Pancake rocks

Punakaiki, NZ west coast - 17 Nov, 2006
I had been loitering in Nelson for a few days waiting for the weather to clear but the forecast was ominous and gloomy and I was getting itchy feet. [Memo to self: daily application of Myocil should clear that up.] Also, I'd seen as many Italian art-house films as it's wise to see within the space of three days. I bussed out.

My destination was Franz Josef further down the west coast but on the way I went through Punakaiki, famous for it's pancake rocks. They're called pancake rocks because with a bit of imagination and perhaps some mind altering drugs, they look a bit like stacks of pancakes. Watch out for the munchies after taking those drugs though...they're not as appetizing as an actual stack of pancakes, more's the pity.




(By the way, my camera never seems to capture the true state of the rainy weather. I think it must have a very positive outlook on life.)

It's Marmite, but not as we know it

Thought you might like to see a typical, self-prepared hostel style breakfast. Oh, you wouldn't. Sorry. Here it is anyway. Yup and that actually is a kiwi fruit. They're plentiful, cheap and full of Vinnie Vits so when in Rome an' all that (only I wasn't in Rome). The Marmite in NZ is not like Marmite back in the UK, it's a much less tangy version more akin to Vegemite but still a fine addition to toast.

On taking this snap I had the Mick ripped out of me royally by a Kiwi bus tour driver. I saw his breakfast, it was meagre and un-noteworthy and certainly not deserving of a picture. Shut up and drive your bus!

Whilst I'm on the pointless picture vibe, here's an odd image I took when I was in the 'study'. Not sure why the door had two locks. Are NZers petrified of having their 'studies' interuptted or is it to guard against the heavy handed approach that NZers adopt in checking for a vacant trap? Strange.

Pie heaven

Anyone that knows me should be fully aware of my love of pies. Well, New Zealand is pie heaven. It seems to be what NZers survive on. It's like Bolton on a Saturday afternoon...people simply queueing for pies. Mince (as in ground beef, not your dried fruit infused abomination) seems to be the staple although you can also get steak, steak & cheese, steak & veg and the below documented butter chicken - seemingly a new angle for NZ pie eaters. Marvellous. Oddly enough all cafes selling pies had a smell reminiscent of Seb's parents' kitchen. Maybe Seb's parents are closet pie bakers. Maybe so.

Wash out

Nelson, south island NZ, Nov 14-17, 2006

First port of call in the south island was Nelson. I was deeply disappointed, there was no memorial to the great man who was the scourge of the French, no Nelson memorabilia, not even a mini-column. Come on, that's not right. I was most disgruntled. Instead there was rain and plenty of it. This put pay to my plan to go kayaking (canoeing to you and me) and hiking around Abel Tasman National Park (named after some Dutch also-ran) . This was a shame as promo literature everywhere showed golden, sun kissed beaches, dolphins toying with kayakers and seals hopping up onto the stern of kayaks and being fed jammy dodgers or fig rolls or the like (that's probably not a good idea in fairness). Hmmm.

Well, when the rain falls best go to the cinema. Saw 13 dici a tavola (13 At The Table) at the local arts centre and also went on a wine pilgrimage to Malborough Sauvignon Blanc country. How cultured! (In fact it was uncharacteristically a nice day when I went on the wine tour but I had already arranged it so...)

Also befriended a very nice chap called Phil (from Northants) who worked in the local music bar - The Maen Fiddler (yeah yeah, an Irish bar but the choice was limited). Had a very odd evening in there with a bald Scotsman intent on feeding everyone Jura whisky (as that was where he hailed from), an Irish man and Stephano, owner of a local pizzeria (sounds like the start of a joke). It all ended with Phil having to clean puke out of the ladies' loo at 3am (not my doing, I think it was the Azzurri that was to blame).

View of the bay and Abel Tasman National Park in the distance. Oh well, another time perhaps.

Larry the llama sporting the bed-head look. Seemed to be a lot of llamas around. Not sure why.

The fabled Sauvignon Blanc vineyards of Marlborough country (not to be confused with the fags).

A rather delightful lunch on the wine tour. How civilised. It was all designed to highlight and compliment the different flavours of the wine. I just demolished it because I was starving. How uncivilised.

