New Zealand - August Part 1/2

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Kia Ora,

My stay in New Zealand with Heather, Mike, Fergus and Flora is continuing…

Wednesday 1^st to Friday 3^rd August – PARAPARAUMU and WELLINGTON

I had three lovely days at work… dancing along to my iPOD at my desk. The work itself is not very interesting but I do have to stay interested because an error could cause a lot of problems. I seem to be quite speedy so spend most my time being paranoid that I’ve made a mistake and trying to slow down. I met some of Heather and Mike’s friends this week, all coming round to meet baby Flora. We had Josie from the USA with her little girl and Jan, an old family friend of Mike’s, who was just a lovely whirlwind! Mike and I went to see The Dark Knight on Thursday night. It was brilliant, especially Ann Hathaway as catwoman!! I liked the snowy scenes because Justin, Jonny, Paddy and I had seen the film set and props in New York. We Skyped with Drew so he could meet Flora, it must be random to have a new niece on the other side of the world and not be able to meet her yet. And we had another little earthquake… I felt the chair shake for a couple of seconds so looked a Geonet and sure enough… there had been one!

Saturday 4^th and Sunday 5^th August – PARAPARAUMU

Saturday was a day of doing jobs at home with Hev, Fergus and Flora (Mike was at work). I tried to help Hev as much as possible with the children and household chores because she needed to rest up so her scar could heal properly. Fergus had a lot of fun jumping on my bed whilst I tried to make sure he didn’t hurt himself and then he found Singa (the cuddly lion Maff ‘gave’ me in Singapore before I had to travel on my own again. I know I might be a bit old for a cuddly toy but I can’t sleep without something to cuddle and I’m very fond of Singa). Unfortunately, so was Fergus and I thought we were going to have a Joey/Emma/Huggsy incident (from Friends) because he wouldn’t give him back to me and kept saying ‘mine’! Luckily Hev came to the rescue! In the evening I Skyped my Dad for his birthday to watch him opening his cards and presents (we’d all got him a Kindle… Dad we had faith you could use it!). It’s really hard to be away for these things but on a positive note talking to him got Hev and I into the Olympic spirit! Mike has been following it all along and telling us how well New Zealand were doing… but Hev and I hadn’t because it seemed so far away and we didn’t think we could watch it live on the TV. But I found it being shown live on one of the channels we wouldn’t normally look at and we all got hooked! Go Team GB (and Team NZ… and Oz!).

I had so many plans for the Sunday but it was a wash out because I got a really bad migraine. I’ve not had many on this trip but I had to go to bed and slept for hours. I got up to walk to the shop but probably shouldn’t have because I was so dizzy and out of it. I really needed to get into gear and book some flights home but with everything going on (Flora arriving, Uni deadlines) I really hadn’t had time to give it a proper thought. So I did today and got a plan together. India, Nepal and Tibet were completely ruled out because there are some restrictions in place for the British travelling to Tibet… So I decided to come the other way home, across the Pacific. I just had to find some good flights…

Monday 6^th to Friday 10^th August – PARAPARUMU and WELLINGTON

It was back to work on Monday. I was actually up and ready REALLY early but missed my usual bus because Fergus was being so adorable and I couldn’t leave him. It was Caryl’s 30^th birthday so we had a lovely Skype on Monday night and Fergus even sang a bit of Happy Birthday to her! I spent Monday and Tuesday dealing with migraines… (annoying ones that feel like someone is poking and really hot poker in my eye and that makes my skin sore. They’re so random) and homesickness (much worse than the migraine!). I’ve been really homesick on this trip, I miss my friends and family and everything that’s going on. It’s usually manageable but sometimes it’ll really grab you and it’s horrible. Nobody tells you it’s an actual physical pain, with a pull to home so strong that it makes you want to go and get on a plane immediately. I had to reason with myself that this would be the last time I did this and that once I’d actually booked a flight that arrived into London I had something to aim for.

We watched more of the Olympics… it’s so exciting! I just wish we could watch more of it live but it’s mostly going on during the night. I found the Keirin track cycling really funny… kept making poor Hev laugh when she shouldn’t be (so her scar can heal). Have you ever watched it? If not you should… I love the way the guy on his racer bike sails round the track past the others and leads them until they all make a run for it… he looks so serious. I think he should be wearing a bowler hat! Hev think they should play the ‘do, do do do, do do, do do, doo do’ tune with it.

