beer, bikes, babys, bbq's, and boats

It was a long week of teaching and finely the long weekend came, New Zealands labor day weekend (and went just as fast...).  It started with my weekly badminton and pub trip to the Pig and Whistle.  This was really good as I am finely getting better at the game, well not losing as badly.  This is even more important because I got invited to a tournament on friday october 29th and hope to not be last.  The pub was packed with bicyclists as there was a national BMX championship, and the fixed gear world championship; the crazy costumes these people came up with were ridiculous!  On saturday I went for a half marathon run through the redwoods and checked out part of the fixed gear track, then watched everybody get ready for the start.    That afternoon we BBQ with friends and family of my stay family. 
The reason this has "babys" in the title is that every person at the BBQ was a parent and there were kids from all ages at the BBQ.  It seems that every second of every day there is a baby around, I am almost thinking that I should put this down on a resume of some sort.   The subliminal teaching of child care...
Eligible Man RESUME
single male, athletic, working vehicle, can cook and do laundry
Qualified with: new born to 3 year old, knowledge of diaper changing, lactation problems, sleep problems, crawling/walking/language teaching....

Sunday the most interesting thing that happened was we went to a craft fair and bought some cheap used books.  Monday today was a most eventful day!

Today I went to my friend Dans house and ate pancakes with him and his wife and then...borrowed his Ducati 916 Superbike.  Imagine he let me borrow it for the day...needless to say I had an amazing morning of dogging in and out of traffic trying to keep my speed above 100mph!   The rest of the day was suntanning and fishing around the lake Tarawara with a great trip to hotwater beach.  Hot water beach is a thermal pool that is 20 meters from the beach.  We pulled the boat into the beach, BBQ'ed some burgers then jumped into the hot pool; after roasting from the hotpool we climbed the rocks next to the beach and did a bit of cliff diving (this lake is so deep it is scary, just 2 meters off the bank  and you can't even see the bottom or touch it with dive and full breath).  Unfortunately we didn't catch any fish but I got a great tan and had a wonderful day. 

Posing before a crazy ride!

mmmm sexy italian engineering

New Zealand Slang and Pics

This blog post is not of any new adventures but a collection of terms that I have come across  so far  in New Zealand.  I am also including some more pictures that didn't make the original cut for the blog, but are still really good!  This weekend is labor day weekend so I get a three day weekend and am hoping to find some sort of adventure.  Hope you all have a great end of the week and even better weekend!   Cheers

Bangers and mash: sausages and mashed potatoes
Bloke: Man
Bugger: damn!
Caravan: camper
Cheers: Thanks
Chook: chicken
chips: french fries
Duvet: any blanket on a bed
Good on ya mate:  congradulations
Jandal: flip-flop
Knackered: tired
lolly: any candy
loo : toilet
long drop: outhouse
pram: baby stroller
dummy: binky
scroggin: trail mix
Ta: thanks
Suss: find out
chilly bin: cooler
wag: skip school
Tea: evening meal
Togs: swimming trunks
boot: trunk
nappy: diaper
jumper: sweater
root: have sex
digger: back hoe/excavator
as: this is used in any sentance to add a stress to anything.  "blimey it is cold as out"  "the road to the lake is rough as"  any thing that is really good is "sweet as"

a sign hanging from a beach house

PIPI STREET

glitter of rain through soggy ferns

Okay I know...but look at the size of em they almost touch the ground

freezing my buns off waiting for that dang sunrise

before the scrumpy took hold of us

treking in the redwoods

starfish in a pool at low tide

Me trying to get some sun on the beach

foot in a tide pool

organizing the river crossing

funky moss growth

Waikaremoana

The long anticipated great walk....

It was a bit of a rough start as when we arrived it was snowing...and just to illustrate the amount of moisture from the sky we received the three days we were in the bush the lake rose one meter!


Most of the trek was just walking so there isn't much narrating to do however there were some highlights to be noted other wise the pictures will speak for them selves.

The first notable highlight was my successful conducting of a river crossing.  The whole thing was a bit sketchy in that it was raining and the river was rising at a rapid constant rate but in the end every one safely crossed the river and back again under my direction.  The prize of crossing the river??  to view the amazing Korokro water falls!

I must also mention that the rain was so torrential that we couldn't actually camp in our tents and had to utilize the trek cabins as every camp site was flooded, and that the first third of the trek was not accessible due to the snow on the track so we had to get transported by boat to skip that portion.
During the last night we spent in the bush at the cabin we were quiet bored so we had a group wrestling competition.  Well every student had an aim to take out the teachers, and after several hours of heckling I decided to take part, however none of the students lasted longer than 1 minute in the ring because I am an animal!

