hello! I'm alive.... IT'S TOO HOT HERE

Sorry for the lack of updates, I was mainly making the most of my remaining time in NZ last week! Had a couple of days in hospital, then as my supervisor was going to a conference in Australia, we decided I should spend the rest of the week doing educational things like go to the zoo.

I did get to see open heart surgery - an aortic valve replacement - on my last day which was pretty cool!

A summary of the last few NZ days:

* went to the zoo with Emilie, took about 200 photos

* made lots of crepes as I was rapidly running out of all other food

* went to the Auckland Art Gallery, quick look at the Goldie and Lindauer portraits of Maori chieftains, pretty interesting stuff

* SAW HARRY POTTER with subs!!!! alone but for the 3 other people in the cinema at 10am on Thurs morning. So deeply cool. Also the subs didnt come on for the first 10 mins leading to a small RozRage, but once I got into the film I forgot to be annoyed - it was EXCELLENT.

* went and looked around the Viaduct and harbour for cocktails with Emilie

* went for a last meal with Bee and Emilie, the dormmates - it was very merry as we had a bottle of wine, having had cocktails before!

* panicky packing

Rather brief updates - will put photos up at some point (once have filtered through the 200 from the zoo). Also I am suffering EXTREME lassitude due to the ridiculous humidity in Singapore. IT hit me like a wall as soon as I left the airport and I was sweating in my jeans by the time I got to my hostel.....had to immediately change to shorts and even then was still too hot. Would like to "take off one's flesh and sit in one's bones" to quote Isabella Bird, some redoubtable travel writer who visited Singapore in 1879. (I read my Rough Guide cover to cover on the plane over. And the Tenant of Wildfell Hall. and wrote a list of all the food I have to try in Singapore).

I got here last night at about 11.30pm.... rather tired but wired. Also completely confused over time zones, as my plane left Auckland for Sydney at 12.45pm on Saturday (3hr 30min flight), then after a couple of hours tooling around Sydney airport, I left for Singapore at 4.10pm. That flight took 8hr 20mins... I managed to stay awake for the whole day, but ended up feeling all wired when I got to the hostel....

Still a bit discombobulated which is why this blog entry reads like a pile of elephant dung.

Today I hooked up with Marit, a lovely Dutch girl my age who I met at the door of the hostel last night. We've been into town to check out Chinatown (a bit soulless after the government cleanup, but the museum was excellent). Also bopped around the harbour and central business district - as much as one can bop when every step makes one break out in sweat!!! Had some tasty chicken satay and pineapple rice at a nice waterfront restaurant; with the breeze blowing it was slightly less hot and almost bearable!

Gave up soon after lunch though and came back to the hostel to drink more water and just chill for a bit, feeling very drained.

Back in again later though for hopefully a Singapore sling! and maybe a ride on the Singapore Flyer...

will quit spouting drivel now though and go watch Grey's Anatomy to chill for a bit ;)

Coromandel roadtrip! Tauranga! And Rotorua!

HOLA!

I type this epic update on the bus back to Auckland from Rotorua. Good way to spend the time I feel...

So this week I have driven a car – a REAL LIVE CAR, automatic – from Auckland to Tauranga! Anna and I shared the driving, and she said, damning me with faint praise, that “letting me drive didn't go as badly as she thought”. It really wasn't that bad, once I'd stopped frantically pawing for second gear, and trying to put my foot down on the clutch....

I dutifully attended a murmur clinic on Tues morning (where GPs send in patients they've heard a murmur on, and James listens to them and decides whether or not to echo them. It was quite fast-paced but James still found time in between patients to get us a coffee, and look up the Hot Water Beach tide times for me! Legend). Skedaddled for the airport shortly after lunch, where I met Anna off her 4pm flight from Wellington. We picked up our nail of a Nissan Sunny from Jucy Rentals and Anna drove us from Auckland airport to Thames. Thames is the gateway town to the Coromandel, and while it must be very busy in summer, in winter it was decidedly devoid of life. The hostel was good though -YHA Sunshine Backpackers. We made ourselves some sausages and mash for tea, mmmmm (default Roz-Anna food after the first meal in Wellington!) We got chatting to Arnut, a Belgian law student/teddybear (I swear he is the cuddliest-looking man I have ever seen), who found the film “In Bruges” as funny as I did, and was happy to listen to me babble about how good the chocolate/moules/frites/beer is in Belgium. I love Belgium, mainly because of Veva and Jules tbh, oh and the chocolate – Georgina will remember how we holed up in a cafe in the torrential rain in Bruges dunking slabs of choc into hot choc. Now there's a travelling companion <3)

Anna, Arnut and I attempted to find a bar in Thames for a drink, but after wandering around unsuccessfully for half an hour, we called it quits and went back to the hostel for a snifter of whisky (Arnut's, from duty-free) and chocolate. I discovered that whisky really hurts a sore throat – something I had forgotten from radiotherapy – and Arnut had to finish mine but I don't think he minded.

Went to bed in an awesomely comfy dorm, the kind with purpose-built bunkbeds – not quite as good as the Napier ones but still bloody good.

