Mt Eden

Yet another great weekend in good ol Auckland!

This time, I stayed around Auckland, which is great and finally managed to get a good sleep in for the first time in two weeks! For the most part, this weekend I just spent chilling out during the days (steadily growing shorter as time goes by) and going out at night.

Me roomate (will) gave a gig in friday which was pretty awesome and on saturday went out to watch the extremetly boring England match (might as well have just watched the first 4 minutes) and a really fun night!

Feeling bad for the lack of sight seeing tho, I lucked out cos on friday I headed over to Mt Eden with a few mates, following a great luch Chez Luz!


Mt Eden is basically another volcanic peak in Auckland and it was absolutely awesome, the crater is huge and the 360º views of the city and the islands were absolutely breathtaking.



No less so was the sight of the "Van Man" a random dude who we saw blowing bubbles in a very colourful patchwork tunic! He even gave me his card, his job being that he goes around supporting "random acts of kindness"...

>Gandalf?

Guest Post

I was tempted to say that I've just come back from a flash trip to Paris, but I suppose it's best to not mess with the might of the copyright of the fist (where no lawyers are involved, just pure killer instinct) and admit that it was, indeed, me mates Dani and Dru, who've just come back from Ohlala-land, bringing with them the awesome pix below!




Needless to say, the 6-6-6 was complete caos in paris, the french people wondering where all the color had gone to, and cowering in fear of the pointy-toothed devil loitering around the streets of Paris.

Luckily the apocalipse was soon over and found to come down to a poor salami indigestion.

BackLOG

An easy way to spend an evening is to look through my photo collection. Here's second part of a series of pix backtracking through the events the led up to my coming to new zealand.

Here're some from the night before my departure, the end of exams and the drinking that insued! Please forgive my leaving out so many people, everyone should be in there, but I can only fit so many pix at a go!





It's been a great year of forensics, the class as a group has been awesome and I'm only sorry we didn't get more time together! See you all in september!

Queen's Birthday Special: Part 2

The road trip rolls on as we gave up on New Plymouth due to weather mishaps and headed over to waitomo for some underground fashion, stricktily in the kiwi sense!

Waitomo Caves and the Lost world Highway

We decided to take the scenic route to Waitomo, through route 43, aka the Lost World Highway. And to be honest, the route certainly lived up to its name.
With sights of the New Zealand landscape as I expected, with hills, sheep and awesome views. We stopped off at random points in the road, cos we could not bear to drive past such cool places without fullfilling every tourists' duty:




We stayed the night at a really cool backpackers (with electricity and everything, so quite a luxury!)
The day after we set off to explore the Waitomo caves. Waitomo is a limestone-rich landscape which has been heavily worn down by the rain and has developped an intricate system of caves, which are exploted fully by the tourist industry in kiwiland.

This seems like a good point to bring up the fact the Nz is heavy on extreme sports, this is the home of skydiving, bungee jumping and rockclimbing. In an attempt to work out why, we came up with two possible reasons: either because NZ is so far away from other countries that the people here have had to work out alternative ways to spend their holidays, or simply, they are nuts.

Excuse my digression, but it just seems necessary to point this out. Cos the Waitomo caves, rather than a simle walk through the caves have been developped into an over the top adventure playground, where you can abseil into the caves, go tubing through the river and then climb your way back out!
Feeling brave, we went tubing thought the caves, and it was pretty awesome! The caves are dotted with "gloworms" (a fancy name for glow in the dark maggots) which do make the view pretty cool (no pix, I'm afraid, no chance of getting the camera there and back!).

Afterwards we went tramping (hehe, the new zealand term for hiking, hehe, we went for a bit of a tramp, lol) around the general waitomo area and the views were pretty cool as well (tho excuse the slight shaking of the camera, going caving can be COLD!)




So that, in a nushell was my weekend, pretty cool, wish it were longer- but alas, there's blood splashing to be done and it might as well be me doing it! (note to self: must stip bringing up creepy forensics updates).

