We live in Oriental Bay on the side of Mount Victoria, it’s an awesome place, our apartment sits between the town belt park and the waterfront next to the sea, it’s a 20 minute walk into the city along the beaches and past the marina. It is a lovely walk, but nearly impossible to get anywhere quickly because there are coffee stops, beaches and ice cream shops demanding your time and dollars all the way into town.

As for jobs, I work for a printing company but more excitingly Bex works in Wellington Zoo with the Education Team! Becky has been helping out with the holiday clubs before starting in the office next week. Even these clubs are New Zealand crazy – ‘be a keeper for the day’ cleaning out cages, making enrichment tools and feeding. One group even made mouse and blood ice lollies for the tigers! It is a bit of a sharp learning curve, the indigenous species all have odd sounding names and pronouniation which Becky needs to get her tongue around! And that isn’t even including all the native trees and plants. One big prononciation problem is that anything with ‘wh’ is said ‘f’, ‘e’ as in Becky is said ‘i’ as in Biccie (which is how Becky is pronounced!) ‘r’ is rolling and ‘i’ is said as ‘u’ as in ‘fush and chups’. It is all very confusing, especially when many letters are missed out altogether!

We have been investigating lovely new places to eat, shop and places to visit every day. Our current favourite eatery is the Catfish sushi bar with a revolving middle table just like they have in movies! Nom nom nom! It is difficult not to eat everything with soy sauce and chopsticks. Yesterday we went to the Te Papa bush walk which is included in a waterfront walk, along the harbour and ticked off a native plant rockery, a giant face sculpture, galleries and museums and the fantastic City to Sea bridge which Bob the ray lives underneath and can be spotted lazing in the shallows on a warm day. the bridge is also next to a delicious cafe which sells gorgeous (and enormous) slices of cake.

We are enjoying soaking up the views from our apartment, day or night, the landscape is stunning. The port is directly opposite us, seeing cargo ships and the inter-islander docking a few times a day. The Beehive (the parliment building) is on the left hand side, surrounded by tall skyscrapers and restaurants. With rowers, swimmers, sail boats and jet boat racing happening on the water, we are never short of activity outside our window. In fact, Andy feels guilty if he doesn’t run home from work as no one walks, but roller skates, cycles or power walks in and out of town.  In the evening, the brightly twinkling lights reflect in the water which looks even more impressive up on Mount Victoria.

One thing that is a bit of a culture shock is that every bus is on time. Every time! On Becky’s first day at the zoo, she arrived an hour early just in case the buses didn’t arrive. And they all have WiFi on which is very useful. We have adopted a snapper each(a travel card like the London Oyster card) but you can buy loads of stuff on it, from coffee to newspapers. Very useful indeed.  Becky could walk to work as it’s only a few kilometres from home but unfortunately Mount Victoria and Mount Albert are in the way, I finished work early Thursday for easter so walked over the hills to meet Becky from the Zoo, that was an effort but has to be one of the best ‘walks to work’ ever with amazing views.

One big Wellington experience is the Sunday Market. Next to Te Papa, on the waterfront is a sprawling feast of fresh food, eggs, mobile bakeries, pizza and hotdog stalls, sausage and burgers. But the most impressive thing is the vast quantities of fresh fruit and veges. They are emptied from huge arctic containers and dirt cheap. We bought a huge bag of chillies for $3 which about £1.20, peppers (or capsicum) for 50p each, delicious avocados for a dollar and kiwi fruit for only a few more. We generally go for the atmosphere, the smell and colour but also you can stock up for the week on everything for about $12! (less than £6) It is always heaving, but that is no surprise!

We picked a little apartment in a good location rather than something bigger in town, this has had the added bonus of not needing to buy too much furniture to fill it. We had brilliant fun searching the reclamation and antique shops (lots of bartering) for our sofas and bed. The flat next door to ours is up for sale for a cool half a million dollars so we feel very lucky to live here. It has a very modern and spacious bathroom with a heated floor (very nice!) and a little very organised kitchen, the view is definately the highlight.  Our care package arrived from the UK last week so we now have a bit of wedding crockery, some photos and home comforts.

Becky loves that music in New Zealand shops is about 20 years behind the UK. In the supermarket I’ve heard Roxette (it must’ve been love) to Fresh Prince of Bel Air in a clothes shop this morning. It is very funny. Cutting edge music is Boyzone and Sting. Hmmm.

Looking forward to someone coming to visit! We’re only a 20 minute bus trip from Wellington ‘international’ Airport

We’ve almost been here a week now and it’s flown, we were sad to leave Rarotonga behind but equally excited to get to New Zealand! Our flight out of RAR was as simple as we remembered, arriving just 45 minutes before our flight left, how many international airports allow you to do that?