On Wednesday we arose, had breakfast, went to Sola Café which was deservedly Rough-Guide-Running-Man recommended. Here is a pic of my coffee and of Arnut, so you can see how cuddly he was. Anna admitted that she would have fallen in love with him if not for Ferdinand, and indeed he is one of my fave people from travelling!

(pic following)

After a short lesson in driving an automatic, I anxiously got behind the wheel and drove rather slowly to Coromandel Town, with a couple of stops on the way for photos. Coromandel Town was also rather quiet, so we just had a look around the arty shops and then were on our way again. Anna drove us to Whitianga which was amazing. Our hostel was the YHA Beach one, and it was awesome! We had our own flat as no-one else was there, so the large open-plan kitchen and lounge were all ours! WHEEEE.

After dropping our stuff off, we got changed into bikinis and headed off to Hot Water Beach with our spade. Hot Water Beach is a place where a geothermal spring bubbles up at low tide, and you can dig a pool for hot water to bubble up into, and sit there chilling in the waves! Unfortunately a Kiwi Experience bus was already there and had disgorged several gap yahs, who had hogged all the hot water. We tried to dig our pool closer to the waves but the waves obliterated all attempts at a sand-barrier, so after hopping about a bit on the boiling hot sand we gave up and trudged mournfully off. Here are some pics though:

(to follow when I have decent internetz)

We drove instead to Cathedral Cove which was a lovely walk from the carpark, and was an absolutely stunning and quiet beach. Still a bit cold to swim.... am kicking myself for not swimming in the Bay of Islands!!

Grabbed some dinner supplies from the supermarket, had salmon and courgette risotto, drank lots of wine, tried to watch Phantom of the Opera (one of the DVDs from the reception) but the TV remote had died so no subtitles were available. But it was only the Gerard Butler version which Wayne assures me is crap. Decided to Skype instead – got to speak to not one but two siblings which was lovely :)

Had a gorgeous sleep in another comfy bed, and on Thursday morning it was sunny and warm enough to have our breakfast on the balcony!!! So exciting. After checking out, we went to sit on the beach and decide where to have our coffee (the excellent Nina's café). At Nina's we had a tasty raspberry frangipane cake. We also met a very friendly dog

(pic coming soon)

who has to be shaved in summer, according to her Hull-born owner. Good job – it was as warm as an English summer morning!

The nice man in Nina's told me where I could get chocolates and flowers for our hosts in Tauranga, so we went to Monk Street Market, which might be my favourite food shop in the world (after Moore Wilson's – that delightful supermarket-sized deli in Welly). It crams a vast array of delicious and hard-to-track-down ingredients into a shop smaller than Mmm's stall in the Grainger Market! And they had cheese! And posh chocolates! We bought some of the latter, went off to the florists for a tasteful arrangement of lilies, shoved all that in the car and drove (me again, eeeerp). The drive to Opoutere beach was uneventful, despite the hairpin bends in the mountain roads. Definitely not for the easily-carsick..

Opoutere beach itself is easily the most gorgeous and deserted beach I've ever been on – we had lunch on a little yellow bench under a tree, and then I went for a paddle and turned cartwheels.

We hopped back in the car again and set off for Tauranga whch is where we were staying with Gary and Amanda, the friends of Deb and Dom. After a wrong turn (because I'd just woken up from a kip and was not exactly with the map-reading) – we easily found their house which is right on Marine Parade, opposite the beach, and were welcomed like princesses with tea and snacks!! Honestly, the Reids are some of the loveliest people I've ever met; I knew Amanda was a kindred spirit when she asked if I wanted tea, and then said “What kind?” and opened the tea cupboard to reveal stacks and stacks of different kinds of tea. YAY FOR HIPPY TEAS!

I opted for “builder's tea” and we settled down for a chat and general introductions, and also being shown the guest room which was very exciting – ginormous queen bed and en suite!!! after 8 weeks of hostels this was absolute heaven. I spent a lot of time cooing over the kitchen as well – beautiful island units in engineered stone and all. Fabulous. Their house is still being done up, and is absolutely gorgoeus. When Gary and Thomas got home, we went out for a walk on the beach which was beautiful. Mt Mauganui is quite busy and developed, and the beach is very popular with teenage surfers after school; they were all riding by on their bikes holding their boards under their arms!! And for “winter” it is positively toasty – Amanda made me borrow her duckdown jacket which was beautifully comfy (I want one for Newcastle now!) but completely unnecessary – it felt like maybe a May evening.

Dinner was a lovely chicken satay curry and some wine, and then a quiet family evening watching telly which was somehow just what I needed. I managed to skype everyone too which was great after weeks of no video calls! Excitedly showed Dad the beautiful kitchen – complete with fancy hobs and incredible gadgets, and let him talk to Amanda and Gary, though I took him away once he began to embarrass me. (He told them they were allowed to use corporal punishment on me …o_O)

Oh and Geordie Shore and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding have just hit Australasian TV – I cringe. I tried very hard to convince the Reids that Newcastle isn't as depicted in Geordie Shore but I might have failed... Also they are completely unfamiliar with the concept of gypsy travellers – probably because NZ has so much room for everyone!

