New Zealand to Oz

Hi guys! Sorry this last blog is horrifically late - we have been a bit sidetracked with jobs, apartments, and life in general, anyway here it is... the New Zealand and Australia blog!

We arrived in New Zealand in March, flying into Auckland, which is located at the top of the North Island. After the usual hassle of finding somewhere to stay, we decided to check out some of the night life, and found the 'Kerouac effect poetry slam' at a place called the Wine Cellar. It was really good, quite 'jaaazz-club' like, with sofas, wine and a resident Jack Kerouac wannabe. We heard some great spoken word and poetry pieces, and got chatting to a kiwi couple, Ben and Heather, who were really nice, and took us on to a bar on Karangahape Road (AKA The K Road) where we saw Ben's friends' band The Shades, a hip-hop-funk- jazz band - they were pretty damn good too.

In order to avoid touring the country on a bus full of repellent drunken teenage idiots, and diminish the chances of neil regressing to one, we decided to hire our own camper van. We managed to wangle a brilliant one for the cost of a rubbish one - complete with toilet, fridge, microwave, double bed, shower and hob, all on wheels! Home for the next 5 weeks. We spent the next few days driving north to the Waitangi Treaty House ,the site at which a peace/land rights treaty between the white Europeans and the Maori tribes was first signed back in 1840.

So-called 'free-camping' is a bit of a tradition in NZ. It's when you pull up in your camper at the side of the road, or somewhere else just as glamorous, and don't pay anyone for the pleasure. We managed to save loads of money by using a campsite one night, and then free-camping for the next 2-4 nights, by which time the toilet needed emptying, and the water had run out anyway. However we did have a few sketchy incidents whilst experiencing the joys of free-camping, and were forcibly 'moved on' several times.

South-east of Aukland is Rotorua, a geothermically -active town, which smells of sulphur (from miles away) and has thermal springs, boiling mud pools, and steaming holes in the ground - which, apparently, makes building houses fun, and having grave yards in the township practically impossible! Here we visited a geothermal park known as Hells gate (The second that Hayley's stood at on this trip) and had a thermally heated mineral bath at the campsite! We felt very silky afterwards.

The majority of the Maori population (the indigenous New Zealanders) live on the North Island, and a large proportion live in Rotorua and the surrounding area. We elected to check out a 'Maori cultural experience', involving a Hangi meal (food cooked in a traditional earth oven - very similar to the Fijian lovo), a Haka (war dance) and a Poi demonstration (the Maori's traditional weapon and tool is where Poi comes from!). We heard the beautiful choral singing of the “tribe” (all of whom were actually related), as well as learning loads about the history and culture in general. We we're a little sceptical that it might just be a money spinner, and that aspects of the culture might be over looked for the sake of creating a show, and although there were some moments that were more staged, on the whole It was a surprisingly informative, and enjoyable experience, which maintained a realistic feel because of the MC, a Maori elder, who definitely had his tongue firmly in cheek at times.

In Waitomo we abseiled 27meters down into a limestone sinkhole, went blackwater rafting, caving, rockclimbing, and gazed up at the amazing blue glow worms inside the pitch-black caves. From there we drove south to New Plymouth to attend the NZ version of WOMAD festival, where we bumped into Ben from Auckland (small country or what?!) and heard some brilliant world music, including Cambodian lutes (All Cambodian musicians were nearly wiped out during the Khymer Rouge's Killing Fields - so it was an honour to hear it live), Traditional indian sanskrit singing, japanese drumming (bloody AMAZING), Tibetan Gyoto monks chanting, a disturbingly brilliant (Neils thinks so - not Hayley) NZ band who were aptly named Village of the Idiots, a fellow N-zeder Age Pryor, and some wicked turntabilism from Nicodemus. Hayley spent the majority of her time at the 'Taste the world' stage, where she learned how to make, and eat, lots of interesting foods from interesting people, and in-between times we meditated with the Tibetan monks, ate exotic food, made friends with dodgy types who tried to coerce us into letting them steal our van so we could claim it on our insurance, and Hayley got a little worse for wear and drunkenly purchased some indian-foot bells - dont ask!

