Wanderings

A couple of weeks back, we did a one-way hire up the country courtesy of Transfercar. Pretty good deal - free car, free ferry and free tank of gas. You can do one-way hires in both NZ and Aussie through these guys - cars, 4x4 and motorhomes.

The car in question was a Daihatsu Sirion. Now I've driven a Sirion before and it was dire. This one however, once you got the seat adjusted, had definitely been loosened up courtesy of 174000km of tourist driving ("it's a rental, don't be gentle"). We had a classically funny time hammering it up the island. I can guarantee that the next time you see a Sirion driven painfully slowly, usually by a crusty old bastard wearing a plaid cap, it is definitely not the car. They can do a lot more (although the transmission will whine a little...). All speeds were within posted speed limits, of course.

This was a camping holiday - a dry run to see if we can exist only with our packs and would meet the luggage weight limits for flying back, which we easily did at only 16kg each including sleeping gear and tent! We're keen to camp around Aussie or further afield however thought it was worth trying at home first.

So off we toddled up the island. As we so often do, halved the journey at Kaikoura. I'd recommend lunch at The Dolphin Encounter. Hadn't eaten there before and the food was excellent.

We had planned to stay in Blenheim Top 10 however the camp ground was too reminiscent of the Bates Motel...as well as the owner presenting like a masturbating pervert. To maintain my virtue we toddled up to the Picton Top 10 which was really well done. More traffic noise than expected however great facilities. I must say, I do love being able to put up your tent, airbeds and bedding within 30 mins!!

Picton has always struggled, mostly as it only exists as the place where you wait for or leave the ferry however there has been significant improvement in the township and it looks quite pretty now. We drank and wandered the streets :)





We took the Kaitaki across Cook Strait the next day and for the first time indulged in the Kaitaki Lounge. This is the only way to do this trip folks! Free food, free booze and no kids...very peaceful. Had to tolerate Wellington for a night and stayed at the Harcourt Holiday Park which was very quiet with reasonable facilities. A peaceful sleep.

We decided that a couple of nights in Rotorua would be fun so made our way up north. We had planned to stay at Cosy Cottage for old time's sake however this was just such a dive. Found Rotorua Thermal Holiday Park which was really well done. Heaps of space for tents away from the sliding doors of campervans and good facilities. You could lie in bed listening to the bubbling mud only a few metres away down the bank! Definitely a recommended option.



The campsite with the super sized freebie vehicle



The mud pools in the campground!





This wee pool would have been a boiling H2S death trap for anyone dumb enough to have leaned over too far

After enjoying a nice pint and a feed the night before at the Pig & Whistle, we decided to go down Waimangu Valley, including the boat trip across Lake Rotomahana. The former site of the Pink & White Terraces, the valley was created in 1886 following the eruption of Mt Tarawera that destroyed the surrounding area, exploded the lake to 20 times its size and covered the Terraces in ash.

Hmmm. Good points include an easy to navigate pathway, good signage and information available. Downsides include the price (a ridiculous $77 each with the boat trip which you might as well do, otherwise $34.50 each). Although I enjoyed seeing Waimangu again, there had been few changes in the 20 years since I was last here. In my opinion, promises a lot and doesn't deliver for the money. Go to Wai-o-tapu instead - much better priced ($32.50/head) and you'll see just as much.

Still, some photos...



Frying Pan Lake & Echo Crater



Cathedral Rock



Hot Water Creek



A brave wee birdie!



Bird's Nest Terrace



Inferno Crater



Outflow from the Inferno Crater



Kaolin Slope



Warbrick Terrace



Fumerole Bay, from Lake Rotomahana



Donne Cliffs



Donne Cliffs - love the colours

Finally made our way up to Auckland via Hamilton (the Tron remains the hell-hole it has always been in case anyone was wondering). Naturally, it was pissing with rain when we needed to pack up however we managed! We'd booked in to a hotel in Auckland using Wotif. Turned up looking like vagrants with packs on our backs and the concierge was delightfully disparaging. Probably not to his advantage when he had to store our sopping packs until the room was ready! Serves you right mate. Managed to trash the hotel room within about 5 minutes with pieces of tent lying all around the bathroom to dry and air. There was mud for Africa. I'm sure the slow drainage in the shower had nothing to do with the leaves that *may* have made it down there...