Our final days were filled with doing more of the same: diving, sitting on the beach, walking to find some food, sitting on the beach with our food, walking back to our house, swimming, maybe sitting on the beach watching the stars, Bed. (and repeat)

Sad to have left our spacious A frame house behind as we’re staying in a little double room in Auckland, the bathroom is a couple minutes walk down the hallway and the swimming is 4k away… Still, we’re in the center of the city and have a good view of the shoppers on Queen Street.

We’ve both done a little bit of work, and what we’ve been calling ‘research’, this entails going to all the galleries, zoos and other tourist attractions just in case we find work there Our surprising little gem being the Museum of Transport and Technology (www.motat.co.nz), absolutely brilliant and not just for the geeky.

The next part of out trip includes a train journey to Wellington on the Overlander (http://www.seat61.com/Overlander.htm), very exciting Bit of an explore there, then who knows! At least until April…

Other interesting and exciting news includes two girls in a lift in Auckland wanted a photo with me as they were ex students and recognised me from the other side of the world, crazy!

Thanks Stevie P for my Spork! (http://goo.gl/q1mhq) I’m taking it everywhere, it’s amazing Thanks other Huish guys for my very generous leaving present, my tripod has gotten a lot of use already (http://goo.gl/FqNrG)

Lets start off with: we’re here, we’re safe, we’re warm (Its 29oC today). The island is quite quiet as we’ve hit a bit of a tourist low season, I’m surprised there is such a thing as the weather is still great and the beaches are lovely.

Our little house is a traditional A-frame on the beach, with the kitchen, bathroom and living area downstairs and large bedroom overlooking the sea upstairs. We do have a TV, it’s got one channel provided by the church, I watched 5 minutes of ‘Jesus, where is he now?’ over breakfast.

I’ve booked some SCUBA diving, tomorrow I’m going back to the site of my first ever dive and have a two tanker on Sunday, beats diving for shopping trolleys in Plymouth.

We’ve hired a scooter, to get about on. I love the backwards-ness here, let me tell you the process I went through to get it:

1. Hire a scooter
2. Drive scooter on road to police station
3. Apply and complete driving license to be able to drive scooter on road.

We took it for a spin around the island, this took about an hour after riding through a storm, getting absolutely drenched and still having time to dry off before arriving back home.

Well that’s all for now! In summary, we haven’t actually done much.

All of which is good.

Time for a new adventure, this time a solo adventure, just me and my bike.

I’m in YHA Central in London, it’s so good to be back in a Hostel meeting new people, sometimes this feels more like home than home. Of course home is wherever Becky is and sadly that isn’t with me tonight.

I’m heading off in the morning out of the Capital to the south towards Brighton, I’ll then follow the coast west until catching the ferry on to the Isle of White, I’ll cycle round the bottom and ferry back to the mainland, heading west again until Weymouth where I’ll head back north towards home.

So, off I go, panniers packed ready for the morning!

We woke up in Oceans Resort in Whitianga after Andys restless night, I however slept like a baby. Lots of beauty sleep ready for the day to come.

Our ceremony wasn’t until 5 o’clock so we had a little bit of relaxing to do. We broke all the rules and stayed together the whole day and headed across the road to the beach, we chatted about our future to come and the more trivial matter of lunch. Midday soon came and I headed off to have my hair and makeup done, the clouds were gathering above and the salon talked of nothing else but rain! Even though our wedding wasn’t until later that day the thought of pouring rain encouraged my hair dresser to use an entire can of hairspray to ensure it would stay.

Andy came and picked me up after I was done, looking a little out of place with fancy hair and make up and shorts and t shirt! Andy had not wasted any time and had gone for a run, swam in the sea, accepted a cup of tea from a couple on the beach and been kind to a young girl who was stranded on the beach in the pouring rain. And yes, it rained- so much that Andy couldn’t even see the cliffs opposite.

As Andy picked me up there was no sign that it had even rained, the clouds had gone and the sun was out for our wedding day.

We headed off to Villa Toscana, a stunning, breath taking villa secluded in the mountains above Whitianga and Mercury Bay. For anyone interested Mercury Bay was the place that Captain Cook first properly landed and met locals (without accidentally killing them). We only had 45 minutes to get ready before Mark, Gordon and Diana arrived so Andy went off to have a shower and I wandered around the villa stunned by how amazing it was! Before I knew it Mark and the rest of the gang arrived and I finished getting ready.

