OK, so when travelling it is hard to keep up with a blog. Who wants to sit behind a laptop when there are people to talk to and sunshine to be had? Will break it down so that I don’t go on too much… *tricky, very tricky..*

I am in New Zealand. It’s beautiful, friendly, generous, green, blue, sunny, rainy, wild and ‘sweet as bro!’. I LOVE NEW ZEALAND.  By saying ‘yes’ when friends have told me about meeting up with a friend of a friend/ family I have seen so many places I would not have found on my own.

Most people say the South Island is the best but it has a lot to live up to after my experience of the North Island.

First off though, I need to update you on my Australia travels..

Australia

You know that feeling in the summer when you open a car and a wave of heat just hits you? Well, that was Australia the day before I left. Walking through Parramatta was like walking through a car with the window down – hot with a breeze. My face melting. Was actually looking forward to the colder climates of NZ.

Canberra: As you can tell, I did not die of boredom in Canberra. If anything, I had a blast. Canberra is a relatively new city- the government couldn’t decide between Melbourne or Sydney for a capital, so they chose a completely new location – Canberra. It had to be completely designed and built. In 1912 an American called Birley Griffin was chosen as the designer. Rather than take a bus tour and wander the sights and see this very tidy, neat town, we took to a peddle car and peddled our way around the lake in style. We stayed with the very amusing and fascinating Rachel, an old friend of Laurens who has travelled all over the world and just moved over from Sudan.

South Coast NSW: Wow. I took the train down and travelled 3 hours through the Southern Highlands, a scenic route of rolling hills, farmland, cliffs, forest and open ocean views. Myself Lauren and Josh stayed in the house near Orient Point, which is part of Jervis Bay. Murrays Beach is just south of this area and is an absolutely stunning corner of white sands and blue sea. It is in the protected Booderee National Park, so the sea is full of tropical fish as there is no fishing allowed. A wallaby wandered onto the beach and sat watching us for a while, eating leaves. Next day we caught some waves on a local beach, watched the final episodes of ‘Big Love’ (If anyone has series 5 on DVD, please contact me immediately!) and ate the tastiest fish platter at this gorgeous little restaurant.

Wallaby on Murrays Beach

Wave, Orient Point

The road trips down to Canberra marked the beginning of ‘Australian Nature Watch’-

I have seen a dead wombat, a wallaby (as above) a kookaburra, pelicans, gullahs (not just an Alf Stewart phrase, they are actual birds!) and Kangaroos. The latter took a while. The game ‘Roo or branch’ when driving past woodland was played a number of times before we finally saw a huge group hanging out in a field at night. They look soo funny when they hop away holding their little arms..

Australia Day was on Thursday 26^th January, a day that celebrates when Captain Cook sailed into the port in Sydney and declared it as a European settlement. A day that is a national bank holiday, but understandably causes a bone of contention for many.

So I celebrated the fact that people I know had a bank holiday. We sipped Pimms in the park, listening to some live music, ate Bratwurst, sat in a hot tub in Cats apartment complex and then watched Downton Abbey with a cheese board.

Hyde Park with Pimms

Hawkesbury River: One of Cats friends organised for 10 of us (4 Brummies, 2 Irish, 2 Mancunians, a Kenyan and a Londoner) to stay on a mobile houseboat up on the Hawkesbury River up on the Central Coast of NSW. Parts of the river are in the Ku-Ring-Gai National Park and it is gorgeous. After a 10minute video about health and safety and a lecture from an amusing sarcastic Australian, the boat people just give you reign of the boat and let you sail off. Just like that. You sail the boat within a set area of the river and dock at different parts. Our plan was to sail as far as we could on the first day and then slowly make our way back, before stopping for lunch on Sunday.

We fished, we jumped into the water (all the while my head kept thinking of sharks, jelly fish and sea snakes, leading to me frantically swimming back to the boat, before jumping in again), barbequed, played poker, ring of fire, ran out of water on the boat (tricky, very tricky..) and ate uber posh lunch in the Cottage Creek Restaurant. Great experience and I would recommend it.  