On Friday morning we got up fairly early to walk up Mt Maunganui with Amanda – she climbs this ridiculously steep mountain every morning! I realised exactly how unfit I was after 8 weeks of no running.... fabulous sense of achievement at the top though. Hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh. After breakfast of bacon and eggs Amanda took us for coffee at Deckchair café in Mt Maunganui where I was treated to some fab gluten-free orange cake. Mmmm.

Anna left for the airport after this, and as I was now staying another night instead of going straight to Rotorua, Amanda showed me around Tauranga which is a nice little town with a fair few shops. We got some sushi for lunch and went off to watch Thomas's hockey game. This is a very, VERY sporty family (I was quite embarrassed at my own lack of sporting prowess). The college was full of bouncy teenagers running around looking outdoorsy and preppy and almost American – I slunk about after Amanda feeling v. old, unfit, and British. The hockey game was as violent as to be expected when you give teenage boys sticks and a ball to hit – was rather enjoyable! I followed it much better than the rainy rugby match in Wellington, probably because I wasn't being rained on...

Friday evening was more of the same blissful chilling-out, with stirfry and films. I went to bed early – partly because I was exhausted from climbing the mountain, and partly because I was to climb it again the next morning! I was overly excited at having the queen sized bed all to myself – unprecedented luxury for travelling.

On Saturday morning, I met Jo and Jez who are from Nottingham too! They've been in NZ for 4 years and are good friends of the Reids. Jo had brought over lots of breakfasty things for after our walk, and GLUTEN-FREE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES. I love that woman. We further bonded over our Nottinghamness (Jo is from Arnold) and over how unfit we were for climbing Mt Maunganui – Gary came with us and RAN up and down the steps like a true ex-rower, and Amanda bounced ahead like a whippet while Jo and I wheezed away. Felt awesome to be at the top again though! And breakfast was a fantastic reward: peanut butter cookies and all. (recipe from Jo : “one cup sugar, one cup peanut butter, one egg. Beat, plop out, bake.” WOW! They were awesome.)

We had time to nip into town for an icecream (yoghurt berry, awesome) and then it was time to drop me off at the bus stop for the Rotorua bus – Gary and Amanda waited with me and saw me off with lots of hugs – awesome people :) thank you so much for having me to stay! And thank you Deb for putting me in touch with them!

One of the unfortunate things about my travelling experience, which I would like to change in myself but fear may just be human nature, is how badly the weather colours my opinion of a place. This is the fate that has befallen Rotorua. The Bay of Islands and Coromandel and Tauranga were all beautifully sunny, and I LIKED them. Rotorua chose to piss it down on me, so correspondingly I found it hard to love. Unfair but there you go. It's probably a perfectly nice little spa town in summer, but in the rain it ain't all that. However! I still had a good evening. Cooked me a risotto, had some wine, then went off for a wallow in the Polynesian spa. This was lovely – I borrowed a hilariously trashy novel from the hostel and read it while soaking myself in pools of varying temperatures and varying smelliness – the natural sulphur coming off the water takes a while to get used to!

We got kicked out at about 10.45pm and I ambled peaceably back to the hostel, chatted to the dormmates, and fell asleep still ponging of sulphur.

Sunday morning: tasty breakfast of the best gf bread I've had in NZ so far – Pavilion soy and linseed for any Kiwi squeeliacs – and then went off to explore Rotorua's park with a couple of the dormmates (German-Spanish Marc and Taiwanese Anna). We had an interested look at the plopping mud pools and steaming greyish waters, almost gagged at the rotten egg smell, and then when it started to pee it down, went for coffee and chinwags. After this I went off to the museum to look at the origins of Rotorua as a hip spa town where people went to “take the cure”, and to look at the remains of the old bathhouse. I didn't really have enough time to go to Wai-o-Tapu or any of the other geothermal parks, which is a shame, but I'm not sure how much I would have enjoyed them in the rain anyway. I really appreciate the freedom you get with a car – it's amazing! But I prefer to have a driving companion.

After raining on me for pretty much the whole day, Rotorua dried up in time for me to walk to the bus station and wait for my bus back to Auckland, which I suppose was its way of apologising.

(Personalising/anthropomorphising the weather is definitely the way to insanity. I'm pretty far along the path, I'd say.)

Now on bus. Feet wet.

HOME IN 12 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

x

this week's itinerary

Howdy!

so you know what I'm doing...

Tuesday 2.8.11

Auckland to Thames (gateway town to Coromandel)

Wednesday 3.8.11

Thames to Whitianga (near Hot Water Beach! BOOM!)

Thursday 4.8.11

Whitianga to Tauranga (to stay with the Hessians' lovely friends :) )

Friday 5.8.11

Anna back to Auckland to fly home

I go to Rotorua

Sunday 7.8.11

Rotorua to Auckland!!!

There y'go xxx

sky-flipping-dive

On the bus back to Auckland with Doully (our original driver on Friday!) Turns out you can get wifi on a Stray bus - isn't that canny?

