Dreamcenter here we come

Now explaining what the Dream Center is in on entry is going to be hard work, but if you are really curious, you can have a look here www.dreamcenter.org. We got to the Dream Center on the Thursday night after driving through the worst traffic known to man, the LA highway system. I thought London or JHB were bad, but this is non stop bumper to bumper, 24h stuff. We did get to drive through Beverly Hills though and saw some of the many mansions around the area. Also getting a chance to see the famous "Hollywood" sign on the hill which in it's won right is pretty cool.

Thursday nights at the Dream Center they have a midweek church service which is pretty cool as we were able to go that evening and were blown away by their praise and message, we also met some really awesome people including some from the UK who are over there to volunteer long term. We quickly struck up a bond with them and learnt much from them about how the project works and what they do within the program.

Friday morning was our first chance to help out and we had to pack the trucks for the 'adopt-a-block' outreach. This is where tens of buses drive out to the homeless and residents in surrounding areas in LA to find out how they can help. Our block turned out be an area in South Central LA which is full of gangs and rife with drugs. We helped hand out the food to the needy and spoke to them about any other care they require for themselves and their families. We also ended up cleaning out the trash from their yards and streets to make it look a little cleaner.

On one of the evenings we got to go on a group tour to Universal City where we met Justin Mayo who works at the Dream Center and heads up a program called Red Eye, which is trying to get young people of talent to express them in an environment where they don't have to end up acting like Britney Spears or Amy Majestic Wine Warehouse.

We met some really amazing people here, from converted drug addicts, to ex gang members and leaders and also the people that are helping out to achieve the above mentioned goals. I will not forget these days in a hurry.

Malibu

I haven't mention all the other amazing beaches there are in LA and OC, there are just too many, but if you take a drive down the PCH, you will want to stop at all of them. Beautiful sand and great waves, not bad temperature for winter either (well not the water). Huntington beach is really nice and the sand stretches as far as you can see, great day out.

I hate admin, and returning the car was just that. Once we had finished with all our sight seeing we had to find the drop off spot near the airport and collect our new Hertz car. The Pakistani guy at the counter was a great salesman and got me going on about cricket and agreeing with everything he said that I even said yes to an upgrade. So now we were in a Honda Accord 2.4l tank. It made sense as we had far to go, the other Kia we had in store would not have cut it.

We drove back up to Malibu, to the campsite where we had left all our gear and pitched our tent that afternoon. Malibu is really nice and is pretty peaceful compared to the rush of LA and a lesser extent OC. We had already taken a drive along the coast through Santa Monica, seen the famous S. Monica pier and surrounding beaches so that evening after collection our car we took a walk down S. Monica boulevard, peering at all the shops and stopping at one of the fine Japanese restaurants for some good food and my fav. beer Sapporro as well as Celias fav. beer, Asahi. Two birds with one stone.

Our campsite in Malibu had an ocean view and was a little elevated giving you great views of the bay. Sadly when we woke up you could not even see past the coastline. They had an early what they call "May and June gloom". This happens aroiund that time when the fronts blow in from the sea and don't go anywhere cause there is no wind in Malibu because it's protected by the S. Monica mountains. They just wait for the sun to burn it off.

I still went for a run along the beach passing all these mansions build on stilts right on the water which unfortunately forced me to sing "the foolish man builds his house upon the sand..", for the entire length of my run, couldn't get it out no matter how many times I tried to switch songs, damn you Sunday school.

I also couldn't find Pam Andersons house along the water either.. seen it enough times on cribs so I had a pretty good idea what it looks like. I did see many Pam Anderson wannabe's that morning though.

Camping in the OC

We did a bit of research and found a couple great state beaches we wanted to stay in. First stop Encinitas. This is a very cool little surfing town known for their big waves and laid back culture. We pitched our tent for the evening and went down to the beach to have a look at the southern Californian sunset. It did not dissapoint.

We never spent much time there the following day apart from pizza for lunch, and time on the phone trying to organise a new rental car for the rest of our trip, when that job was done we headed for Dana Point California, to our next stop.

