Christmas Crackers

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So, just thought I’d fill you in over my recent events November ended with the final day of Movember for which we all grew exceedingly ridiculous facial hair, it wasn’t long before mine had to go but I was to be kept entertained. I was pleased to have meet the arrival of two young ladies who I’d worked with in Manchester on the 6th of December, I met Lou and Cheri at the airport just after poor Cheri had been relieved of 200 dollars by the customs for attempting to illegally smuggle an orange into the country.

The arrival had been preceded by a day of me running round Auckland trying to sort out medical assistance for Louisa who had contracted some Singaporean spider-bite-itous en-rout, but thank the lord the swelling went down and we washed away the weary travels with a couple of glasses of wine at Villa Maria’s Mangere vineyard which is located between Auckland International Airport and industrial estate.

Lou and Cheri departed for the pleasures of the bay of islands for a few weeks, and in the meantime, I persevered with work before the xmas holidays (which is always a struggle), what with two xmas parties (one provided by the council), and one on a booze bus visiting hostelries at the very limits of Auckland’s Urban Sprawl, and a good bout of carol singing just to try and get into the swing of things in the absence of gloomy skies and crisp winter days.

Anyway, we were reunited before xmas and made our way down to Wellington for xmas day, taking in the Geothermal Pleasures of Rotorua and Taupo, including the famous Wai-o-tapu Lady Knox Geyser, and the Polynesian Spa Pools in Rotorua for some thermal soothing, and some people watching (I saw you girls). After a rather sleepless night in Taupo, proving that theres only so much noise insulation that can be provided by a mattress when theres a bloke in the bunk below whos brought home an early xmas present, we set out for Art Deco-Napier.

Lou and Cheri had arranged for us to stay in an ex-prison, which had featured on some NZ reality-heritage programme apparently, but it was pretty cool, Napier’s a lovely place but we couldn’t stay and detoured via Te Mata Peak on the way down to Wellington on xmas eve, and even managed to catch two kiwi’s (birds) singing to each other in a Department of Conservation Wildlife Centre.

We arrived in Wellington around 5, where I’d booked accommodation at Maple Lodge, run by Jill and Simon, cause I’d been there for a mid-winter xmas meal in June which had been awesome. I also bumped into a few other guys that had also come to visit for xmas Mike, Matt and Vanessa, so we had a jolly good old knees up and both xmas eve and xmas day, some of us in more ways than one, but we wont go into that!, The xmas day meal was awesome, turkey with all the trimming, we were completely over-faced. But it put us on good form for the next few days.

On boxing day, we said our goodbyes and got the 10.30 ferry over the Cook Strait and Marlborough Sounds to Picton, not feeling nauseous at all, after managed to track down a sandwich shop, with wheat free bread, on boxing day!!, for Cheri, we made our way to Blenheim, the heart of New Zealand’s Sauvignon Blanc production.

So, an arriving in Blenheim, I then remembered what an ordinary place it was, we managed to get some dinner together, but all had a relatively early night due to the proceeding night’s activities. After a night of being disturbed by extremely vocal german grape-pickers, eventually ushered away by Ken, a bloke i came to know through sharing a bunk (not the same bed)-cheers mate, I was ready for some premium plonk. Ken being from these parts, very kindly offered to drive us around the local vineyards, as i'm not sure how advisable touring around them bicycle would have been, especially in the face of a stiff nor-wester (a notorious south island wind in case you were wandering).

So we took in a number of vineyards, the names of which escape me, but definitely included Spy valley, Montana, Villa Maria & Forrest Estate loosing count, anyway there were a few, I seemed to gather bottles after the third vineyard in, it was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun. We finished the day in practically the only restaurant we could find in Blenheim, which had beautiful food. Once again, we retired relatively early. The next day, after saying our goodbyes to ken, who we will undoubtedly be meeting again (for those living vicariously through my blogs) we set off for St Arnaud and Lake Rotoiti for some tramping, although Lou didn’t have any walking boots, she coped really well on the track to Whiskey Falls, fortunately, the Warehouse (in infamous nz buy-anything store) would come to her rescue later in Motueka, Hiking boots for $35, cheap as chips.

