I'm a member of the "jet-set" now, you know....
My current job with MWH was coming to an end, when all of a sudden, the new accounts payable person in our Wellington office hands in her notice... on the same day that she started the job. So your's truly is now getting flown up to Wellington to work there for four days a week until a permanent replacement can be hired.... now if only I had someone to hang out with in Wellington.... hmmmmmm ;)
Easter Trip 14th -17th April 2006 Part I
Ok, so I've discoverd the fun of Picasa and I'm well impressed with how quickly it manages to get pictures onto my blog... however, it seems to only want to do a maximum of four photos per post, so I've had to split our Easter trip into a few different posts.
Anyhoo, on Friday the 14th of April, we hit the road south (along with the rest of Christchurch). The traffic didn't bother us too much though, 'cos we were on our hols... horrah!!
Some of the roads I had driven already when I was on my tour with Gen and Dee, but others were knew to me. One good thing was that I got to get some shots of Mt Cook from the bottom of Lake Pukaki. The last time I was there in January, we had to guess where the mountain was because it was covered in mist.
-
Easter Trip 14-17th April 2006 Part II
I really was entralled with those poplars you know....
Driving from Queenstown to Glenorchy was just beautiful. Rori (remember her from the Arthur's Pass tramping trip?) had told us that there is one corner on that road where the view is just stunning. "You'll know it when you see it," she told us... and we did:
Now, I'm cheating a bit here, 'cos this picture is actually from Arrowtown, on the Sunday. But I forgot to load the picture earlier... so here it is now :) 
Easter Trip 14-17th April Part III
We arrived in Glenorchy on Friday evening and booked into our hotel. Isn't this a nice view to have from your hotel room?
Because it was Good Friday, there wasn't very much open in Glenorchy (which, for those of you who are interested, is about the same size as Louisburgh... only with fewer pubs). But there was one place open for pizza in the evening. The girl told us that they were starting their pizza menu at 6:30, so we went for a wee stroll before returning promptly at 6:30. And a good job we did too, because there were no tables left in the place by about 7 or so. Not too surprising, I guess, when it's the only place open in town.
Saturday morning, we started with a yummy breakfast, looking out at the mountains and then we went across the road for our jetboating/funyaking trip. We took a jet boat up the Dart river for about 45 minutes (the heated hand rails were just so great... 'cos at that speed it was very definitely cold.
After we alighted from the jetboat , we inflated our funyaks and set off down the river again. A lot of filming for the Lord of the Rings was done in this area, so our guides were explaining where some of the scenes had been shot... all very Middle Earth-ish.
Easter trip 14th-17th April 2006 Part IV
Easter Trip 14-17th April 2006 Part V
Instead of making the seven hour drive back to Christchurch on the Monday, we decided to split the journey over two days. We left Glenorchy on Sunday morning and had a brief stop in Arrowtown to admire the beautiful Autumn leaves before heading to Oamaru for the night.
Oamaru YHA... you have been warned...
Penguin at Oamaru. Even though there are signs everywhere warning people not to scare the penguins because they are very very shy... I think we met the exception that proves the rule, he was right up close the people and didn't seem to be in the least bit bothered by us.
Then on the Monday, we made our way to Christchurch, with a stop for lunch in Tiamaru with Marty and Jeanine, friends of Andrew's. Then back to work on Tuesday.. ah well ;)
Wellington 1st-2nd April 2006
The first weekend in April, we headed to Wellington to go to the Crusaders V Hurricanes Super 14 rugby match. For those of you who are unaware, the Super 14 is much like the Heineken Cup, with teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa taking part. The Crusaders are the local team here in Christchurch and the Hurricanes are based in Wellington. At the time of the match we went to, both teams were unbeaten in the competition, however, that record didn't last much longer for the Hurricanes. But as well as going to the rugby, it was a great chance to catch up with some people, and to meet some new people. Andrew and I flew from Christchurch on the Saturday morning and his sister Katherine, along with her little girl, Lara, picked us up from the airport and brought us to their house for breakfast (at the time of booking our flights, 7:15am departure from Christchurch
seemed like a good idea). This is the view from Katherine and John's front porch... impressive isn't it..?