Dana Point is just down the road from Laguna Beach which is a fantastic little village. It has a very European feel to it and the cafes and boutiques make the walks through the streets thoroughly entertaining. With all these fine restaurants here, we decided to go to a diner....?? Well it was in our budget, but please if you are ever in Laguna, don't go to Johnny Rockets, it was terrible.

We ended that evening off with a trip to the cinema. I love these old movie houses in the US with the ticket and concession stands just how they are in the movies you know (you can see i'm loving California a little too much). Watched 'Juno' which was quite good, kind of movie my sister would enjoy, so if you're reading, go watch it.

Had some good sleep last night apart from the noise of the train which on it's own is loud enough, but then to warn all the folk, it blows it's horn. Should have expected it as we had the same issue last night, only worse.

In the morning I went for a run on the beach as I do whenever we are staying near one. There is nothing better than feeling the sand between your toes while watching the surfers and wildlife. On this occasion the wildlife was a pod of dolphins swimming a few hundred yards off the beach. I couldn't run all day and while I was feeding my quarters into the shower machine Celia was busy watching a Minky whale swim by.... gutted I never saw it, but really happy for her.

Time to be off

Sunday was pretty cool as we got to go to Jackie and Nathans church. Had a chat to my dad in the morning as he was going in for more heart shocks the next day and we got to say a couple prayers in church for him. We lazed around and slept till I got word that he was out of ICU and fine so we went to bed.

Morning arrived today & we knew it was time to go. We had been here for 5 days and needed to return our rental car in LA so we had to start heading back.

I was fantastic to have spent these days with Nathan and Jackie in their lovely home and hopefully they'll come do the same with us in SA

Diving at La Jolla

Now before we start, 'La Jolla' is pronounced la-hoya, not la-joller like all you fellow Saffers would say it (just as I did).

Nathan and I decided to go catch some lobster on the Thursday night so we could pig out on Friday.

I hired all my gear and some tanks for us and we went out on a cold spring evening. It didn't all go as planned and within 20min we were back on dry land after trying for ages to to get out past the breaking waves. This was also my first night dive so maybe a step too far for my limited, yet refined experience.

Saturday we tried again, and by day we fared tonnes better. We had two fantastic dives even if the water was only 50°F. There was much to see including Sea Lions, Sharks, Bat Rays, King Crab, Lobster and many other types of fish. It was not actually that cold through your 7mm wetsuit especially if you never resisted the urge, only your face burns like hell from the cold.

Day two

When I had to get up at 5:30AM, I was totally unimpressed and felt like a bus had just hit me. With nothing to do and not even a Starbucks open I drove around The Orange County coastal area for about 1.5 hours killing time while Celia slept as she, as well as being seriously jet lagged, was also coming down with some American flu.

Our only solution was to head to San Diego to see Nathan & Jackie. They were expecting us, but we were a few days early. It was such a blessing to have a nice warm house and a comfy bed to stay in. We spent a lot of time indoors over the next couple of days getting back to full strength while catching up with all the best TV shows online :) The weather outdoors was definitely still winter.

That week went by pretty fast as we caught up with our jet lag but evenings involved many great meals and candid conversations. Good times.

I'm coming to America

We caught our Air New Zealand flight that evening at 7PM on the 18th to Los Angeles, really excited, but also a bit jaded from our NZ trip. All this driving has really made us reevaluate the next two months of our trip. We had planned to do Peru, Mexico & the US, but now seem more to likely to do a bit of Mexico & USA. So farewell to the land of the long white cloud, possum pies and Maouri Clare.

We touched down safely at 10:30AM on the 18th. Now if you hadn't noticed, this was more than 8 hours before we took off. The funny thing about crossing the date line is ....... absolutely nothing and everything that happened that day was increasingly unfunny. If my calculations are correct, we had a 40+ hour day which could easily match my biggest bender ever and I felt worse this time around, guaranteed.

We decided to drive down the Pacific Coast Highway towards Orange County which was a beautiful drive even in our state. We had brought our cheapie $39 tent which we had bought in Queensland and had eyed a campsite in Newport where we planned to spend the night. Turns out this place is like the campsite of the stars with photos all over and a tent site price close to $70... Not today thanks.

Instead we headed for our second choice in this canyon not far form Laguna Beach. By this time it was already dark and the campsite happened to be one of those eco-friendly ones where you have to hike to get to it, on this occasion it would be 3 miles. Negative ghost rider.

