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Published: February 3rd 2007
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Arrival:
Well we survived the flight in quite good shape. The girls got into a routine of dinner, sleep and then a pre-touchdown breakfast for the three legs of the flight (London → Bankok → Sydney → Auckland) and Ben and I managed to watch 3 films, eat 6 meals in the 30 hours and drink plenty of G&T’s. - which as most of you know is our equivalent of a good night out!
At the airport we were given a thorough going over by the food police, who seemed to think we wanted to be lugging a carrier bag of overripe battered fruit into NZ - the good news was that they actually had a bin, the bad news was that they assumed we must be harbouring other nasty pests and we were promptly escorted to ‘BioSecurity’. Here they examined all the mud on our tyre treads, boot soles and tent pegs - the tent, cycling shoes and trailer were cleansed, and returned to us promptly - so this is the place to come if you’ve got a filthy old down sleeping bag, it’ll cost you 90 quid less than Rab! However, through the queues, interrogations, and inspections
Bancock Airport
Girls burn off some energy we had an airport assistant, June, who is there to help people like us through the airport rigmarole - what a star. Once we had retrieved our cleansed belonging she whisked us and our 120kg of luggage in not insignificant sized packages into a shuttle bus, and we were sitting in Jenny’s sunny garden within 20 minutes. Incredible - it would be impossible to leave Heathrow in any public transport with anything approaching a bike bag - let alone two, plus bike seats, car seats, trailer and a huge box of assorted camping gear and clothes.
So since then I have taken quite a liking to New Zealand.
Here are a few things we have learnt and seen this week:
Language:
it is a criminal offence to eat, chop, slice or add a kiwi to your muesli. Apparently you can only eat a kiwi FRUIT. And our host is at constant pains to remind us of this. However our little star Lily does still like to publicly announce she’d like a kiwi to eat!!
Food:
here in Auckland the range and quality of food is outstanding. But best, best, best of all is the Chinese food,
The Flight
The flight was hard for the kids!! particularly the dumplings. Proper Beijing dumplings, not the cat paw and bat ear Cantonese dumpling, no chewy gooey dim sum, proper boiled dumplings in vinegar soup. Heavenly. I’m trying to calculate how many dumpling meals I can manage whilst we are nearby. Though last night we had a superb Malay spicy aubergine, so I am now having to factor this into the calculation which is complicating the situation awfully. The ice-cream is also wonderfully rich and creamy because of the high fat content of the milk - but luckily this counts as pudding and doesn’t need factoring at all.
The girls and Ben are living on prawns, with the occasional fish thrown in.
Culture:
I’m surprised at how different it feels from the UK. It feels very North American in layout - wide boulevards, detached clapperboard houses on regular quarter acre plots, 4 lane freeways through the centre of town, and high street stores with gables that overhang the pavement. However at the cinema last night the two screens were showing only British films: The Queen and The History Boys, that would never happen in the UK - you would have to offer something more mainstream from the US
Aukland One Tree Hill
First outing on the bikes as well…and in my limited one evening of TV: Corry!! But despite that strong British connection, the lack of two storey brick houses, the different quality of air and light, and the subtropical flora makes the place quite fascinating.
Sightseeing:
There are 49 volcanoes in Auckland and we have climbed three. Nothing like Vesuvius or Volcan Puyehue (the only two I have climbed before). These are just dimples above the ground, easy strolls to the top and often capped. In fact we even cycled to the top of One Tree Hill - which actually is now without a tree since it was chopped down by an indigenous activist. The views are always spectacular across sprawling Auckland and the myriad of tonally different blue bays that surround it. We’ve enjoyed a day on the beach collecting shells, boat trips, and bike rides, and next week we’ll stay at a Bach, take the Trans Scenic train to Wellington and the boat across to South Island…..more then.
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