The last notable mention is that I nearly had to babysit an exchange student from china the entire time.  This kid showed up to the trek leaving area in jeans with a school back pack and his laptop....needless to say he moved slower than pond water.  The drive back he was sandwiched between me and another student.  He has no concept of personal space and sprawled out making the drive back miserable.  To combat this as he sprawled out and his head drooped to my shoulder I took off a nasty dirty sock and put it on my shoulder so when his drooling face hit my shoulder he was face first into my nasty sock!


Well here are the photo's of the trek I hope you all enjoy.

Waterfall on the way to the lake

Crossing a river

Wet and soggy at Korokoro falls

Entwined trees on the trek

misty lake..

me and a waterfall

NZ swans and early morning mist

Misty morning lake from the cabin

Cabin and lake

misty lake again..

on the trek...

NZ palm fern wt lake in the back ground

One of the many suspension bridges

Big smile, no rain!

moss covered log on the trek

Wild flowers...

Now sunny lake

waterfall on the last few kilometers of walking

Students enjoying the end of the trek jumping into the icy lake

Fishing and Docking

The next few adventures are much shorter, but there are numerous pictures that accompany them, as you my audience have been patient with the words and no pictures.

October first here in Rotorua is a big day in that several lakes around the area open up.  Fishing here is year round except a certain few areas and lakes, which allows for safe fish spawning.  Allen, Bevins and I hit the road at 5am towing the boat Jo Blogg's for the lake Terawera.  We were probably one of 350 boats that day that hit the lake.  It was almost scary as when we started out it was dark and raining and no illumination.  Imagine knowing that there are over three hundred boats on a lake a quarter of which probably had too much to drink and here we are speeding at maximum propeller RPM for a fishing spot!  The day turned out pretty great as we caught 6 fish (three of which were mine) average fish was about 22 inches and 6-7 pounds.  The fish eventually stopped biting so we pulled the boat home and promptly gutted filleted and smoked the fish with brown sugar and salt using Manuka wood.

the lake coast line

rainy days...

just fishing

Me the fish and good ol' Jo Bloggs

The second part of the adventure was an invitation to go to a sheep farm and help them dock lambs, it was decent hard work and a good look at NZ sheep husbandry and farm life, however the work was nothing compared to branding late calves with my uncles!

Well call me  Wal Footrot

Sunset over the farm

New Zealand bob sled team!

True kiwi form, shorts and rubber gum boots

Ferocious farm dog

View of me and the farm

This will be the last post for the next week as I am supervising a trip of high schoolers on the great walk around lake Waikaremoana.  I hope all of you have a great weekend and a  wonderful week to come.  Cheers

Tales from break part two (to the east cape and back again)

This blog picks up from Napier....(from tales from break part one)


We started off late in morning after the free breakfast provided by the hostel (this is a good deal as food is really expensive) and headed out for Gisborne (they pronounce this as "Gisbin").  This was a very uneventful portion of the trip, the only thing notable thing is the horrible small curvy road, which turned out to be the rest of the trip.  The trip ended up being three hours because of the curves in the road that are so numerous it is very rare to have any straight stretch just curve to curve up and down hills.  We booked our hostel ahead of time at a YHA so we were assured a good stay even though there was no free breakfast.  We pulled into Gisborne, checked into the hostel and then parked in the middle of town and walked around and checked out the city.  The main attraction we looked for and found was an old Cidery that was established when the city was established.   Mmmm we tried 6 different hard ciders and a meade and honey liquer.  The ciders ranged from sweet to bitter apples from pear to mixes.  The mead was certainly not the best I have had but the honey liquer was exquisit!  It was made from aged brandy then honey added and some other things, but wow the name ambrosia fits it, I wish I had some over vanillia icecream with fresh peaches!  After the cidery we headed to the beach were we walked the beach were Captain Cook first made contact with the island.  We finnaly got tired of wondering around the city and went back to the car (don't worry we wandered enough to wear off the hard cider).  The rest of the afternoon we drove around checking out the city and took pictures of the Maori meeting house, which boasts to be the largest in the island.  The Maori meeting houses are elabroate structures that have mass amounts of carvings, and is where they hold sacred ceromonies.  The night was spend grilling hand made burgers and chips (french fries but here they call them chips).   Then came that moment when it was too early to go to bed but late enough that every thing was closed...so what do you do?  Play edward Scrumpy hands!  Well we didn't play exact to the rules but we did drink a bottle of scrumpy's.  What is Scrumpy's might you ask??!  Well Scrumpy's is one of the most delicous apple ciders you might try.  It is bought in a 1.5 liter bottle that looks like a sprite bottle.  Oh ya its also 8.5 percent alcohol.