New Zealand

Auckland:

I started off my NZ trip in Auckland, where I did the usual exploring: the art gallery (they had a Lowry! Go team Salford!), the Viaduct on the harbour front, dinner in Devenport with a friend of a friend from home called Kerry (sipping beers in the sun ), drink at Danny Doolans where I met a drag queen dressed as Lady Gaga called Wanda.. Overall, my impression of the city has improved.

Lowry in Auckland

Random Piano in Viaduct, Auckland

Whangarei

Two days in I headed up to Whangarei. Peter, who I have worked with for the past 3 years has family living up there and they very kindly invited me to stay. It is so far one of the highlights of my trip. I arrived Thursday afternoon and was told by Charles that the kiwi man had arrived and we were off hunting.

My initial thoughts: ‘Is he taking the piss?’

But no- the conservation department track kiwis in the wild and the man who checks on their progress was there for the day. So we headed off into the gorgeous Whangerei country side on the search. And we found one! It was a lot bigger than a kiwi fruit..

Me and a kiwi!

The Finegans in Russell

It was then time to head off to the farm and muster some sheep. So, although it was only a tiny element, I did a bit of farming. Oh yeah!:) Also helped to feed sheep later on at Dianne and Charles house. Such a gorgeous place.

Pete’s parents took me out to Russell in The Bay of Islands on Friday- so beautiful. We saw Kauri trees on the way back in a forest.

Next stop was another friend of Petes called Jodie. She took me out for a Friday night on the town in Whangarei where we watched live music and had a bit of a dance. I stayed on for an extra day as Jodie was attending a birthday party at The Quarry Arts Centre (yep, you guessed it, an arts centre based in a quarry..). It was an amazing place. We sat around a fire all day, in a barn that doubles as a cigar box guitar workshop, next to a heated kawakawa bath, chatting to local artists and singing. I met the only female Mauri surrealist artists (Andrea Eve Hopkins). I later took a dip in the bath (kawakawa is known for its healing properties) and dried off on a hammock under the stars..

The Quarry Arts Centre

Thank you so much to everyone who was part of my brilliant experiences in Whangarei.

Back to Auckland

I wasn’t too sure what to do for my next step. I had a few options, and then I met Laura from Barry (yes, as in Barry, Wales) on the bus back to Auckland. She was meeting a guy she knew through a friend of a friend in Auckland called Emmett and they were heading to a quarry to go for a swim, so I joined them. It was too cold to swim so we sat on the banks of the lake and tried to whistle through pieces of grass (laughed quite a lot to be honest). After returning to Auckland to Emmetts studio flat/shed we headed out to the Chinese New Year Lantern festival, ate dumplings, strange ice cream and got the hell away from the crowds. A few beers on the Viaduct at a cheesey Irish pub where they played wedding music (‘Sweeet Caroline!’) then back to Emmetts to sit on the grassy knoll in front of his house that overlooks the harbour and the highway.

This resulted in late night chats and nearly 50 insect bites on my leg. My ankles were mimicking the Elephant mans face.

Hamilton

Next stop was Hamilton. Not a lot there to be honest- a statue of Richard O’Brian as it is the birthplace of The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ and a river.

Raglan

So, I got out of Hamilton as soon as possible- 8.30am the next morning and headed out to Raglan. Have never been so happy about a choice I made- it is a small town, but not crowded and full of tourists. I stayed at The Raglan Backpackers Hostel, which is located just next to the estuary with easy access to the sea. They hire out loads of things for free or very cheap. Because of its location it is very easy to meet people as they hang about all day on the green, or in the hammocks, or in the Jacuzzi, or in the estuary… It was like a rehab centre without the counselling.

Raglan Beach

I did yoga, kayaking (with a man dressed as a pirate), swimming, walking, cycling and *drum roll please* surfing.