We had a bit of excitement when we woke up Tuesday morning to hear that Mt Tongariro had erupted at 11.50pm Monday night (I came past it on the bus a few weeks ago… Caryl and I walked across it 2 years ago). It was unexpected… the warning level had been raised a couple of weeks ago because of an increase in the earthquakes underneath but the volcanologists (the first time I heard that term I thought it was something to do with Star Trek) said that nothing had pointed to an eruption. The ash cloud was covering most of the central North Island (just north of us) and had caused a few problems for flights and nearby roads. The newspapers were full of pictures of people covered in ash. It’s the first time Mt Tongariro has erupted (if you don’t count Mt Doom erupting in the 70s) for over a century, and apparently it’s unusual for a dormant volcano to suddenly wake up and erupt. It’s the second volcano in a week to erupt in New Zealand (White Island off the coast also erupted… but that’s more common) and it did make me a bit nervous. Firstly, as much as I love New Zealand and my friends in it I didn’t want it to affect me getting home… And secondly is all this activity normal?!!! We are in 2012!

The rest of the week passed uneventfully, we watched our usual programme’s (Mrs Brown’s Boys, Missing) and lots of the Olympics which we’re all addicted to. On Friday it was Fergus’s birthday and we were all very excited for his little birthday party! I finished work early after making up the time during the week and back at home we opened presents and had a children’s tea party. Fergus was very excitable but we all had a great time!

Saturday 11^th and Sunday 12^th August – PARAPARAUMU and the KAPITI COAST

I met up with Sal, Georgina’s friend from Uni on Saturday. Sal is working in Palmerston North for 3 months so drove down to Paraparaumu to see me. We had a nice look around the shops and then headed to Paraparaumu Beach because Sal hadn’t been onto the beach since arriving in New Zealand. We took a nice walk along it, it was warm but fresh and the sounds of the waves were lovely. We drove back past home so called in quickly to say hello to Hev and Flora (Fergus was having his nap) then headed towards Paekakariki. We pulled off to a scenic lookout, driving round the steep winding hills (it was quite scary once I realised how high we were, it was only a small narrow road) to find this amazing look out over the bay. Paraparaumu was in the distance on its little outlet and Kapiti Island was showing its presence, as it always does. We were about to leave when all of a sudden a hand glider appeared and swooped over us! I was surprised how close it stayed to the cliffs; the guy was in super control. It was nice to stop and have a wander around Paekakariki, it’s always looked so nice from the train. It has a lovely village feel about it and we had lunch in a bar where I randomly spotted a massive poster for Tortoise in Love… really should have asked why it was there! We walked down to the beach to have a look, the tide was in! The water was so sparkly and the sun shone off of it. We then drove further along the coast towards Wellington, we passed Pukerua Bay planning to stop on the way back past and drove past a little girl, only about 3 years old, running along the road. We turned round and some women in a car had stopped with her and we could see they were trying to help. We stopped off in Porirua to have a look at the shops and ended up making an impromptu visit to the cinema! We went to see Magic Mike… both of us weren’t sure what to make of it. Channing Tatum’s dancing was amazing and Matthew McConoughy played his part really well but other than that I wasn’t sure about it. It was getting dark by the time we left and drove back along the coast with the sun setting and the lights from each town twinkling. Sal dropped me off and I headed inside to Hev, Fergus and Flora (Mike was working, he works hard bless him). We got Fergus into bed and settled down to watch Ghost of Christmas Past (two Matthew McConoughy films in one day!) and then it was an evening of the Olympics.

We’d had big plans for the Sunday and were all going to do something for Fergus’s birthday… but it was tipping with rain! So we stayed in for the morning and stayed hopeful... whilst I did some tidying and Uni work. In the end we realised it wasn’t going to stop raining so we decided to take a walk to the shops…in the rain because Fergus would at least enjoy jumping in the puddles. So we all got wrapped up and headed out. Fergus had loads of fun and we got soaked! We got to the shops… and when we left it started raining even more, typical. We were glad to get home to tea and buttered English muffins. We had fish and chips for dinner (poor Mike had to go out in the rain again!) because Hev and I needed to rid ourselves of the memory of the horrible tasting fish we’d had earlier in the week. I made a lot of calls that night…spoke to Katie, Georgina, Gemma and my Mum and Dad J We watched some of the marathon and I went to bed… before Hev started shouting for me because a Ugandan was about to win the marathon! I was so chuffed and choked up watching him crossing the line.