Refreshed and ready to hit another city, we headed south to Wellington (at the bottom of the North Island) to meet up with the elusive Richard Harvey (Hayley's cousin). We eventually managed to find him, and he made us spaghetti bolognase, gave us wine, informed us of the latest plots on Shortland Street, and let us borrow his shower for a few days. We went to an art-house cinema premier and sipped champagne, went for a swim and sauna at Rich's work, made a butter chicken curry and ate it in the van (in the car park!), and just enjoyed the normailty of sitting on a comfy sofa and watching TV with friendly people, while Rich occasionally went AWOL. We wanted Rich to keep travelling down to the South Island with us, but unfortunately he couldn't leave work. So we said a sad goodbye (it has been 15years since Hayley last saw him - it could be even longer next time!) and drove to the port to catch the ferry over to Picton on the South Island.

Although the North Island is interesting, and pretty in it's own right, the South Island is beautiful! In our first few days there we walked a section of the spectacular Queen Charlotte Track, and looked out over the Marlborough Sounds, visited some very Mary Celeste-like wineries in Nelson, where we also managed to spend 5 hours (over 2 consecutive days!) in a cavern-esque Bead shop, making anything and everything you can make out of beads, after which we met up with Neil's cousin Sarah and her other half Lorenz to discuss family trees, eat a fabulous Arabian meal and have a much needed bath!

In Hokitika we ate some award-winning fish and chips, prospected for Greenstone (AKA Jade) with a miniature hammer and watched wild dolphins in a remote little place called 'Neil's Beach', before heading to the Franz Joseph Glacier to spend half a day hiking up, in, and out of the glacier.

It was whilst driving along the next section of the country that we decided, after a few pragmatic and ethical discussions, to pick up a hitch hiker. Daniel was a bit of a mess! A recovering 'P' addict (as it is affectionately known in NZ, it's other name is crystal-meth) he was thoroughly freaked out by the weird WOMAD music we were playing for the 3 hour drive, not to mention totally soaked from sleeping at the side of the road all night in the rain, having run away from his parents. He kept us entertained/worried with stories from his past, about how he was pepper sprayed and tazered by the police, and how he was fed drugs, kind of like a pet, by a local gang. None the less he was a nice guy, who was very appreciative of the lift. When we eventually arrived in Wanaka we asked where he wanted to be dropped off - the reply was 'the nearest pub'.

Wanaka was great, we climbed Mount Alpha (1600m) for the hell of it and after 4 hours of walking uphill, were nearly too exhausted to walk back down again (although on the way we passed an elderly man RUNNING uphill past us - enough to keep us moving). After that gruelling 6 hours we treated ourselves to a spa at the camp-site - and managed to get locked in. We also went to an amazing cinema in Wanaka called Cinema Paradiso, to see 'No Country for Old men' (a very very good film), where we sat in seats made out of sofas, aeroplane chairs and even an old morris minor, the café freshly baked cookies for the interval, and you could even pre-order your meal and alcoholic drinks to be served to you during the intermission, - a brilliant and entrepreneurial idea! We loved it.

After passing many more mountains and stunning scenery ( are we sounding complacent yet?!), we arrived in the infamous Queenstown, where Hayley finally managed to jump out of plane from 15,000feet (with 60 seconds of free-fall), with hundred mile views over the mountain ranges only to find out it was crap (no, really it was crap). Neil did some tree-dodging by jumping off a mountain in a paraglider, a much less threatening descent, and the closest to flying that he can imagine getting.