Just about recovered from the skydive to share the experience - first of all, it was bloody terrifying, but in a weird way - I've definitely been more frightened in my life, but of things like cancer, and failing medical school, and my sister. (She can be awesomely scary, I tell you.) But this was completely out of my control so I sort of gave myself over to the experience. Stomach-churning.

(None of the proper pics yet because they're going to post my CD to me, but the ground photos are here for your viewing pleasure!)

I was picked up by the Skydive people at 10am and they drove me out to their airport which is near Kerikeri, about 20mins drive. I spent the drive mainly looking at scenery and trying not to think about what I was doing. When I panickedly bleated out, "WHAT AM I DOING???!??" the massive dude who was driving (he looked like Marv from Sin City) turned round and said, "You're skydiving! Relax!" which is possibly the biggest oxymoron I have ever heard, but I didn't argue. (He was BIG.)

Arrived, signed form saying that I understood there was "an element of risk involved", and gave them my next of kin details (!!!!!!!!), then went next door to get kitted up in the most unflattering flightsuit ever.

I was chatting away to the guys who were getting my harness on, mainly about what to do with the hearing aids. We wisely decided I shouldn't wear them - moisture and high windspeeds etc.... also not sure how I'd go about replacing them if they fell out of my ears somewhere over the Bay of Islands. I was then introduced to my tandem jumper, a giant who made the driver guy look tiny. As he was yanking my harness on, I could lipread the other 2 guys mouthing "He's f***king loopy!!" which is not the most reassuring thing to be told about the dude you're going to be strapped to and then flung out of a plane with.

I think they were winding me up. But Gavin did seem a bit mental. He was easy to lipread though....my briefing went like this:

Gavin: "Have you been briefed?"

Me: "No...?"

Gavin: "OK, well, just enjoy yourself!"

Me: "errrr is that the briefing?"

Gavin: "what more do you need?! oh yes, when we jump out, you have to kick my ass and keep your legs back all the time we're freefalling and keep your arms folded, and then when I tap you you can put your arms out. and the most important thing is SMILE AT THE CAMERA! come on!"

I think he was definitely insane.

I got a bit more of a runthrough at the plane though, so I felt slightly more confident about it all. As confident as you can be getting into the tiniest plane ever about to fling yourself into space..... I had no hearing aids by then which was a bit odd, but actually quite calming...

I was fine as we took off (Georgina will tell you that's the dangerous bit...) and as we were climbing, but when we started getting clipped up to our tandem guys I got a little bit nervous....then when we got to 16000ft and they put the slidey door up and Nadia (a tiny Malaysian girl) and her tandem went, I suddenly realised that I had to do THAT and was like EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK. It happened very quickly though; before I had time to even think about backing out, Gavin had shoved us to the edge where my legs dangled horribly, taken a photo of my rictus of fear, and launched us into nothingness. I tried to breathe, couldn't, screamed instead, looked at the beautiful view, screamed some more, looked at the view, looked at the camera, screamed, etc etc. It was REALLY very cold - I could feel my mouth going a bit numb and my face flapping around - hahaha.

Spent about 60 secs doing that at 120mph and watching the clouds come up closer and closer, then WHOOMP the parachute went and we were jerked up. I was gloriously relieved that I wasn't going to plummet to a pancakey death, but then realised that parachutes are kind of swirly.... and that it was another several hundred feet to the ground. I kind of calmed down a bit though and watched the beautiful views for miles - Gavin steered us round in lots of swirls, and the ground started to come up rather fast...

I stuck my legs out as I'd been told to do, then fervently hoping not to break anything, sailed gracefully in and landed on my bottom. Comfy landing.... Hahahahaha.

Unfortunately I'd started to get a bit of headache on the way down, and by the time I landed it was thumping so badly I couldn't think about anything else, which was really annoying because I wanted to marvel at the fact I'd actually done the skydive! (I still did, but whilst chomping on Nurofen). I excluded the differential of a ruptured brain aneurysm fairly quickly, seeing as I was still alive, but it was a nasty headache and lasted a couple of hours - went away after I'd chundered everywhar yah!!! (back at the hostel). I think it was probably the pressure changes, though it's not a common consequence; most people just get really sore ears. I feel better now though still a bit washed out - most likely from the adrenaline!

Not much to report of the journey home, apart from a stop at the beautiful Whangerai falls which are 40m high I think. I feel slightly better about missing out on Milford Sound (snow cancelled all the trips from Queenstown) now I've felt the spray of at least one waterfall! and it was lovely:

ta ta for now - about an hour from Auckland and feel a bit drained - a kip beckons...