After that, we headed into town to meet up with everyone. Two friends of Andrew's from uni, Paul and Julius, along with Julius' girlfriend, Henrietta, came to Wellington for the rugby, so we met with them. As well as that, we had to meet up with Gen and Trish and Paul came from Hamilton, so there was a big crowd of us going to the rugby. After the match, Gen bought us to her local Welsh Bar (the only one in the Southern Hemisphere... or at least that's what they claim). By this stage, we were pretty tired, as you can see from my almost sleeping position on the couch.
On the Sunday, Trish, Paul and I went to Gen's house to watch the replay of the Munster V Perpignan game. We knew the final score beforehand though (thanks to Molly for the text alerts!), but that didn't stop Paul from trying to take bets on whether Perpignan would make a kick or not when they had already reached what we knew to be their points total for the match.
Before heading back to Christchurch, we had to take a few pictures of Lara for Andrew and Katherin's Mum... so we did our duty and took about twenty, here's just one :)
For more pictures of the Wellington trip... have a look at Trish's Bebo blog thing... the link is on the right hand side of this page
Sumner after beach volleyball 14th March 2006
After a number of weeks of happily sitting on the beach reading my book while Andrew played beach volleyball with some other people from MWH, I was told that I had to join in. So on the last day of the beach volleyball season, I played two games with the rest of the team. It goes without saying that I was completly useless.. but damn, it was fun...
Afterwards, we all went to the pub to celebrate the end of the season, but not before taking some pictures of the sunset and of the moon rising over the Pacific.
Arthur's Pass 18th Feb 2006
I went on my first ever tramping trip in February with Andrew and Rori (it was her birthday actually) in Arthur's Pass. It was just a day trip, no need for camping or any of that sort of carry on. We started by trying the Avalanche peak trail, which is a 5/6 hour round trip that's recommended for only pretty fit people. No surprise then when I was gasping and wheezing after about half an hour. I still maintain that it was less a walk and more a climb ... see.....
Still though, even though we had to turn back, we had gotten high enough to get some nice pictures.
After lunch at Klondike Corner, we tried an easier trail and the view from there was just spectalular. The picture below is a stitch of five photos taken and it's still not big enough to give a sense of the wide open space that lay before us.
Back in Christchurch - 25th Jan 2006
Even though I swore I wasn't getting into my car again for at least a month (having put up 7,000 Km over the holiday, I was less than inclined to do some more driving), I nonetheless found myself taking a few trips around the Christchurch area with my surf buddies, Sandra and Maria. One day we strapped the surfboards to the roof of my car and headed to Sumner... doesn't my car look soooooo cool with the surfboards on it? I was well impressed, I can tell you!
Another day, we took a trip to Rakia Gorge and had a wee bit of a stroll on the river bank there.
On the last day of my holidays, Sandra and Maria and I went to Hamner Springs, but I don't have any photos of that because we were too busy relaxing in the hotpools! :)
And that was that, I went back to work on the 7th of February and have been slaving away ever since. I've a few more updates to do before my blog is completely current.... but like Iarnrod Eireann, I'm getting there.... ;)
New Plymouth 23rd - 24th Jan 2006
Our last stop on our holidays was New Plymouth, to see Mount Taranaki. Unfortunately, the weather didn't co-operate and the mountain was mostly covered in cloud. We stayed in a very nice hostel in the town, called Sunflower Lodge (as far as I can remember). The manager there told us that there was a free jazz concert in the park as part of their festival of lights, so we went along to that. It was really lovely there, as they had the park all lit up and there was lots of music and people wandering around enjoying the warm summer evening. The water features in particular were very well done.
