In a (perhaps not so) rare moment of ultinamate geekdome I got a little googlearth happy (actually I was trying to spy on you all-you've been warned!) and made this rather upsetting comparison between Wellington and London, two capital cities, and Nz is know as the UK of the south....
Ah Little London my home, my concrete covered home! Gotta love it though.
Till you see Wellington's non too shabby efforts... Whatever is that strange green stuff where the rest of London would be- and as for the blue....in a Capital City, surely not!! Ahhhhh Wonderful Welly, windy or not you can't but love it (oh I already said that...think I mean it more this time though-GASP, HORROR!!!).
I should get comission!
Well, I have just spent the day chilling out on a beach, which I think I may very well have discovered!! Ok, that’s silly, I clearly did not discover it because the sheep were already there, but they kindly let me join them for my chill out sesh- sheep, seclusion and I, mmm but of course! Who’d have thought, sun, sea sand and…SHEEP!?!? Well there are over 60million of our furry friends here so I guess with seclusion comes sheep, in fact with cities come sheep- they’re everywhere!! As you can imagine, being a good little wool loving Welsh/Kiwi gal, I was just so thrilled I had to write!!
Speaking of Wales, that’s how I’d describe this place, it is just like Wales….on a heavy dose of steroids! Everything is bigger, everything is more colourful, there are more sheep, the magpies are the size of hawks, of which there are also plenty-hell they even have a place with a longer name than Llanfairpwllgwyngllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, the catchily titled, Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu. Tell me how to say it, I’ll tell you what it means! Since arriving on the East coast though I have rethought my theories about Wales on steroids, I am now convinced that I have somehow submerged myself in an artist’s palate-on steroids!
Yes I know it’s beginning to sound more like I am the one on drugs here but I just don’t know how to describe this place, I have never seen the colours I’m surrounded by here. I swear they don’t have grass on their hills, more little blades of emeralds, and don’t get me started on the ocean- even when the sky is grey they water is made purely of paua shells. Bird sing at dusk, the most beautiful song-even in the middle of Wellington city, and hawks and kingfishers are nearly as common as the (white and black, not black and white?!?) magpies.
As well as all this beauty inspiring a good old bragging sesh, I realized I’m over due an email as I appear to have acquired another passport stamp- well that seems to be the way it goes right, another country and other story?! This time I’m afraid you need to catch up with two, because, though I’m safely back in New Zealand now, it has been a bank holiday no, and what does everyone like to do on a bank holiday? That’s right, weekend breaks! So, not one to be out of fashion (er…I’d like to think) I booked myself a little jolly…home. Yes, I flew around the world for 3 nights- well I would wouldn’t I!?!?! From the beginning…?
Well the road trip has been going swimmingly, frightened a few locals when my rental car turned into my radio wailing tour bus (ah it’s good to be back!!), in fact the owners of the first place I stayed were so keen to keep me away from the car and it’s radio I think they tried to kid nap me! Clearly my banshee impression has been brewing & fermenting nicely all those months in Asia, as they kept lowering my room rate and doing my laundry for me, and when I mentioned in passing that I really fancied just a nice jacket potato (as high maintenance & sophistication as ever!) they demanded I come round for dinner-stuffed and baked potatoes! This was a rather handy turn of events as I loved the place…despite living in a room called swap, and being made to dress in grossly large white rubber boots with grooosely small full body wet suit and just gross shorts. No they’re not kinky with their friendliness here, they black water raft here, and yeah I don’t get the room name either!
That’s right, I’ve been seeking adrenaline kicks aside from dodging kidnappings dontchya know! Some have been more successful than others, unfortunately travelling alone can be a pain in that it limits what you can do when activities and tours have minimum numbers etc, but persevere I will, and that I have. So far Action Carys (more commonly, and aptly known as Calamity Carys) has indulged in everything from bush walks to swimming with sharks-yet to sky dive though…which is how I explain the trip home actually.
Well mum asked me not to jump out of the plane, and being the obedient little thing that I am stayed on it! Well she’d not been well, what else could I do, mum’s need hugging to you know! It was really nice to be back, but also thoroughly depressing. I’d been saying for months that I’d like to pop home for the weekend, see people, hug people, and then run away from that real world of yours again, far far away. Despite not seeing nearly enough of you it all went according to plan, except I felt like I’d never been away!!! I even got to see and fall in love with my house again…what’s left of it! I must say I got me some tenant’s with good time management skills; knowing they weren’t there long they only took or wrecked the expensive stuff-hats off to that for forward thinking!