Only 2 days of hospital this week then it's off to the Coromandel with Anna! yay :)

Roz xx

P.S. Doully also keeps BEES!!!! we have been talking about how you can get them to make honey from whichever plant you want because they have a radius of about 1 or 2 km from their hive, so you can plonk them in the middle of a manuka bush area and get excellent manuka honey, or honey from New Zealand honeysuckle, or clover, or whatever you like. mmmmm. Being a beekeeper is very on my list of things to do :D yay!!!!

beautiful Bay of Islands

view from Cape Reinga

Got up heinously early and slightly stressed about where I was to be picked up from for my Stray tour – heaving my bags of food and weekend rucksack on, I staggered off to the bus stop for the bus downtown to Nomads hostel. Arrived there, waited 30 minutes, became increasingly convinced that they'd gone without me, resigned self to weekend of wandering around food markets (life is so hard) then the bus arrived. I had resigned myself so well that I was even mildly disappointed that I wouldn't get to go to La Cigale (fabbydabbydoosie French weekend market in Parnell – alas am missing this as not in Auckland any more weekends! How time flies!)

There were only 2 other people on the Stray bus – Nils and Stephanie from Germany. Our bus driver was a lovely chap with a deaf daughter and a coeliac wife (what are the odds?!) He was very entertaining and knowledgeable about NZ and the Bay of Islands in particular, and the Maori legends. We stopped to look at the oldest kauri tree in the area (800 years old, though there are ones older than Christianity!)

and then again in Whangarei for coffee. We also made a stop in Kawakawa to look at the toilets. Yes, the toilets. I have to admit that these are indeed some gorgeous toilets – designed by some crazy Austrian dude, Friedrich Hundertwasser. They have old glass bottles for windows which gives a decidedly pretty light, and they just look wacky. Best place for a pee ever.

After Kawakawa it wasn't much further to Paihia, where we were staying in the Base hostel (I know, I never thought I'd set foot in another Base hostel either – this one isn't even in the Rough Guide! But Nils and Stephanie were staying there and I succumbed to peer pressure like a sheep. Baaaa.) Our dorm isn't that bad though, ensuite toilet and mini-kitchen. And there's only 3 of us.

We had about half an hour to unpack our stuff before it was time to dash out again on our dolphin tour! This was seriously awesome – the weather didn't look fantastic at first, but it brightened up when we were out on the water; I was actually warm! Even on the top deck of a boat! We struck out into the bay (via Russell, NZ's oldest town and one with a decidedly wicked reputation in its earlier days – sounds a bit like Tortuga, that place in Pirates of the Caribbean where Captain Jack falls foul of various prostitutes. Anyway Russell has gone from a salubrious drinking hole to a rather pretty if slightly dull place.) Once in open water, everyone commenced looking excitedly for dolphins – this took a while, and I was starting to think they'd never materialise, and was eating my grody day-old peanut butter and banana sandwich (see, I can economise on food when I have to....) when all of a sudden there they were!!

(unfortunately dolphins are unphotographable...)

LOADS of them!!! just bobbing up and down in the water and gracefully waving their dorsal fins at us! We'd been hoping to swim with them (the 3 of us, no-one else on the boat was nutty enough to swim in the winter) but they had a couple of babies with them. If you swim with the babies they get all excited and play with you, and forget to feed from their mothers (which they normally do every few minutes, to stay warm – small surface area: volume ratio innit) and thus get really cold and maybe even die. Obviously I would rather watch a baby dolphin being cute and doing backflips than risking its cuddly little life to swim with me – so I was very happy watching them all! They played about with us for about half an hour, then when the boat took off, they chased the wake for a couple of minutes which was fantastic to watch!

We hared about the Bay for the afternoon, watching seagulls, sailing through a rock with a hole in it, and visiting some seals who were lying about on a rock sunning themselves (they very much reminded me of a gentleman of my acquaintance who enjoys his afternoon garden kips in the sunshine...) Took lots of photos and basked in the warmth, then disembarked at about 5pm. It was a beautiful and relaxing afternoon. Mmmm.

We were too tired to get up to much in the evening – went to the Base Pipi Patch nightly BBQ, where the nice man v. kindly gave me an extra steak because the sausage wasn't gluten-free :D and we got a free glass of wine. It turns out Stephanie doesn't like beer, despite being from Bavaria (!!!) so she kept me company drinking the wine! After watching a few hilarious attempts at karaoke, I decided it was bedtime and went off for a shower and another all too short kip.

We were up at 6am again getting ready for the Cape Reinga trip. To my horror, the kitchen wasn't open until 7am when reception opened (you have to go through reception to get to the kitchen. Damn fool layout if you ask me) and my carefully-planned bacon and egg sandwich went out of the window. I resorted to a banana and a hastily-toasted bit of bread (in the 10 mins I had between the ktichen opening and the bus leaving. Never was there such dedication to the noble breakfast. Unless you count David King's excellent handcarved potato smileys.)

sunrise!

Our bus driver for the day was an immensely likeable ginger Rob Brydon lookalike. He kept us supplied with a steady stream of banter and a running commentary which I didn't really hear, but it mattered not one jot because I was so busy looking at the gorgeous scenery. The weather was excellent and the surroundings jaw-droppingly beautiful. We stopped to look at some more kauri trees in Manginangina (I laughed at this name, I'm ashamed to admit) and they were beautiful but not as impressive as our 800 year old friend from the day before. We stopped in ?Taipi for coffee at a nice little bakery (with sadly no gluten-free provisions, forcing me to recourse to almonds and white chocolate with my coffee) and to grab our last provisions before embarking into “the wilderness” as Rob Brydon alarmingly called it.

