2nd week in New Zealand

When I got back to Auckland, I stayed with a dear friend Anita for a few days and did some travelling around. Anita is the cousin of my god-daughter's Mum (are you with me?!). Here's a summary of some of the key things I did:

- Spent a day mooching around Auckland. Went up the famous Sky Tower for a 360 view of Auckland and the surrounding seas and islands.
- Went to Waiheke Island for the day and met with Adjowa (Anita's sister), her kids and nieces/nephew.
- Had a picnic with my friend Gail in Cornwall Park in Auckland.
- Hired a car (called her Jewel because she was gold and shiny). Drove to the North part of the Northland. Spent time pottering about in the Hokianga Harbour area, including Rawene which has lots of artists.
- Drove back down the East side of the coast - stopping off at Kawakawa (where Austrian-born artist Hundertwasser settled. He designed some public toilets for this small town, and it now attracts tourists who go to the loo whether they need to or not!); and stopped at Waipu Cove for lunch which was simply a beautiful and stunning place. If I had more time I would have chilled out there for a while
- Met a couple more friends on my last night and day - Matt, and Mark - before catching my plane back to LA.

I will post photos of LA next, and maybe a couple of videos if I can work out how to upload them!

My first week in New Zealand

My first week in New Zealand was busy and packed, but I really enjoyed it.

Here's a brief summary of what happened:

- Left LA 10pm Saturday, arrived 5am Monday after a 12 hour flight (that's time zones for you!)
- Caught my Stray bus from Manukau, south of Auckland.
- We drove to the Coromandel Peninsula which is very picturesque, hilly, green and lush
- Settled at Hahei, a small village on the coast - stayed in a backpackers lodge on a caravan park
- Walked to Cathedral Cove which was lovely
- Had a barbeque with the 20 or so other backpackers/travellers. Most of them were in their early-mid 20's. There were a couple about my age. But I was the oldest! What was nice however, was that everyone thought I was about 24-25!! Thanks Mum and Dad for the young-looking genes! :)

- Next day drove to Raglan, a surf town on the West Coast. I was tempted to learn to surf but instead went for a good walk around the town and chilled out for an afternoon drinking coffee and chatting to one of the Strays. Had fish and chips for tea....yum

- Went on a 'Lost World' experience...this involved completing a 100 metre abseil down a large sinkhole, followed by a climb into a cave. It was very physical - walking over and bending my body round and over rocks. We ended up in a very dark part of the cave and saw glow-worms. It really was rather magical. But did you know that the glowing part of glow-worms is actually their poo! Had to ascend a 30 metre ladder to get out of the cave. That was quite scary, and hard work on the upper body strength. Thank goodness for the safety harness, that's all I can say.

- We were treated to a typically touristy Maori evening. After some traditional Maori food, we enjoyed watching some Maori dancing and singing. Boys and girls were separated and the boys learnt the 'Haka' whilst us ladies were taught how to do the 'Poi' dance. It was good fun. We all kipped overnight in the Marae (Maori Meeting House). It was like one big dormitory.

- Visited Rotorua to see the smelly bubbling mudpools.

- Went on a fantastic walk - the Tongariro Crossing. This took about 7 hours, walking past Mount Ruapeho, which is a young live volcano, and then past/over a couple of dead/dormant ones. It was a wonderful walk, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mount Ruapeho is Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies.

- Spent a day chilling out in the National Park Village (in proximity to Mount Doom), before catching my bus back to Auckland for week 2 - which I will write about next time.

Enjoy the slide show.

Living, walking and rice

It's funny to think I have been back from my travels for over 1.5 weeks and have already done two weeks of work (a 4 day, and 5 day week).

Been rather busy since my return and haven't really stopped. Work is really busy (as ever), and my weekend was full last weekend catching up with friends.

This weekend is also busyish - quieter today just chilling with my god-daughter (took her to the park this afternoon), and tomorrow I am meeting a friend for lunch then popping up to visit my Grandma in the afternoon.

I am also planning to go for a run in the morning as one is long overdue and I am feeling the effects of (relative) inactivity - this is compared to the regular episodes of running I have managed to achieve in the past. Plus compared to my very active first week in New Zealand when I did lots of walking and active stuff.

Walking in New Zealand reminded me how much I really do enjoy walking, and how good physically it makes me feel. So I might join the Ramblers Association or something.

Photos of my time in New Zealand will follow, when I dig out my round tuit.

In the meantime, here's a fabulous little website which is quite good fun and beneficial at the same time. It's called FreeRice (click) and the aims of it are that you will:

- Learn/improve your vocabulary by identifying the correct meaning of words from a choice of four options
- The more you get right, the harder the words and choices become
- For each word meaning you correctly identify, the sponsors of the website donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Programme.

This may not sound very much, but I guess the more people who do this (even in their spare time for just a few minutes a day), the more rice will be donated to the programme thereby helping to eliminate hunger and malnutrition. It says 33 billion grains of rice have been donated through the site so far. That's quite a lot of rice.

And it's good for you as an individual as well - your vocabulary and understanding of the english language will improve.

So try it, and continue to do it if you can - nothing to lose, only your brain and hungry people can gain!

Living in America

Well it's been over a month since my last posting. Lots has happened during that time. I spent over three weeks travelling far and wide.

OK this isn't exactly environmentally friendly, particularly considering it involved flying long-haul. However I do intend to contribute some money to environmental causes to try and redress my carbon footprint.

My first week was spent in Houston, Texas visiting my brother and sister-in-law.

My folks were also there at the same time. We did lots of fab things such as:
- going to a state park with lots of alligators sitting on the pavement
- visiting a big butterfly farm
- going shopping in a big mall the size of a large village
- visiting Houston Space Center where Mission Control (for trips to space and the moon) is based

I also hooked up with my friend Myke who I got to know in the UK but is now back living in the USA. We went to Galveston - a sleepy seaside town on the Gulf of Mexico coast.

I then got a plane up to LA via Las Vegas (whereupon I said 'G'bye' to my family).

Here's some pictures to give you a flavour.

More postings will follow at some stage, where you can learn and see all about what happened next!