Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!

---

And I shall drive my chariot/ Down your streets and cry/ hey, its me, Im dynamite/ And I know why....

so the big news is Aiden & I are back together!!!!!!!

A question in my footsteps as Suzanne Vega would say has followed me around and I am so escatic to bring forth such good news!
Aiden arrives into Auckland tomorrow; we're gonna travel around for three weeks taking in the highlights of NZ, Sydney, Hawaii & LA. I will follow him home shortly afterwards. I'm gonna do a whistlestop tour of the States taking in San Fran, The Grand Canyon, Washington DC, NY, a few gigs along the way - naturally i've researched the gigs and who happens to be gigging but Feist, Vashti Bunyan, Van Morrison, Architecture In Helsinki, Sufjan Stevens, Roger Waters, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones & The V Festival - so I'll endeavour to grab a few of them along the way!! So I hope to see everyone quite soon....

All else tends to pale in comparison to the above and the last few weeks have been a countdown to Aiden's arrival.
However i'll began where I left off last time.

Byron Bay was done so I changed my flight date and skipped on down to Sydney early. Late it turned out as I arrived into Brisbane airport 10 minutes before my flight was scheduled to leave. Thankfully, due to some dustbowl in Victoria the flight was delayed and I had time for breakfast!! Arriving in Sydney it was great to meander through the city that I once called home! Also great to catch up with Daniel & Ruth. My first night there I got rather drunk and the next day had to retreat to bed after breakfast to sleep off my hangover. The rain outside justified this!! I also made it out west to Dubbo. An inbred town where I caought up with an old friend Miss Fowler. We checked out the zoo - rather cool, i've taken photos and i imagine that i'll get them up here before Xmas though alot of you will probably see them in the pub in October.... - Not before sinking me in to the local RSL for a quite parochial table quiz! Though I did manage to win a spot prize for being Irish! From Dubbo I ventured to Wollongong to catch up with former flatmate & hometown buddy Jessie who happens to be building a F1 car at the mo! rather cool and great to catch up! Not content with all this I made it to another Irish pub (I was actually in more Irish bars in this one week in Sydney than i was when i lived there!!) to meet up with my cousin Andy. Another great night!! All in all Sydney still Rocks! Though the 6am start to catch a flight to Christchurch was in no way good.

Christchurch so far is my favourite NZ city. Quaint in a nice way, countrified Englishness abounds. The weather held up until I left (then came the floods), Not much to the city itself though its atmosphere more than makes up for it. Its strange how places that dont have much going on advertise the most inconsequential events and if you were to believe the hyperbole you would need nearly charter a chopper

From CCH I ventured north to Picton, the ferry town & on to Nelson which is another nice little town though for some reason its called a city. Nelson is the gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park which is quite simply breathtaking. Overrun with trampers (kiwi for those who like a bit of walking/hiking) during the summer, the tranquility of the walk i meandered through was added by the absolute lack of others; arriving at pristine beaches, all deserted apart from the odd shag or two (apparently the name of a bird that resembles a penguin from a distance. I was very trigger happy with the ole kodak thinking it was penguins and then they took to the clear blue skies and that proved that....

The south island for someone relying on public transport in the winter can be quite frustating to get around. Timetables are outdated & if a bus passes by once a day then youre lucky! Best go North so - arriving by ferry to the capital Wellington was pretty uneventful! As was Wellington itself. A more bustling city than CCH (not difficult) it has the usual museums & galleries which are as expected. Thus I headed to the centre of the north island to Turangi to attempt the Tongariro Crossing. Turangi - a road basically though at least it doesnt attempt to call itself a city! though it does publish its own newspaper! Worth it to stay at one of the best hostels so far complete with open log fire! & an impressive kitchen! (You would not believe that some hostels try to avoid!) garnished with napkins - touche!

The Crossing is a day long 17km event that is apparently the most infamous in the country. Something rather impressive is surely what it was. Due to the heavy snowfall the previous week there was a stark contrast to my walking through Mordor than what Frodo & Sam encountered in the Rings trilogy. The LOTR cottage industry which is purely inescapable here - you can even check out the jewellers in Nelson where the one ring was soldered (speaking of jewellers in Nelson, shop signs reveal a fantastic sense of humour: "20% off for anyone to do a cartwheel - today only!") - and from what i can make out pointless really - anyway I digress; the walk was through active volcanic peaks, the snowfields give way to lakepaths and finally through shrobbery and forest - rather diverse!
The impromptu slide down from the summit of the Red Crater / Mount Doom was on reflection much fun. Post lunch having an uphill battle as we were breathing in the views the guide informs us that the only safe way down this steep peak is by sliding. My protests prove futile as he informs us that to walk could result in a broken leg!! Armed with a pickaxe, i go down well!!

My run of good weather continues as I hit Whakatane - their brouchures continually drive home the fact that they get most sunshine days in the country and for once its not marketing spin! Staying at the Irish pub across from the bus stop proves it is possible to fall asleep on the PCD & Snoop dropping it like its hot even if that shaking isnt an earthquake but rather their phat base! Speaking of earthquakes, As I was minding my own business grabbing some real bargains at Real Groovy Records in Wellington, a 6pt on the Richter scale tremor coring from Nelson shook the city... never even noticed!!
The Irish bar proves fortunate as I offload the U2 tickets I picked up the previous week - theyre playing Auckland in November but i'll be checking out Al Stewart in Vicar St instead -
score!
Not much happens in Whakatane so to get some kicks I head to White Island - NZ's only active marine volcano - equipped with a hard hat & a gas mask - we explore the island - bubbling mud baths, steam and gasses erupting from every crank with relentless intensity. Gas masks are soooo the new black though also serving a very essential service on this catwalk!

& now to Auckland, I arrived yesterday and so far its proving to be another random city. I'm hoping that amongst other things Aiden & I will take in the sights of Rangitoto island off the Auckland coast - more volcanoes there...; sample the delights of the regions wine valleys. From AKL we head to Rotorua to get down with some geysers. Then we fly to the west coast of the south island to check out the glaciers. From there were gonna take the Tranzalpine train to CCH - the journey at this time of year is supposed to be rather romantic according to the blurb so ill put that one to the test too!!

Until next time, follow your heart....... and i'll see everyone very soon!!

---