The next morning, however, was not so pleasant. We were greeted with pouring rain when we got up, and decided that a fun way to spend the morning would be to go to the cinema. So there we were at 10am off to the movies... strange but true. We saw "Fun with Dick and Jane", which is a comedy parodying the Enron debacle, and it was actually a pretty good giggle.
We then hit the road to Wellington, stopping at Wanganui along the for lunch. That happened to be the day of the NZ premier of 'The River Queen', so the red carpet was out in Wanganui, along with a number of people in period costume as part of the celebrations. (Took a wee while for me to work that one out I can tell you).
Once we were back in Wellington, we got ourselves foddered and ended the holiday with a game of Trivial Pursuit (Famliy Edition) with Gen's housemate, Liz (we're such party animals, really). Early the next morning I got the ferry back to the Mainland and drove back to Christchurch, where I needed some quality time away from the front seat of my car...
Hamilton 22nd - 23rd Jan 2006
By the time we got to Hamilton, we definitely needed a break from driving for hours every day and running around taking pictures. Trish and Paul kindly provided that break by taking us out in their new boat at Raglan. We even tried our hand at fishing, and Gen saved the day by catching a fish so that we didn't go back to the pier empty handed (technically). It was really lovely and relaxing so thanks to Captain Trainor for that :) While we were in Hamilton, I also got a chance to see Gen's skydiving DVD for the first time. It was really really cool, but definitely reinforced my strongly held belief that there is just no need to be jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.
Anyhoo, here's a picture of Paul's boat that I stole from Trish's website... so's you get the idea...
Dargeville 21st - 22nd Jan 2006
Having been to the very tippy top of NZ, Gen and I headed south stopping at ninety mile beach along the way and promptly getting stuck in the sand in the
car park... not even on the beach! However, a friendly local was on hand to help and towed the car out with his jeep. I felt a little bit better about it all when I realised that it must happen pretty frequently there, as the man (who was the local member of parliment for the area - don't think he was too happy when he realised I wasn't in a position to vote for him) was all prepared with tow ropes at the ready. Cars also get stuck on the beach itself too, as many attempt to drive along the coast and get caught out by a rising tide. According to the Lonely Planet, there are a few abandoned vehicles on the beach, half buried in sand where the tide has come in on top of the cars that are stuck in the sand and there was nothing to do but get out and walk....
We stayed in Dargeville (Home of the Kumura - or so the signs said) that night, a pretty uneventful place, but one interesting feature is that the masts from the Rainbow Warrior are outside the museum there. The Rainbow Warrior, for those of you who are unaware, was a Greenpeace ship that was destroyed in Auckland Harbour in July 1985. The ship was in the South Pacific as Greenpeace members protested against French Nuclear testing in the area. It later transpired that the people responsible for the bombing (which killed a photographer, Fernando Pereira, originally from Portugal) were French Government agents. Allegedly, some elements of the French media were outraged when it was made public that French Secret Service agents had been arrested for the bombing, not because of what they had done, but because they'd gotten caught!
Cape Reinga 20th - 21st Jan 2006
Gen and I made it to the very tip top of New Zealand on the 20th of January and watched the sun set from Cape Reinga Lighthouse. At this point, you can see where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet and bash into each other. We sat happily watching the ocean for hours while waiting for the sunset.
"She's got the whole Su-un onna stick. She's got the whole su-un onna stick....."
On our way back to Kaitaia, it seemed like every wild animal in the area was determined to throw itself under the wheels of my car. Although I'm told that the correct thing to do in NZ is to swerve to hit Possums and Rabbits (non-native animals that destroy vegetation and are a general nuisance), I managed not to kill anything (birds don't count).
Whangerei 19th - 20th Jan 2006
Gen and I continued on our intrepid journey after dropping Denise to the airport on the evening of the 19th of Jan. We were in sombre mood but we kept our chins (one each) up as we headed north from Auckland and our first stop was in Whangerei. We quite liked the town, and we were most impressed with the pretty waterfall.