Monday 13^th to Friday 17^th August – PARAPARAUMU and WELLINGTON

Back to work again! I woke up on Monday thinking I only have to get up 8 more times for work… The plan was to work for the whole of this week and 3 days of the following. At work we had a scary incident one day when someone was taken sick and ambulance had to be called, I helped look after the first aider who was a bit shaken suggesting a cup of tea (everyone said how English) and when I’d made it for her she said it was the best she’d had, she’d never really believed it would be better being made by an English person!

The journey to work has been as spectacular as usual… we had new train carriages though which I should have been pleased about but they didn’t allow for good scenery views! And the windows were clean but the light was harsh and reflected heavily off of it. I was feeling poorly again, I’d had a migraine for a week … not always really bad but enough to make me feel off colour and by the afternoon I thought I was going to pass out on my desk. I honestly think it’s something to do with the end of winter. I’m always sick in February in England and we’re in the equivalent of that now in New Zealand. It seemed to ease off as the week went on which was a relief as it was delaying the start of my new exercise regime, which includes exercising at my desk! It is possible and it must work because I was in agony for a couple of days after starting it! I combine that with exercising at home which Mike and Heather find very amusing!

We had a good bit of TV on… Missing, Mrs Brown’s Boys and the Olympics closing ceremony which Hev recorded for us as Mike & I had been at work when it was on live. It was a bit emotional watching the Ugandan get his medal. And we had some random occurrence… I was woken up in the night by the front light coming on… it freaked me out a bit but managed to convince myself it was a cat or something. And Heather said she’d had a chicken visiting… she has no idea where it’s come from but says it looks very well looked after (nobody else had seen it… maybe the chicken set off the security light!). We also had a door to door charity collection one night… he’d been round in the day whilst Heather was feeding Flora and seemed to have the impression he had a meeting with her for that evening. I answered the door with a flourish assuming it was Mike and had to explain why none of us could donate any money (I’m really supportive of these things but he was very persistent even when I told him I was leaving the country in a month – he needed regular donations). Fergus helped the situation along, coming to the door and saying ‘You’re not Daddy!’. It was only afterwards I realised I’d been talking to him with a pair of knickers in my hand!!! We had a lovely treat Thursday evening… shepherd’s pie cooked by ‘Loved For Life’, the local church group who visit all new mothers in the district with knitted clothing for the new-borns and a meal for the mothers. It’s such a lovely idea.

On Friday we had a really nice evening… we had fish fingers and chips with Fergus, gave Flora cuddles and once they were in bed we went out stargazing… I’ve never seen so many stays in a built up area. The sky was so clear and you could see the Southern Cross with its pointer stars and The Milky Way really clearly. Mike got out his Google Sky Map App and we could make out Mars and what we thought was Saturn! We then watched the American Who Do You Think You Are which Hev and I had been looking forward to all week, Mrs Brown’s Boys and Hamish and Andy. Lovely J

Saturday 18^th August – PARAPARAUMU

We all headed into town to do some jobs and I found The Hunger Games DVD which I couldn’t resist buying! Mike went to work and Hev and I had some lunch with Fergus and Flora before heading home. It was such a nice day… really warm and spring like despite it being the equivalent of February in England. I had an assignment to write which ruled my day! But I made time to sit on the deck and help Fergus play with his new toys. He was in a good mood and Flora was also happy and smiley. I cooked us pasta for tea and once we’d got Fergus into bed we watched The Hunger Games whilst amusing ourselves listening to Fergus chatting away… we could hear some commotion which isn’t unusual for Fergus but once I walked to the kitchen I stopped to look up the hallway and said ‘Uh Hev…’. Fergus had caused chaos in the corridor, there were toys everywhere! I really enjoyed The Hunger Games, thought it was a fantastic adaption of the book and a great film, Hev was traumatised (it’s quite dark)! And then it was back to Uni work! We were alllllllllll soooooooooooo excited because Hannah was arriving the next day!

Xx

NOTE: I use these updates to capture my memories and share what I'm doing on my travels with friends, family and anyone who’s interested enough to read. The views are my own and I try my best to ensure any information I share is fair and accurate but I do sometimes get things wrong. I welcome any feedback so I can make improvements and corrections for future readers. Thank you.

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