 A sweet (and determined!) lad from The Netherlands tried to teach me to surf. It was tricky. You need good core muscles. Apparently, I don’t have those. I almost stood up, but was totally exhausted so after going for a break, I couldn’t get back in! I will attempt it again, it would feel wrong not to. Just relieved it didn’t end the same way as the ‘Learn to Ski’ experience did.

Beach in Raglan

Surfing dudes

The people at the hostel were great. Mostly keen surfers – a group of 3 we called ‘New York’, Canadians, Americans, Dutch, Germans, English, Swedes (one of whom was ‘the pirate) and after a few minutes of chat you all sort of click into this camaraderie. I suppose the fact the sun was shining really helped things, but I extended my stay and decided to miss out a night in Taupo as I was enjoying myself so much.

Then a travelling coincidence occurred- just as I made a plan to take a VERY long bus journey down to Wellington on Friday, a Brit called Rupe (short for Rupert- never sing the theme to ‘Rupert Bear’ at him) turned up and, as you do in a hostel, told us about his travel plans. ‘I need to drive all the way down to Wellington in a day on Friday’. Boom! A lift!

Wellington

My cousins Finn and Aidan study in Wellington so it was the next stop of choice. I’ve not seen them since 2005 when I was recovering from a long weekend at the Oxegen festival (Ireland) and they were in their early teens.

The morning of our vast road trip arrived, along with my first hangover since leaving Manchester. A group of us went for a few beers the night before while watching a gig at ‘The Yot Club’ and someone suggested Jaegermeister and Tequila. Great night, but a bit tricky in the morning.

Drive however, was beautiful. We went via Lake Taupo so that we could see what we were missing out on. Also, so that we could drive past Lake Doom from ‘The Lord Of The Rings’.

I played dj for the journey. The landscapes we drove past were stunning. It started off as cute rolling hills, then went into mountainous forests, lake vistas, a desert, valleys.. Unfortunately it was so cloudy we couldn’t see the top of Mount Doom (Tongariro National Park).

After leaving Raglan at 11.15am, we got into a rainy cold Wellington at 8.30pm and met my cousin at work. I wasn’t sure what to expect of the city, but it feels a bit like West Didsbury/ Northern Quarter (Manchester) by the sea- lots of home grown bars and shops, quirky restaurants and friendly chilled people.

It had been such a long day we decided to reward ourselves with Mojitos. According to Lonely Planet, there were good bars on Cuba Street so off we trundled. The first cocktail place we saw was ‘Scotty & Mals Cocktail Lounge’. It was only after ordering that I noticed the entire clientele were male and grimacing at me. Yes, we were in one of Wellingtons only gay bars. I told Rupe to swish it up a bit but I’m pretty sure they weren’t convinced.

We headed to the Bristol pub after that, played pool and met up with my cousin.

Saturday the sun shone and it was a prime day for exploring the seafront (Oriental Bay) with the cousins, who make me laugh lots. Finn has a prime theory about Moccachinos- they are the best coffee as you get chocolate, coffee, marshmallows and you don’t need to add sugar. Boom!

As the sun was shining the next logical step was an afternoon adventure on a cable car up to the botanical gardens which covers 25 hectares of land on the side of the hill between Thorndon and Kelburn, overlooking the city. There were lots of paths and mini routes to explore, artsy sculptures and a rose garden with obscurely named roses.

This then led to sushi dinner, which then led to looking for a drinking hole. First destination was a theatre playing live brass Balkan music in the foyer, only by the time the beers were ordered, the music stopped and all that was left was the raffle announcement. Oops. Then off to the Bristol pub again to play pool with Emo peeps with pierced cheeks.

I could go on, but suffice to say I have eaten well, drank well, played pool, laughed lots, met some very quirky characters and visited Wellington Zoo today with Finn and friends (see photos). I honestly think I could live in this city, it’s got a great buzz to it and in a great location (New Zealand).

Next stop: a very early ferry (which, some have experienced to be tricky to wake up for if they’ve been up late the night before) and then a bus to Nelson to visit my aunt and uncle, Phil and Derek. Can’t wait!