXXX
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