Ninety Mile Beach is fantastic stretch of sand actually only 64 miles long, but I suppose “Sixty-four Mile Beach” doesn't have the same ring. It is quite fantastic to barrel along at 100km an hour along the water's edge – only the special tour buses can really do it safely, as ordinary cars tend to get stuck. It was seriously beautiful and we were all gawping out of the window for a good long while! We eventually stopped for photos...

and to turn cartwheels (ahem, only me) and generally run about on the beach, before setting off for the sand dunes 15 minutes further along. Here we did SANDBOARDING which is incredibly fun! (and cheaper than skiing). You climb up an angina-inducing hill, lie down on a bodyboard, get Rob Brydon – who happens to be a mad sandboarder and does running jumps downhill!!! - to give you a push, and away you go at terrifying speed down a 45 degree slope. You can kind of steer with your feet, and slow yourself down with your feet (though this gives you sandburn and severely exfoliates your toenail varnish). In general it's far more fun to have your feet up and your face in a rictus of fear – I think I was only going at 15 kph, if I heard correctly, but man it feels fast when your face is very close to a lot of sand and you feel you could easily end up with a mouthful of it.... I rapidly became addicted and ran up that hill about 4 or 5times to whizz down at speed, before it was time to depart again! Rob Brydon gave me a high five for my enthusiasm.

We stopped for lunch at a beautiful bay – unfortunately I didn't realise this was the last chance to swim and really wish I had – I had my bikini with me and the water wasn't prohibitively cold; in fact, positively welcoming (compare that to Brighton in January!!) Alas, I'll have to wait for the Coromandel/Devon/Singapore for my dip.

Our final stop was Cape Reinga which was INCREDIBLE. It was a beautiful walk from the carpark down to the cape itself, and you can see the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meeting in lots of little whirlpools!

I took as many photos as my dying camera battery permitted me to...

On the way back we stopped at a place selling ancient kauri wood products. Kauri trees are now protected so you can't chop them down and use their wood, but they keep finding really old kauri trees in swamps: waste not, want not... I was almost seduced into buying a kauri-wood chopping board (about $200), and had to walk away very quickly and distract myself with coffee and icecream (about $4, far more economical, though a less lasting souvenir).

The last stop on the way home was Mangonui, where everyone except me had fish and chips. I bore this with equanimity because of my yummy f&c in Auckland last week, and also because I was still full from the icecream....

We got home at about 6pm, bade an emotional farewell to Rob Brydon, and then something very strange took hold of me, walked me up to the Base reception and booked me to do a skydive from 16,000 feet tomorrow morning at 10am.

Yikes.

We'll see how that one goes.

Waiheke weekend

Hello! Sorry for the hiatus in updates – been too busy/tired/couldn't be arsed! Last weekend was lovely – I explored the market in the morning and faffed about doing laundry etc in the afternoon, then James picked me up to take me to his and lucy's for dinner and to meet Holly. Holly is the cutest black lab/fox terrier cross you ever saw, and made me miss Luna a LOT. Awwwww. Some brilliant food – not what Dad would expect from dinner at a cardiologist's! Excellent NZ lamb, a beautiful flourless chocolate torte and lots of tasty wine. Yum yum. After a lovely evening (mainly spent talking about Newcastle medical school, various doctors we all knew, Jesmond life, the excellence of Skype, and how much James misses M&S prawn mayo sandwiches) James dropped me back off at my hostel amd I went to bed very grateful for all the nice doctors in the world!

The next morning I was up earlier than I wanted to be on a Sunday, to catch my ferry to Waiheke Island for the WINE TOUR! The ferry was rather fun, drinking coffee and reading the kindle and admiring the scenery (whch was a bit drizzly). It brightened up later on though, when I got to Waiheke and met Wayne, who was my wine tour guide for the day. There were a couple of Aucklanders on the tour as well. I keep hoping to meet like-minded lone travellers of about my age being all food and wine-geeky, but I think most normal people of my age are spending their money on going out partying.. alas. Also it's winter so it's quite quiet – apparently the whole of Auckland decamps to Waiheke and the Coromandel in the summer, at Christmas!

Had a great morning being driven about sampling wines from Mudbrick, Kennedy Point and Cable Bay before going back to Mudbrick for lunch. My companions decided to go back to their accommodation for lunch, leaving me with the terrifying prospect of eating lunch in a rather posh restaurant by myself …. fortunately it turned out not to be that bad, and a friendly little bird came and perched on the chair opposite me, so I had a dining companion of sorts, albeit a rather twitchy one who didn't speak English and flew away at random moments.

I had a delicious starter – not even sure what it was – and then ordered the fish of the day which was blue nose, with roasted kumara.

Oh my word – it was just beautiful. And because I was on a wine tour I went for some Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc (my new weakness). Went the whole hog and got orange crème brulée for pudding, and it was beautiful too (to look at and eat...) and all gluten free, even the wee tiramisu tower!! how amazing.