I was very impressed with Andy that even though we had been dragging my wedding dress around for the previous 3 weeks, he hadn’t looked and resisted the temptation to look. I had been trying to throw him off the scent by pretending to worry about strap marks and creases but I will never forget how he looked at me when I appeared from our bedroom.

We had a few photos around the Villa, then headed off with Gordon and Diana to Lonely Bay, a winding road around the bay for about an hour. We were expecting a few people on the beach but when we arrived at the top of the path to the beach there were many cars and we started wondering how busy the beach would be. As the path opened up onto the beach people soon realised what we were there to do and as we picked our spot on a rock by the waterside our spectators gave us space (as the ceremony progressed we soon forgot they were there until a little applause broke out as we kissed, lovely).

We stood on our rock and Gordon kicked things off, as it was just the two of us we had worried that we would pick some readings and words and when the day came he would just be reading them back to us, so Gordon had kindly suggested he write the ceremony and that it would be a surprise to us, it was beautiful, we wouldn’t have picked anything better. We’ll tell you more when we get home.

Mark took us off around the beach for a little photo shoot, we wandered around as people congratulated us. We had great fun with Mark and can’t wait to see the photos!

Next it was off back to Villa Toscana for our Wedding Breakfast, a feast of sea food as follows:

1. Avocado and Tuna on Ciabatta
2. Shrimp Cocktail
3. Whitebait with toast
4. Tomato pasta with a different kind of fish
5. Crayfish with Tomato salad
6. Panna cotta with Strawberries
7. and a strong Italian Coffee

All fantastic! Lovely, lovely food, a huge thank you to Giorgio and Margherita, not just for the food but their hospitality over that last few days at Villa Toscana.

And then off to bed…

We have a few photos here while we are waiting for Marks.

Mr and Mrs Bateman

So what else have we done since then? Well we headed out of New Plymouth after lunch with Jo in her lovely house (they all have lovely houses) and on to Waitomo for an over night stop and swim in a lovely little campsite before continuing to National Park.  We went for a walk through the hills, mountains and volcanic scenery (photos to follow) to see a waterfall flowing over a cooled lava flow, very cool.

We spent a couple days in Taupo, watching the bungie jumping and swimming in the lake.

But most importantly, we’ve come back to Auckland ready for 8:30 this morning to queue up on the 6th floor of the AA building to collect our marriage licence! Thats right, as well as Cars, Transport, Insurance, they also seem to do Births, Deaths and Marriages.

We’re staying in the SkyCity hotel which is joined to the Auckland Sky Tower, the pool on the roof looks right up at it, and while up the tower this evening you can see the tiny people swimming.

Tomorrow we’re heading off into the Coromandel to explore a part of New Zealand we’ve never been to and of course, get married.

So we’re all ready for Friday, clothes ironed, documents collated, accommodation booked and weather is looking good!

Earlier that day we’d left Taupo and our spot in happy valley (between huka corner and lusty flats), with a little stop off to walk up to Huka water falls and the hot water stream (which was like bath water!). The journey had been spectacular coming through National Park and ‘Mount Doom’ which was covered in snow.

We entered the City of Wellington looking for our hotel, thats right, a hotel! With king bed and breakfast included, sometimes I spoil Becky.  It was a very quiet evening being the first sunday after christmas, I’d left Becky in the hotel to have a bath and went in search for  an open shop.  Sadly I came back empty handed so we had a little snack and went out to find a restaurant, what we did find was a couple more unicyclists, obviously a popular sport in Wellington.

Our first nights sleep in a nice hotel and fell asleep watching some christmas movies. Lovely.

I had woken early to move our car, picked up Becky for our breakfast buffet before leaving to explore Wellington.  We did a bit of shopping before walking down to the water front for some lunch and to see the Len Lye Water Whirler, the sister to the Len Lye Wind Wand.  But then came more unicyclists headed down towards the TSB arena, intrigued we followed but before we got to the arena a precession of 640 more came around the corner and along the harbour.  We soon realised this was the unicycling world championships, we waited for the British contingent to pass and followed them into the civic quarter to watch their acrobatics and opening ceremony with traditional Maori welcome.

Obviously that was the highlight but we did also visit the Te Papa museum.  When we were here in Feb 07 the big news was that Te Papa was about take possession of a colossus squid so obviously we had to go visit the half tonne creature that is now on display.

Other highlights since then have been Waiohine Gorge where Becky proudly walked across the 100 metre long, 100 metre high rope bridge(!) and the ridiculous road through the mountains out of Wellington, sadly no photos as Becky refused to let go of the dashboard.