As for the other stuff I went diving in a shark tank in the deco fabulous Napier the other day! (Ok, first Napier, this place is amazing, like what I imagine old-school Hollywood looked like. The drive in is lined with tall ferns that look like palm trees and everything was rebuilt in the 30’s after an earthquake, and, as usual, the sea is stupidly blue!! And now for the sharks-) Funny they didn’t explain that it would be during feeding time until after they took the payment…or maybe the payment wouldn’t take and that’s what the problem was…?! Either way, luckily the sharks weren’t so hungry and they wouldn’t take the food, which pleased me as, the ironic thing is, YOU have to chase THEM around the tank and PUT the food IN their mouths…mmm maybe I should phone my bank and check my credit card…Apart from the extreme terror it was just awesome, I was like a big kid as they took me around the aquarium before hand-I got to explore through all the NO ENTRY, STAFF ONLY doors to which made me feel very important and cool. The best bit was that I got to be reunited with the full body wet suit again, clearly a bonus for everyone involved, as it meant the sharks didn’t eat!!! The tank I was in was the main tank; you know the one with the plastic tube you walk through, were all the big fish and rays live? It was very weird watching the people watching me, watch the fish, feed the fish, chase the sharks, oh yeah, and swim into the glass. Of course I swam into the window, it’s me, jeeze, and where else do you expect me to swim, smoothly around the tank, through the seaweed, amongst the fish? Er no, splat, straight into the window! Nice. Enjoy my work, it gets better…
I’ve been trying to play it cool in a plethora of situations actually, pony trekking through the bush (I’m sure all real cowgirls have to hang on and pray they don’t bounce right off when they reach a gallop-actually I’ve read it’s the only way to ride; though as for the week of being unable to walk which followed, I’m afraid I cant explain that.), slipping and sliding through the caves when black water rafting, as well as slipping and sliding through both bush and beach on foot and in the car as I made many a fascinating and stunning discoveries- it seems that I often find myself being the only person on the planet in many of these amazing places, and the discoveries you can make when that is the case are just breath taking- just yesterday I found a waterfall which I think was stolen straight from Thailand! I’ve travelled by jet boat around movie sets no less- well I had to do something to top the speed boat experience in Thailand and get me in the mood for my jet setting weekend!
In actual fact the film is called “River Queen” and was filmed in a reserve so remote that you can only access it by river, after a drive to the local village that was so terrifying it could have been the adrenaline sport itself! We took the boat 40km up the river before trekking through the bush to the “Bridge to Nowhere.” A bridge that had been put in place early in the century when they were attempting to cultivate that land for farming, amazingly the last farmers had only left about 20 years previously and already the jungle is remarkably well established. Another movie location I’ve visited is that of “Whale Rider” and the beautiful Maori village Whangara, just north of Gisborne, where I will be attempting to surf “The Pipe” tomorrow-just wait for the email that’ll inspire eh?!
I’ve sailed on a lake larger than Singapore, over 13 volcanic (and active) craters, to visit ancient Maori carvings (er, only to discover that, while they are stunning, there are neither ancient nor Maori! In fact they are partially anti-Maori!! One of the carvings is of a large lizard, an extremely bad omen in Maori culture…so you can imagine the reaction of the locals when they woke up and found that cosying up on their water front!), I’ve visited geothermal water gardens, caves and waterfalls, the natural bridge and it’s muscle fossil lined walls, driven from snowy mountains through desert roads, I’ve cart wheeled along beaches-well I can’t cartwheel so I bullied my cousin into doing it for me (but must confess that when I found myself on a secluded beach side cliff covered in spongy grass the craving over took me again and I couldn’t resist the urge to try. Great idea right, learn to cartwheel on a cliff top!), and spent a glorious 3 weeks catching up with family in the beautiful city of Wellington-and meeting our two newest members! I love Wellington, it is so eclectic, bustling city one minute, beach side the next, huge bird sanctuary the next, mountain top two minutes later, it’s just perfect. On top of this the houses are beautiful wooden Southern American looking cottages and often such bright colours that Vietnam’d be jealous. It is no surprise then that I am seriously considering living here for a year or two…but then I’ve been saying that for a year or two (and it’s REALLY hilly, whole lotta up involved) so we’ll see!
Must dash, busy schedule ahead of surfing, rafting, helicopter rides, the usual!
C x
Ah Little London my home, my concrete covered home! Gotta love it though.
Till you see Wellington's non too shabby efforts... Whatever is that strange green stuff where the rest of London would be- and as for the blue....in a Capital City, surely not!! Ahhhhh Wonderful Welly, windy or not you can't but love it (oh I already said that...think I mean it more this time though-GASP, HORROR!!!).
