Pommie parking and difficult decisions

Pommie parking is when you park your car on the opposite side of the road to the direction you're driving in. Appropriately enough, since we are Pommies, we did this and were told the error of our (Pommie) ways by a very sweet woman who didn't want us to get into trouble. It's also the little things that remind you how far away from home you are.

So I had to make a hard decision. Either go white-water rafting down seven foot waterfalls, or go for a massage and soak at the Polynesian spa by the side of the lake. Errrrmmmm...3 seconds wavering, and the massage it was. Very luxurious. Marv did the rafting cos he's a boy. He's got photos and everything.

Xmas day

Lovely day. Soak in the morning at the spa. And a walk round a Maori village built on top of a piece of land with very thin ground so hot water/geysers shoot up all over the place, and steam rising in a very eerie fashion. 'Lord of the Rings part 3' in the afternoon. Gobsmacking cinema. Needless to say, the cinema was filled to the gills with very (justifiably) proud Kiwis, toddlers to grannies with picnics and the like. Dinner at the hotel, a great old-fashioned wooden place, right by the Governer's Gardens and the spa. Did I mention the spa already? It was tops. Then spent a frustrating hour trying to get through to family on the phone. Eventually woke up the Tierney/Davis clan in Yorkshire. They were very understanding. Marv woke his mom up for the first time ever in his life (it's usually the other way round!) But no one seemed to be picking up at the hospital so HELLO GRAN! We were thinking about you!

Now off to Napier, art deco town. Going to do some wine-tasting and look at buildings.

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAIRN, if you're reading this. xx

A very merry, sunny Xmas

So I knew it would be weird experiencing Xmas in the middle of Summer, but nothing quite prepares you for the disorienting experience of wearing shorts on Xmas Eve. There's been some rain too tho', but it hasn't stopped us:

- doing the coast-coast walk across Auckland. A mere 16 km. Top way to see the city (we threw in the Auckland museum and the art gallery for good measure. INteresting expo of gender exploration by artists from the 1970s and a fantastic expo of an artist called Robin White. Basically wood prints but with a real humanity to them.)
- dinner at Michaela's house (she used to work with Marv). Home cookin' - HURRAH!
- camping trip on the Coromandel peninsula. Hobbit land. It's sort of extreme Englishness. It's volcanic land so very steep pointy hills, but the volcanic soil being so fertile means the whole horizon is velvety and verdant. We camped on the beach at Fletcher bay, right at the top of the Coromandel Peninsula (to the east of Auckland). ANd cooked on our new stove. Didn't burn it too much. ANd slept in our new tent. It kept the rain out. Lovely.
- Trip to Cathedral Cove. Beach with big cathedral like vaults of rock.
- Walk along Hot Water Beach. Ok, now this really was weird. Rivers heated by volcanos run under the beach so you can dig down only a few inches and sink down into almost boiling water. And then freezing Pacific washes over you and cools you down for a second before the heat of the water reasserts itself. People take spades down there, dig themselves baths and spend hte afternoon there. We stuck with paddling, but it was truly odd.
- Now driving to Rotorua where we're going to spend Xmas day. Driving through gorgeous gold-mining country. One needn't mind the rain here as a. you know the sun is going to shine at some point and b. it makes for the most lush countryside.

xx

Good things about New Zealand

1. Hitha and Jack are from here.
2. They serve you coffee, freshly brewed, at the airport whilst you're waiting for your bags to arrive.
3. They have bookshops with all the books in English for people who've just finished their current book to spend a lovely half hour browsing around.
4. It's clean and well-organised and calm - Queen St, essentially Oxford St, the weekend before Xmas, has all the shops you need, and none of the people you don't need. Maybe all New Zealanders are very organised about their Xmas shopping.
5. Lord of the Rings just opened and is on at every cinema. We will be watching it somewhere soon. Probably in Rotorua where we're going for Xmas.
6. We don't have to try to be understood. South America has been totally, totally mind-blowingly brilliant, but, it is a little bit of a relief to be able to communicate more readily. Less fun perhaps, but more relaxing just for now.

We have just bought more camping gear. A book each. And many CDs for our hire car. Yep, on the road again in 2 days after a couple of days mooching in Auckland. Big walk and museums and art galleries tomorrow.

xx