Queen's Brithday Special: Part 1

The Queen's birthday is synonimous with holiday in New Zealand, and since I wouldn't want to let the poor ol' gal down I grudgingly took monday off work.

So, during the long weekend I joined a few of me mates in a trip to the southern half of the North Island of New Zealand. So in a dead exciting two part special I'll try to explain my excitement, amazement, knackeredness, relief, consternation, constipation (actually, I'll skip that one) and general good feelings about a three day weekend that could not end but in the obvious conclusion: that good ol' Liz had more birthdays a year!

Taranaki and New Plymouth

Taranaki is the district on the west of the north island that kinda sticks out like a nose into the Tasman Sea. I'd been recommended the place by me flatmate, who reckons it's some of the best NZ surf.
So I joined a few others from the railway campus and we set off! (wowowowo) ... at 5 am! (ouch!)


The road trip was pretty cool, with some cool views of the sheep dotted new zealand fields, in a pretty cool day. We made it to Mt Taranaki just after lunch.
Mt Taranaki is an old volcano and New Zealands most climbed mountain (it stars in "the last samurai" as Mt fiji, incidentally)

Unfortunately, we were greeted by thick mist and clouds that prevented the spectacular view we were expecting (it turns out that two situations exist in the taranaki region: if you can see the summit, that means that it will soon rain, and if you can't see it, it's already raining!)
It did make for some pretty good tramping tho, the hills are amazing and the paths are absolutely awesome!



It actually turned out to be a pretty random day, with us ending down the pub and getting chatting to some locals who let us crash at their farm (cheers Sam!) near the beach!

The day after we toured New Plymouth, a nearby city and since the weather was so crappy we set around visiting a few art galleries (some pretty cool stuff, there was this weird exhibition about music and sound and relations between the two, hard to explain and even harder to understand!)Some pretty interactive stuff, tho, like the Nacho-Ipod Ad below


In the end we accepted defeat by rain, and decided to set off to Waitomo (see part two!)

Ramblings

--> Even though it's winter here, the weather is still pretty warm

--> A lot of people in Auckland walk around the city in flip flops

--> New Zealand ketchup bottles are shaped like giant tomatoes

--> Guiness is pretty expensive here (and it's not as good)


--> I can't tell if the swirl of the toilet goes the wrong way around, cos my toilet just doesn't swirl.

--> People here finish their sentences with "eh!", which is kinda cool

--> They also say "sweet ass mate" when something is cool

--> I wish they'd just leave my ass out of the conversation

--> If you wanna speak like a kiwi, you should just not open your mouth as much

--> Kia Ora means welcome and hello in Maori

--> A team of about 12 people deal with most of the crime in New Zealand

Mangawahi and Omaha Beaches

Now this was a pretty good weekend

I'm slowly expanding my horizons in and around Auckland now. In other words, I'm getting to know Auckland better in the sense that I'm checking out a few of the bars (surprisingly salsa-rrific some of them) and also that I'm travelling a bit beyond the city.

This weekend I went on a bit of a surfing trip around some of the beaches to the north of Auckland with some guys from my halls. And I've got to say that even though surfing is harder than people make it look, and regardless of swallowing endless amounds of salt water, I still managed to have a great time!

First off we went over to Mangawahi beach, which was pretty awesome. Rented some surf boards and wetsuits and jumped in! The water was surprisingly warm, considering autumn is pressing on and winter is just around the corner here.



Great fun, and some of the surrounding rocks and hills made for some cool expeditions as well!

The next day, after a stopover at a ridiculously cheap hostel, and because the surf was pretty low (erm... apparently) we went to check out Omaha beach another good surfing spot, which also looked pretty good.


So yeah, had a cool time and managed to not get completely sucked into the sea! Definately need some practice before I can actually claim I went "surfing" tho...

