Blogs from Greymouth, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 3

We left Nelson at 8:15 heading towards Greymouth an excellent hot day. The bus went through Hope Saddle and Buller Gorge following some spectacular scenery we stopped in the Paparoa National Park where some of us took an hours walk along a good coastal path and we saw New Zealand Fur seals the bus met up with us at the end of the path and proceeded towards Greymouth. We stopped once more at a place call Punakaki which have blow hols and pancake rocks the pancake rocks look like animals. From there we went to Greymouth where I stopped in the Noah’s Ark Hostel which had rooms named after animals I was in the tiger room which had Rosie from Edinburgh in, the wall had a picture of a tigers head looking out at us. 2 ... read more

Drove out to the West Coast to go make a knife. Stayed in Greymouth at a very cool Backpacker called the Global Traveler Backpacker. It had a nice african feel and look. In the morning we headed up to Berrytown to a couples place that run a knife making buisness there. We were one of two couples making knifes that day which ended up being perfect. Started of with heating and banging to shit out of a piece of metal to form the shape and harden the blade area. Then we cut the handles out and places them and copper bits to form the handle. Next we did a ton of sanding on belt sanders. Ending the whole thing with hand sanding. Durring breaks we threw some axes and saw their baby sheep. At the end ... read more

Steffin and Becs wanted to have one last hurrah at the beloved Greymouth beachfront house before they packed up the final boxes and moved out. We had barely met them, but in typical Kiwi warm hospitality we were invited along to join them at a hāngi. A hāngi is a method of cooking in an outdoor earthen pit oven which involves digging a pit, heating stones over a bonfire, placing wire baskets of food on top of the stones, and covering everything with earth for several hours before lifting the hāngi. We had a great time at a hangi held by New Zealand’s honorary consul to New England in Canterbury, New Hampshire prior to departing for New Zealand. Now we were excited and prepared to attend our first hangi on the land where it originated. The ... read more

Well, it’s Mel here - happy to be home after 5-weeks away and feeling quite energised about getting back to work on Monday… My job is very topical at the moment - one of the major foci of my work as a Nutrition Health Promoter is the prevention of obesity. Rates of overweight and obesity, and the associated costs to the health system, are rising in New Zealand (and in the States). So obesity is a primary concern for many organisations, groups and individuals. While I’ve been away the issue has been in the media often, both here and in Missouri. The way my vocational days were structured obesity was also the main issue I studied; I was grateful for the chance to visit many schools and city/county health departments which offered very relevant comparisons to ... read more

We enjoyed a great weekend away on the west coast at conference. We arrived on Saturday morning and spent the day finalising our presentations in the comfort of a bach over looking Lake Kaniere. Saturday night was dinner at Shantytown with a theme of 'going for gold' - we all decided to wear gold medals and were not alone as we found out on arrival at Shantytown. The evening was lots of fun, we spent time with our sponsoring clubs and got to know everyone a little better. After dinner it was back to our bach, the 6040 Missouri team were staying nearby, so it turned into a late night as we swapped stories and learnt a little more about what to expect on our journey. Sunday morning we joined conference and had a brief introduction ... read more