Terrific. An old Bedford truck. Come on the Bedford!

Another old charabanc. NZ is awash with vintage cars, mostly used in anger rather than kept under dust sheets and wheeled out once a year. Not sure what this one was. I'm sure someone can enlighten me...if anyone can be arsed.

South Island - aloha

Learning from my experiences in Auckland I only hung around in Wellington for a couple of days. Then it was off to the ferry to cross the Cook Strait to the South Island and maybe the true meaning of New Zealand...maybe so. The ferry left Wellington for Picton at an hour in the morning I didn't even know existed. I think it's one of the few ferry journeys I have been on recently where I haven't taken the obligatory 'pivo'. The ferry ride is reputedly one of the most dramatic in the world. Yup, pretty dramatic indeed - blowing about 120 knots and sheeting down with rain. I think the scenery was pretty impressive too.

Farewell to the north island of New Zealand.

It looks calm...it wasn't!

Ferry arriving in Picton and doing the most impressive docking manoeuvre involving a pirouette and a rose in the teeth. How odd.

The ferry, oddly enough, was an old Portsmouth - Cherbourg cross channel ferry that had been put out to pasture in not really calmer but certainly greener waters.

Welsh Wellies

Here's a snap for Iwan, Popeye, Daf & Graham. If for some strange reason you woke up with a desire to open a Welsh restaurant and then for an even more inexplicable reason decided to do just that in Wellington, NZ...too late. Someone's beaten you to it.

I wasn't aware that scorpions were that prevalent in Wales but maybe they are...maybe so. [Notice the sheen of rain on the street - typical of Wellington, typical of NZ in general, perhaps typical of Wales!]

I think it had closed down. Enough said.

Wellington Boot-iful

The pace of my travel is relentless and there was no hanging around in Rotorua for me. I had made my impression. It was quick smart onto the InterCity bus again with my dear grey haired friends with reading specs & dilapidated luggage (actually I fitted in pretty well). Destination: Wellington. The route from Rotorua goes high up onto NZ's desert road with some dramatic scenery which I didn't really take many pictures of - I was on the bus, alright. Aptly enough the route to Wellington takes in Taihape, New Zealand's gumboot capital (as NZers call Wellies). More people in boots than in barefeet in that town.
A fast flowing river in a gorge. Gorge.

Mt Ruapehu from the desert road south of Taupo, the highest peak in the north island of NZ at 2800m.

Wellington, referred to as The Windy City. More meteorological than 'digestinal'. They weren't kidding. I nearly lost my toupee and had permanently watering eyes. At least the sun was shining, a novelty. I liked Wellington, seemed a bit more down to earth and manageable than Auckland, not that Auckland is some daunting megatropolis. Also the bus driver dropped me at the door of my hostel. How kind is that? It's the little things that colour your opinion. Can't imagine your average Brit bussy doing that, if they actually stop at a bus stop, that's a gift.

A New Zealand version of a Belisha beacon (and that's what they're actually called). Amused me for some reason. I guess it saves on leccy.

Some dummy I met at the New Zealand Cricket Museum at the Wellington Basin. Little did I know this was to be the high point of my cricket experiences abroad in 2006.

Hello there 2007!

Happy New Year to you. 2006, it's been great but it's time to move on. I'm going to be hanging out with 2007 for a while, probably a year at a guess.

Oh, and get this. I never thought that it would happen but I seem to have embraced YOOF culture with a full blooded bear hug and have managed to upload a video onto YouTube. I KNOW!! At the moment it's nothing more exciting than about six seconds of bubbling mud (actually, that's exactly what it is) but the path has been forged for more of the same...I mean video uploads, not more clips of bubbling mud.

For those with a strong desire to see mud in its bubbling state or are too hungover to know what you're doing, here's the link:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH5uKgLxH9c

So, 2006 has definitely been the Year of Change that Iwan & I christened it at the start of the year: I am now jobless, probably unemployable, homeless and drifting about the globe. Not quite what I expected but hey, change is change, right?

2007 - the year of penury, destitution and slipping into the underclass? We'll see. Hope 2006 has been a blast for you and 2007 is even better.

Let's GO!