Blogs from Banks Peninsula, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 4

Well we left Rangiora and headed to Banks Peninsula for our next block of work. Absolutly beautiful on the way, every corner we went round it seemed to just get more amazing. We were staying near Akaroa up a hill with the most a amzing view of Akaroa over the water. The couple Precilla (a lady from Portland Us) who owns the house and comes over for 1 month a year and Dave a kiwi who lives in NZ full time. There were also anothe couple Sarah and Mike who were also helping out. We had an amzing dinner and then all headed up the top of the hill to watch Mcnaughts comet. It was AMAZING the tail was soooooo long. On our way back a family had a telescope so we had a lokk through ... read more

Four weed-destroying, sheep-chasing and tangelo-squeezing weeks later, our time in Opotiki and at Te Aranga has come to an end. As well as being good exercise and a valuable opportunity to learn about many facets of New Zealand life, these four weeks have also been restful beyond our expectations. After some six and half months of constant movement - rarely sleeping in the same bed two nights in a row - it was wonderful to sit still, so to speak, for a while. To eat home-cooked food, to build friendships with new people, to be able to laze away a weekend reading trashy novels without feeling guilty for not being a culture vulture at every instant. Thus it was that - complete with fetching farmers' tans - we hopped back on the bus which took us ... read more

For the next leg of my journey I caught the Atomic Shuttle down to Christchurch and co-incidentally travelled with Ronan (home town Armagh), chuckling at the drivers random commentary, and he directed me towards a hostel he had stayed in before, the New Excelsior, close to Cathedral Square. The backpackers felt very run-down, grubby and unsafe in a way like university halls and the tension in the lounge was similar to that of a dentist’s waiting room! I felt so uncomfortable that I booked my second night in Christchurch in a different backpackers down the same street called Cokers but it wasn’t any better, so unfortunately I came away from the city with a rather gloomy impression. The only stimulation I had came from the changing exhibitions in the city art gallery and a maze of ... read more

Small town life is good...I've been to another production at the Gaiety Hall. This time it was a play, called "The Onion," about...onions. Actually more of a comedic interpretation of New Zealand based on a family onion farm. The actors (all 2 of them) and the director and sound guy stayed at the backpacker where I work, and the director is an American man, but he got New Zealand residency about 2 years ago. He told me about how hard but satisfying it was to write jokes about NZ that Kiwis would find funny, but he did a good job because the audience loved it. I also saw the local Fireman's Competition, hosted here in Akaroa. Many of the volunteer firemen from the Banks Peninsula came to compete...including owner of Chez la Mer Backpackers, Roy. He ... read more