All in all, a fun trip. Cheers to Jucy Rentals for the car!

The Rose

Life, the universe and everything - at least in America's perspective

Well, this has been a while.

Life boxes on. I have to admit that I did enjoy my trip to the States, especially touring around with an Aussie colleague I met at the conference. A different world though...Arizona really is full of cacti, America is very big, they are obsessed with status and apparently trying to score foreigners is kosher on a conference. I was actually struck with how little training they seem to have as part of their residency - much more limited that Australasia or UK. The UK/Aussie contingent agreed - I feel smug :)

Tucson was an interesting spot, gorgeous weather. Really not a good place to be a pedestrian. I walked in to town on a Sunday and ended up on parts of the road as there was no pedestrian access! Also, town was SHUT on Sunday FFS. I was trying to find a decent coffee which I have since discovered is an impossibility in America. The coffee is so bad, like drinking dishwater. I resorted to pepsi (apparently coke is unobtainable in Arizona) and hung out for a good coffee on return to the Antipodes.

Bitchiness aside, the American crew were a really friendly bunch from the staff at the hotel to the attendees at the conference. Certainly couldn't fault being interested and welcoming - even if somewhat stunned that people from around the world are prepared to check out an international conference!

What a nightmare trip back though. 6 hours waiting for a connection in LAX...that was delayed for another hour. Finally left the US at 12.45pm...to have a screaming baby for 13 hours on the flight. Honestly, why aren't children taped onto the wing? They could cryo then defrost on landing. Or drop them over the ocean.

Here's some photos:



J W Marriott Starr Pass Resort - cheers work for putting me up here :)



Free tequila shots at 5.30! Epic.



Schooling in Arizona...love it



Wahoo! The yellow buses are real.



Starr Pass - how the other half live



San Xavier del Bac Catholic Mission. Wandered out here for an hour or so, just south of Tucson.





Tombstone, site of the "OK Corral" debacle..."the town too tough to die". This wee spot is about 80 miles out of Tucson and is vying for the tourist dollar. It's a maintained "western town" and every second building is a tourist trap. A fun visit, even if a little cheesy!



Tombstone "taxi"



Tombstone Court House



The gallows!



Boothill Cemetery and the OK Corrall boys



Love it

Wagged one day of the conference to go to Tombstone and then drove (on the wrong side!!) to Sabino Canyon which was a fantastic walk in the afternoon. I may have been a little inspired with the water on the valley floor. Awesome scenery, ironically reminded me of Milford Sound with the styling in the rocks, minus the Saguaros (cacti) though!

I'd rate Benson as a place to eat on the way back to Tucson - had an epic US sandwich in a roadhouse...without cheese. Awesome. Of note, the ants in Arizona are big enough that they carry cheeseburgers back to the nest, not just pieces of food.



















Cool - even I, the arachnophobic, was impressed by the tarantula wandering across the path. Oh, and the mountain lion basking in the sun on the rocks. They even give you a pamphlet on how not to get eaten by a mountain lion. My strategy was to push my travelling companion into its path and run away. Operation human shield.



Finally, a trip out to Sonora Desert Museum before heading home. Essentially a wild life park set in "natural surroundings". Hard to avoid the American idiots though - there was a lizard on the wall of the aviary (?buffet lunch) - and one of them had to try and touch it. Sigh.



This little bugger was on the path.



Gila Monster



Javelinas - apparently it is a native peccary...



Prairie dog

Verdict? A driving tour of the US would be bloody enjoyable although it would be nice to come home to have a good coffee...

The Rose

Sloppy seconds

I write this, apparently, from the past sitting in my rather pleasant hotel room in Tucson, Arizona. That's "Toooooo....saaaaaooohhnnnn" for all you phonetic plebs out there.

The blog title kindly comes from my darling husband who pointed out that, as it is 20 hours later in NZ, I am living his sloppy seconds. He has yet to tell me how the day pans out.

Blog-wise, as I am paying for 24 hours of in-room internet, I might as well use it!!