Islands of the Gulf- Rangitoto Island

Wowowo

Now this is one cool place! A proper volcanic island, almost perfectly circular, the result of a farly recent volcanic explostion, which took place only 600 years ago. This might not sound like a lot, but the whole island is still a pile of volcanic rubble, with all the rocks not having had the chance to properly turn into soil yet.


Rangitoto, meaning "blood red sky" apparently, is a short ferry ride from the Auckland shore and is another one of the Hauraki Gulf islands. I actually got up in time and managed to make it to the ferry.

On approaching the island one just feels pretty awed by the size of the volcano and the state of the vegetation. It's a conserved natural park, so unlike waiheke island, there are no houses here and altough it's still pretty touristy, it still feels like being out in a jungle at times. Specially a couple of times, when I lost my way in a couple of trails and found meself literally in the middle of the pretty thick forest...


The view from the summit is as awesome as can be expected from a height of 260m, and you can literally walk around the rim of the volcano's crater, which is still relatively intact, giving one an idea of the size of the mofo!!

There's some pretty cool lava caves as well, basically weathered channels that you can trek through, and which do add to the adventure feeling of the whole place, that and the scattered ruins of the old settlements, which randomly one comes accross


All in all, a great day, glad i slept in yesterday cos the weather was so much better today and even managed to meet some spanish people, so I guess laziness does pay!

There are 50 million sheep in New Zealand...

...and they're pissed off!




>*Shudder*

The One Tree Hill Domain

The One Tree Hill domain and its neighbouring Cornwall park make up the biggest area of parkland in Auckland, so I thought I'd go and check it out.

In actual fact, my plan for today was orgininally to head over to Rangatoto, but in the end I got up a bit too late and missed the ferry, so, after a long series of "damn!" and "d'oh"s I thought I should do something else with myself.
I'd heard of the one tree hill domain, so i thought i'd go and check it out.

The domain and the cornwall park are basically side by side to each other, similar to hyde park and prince albert park.

The One Tree Hill is a 182 metre volcanic peak, it turns out that Auckland is actually a beehive for volcanoes and this domain was of particularly strong volvanic activity a few (thousand) years ago.

There'a a huge obelisk at the summit in honor of the Maori people (the Maori being the new zealand aborigines).


The view from the summit is awesome, you can actually make out all the volcanic cones and craters around ackland, as well as catching a view of both shores (auckland is an istmus, so you can catch the sea both on the north east and south west).



The park itself is also really cool, with plenty of random sculptures to commemorate that the one tree hill was once a main Maori fortress. Because of the volcanic soil being very fertile and the excellent defensive position, the one tree hill became a massive settlement (till the europeans came and took over, basically).

Hopefully tomorrow I will get up in time and catch the ferry! For now, I´m a gonna chill, was a bit of a walk!

BackLOG

Every now and then I get a bit nostalgic just browsing thru some of the pictures in my computer. Theres been some good times in spain and good ol' blighty! I guess I do miss home sometimes, but then I remember that I've only got a few months to make the most of my time here and that thought alone makes me get my ass in gear!

Nonetheless, I thought I'd share some of the pix that I've been hogging all to myself, just in case there's someone out there who fancies taking a trip through the past few months and years!

Here's some of the most recent ones of london in the few days before I set off. The few weeks in between coming back from revision "holidays" in Spain, and setting off to Auckland were pretty packed in a mix of revision, packing and saying my "cheers, I'll be off now" to most people



These were my last few days of hanging out at good ol 39 rowena, failed attempts at making something remotely empanada like, and just generally hanging out with the crowd

Auckland district and War museum

Decidedly, some parts of NZ do look like part of a set to the Lord of the Rings, or any movie with photography worth mentioning. I've just been for a walk around the oldest park in New Zealand, which is also humongous, nothing to do with Hyde Park or the Retiro, they both seem pretty piddly in comparison.

In this place you're properly surrounded by wilderness, so that is it wasnt for the nice trails and constant signs, you'd think you were lost in some forest in the hills of lorothien or something



Anyhoo, and in the centre of the distric is the Auckland Museum, which is a war museum and a natural history AND oceanic culture museum all in one. Pretty funky all in all, with some wicked exhibitions and definately worth a visit. Specially in a day like today, when the weather is getting pretty crappy around here!



sexy!!