Yet another late morning (all these late mornings I was up at 7:30, can't sleep in) some times it sucks waiting on other people all the time....but no complaining the adventure carries on!  We headed out of Gisborne on a mission to the East cape and landed on the beautiful Wainiu (a whole 10 minute drive).  The rest of the trip took us around through tiny Maori towns that barely had a convenience store so petrol (gas) got a little tight at moments and we did not want to get stranded as these are pretty rough areas and the Maori don't exactly always see eye to eye with pakeha (white people, or originally translated "not of Maori blood").    The first stop on the site seeing expidition was to Tatapouri.  This little town used to be a major hub for shipping and boasts the longest warf in NZ which is 600 meters long.   There were several small stops along the way but nothing very notable the next major stop was Te Araroa.  This was a seedy little town that is the closest stop to the east cape which was a 45 minute back country drive to the trail head then a 300 meter climb to the light house.  We arrived and there was nothing open in the middle of the day as every thing is only open for breakfast and dinner so we drove around the town and tried to find a place to stay. 

There were two options one stay at a nasty little holiday camp (kind of like a KOA only less regulated and not a chain) where most of the camp sites were swampy and the cabins looked like they had an abundance of stoats and possums living in them (stoats are a nasty stinky large rodent kind of like a rat), or a abandaned camp site on the dunes next to the ocean half way from the start of the back country gravel road to the light house.  We figured our chances of getting mugged were marginally better in the back country because we could hide the car and tent behind a dune so we opted for that.  The store finally opened up so we stocked up on the quintessential for a long cold night stay in the windy dunes next to the ocean, several bottles of wine.  We set up the tent and of course opened the wine too early to go to sleep so we had to break into our reserve rations of scrumpys, it was a great night of good conversation about every thing that could be thought of but the morning came very early as we got up at 4:30 because we wanted to get to the east cape before the sunrise.  To all of our suprise (sarcasim) a supper of several bottles of wine and scrumpy's will lead to a nasty piece of hang over the next day, but hangover or not adventure must go on.  We dragged our selves out of the tent into the frigged night (about 40 degrees with a 25-30 mph wind) and headed to the cape.  The climb is what saved me from the hang over as I punished the climb (to the dismay of my companions who about died).  We then huddled for an hour and fifteen mintues by the light house as the wind tried to rip us off the rocks, for we had horribly miscalculed the time of the sunrise.  The sun came (eventualy grrrr) at 6:43am on September 28, 2010 and we were the first people in the world to see that sunrise, for the east cape is the most easterly point of land before being west and what a view we had.

The rest of the day was in kind of blur moments next to the stunning east coast, as I rode the back seat the whole trip and tended to fall in and out of sleep for the rest of the trip staying awake only long enough to take a few pictures make sure the driver was awake and call out a turn the go back to sleep.  The last stop was Ohopi where one of the other American students lived (Becca).  We stayed the night there and Mark (the other cohort in the journey) took the car very early in the morning to get to Auckland and pick up his girlfriend.  I was then stranded...so what does a guy do in NZ when he is stranded?  Pack up and start walking and stick out your thumb when there is traffic!   I walked for about 5K before I finally got picked up by a very kind lady who was originally from South Africa, she gave me a ride for about a half hour and dropped me off.  It was there I decided to stop being cheap and grab a bus ticket other wise I might be sleeping in the bush (I forgot to mention bush is a term for the woods or out of the city in the thick of the vegetation) which was not a very pleasant idea.  I must mention before how ever before I got picked up on my hitch hike excursion I was walking along and group of elderly ladies were persistent that I should abandon my quest on getting home and hang out with them, when I persisted that I must get home they informed me that I should have no problem for I was quiet fine looking and had a good butt.   With a good bit of luck and 35 dollars I landed a ticket and made it home no worse for wear!

the sign says it all

Maori meeting house

YHA Hostel, Gisborne

 

 

hmm...random sign in the sand wonder who wrote it!

black lab that was loving us on the beach

me looking sexy on the beach

the 600 meter wharf

in true Maori form tongue out and the whites of your eyes showing but a bottle of wine in me

the sunrise at the East Cape

East Cape light house sunrise