Some water under the bridge since the last blog. Hundreds of aftershocks. Just checked the count, 1911 as of now. Sold the house. Now married to an unemployed bum, although to his credit, the bum helped the house sale go smoothly and is looking for a job. Moved to a serviced apartment after all our stuff was stolen by two chaps who tidily wrapped it all beforehand and billed us for storage. Placed my baby girl in kitty storage, although she has been busted out twice and smuggled into the apartment :) We try to arrange all of life's major stressors to occur at once.

So, America. Yep, first time here. Gee, it's pretty big huh? Flights were tolerable, although I think I clocked up 23 hours of travel and time in airports and 34 hours without sleep. Apparently this is how you conquer jetlag - don't sleep and crash for 10 hours at local time! What a melee at LA domestic though. Took over an hour to get through LOCAL customs. Sheesh, apparently you can offend less people coming into the bloody country. And "flowing clothing", read, "not US-style clings to every angle to get a better hourly rate", leads to a patdown. Clearly I'm a terrorist. I was however impressed to find myself and baggage in Tucson as predicted. Was expecting some luggage drama as United Express falls into the "cheap" airline bracket. Maybe that will be saved for the return leg?

I'm here for a course and conference which starts tomorrow and work have checked me in to a nice hotel which is grand - including an extra day so they're not wasting their money for a jetlagged staff member to sleep during a training course!!

It's been the odd things so far - light switches go on the wrong way (maybe hotel specific!!). Stressing about the tip thing (too much? too little? this person? that person?). Seeing endless land during the across country flight from LA to Tucson all the way to the horizon. Road lanes that are wider than NZ's - now I get why US vehicles look so ridiculously big in NZ, they look fine here! Coke/Pepsi bottles that look small as they're missing a few mL.

Walked in to town from the hotel this morning. Beautiful weather (27ish). Took nearly 2 hours to walk into town and there were no cafes/businesses open and buggerall to look at! Not to mention running out of pavements. Clearly this is why shopping happens in the malls here as the bloody city centre shuts down.

Still, the people have been friendly which is nice. Taxi driver has pointed me in the direction of some malls (cheers) that I feel I should visit so I can say I have done America with cheese (had one in a breakfast panini at the airport, yeerch) and mall shopping. Not to mention a free bottle of wine and some fruit courtesy of the concierge after we had some accent issues and a chuckle. Very nice :)

Course starts tomorrow, damn, have to earn my place here!

The Rose

From the "you thought it was permanent" file

During today's open home we went for a wee drive in the surrounding countryside towards the epicentre of the quake. It was a 20 minute round trip, we're that close!

Picture this. You're driving down a road you know is straight and flat because you've been down it before. However it's not anymore. It has a hill in the middle of it and the road now has a sharp bend - the entire road has been displaced 2m to the right.

This one was the kicker. Picture a 8-10m high pine shelter belt. Planted straight. Been there for many years. Except these ones now have a kink in them - the shelter belt has been displaced 2m to the right.

Also saw pine trees, at least 20m tall, ripped out of the ground.

Wow.

The Rose

A picture tells a thousand words

I'm going to go out on a limb and point out that a lot of the city is absolutely fine. However that doesn't sell papers.

Here are some of the good piccies:

Old Christchurch Railway Station clock stopped at 4.35.

Where will the Fendalton paedophiles go now? Local Scout Hall.

Waimakariri River bank.

Motorway onramp north of the city.

This is a new suburb north of the city. Odd, the road is closed.

This is a river. Honestly.

Genuine tragedy. At least it wasn't sugar-free...

The Rose

More lighter stuff

1. Just waiting for the land chiropractor to turn up and say that the earth has had energy pent up for over 7 years and it will take just as much energy, treatment and time to put it back again.

2. Alvarados making the most of things.

The Rose

On a lighter note

As I'm getting sick of talking about constantly being on edge etc etc here's another epic moment from The Dragon. Quote of the day: "My need to poop has mysteriously disappeared. Hopefully it hasn't disappeared into the bean bag".

*Mental note* Trick the boy into checking the bean bags.

The Rose