From there it was a wet and windy drive down to the South western tip of NZ (before it turns into Fiordland that is) to the majestic Milford Sound. A collection of atmospheric mountains rising out of the misty seas, with thundering waterfalls and inquisitive marine life, the Milford Sound was beautiful to behold, though we would of missed the boat had we not got a jump start from some passing hunters, after our battery went flat due to too much Clash and Bob Dylan the night before.
Our final journey in the van was to Dunedin, where we were looking forward to hooking up with the 'motley crew'- also known as the kiwi branch of the Harvey tree. We arrived to a huge welcome from Nigel, Debbie and Simon, and then (as the kids all appeared from school) we met Finn, Max, Shannon, Liam, and Jessie. We had a great time in Dunedin, checking out various events from the Dunedin Fringe Festival (similar to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival - Dunedin is actually the Gaelic name for 'Edinburgh' and was named by Scottish settlers), including a drive-in film screening we dragged Jessie to, one of the weirdest and most interesting musical performances we've ever seen by a band/collective called Wyhte, and even saw a performance by the poets that we'd seen in Auckland a few weeks before.

Uncle Nigel took us to the Moeraki boulders, and filled us in on his wild speculations as to how they came to be (I think it was something to do with aliens and dinosaurs - I hope he was taking the piss!!) We watched the excellent film 'Rabbit Proof fence' (watch it if you haven't seen it - especially you Sue Smith!) and were perpetually fed, including the staples of Milo and Sticky date pudding - and combined with the lovely feeling of being with family, and the shower - we were in heaven! Thanks to Max and Finn we are now Uno experts, and Hayley has a vague knowledge of tackle rugby after a rather intense kids game with an overly-competitive Dad from next door. We visited what is reputed to be the worlds steepest street, Baldwin Street (1:2.86 at it's steepest) and despite borrowing Nigel and Debbie's car frequently, we failed to match William Ellis for the amount of speeding tickets we managed to accumulate. Sadly, our heaven had to end, and (having returned our van) we took a bus ride north to Christchurch from where we would fly to Perth. We cant wait to see those kiwi Harveys again - potentially on UK soil!)

The hostel in Christchurch was lovely, like a big, yet cosy and well looked-after, student house and complete with a cat and a dog. The film festival we saw some of in Wellington had conveniently travelled to Christchurch, which enabled us to see the 'I'm Not There' film, based on Bob Dylan things, a film about a con artist 'Forbidden Lies' and some weird Mexican western from the 60's that John Lennon used to love, though he was quite possibly high at the time.

And that was that! We flew out of NZ and (eventually) arrived in Perth, Western Australia. We caught a dubious shuttle bus to an even more dubious hostel, and then hired a car to explore the city, colonial Fremantle and the suburbs to decide where to live and work for the next 6 months. We luckily managed to find a beautiful flat with pool (that we can't use) and all mod cons, right in the city (the 'West Perth' suburb). we share it with a lovely ex-pat from Essex called Russ, who works as an off-shore oil surveyor and consequently is away a lot. Initially we thought that would be great (to have the apartment to ourselves) but now we are so close that we don't want him to go! After working as a receptionist for a recruitment agency, Hayley now works with Fashion Designer Liz Davenport, doing Photography, graphic design and everything else required of her. Neil is an Audio-Visual technician setting up expositions, functions, and events all over the city (although he nearly got a job in the circus!). We have encountered (and eaten!) Kangaroos, Emus and Crocodiles, met Koalas, visited the desert, and had a brilliant weekend over on Rottnest Island for Hayley's birthday - all these photos can be found on Facebook! Hayley has stared Swing dancing and Ashtanga yoga, and this Friday we will be checking out aboriginal bush tucker, didgeridoo playing, dancing and camp-fire stories with our honourable guest... Miss Charlie Deane!
If any of you would like to come and have a holiday with us in Oz then let us know - we love to have visitors! We are still unsure of our next move, but we will be back in the UK at some point, and are looking forward to seeing you then.

Lots of love,

Hayley and neil xxx

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