Off to New Plymouth now to spend new year with Midla and Jo on the beach!

Christmas Day!

We were up bright and early ready to go, it may have been the excitement of Christmas, it just may have been jet lag.

We left the hostel at 10, day bags packed and ready to explore Auckland. The sun was already beating down without a cloud in the sky. Our main goal for the day was to walk to Mt Eden, climb to the top and sit and have some lunch. As always Andy launched off at speed and come 11:20 we were sat at the top admiring the stunning view of the city, Andy was plotting a route to the next Volcano along suggesting ‘we could get there by 1′.

A little after 1, we were sat on a bench on the side of the other volcano (that’s 2 of the 48 already today!). It was a pleasant walk leading through the shiny shopping district of Newmarket, sadly all closed up, it is Christmas day after all.

Dear readers, you may think this is enough for one day and we could walk back to the hostel. However during lunch while admiring the new view from the new volcano, Andy had concocted a new plan with the words ‘there’s a beach down there, we could get there by 3′. We never got there, while navigating through the mangrove swamp, I suggested ‘this’ll do’.

We were back at the hostel by 5 after using the Auckland sky tower to re-orientate our selves, conveniently situated next to Auckland Central Backpackers.

After a speedy doze (from exhaustion!) we got dressed up to go out for our Christmas dinner that Andy had secretly booked at the Orbit restaurant on the top of the 348m sky tower. The tables and chairs gently moved round so that we could see the whole of Auckland as it turned to nightfall and the lights came on to illuminate the city. The food, view and company were brilliant!

Menu

To Start:
San Danielle Ham with thyme roasted pumpkin, rocket, shaved parmesan cheese and vincotto for Becky
Hot Smoked Akaroa Salmon with raw fennel salad, horseradish and potato, summer peas and board beans, honey mustard vinaigrette for Andy

Main:
Becky had Turkey Ballottine with sage and apricot stuffing, pepperonata, confit kumara, butter broccolini and cranberry compote. And for Andy Angus Pure Beef Fillet with grain mustard whipped potato, buttered asparagus, sundried tomato tapenade and jus

Dessert:
Traditional Christmas Pudding: cranberry foam, poached figs, eggnog ice cream and glogg jelly
Chocolate and Hazelnut Bavarois: served with bailey ice cream, espresso sauce and hand made macaroon

One thing we did notice during dinner was the Christmas music, it’s all songs about snow.

And quickly boxing day

We packed up and headed out to pick up our hire car, already affectionately named Burt which we felt fitted well with the brown interior and cassette player, neither of us had driven an automatic before but how hard can it be? well 20km in and Andy’s still trying to find the clutch at every set of lights!

We headed out of the city to Mission Bay for lunch and a paddle on the beach. We’re now 350km south in Taupo, we’ve had a swim, cooked some food and retired to our tent.

Tomorrow? Well we think we’re going to go for a swim in the lake, and then head off to Wellington, but we’ll let you know in another installment!

Till the next time!

Andy and Becky
(Written from the comfort of our tent)

We landed in Kuala Lumpar after 12 hours of turbulence with Becky a little green, the 3 hour break before our connection to Auckland was very welcome. We visited the same shops as we had 3 years ago with everything being very familiar, not least the ‘multi-cultrual toilet experience’.  A new addition is the ‘mini’ forrest penned off in the middle of the airport, we went for a ‘mini’ walk through in the 30 degree rain.

The second 10 hour flight was no more enjoyable with more turbulence and the same meal we had previously eaten 3 times already. Five hours in and realising we weren’t even half way (the time slowed greatly when Becky broke her little telly and could only watch Hannah Montana: The Movie), I started to have doubts about how good an idea this was, of course those doubts disappeared quickly as we prepared to land in Auckland.

Stepping off the plane into the 22 degree heat with the blue skies reflecting off the sea it was of course worth it.  We sat in arrivals and listened to the carol singers while our tent was off being fumigated.

It’s good to be back.

Merry Christmas from New Zealand.

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It’s a fort built sometime around 1850 to protect England, now just protecting tourists like us from the elements. It has been modernised since being bought by the Trust, with Electricity, heating in the form of storage heaters (although the open fire in the main room is still usable), running water and a lovely shower room. The bedrooms accommodate 13 people in single beds, but with just eight of us we had plenty of space.

We all arrived at the airport at different times, collected in one of the few pubs on the Island and headed for the Fort via ‘Zig Zag Path’.

Many days were spent exploring the island of Alderney walking all the way around, photos will follow of the rest of the island.

In the mean time, here are some photos of Fort Clonque