So, we made our way on to Motueka in Tasman Bay, where as ever, the sun was shining, we stayed at the Laughing Kiwi, which even had an outdoor spa, choice!. The owner was really helpful and booked us for a guided day Kayak in the Abel Tasman, the weather looked fantastic. I was determined to spend some quality time with the Spa (see photos), the next day (after Lou got her boots) we adopted a german girl, Sophie and made our way up Takaka Hill to Harwood’s Hole, a huge sinkhole in the surrounding limestone topography, which is accessed along a 17odd km dirt road, the poor old corolla only just made it. The hole was, rather deep, but we daren’t go too close to the edge, we retreated to Motueka taking in Kaiteriteri beach on the way home at which must have qualified for the most crowded beach in NZ.

So more Spa time followed, but the next day we had a fantastic time on a kayak tour in the Abel Tasman, we were whisked up from Marahau to the Tonga Island Reserve, to see the seals and then kayaked back, apart from the guide, I was the only male representative but it was a beautiful day in crystal clear aquamarine waters, stopping for lunch and then gathering all our kayaks together and hoisting a ‘sail’ in the latter half of the afternoon, to take us back to shore. We made our way up to Takaka later that day, finding a great hostel where we met some nice dutch people, again, more Spa time follows as did many G&T’s to soothe the weary limbs. New Years Eve we spent the morning at Farewell Spit, but soon scooted down to Nelson for New Years-Eve-eve.

I had managed to pick probably one of the worst hostels, that subsequently charged me twice for a room that I was not in, we also brought the average age up substantially, so it was always going to be short term. New Years Eve was fairly uneventful, although we managed to find a pub with a decent DJ playing crowd pleasing Jarvis Cocker faves (well for me and Lou anyway), it was just like being 18 again. New Years day was predictably hung-over, and me and the girls said our farewells the day after, whilst they had the whole of the south island in front of them, I had to go back to work and made my way back to Picton, boo hoo.

I picked up a hitchhiker just outside Nelson, that I would have preferred not to, lets just say it’s a good job i’m a white anglo saxon. Stopped for a walk and some mussels in Havelock, ‘The Green-Lipped Mussel Capital of the World’ and then made a beeline for the ferry. I’d picked to travel back over the Cook Straight on the Bluebridge Ferry, which is the poor-mans interislander service. Like many such vessels plying these waters, it had started its life in Europe, ferrying tourists around the Med, and its fair to say that it had barely had a lick of paint since leaving!, even the writing on the life-buoys was in French. The food however was distinctly kiwi, pies & fish&chips, not that you would have been able to stomach any of it anyway, the crossing back was just a little choppy.

I arrived back in Wellington at around 10.30pm, and took refuge back at Maple Lodge, where they’d left a key out for me, bless em’. I said my goodbyes in the morning and struck out along Highway 1 for Auckland, I’m absolutely serious when I tell you that as i turned on the radio coming out of town, and it was the opening chords of AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, Good Grief

And it was…. such a long way (to the top)(different song), I think its something like 500 miles, but the roads are so sinuous that you’re concentrating the entire time so you cant just doze off like you’re on the A1. I’d listened to all my CD’s, planned my next 10 years and run out of wine gums within the first hour. It wasn’t too bad on the stretch going up to Lake Taupo, the Desert Road was awesome with Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe (the mountain that had tried to kill me) on full display, helping to keep me awake. But Turangi to Tokoroa was just hard work, and I had to stop for a doze.

The last 200km was a killer, with numerous breaks on side roads and picnic areas helping to break the journey up. Finally, about 50km out of Auckland, I ran into a traffic jam, but someone had just had a shunt, so it didn’t last too long. I staggered back into the house after my 9-and-a-half hour escapade knowing that I had just had a fantastic xmas holiday, and knowing that in just another 9-and-a-half hours, I had to be up for work!

Well, you can’t spend it when you’re gone.

I promise to update and add photos soon, hope everyone is going well

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Photos

Movember
You see, all very silly