Islands of the Gulf 2 - Waiheke Island

The first of the islands that I visited was Waihele island (more on the rest soon enough), which is a short ferry ride from the Auckland harbour. With a permanent population of about 7000 people, you can say that its got a proper community going, mainly comuters that work in auckland or islanders that live off the tourism.




The weather is warmer than the rest of auckland, so it's got a fair share of vineyards. Great for a wine tasting session! I have to say, the whites are good, although i still prefer spanish reds!



Funkily enough, and because the island is so hilly, there isn't a porper infrastructure in terms of water supply (i.e. no pipes) so everyone collects rainwater from the roof of their house using clever collection channels.

Interesting, but before you rush off to buy a little villa in Waiheke be warned that they get purty expensive over 1mill NZD (around the same price as a house in cambridge, or a one bedroom flat in central london, come to think of it, might be a worthwile investment!)

The islands of the Gulf- Part 1

As you may or may not know, auckland is kinda split into two by the Hauraki gulf. The two parts of the city are connected by the infamous harbour bridge, one of the landmarks of the city. As the gulf becomes the ocean, you can find a whole set of little islands that dot about the seafront near Auckland. In a monstrous demonstration of imagination, these are known as the Gulf islands, and make up a maritime national park.


The cool thing about these islands is that they are all withing a short ferry ride from Auckland's Waitemeta harbour, which is next to the city centre and conveniently near to my house :)

So I'll be touring these islands when the weather is good enough and post some pictures! wohoo!

Settling down

The first few days were a combination of over the top jet-lag and walks around the city centre. Auckland is definately worth a visit. It's hard to describe, you can tell the difference with respect to european cities, it's blatantly fairly new, as you can tell by the proportion of sky scrapers to older/historical buildings. The streets are wide and there's a fair share of green areas and parks to hike around in (incidentally, my plan for today).





Then it all became a matter of settling down. Everyones really cool in both my work place and the campus, so it actually feels pretty good to be here. I mean, I do miss being around familiar faces, but its pretty interesting all the new people Im meeting. More on that soon.

Auckland

The rolercoaster finally made it over the apex of its course and started its swift descent, turning my belly upside down. In other words, the anticipation is finally over and done with and I am, indeed, in Auckland. My belly feels about the same, though.

I'll start at the beggining, I arrived at 6 in the morning. Caught a bus into the city, as it started pissing it down. Properly. None of that piddly british rain that lasts all day. Here it concenrates in short outbursts of tropical rainstorm. Ouch.

I've been here just over two weeks and so far my veredict is awesome. In the full meaning of the word, as I see it. Awe inspiring, definately. A mixture of amazement, excitement, estragement and, i couldnt really find another word, wow-factor.




But finally made it into my halls of res, the railway campus, where I'll be staying for the next four months. It's an awesome place, its the refurbishment of the old Auckland train staion. Right near the city centre and cheap and cheerful.




Purty cool all in all.

Classic

I'm pretty speechless...

Which country shall we invade next?

People are actually that nuts

And a week to go

It's funny how, whenever I have nothing to say is the time when i find myself blogging again.

Truth is, I've got exams yet again, and from looking at my blog you could be fooled into thinking that it's all I ever do! To me it often seems that way, mainly cos time always flies when you're having fun and drags when you've got a thorn on your backside.

And when time drags, I blog.

Anyhow, it's all been good since last time. Been chilling out in London, living the last few days of my proper student life as well as I could possible afford to, and even got to go to Spain over the easter holidays.
And now, a week from now ill be livin it up in auckland! That'll be cool, I reckon Ill be bloggin more often over there to keep everyone updated (not exactly personal, i know, but this is exactly how lazy i am).

Till then, ill try not to be too badly organised and hopefully wont forget anything important over here when the time comes, like my