After coffee my driver came to pick me up (you can tell I'm loving playing the posh lady, oui?!) and there was time for a quick stop-off at the art gallery before heading to catch the ferry. I walked back to Parnell to clear my head hic and then spent the evening slobbing about.

On Monday I was convinced I had gout after all the rich food and alcohol, but it turned out to be a transient foot pain... By Wednesday I had diagnosed myself with melanoma because of a small itchy mole on my finger, which put all thoughts of gout out of my head. (Don't worry, is just the regular hypochondria....)

This week I've mainly been watching as many cardiology procedures as possible, as well as going to ward rounds and James's murmur clinic. I watched angiograms and angioplasties (stents) on Wednesday pm, and a biventricular pacemaker (or CRT – it's a treatment for heart failure) on Thursday morning. Thursday afternoon nothing was happening, so I googled gluten free fish and chips, found a fsih and chip shop near the Green Lane clinic, got on the hopper over, walked for about 45 mins and finally located this place at 711 Manukau Road. Manukau Road is possibly the longest road in Aucjland, and DEFNITELY longer than Welbeck Road....I arrived to find that the place was shut, but undeterred, sat down and read my kindle for the half hour before they opened. Then I went in and had a fantastic snapper, with chips and mushy peas.

Oh my goodness. Fish and chips in NZ are really very good -they fry the stuff as and when you order it, so it's fesh and crispy and awesome! They really do not undertand the soggy British fish and chips, and I can see why.... my batter was REALLY crispy and the snapper excellent and lemony. Yumyum.

Having disgracefully scoffed all that down, I waddled back along Manukau Road and into One Tree Hill park, which is gorgeous. I worked off the f&c with a steep climb up the hill, to discover a massive obelisk but no tree. (the settlers chopped down the original one in 1863, and the two pines planted there afterwards were damaged by a maori protester and the last was removed in 2002. no trees. Weepweep)

Good views though:

Adroitly managed to catch the last hopper back to Auckland City, then walked back through the park to the hostel. My friend caroline arrived frm wellington (she is a friend of Paula's from work in Galway) and we had a lovely catch up over a cuppa. She's flying home for her brother's wedding in August. Then I was off to bed to get my head down for 6 hours! For the Bay of Islands weekend! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

more mudbrick awesomeness

Happy birthday Daddy-o!!

I took this picture of a Spitfire just for you... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! Hope you are having an excellent day, I shall text you later when it's actually your birthday and not just in my time zone.

Here are some more Spitfire pics:

I went to Auckland Museum on Thursday pm - after a morning of stress echoes, my supervisor said that nothing exciting would be happening on the ward, so sent me off to absorb some culture. I excitedly took photos of giant weta - ugh, this is what happens when you have a warm climate and few predators, insects get MASSIVE:

and really cute stuffed kiwi. Still not seen a live kiwi, but they are very rare....

THe museum was pretty darn good - they had a brilliant section of objects from all the Pacific Islands, and an exhibition about how the islands interacted with each other and the goods they bartered etc. Then there was a bit about Maori settlement in NZ (around 1200AD) and how the Maori classify everything into its own "whakapapa". This is something I don't really understand - it's quite confusing - but it's about how everything is interlinked with its own genealogy, all the way back to the folklore about the beginning of the world...

There was also a fab section on WW2 which I visited to get the Spitfire photo - it was really interesting to see WW2 from the NZ perspective. They had the loveliest exhibition called "Mr Jones' Wives" which was about the women who fell in love with NZ servicemen during the war, and were shipped out to start new lives in NZ at the end of the war. They had loads of mementoes and different stories and love letters - it was really cute and made me sniffle like a fool. Bah.

Thursday night I made a ginormous risotto with butternut squash, mushrooms, courgettes and blue cheese (sorry slipping back into food blog ways here, ahem), and chilled out with a glass of wine talking to fellow travellers.

Friday was a ward round (my feet hurt from standing up the entire morning, whinge whinge) and after lunch and a bit of listening with stethoscopes my supervisor sent me off to explore more of Auckland. Yes he is awesome! I toddled off to explore Auckland - in the rain. Did a bit of shopping and got some more food - quelle surprise - and headed home to make me a steak with mushroom sauce and drink a bit more wine. Now delighted to report I have finished Tristam Shandy - thank the lord - and am onto Vanity Fair which is decidedly zippier reading.

Today I gave myself a lie-in and it was lovely. Got some boring stuff like laundry done, then excitedly located a farmers market in Parnell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ohhhhhh the joy. One of the most annoying things about travelling is having to rely on supermarkets so much; I hate the places with a passion. But when you don't know the area you end up falling back on supermarkets - I honestly feel like I'm selling my soul, buying fresh produce from those places.... *shudder* HOWEVER. This makes me feel better:

farmers market bag and produce :) and yes I am in the library for the free wifi.

I got some flowers for tonight, and some AWESOME free-range pork, and a few veggies and a beautiful avocado. I don't like eating alone (cooking for one sucks) but I'm sure I will find someone to share it all with .... I practically forced my roommate Emilie to share some of my dinner last night. Ahahahaa I am such a food freak.

Going to dinner at James and Lucy's (supervisor and his elective-saviour wife) house tonight - rather excited because they have a dog and I miss Luna so much.....

Right, off to explore a bit more - might walk up Mt Eden or One Tree Hill or something. It's a lovely day, wheeeeeee :)

Lots of love xxx

settling in in Auckland

As I write this in the cosy living room of City Garden Lodge, there is a log fire crackling away and I have a plate of peanut butter cookies cooling, and squash and chicken roasting in the oven. Ahhhh, life is good. I am also now exceedingly popular because of said cookies. Oh the joys of baking in hostels!

So I am feeling more settled now I've had a chance to do the nesting thing; before I felt like I hadn't stopped and sat down anywhere for ages! Queenstown was very tiring... and then I was busy here too! And we all know how much I like my chillin' time...

I got to Auckland on Sunday evening, got my shuttle to City Garden Lodge and was overjoyed to find my (all-girls' at last) dorm had an unoccupied single bed - i.e. a non-bunk bed. With a bedside TABLE and LIGHT. Oh my days. Immediately claimed it, gloating over my unimagined riches....

(You get a bit weird about these things after travelling for a while.)

Didn't do much on the first night apart from locate corner shop for crisps and chocolate to go with my reheated pizza from Winnie's, Queenstown - yes I am disgusting - then shower and crash for the best 9 hours sleep ever. I even did my duvet-nicking trick and was a cosy warm bug in a rug all night... mmm.

On Monday I ambled through the park (the Domain) on a glorious sunny morning to meet the elective co-ordinator lady. She got me set up with the internet/library card (oh how I laughed at the idea of actually taking books out of the library, ho ho ho. I mean, I'm on my ELECTIVE here...) I was then pointed in the general direction of Auckland City Hospital, where I headed to get my ID badge and then finally meet my supervisor, who is a lovely chap. I got this placement through his wife, who was a colleague of my haematologists before she emigrated. He's a Leeds boy who went to Newcastle to train and then moved to NZ about 3 years ago in search of warmer weather. I can safely say he's found it - for the depths of winter, Auckland is TOASTY. I layered up far too much on my walk in, because I was used to Queenstown, and ended up shedding clothes rather quickly.

the museum

(I've been lucky with the weather so far: blue skies and barely-there fluffy white clouds; apparently it's due to change this weekend, so have booked my wine tour already, just to make sure I'll be indoors and tipsy most of the time).

Everyone on the ward is really really nice: the registrar is incredibly friendly and let me do a joint aspiration on my first day! Although sticking a needle into some poor bloke's swollen knuckle isn't really my idea of fun, it was good practice at injecting local anaesthetic. Alas I got no aspirate, but there was none to get anyway. Probably gout.) I've also been trying to listen to lots of murmurs - getting a couple but still not very confident with the spazoscope. Will persevere.

(Unfortunately am getting to the point where I really can't be bothered with medicine – I think this is the point at which most smart people will be heading to the other half of their elective i.e. somewhere hot and beautiful. Have no idea why I elected to do 2 placements in NZ... though it's really not that bad, despite being winter. Sorry for whinging - am just really craving a bit of beach-slobbing and coconut suntan lotion. That or more skiing.... Also travelling alone is OK but as I've been moving round a fair bit in the last couple of weeks, I haven't really had the chance to meet anyone properly, and this leaves me really craving the company of awesome friends – the kind who have exactly the same travel priorities as me: coffee, wine, food, culture, sleep. Haha. I'm looking at you Weatherdon... big dissertation love btw.)

On Monday night I went to see Cat and Tess at their hostel - they're in Auckland for a couple of days before flying to Vanuatu - and had a couple of drinks. It was lovely to see them, and we arranged to go to the SkyTower the next night. This was fantastic - dining at 190m, you see some pretty good views.... food OK (some excellent salmon) and the wine made up for the slightly rubbery mussels.

Upon my return I Skyped home which always cheers me up, though you pay for the internet here by the byte, so no video calls, just chat. Humph. However have found lots of wireless hotspots, including the library... so will be frequenting those!

All in all not much to report, sah – though I did have an interesting evening in Parnell on Monday trailing around the supermarket (which is actually in central Auckland, a fair walk) and unsuccessfully attempting to locate gluten-free soy sauce. Most people of my acquaintance will appreciate the single-mindedness with which I track down vital ingredients. You cannae have stirfry withoot soy sauce.... so I tried the Asian supermarket next door with no joy – they had a whole aisle of soy sauce but the ONE bottle of tamari had gluten in. Jeebus. With a deepening sense of despair I began the long walk back up Parnell Road (it's even longer than Welbeck Road) and stumbled into some kind of small posh shop selling pretty much everything gluten-free you could ever want. I actually became emotional and probably scared the girl behind the counter with my squeaks of joy at the discovery of the tamari...

The stirfry was a good one btw.

Now off to serve me up some roast chicken, veg and Ian's tasty red cabbage with wine and spices! and more of this Mission Estate Syrah. obviously.

(Photos of Auckland life to follow once I get back to the library to put pics up on their unlimited internet!)