Instead we went to the diner for some burgers & beers and decided to sleep in the parking lot of the campsite in our car. The drivers side seat decided not to recline so Celia out of the goodness of her heart took the cramped backseat and let me take the passenger side.

We had been sleeping for about an hour when I awoke to this alarmingly bright light shining in the rear and side of the car. Some ranger had passed through and disliked our idea of camping out there but I gave her my sob story and she said we could stay until 5:30AM by which time the next ranger would be on duty and might not be as kind.

Welcome to America

A peachy day

Kate and I plus a couple friends headed out to some bay in Auckland where I pigged out on a pot of green lipped mussels and some great Belgian beer (is there any other kind?).

From there we went to check out the nudie beach which had your usual suspects on display. The hippies that that still believe clothing is optional and the other folk that want to wear clothes, but also like looking at naked people. According to Kate there were some worth looking at, but I wasn't interested. I, like the guy next to me with the super binoculars was looking at the sailing in the bay... who does he think he's fooling..?

That evening we caught up some friends we met in Vietnam, Michael and Francis. We had a lovely dinner at an Italian place and chatted about where we had been and the crazy things we saw in SE Asia.

Auckland

The celebrations were over and all that were staying with us had to head back to Auckland to visit friends & family which left Celia and I the unenviable task of ensuring the flat was clean and driving them to the ferry terminal. It was sad to once again say goodby to to Rhys and Susanne, especially for Celia as she is a really good friend of the crazy aussie. I managed to sort out the mood by buying Celia & I each a wetsuit that were half off. Nothing like a bit of retail therapy.

We left Waiheke and headed for the car renatal office that loaned us the first car we had that broke down in Taupo, remember? They had promised us a full refund which they conveniently forgot about when arrived to collect the cash, so it took another hour of my (politest) persuasion, german style, for them to hand over the money.

All sorted and we headed for Kate's house for the few nights that we had left in this country. Considering that until this evening she never knew we were arriving, she was more than hospitable and slotted us into her evening plans making the dinner lasagna go a little further than it was meant to.

I managed to pass out in front of the TV wathing 'Closer' with my all time favourite Julia Roberts while the girls chatted outside and caught up over some glassed of Aussie and Kiwi plonk.

Greatest day of 1979

The 15th Feb happens to be the birthday of lesser known Matt Groening - the creator of the Simpsons as well as the better known 'me'.

I started the day with some gusto. I went for a short run to fetch the car & to take the edge of my hangover.

I then made the best scrambled eggs bar none. I think it had a bit to do with the pan, but I also believe it had something to do with the fact I excel at making something that simple look very good.

Rick & Tess had arranged a BBQ at the lovely spot they were staying but unfortunately their landlords threw a bit of a tiff that there were about 40 people in a one bed cottage and we had to move the party on elsewhere. This actually worked to my advantage and gave me a chance to grill the trout I had caught in Rotorua. Word of the trout spread and soon everyone was hanging around the BBQ waiting for a bite.

There was so much activity at the grill when I opened the tinfoil, it was like watching people trying to get Tiger Woods autograph except I was Tiger Woods and his autograph was my fish... geddit? What surprised me the most was how many it fed. For an average sized trout, It was like I had 5 loaves and two fish.

"Take a freshly caught trout, gut it from its ass to its head, stuff it with onions, lemon, a sprinkle of thyme, whatever other spice you have in the cupboard. Wrap in tinfoil and place on heat for as long as it needs to come out a nice blushed pink."

Done

I even managed to get a rendition of Happy Birthday to go with my miniature cake Rick & Tess kindly bought me, and along with the leftover wedding cake there was more than enough to go around for those with a sweet tooth.

The Three V's

Now put on your best German accent for me and repeat below...

Great wedding, great venue and great wine.

Mudbrick vineyard was a spectacular setting with views as far as Auckland and with the weather behaving itself, we were in for a treat.

I don't need to say that Tess looked spectacular as she always does and even more so on her wedding day. Rick looked as every guy I know does in a suit, out of place. He still looked the part though. They wrote their own vows which were very sweet, well done to whoever goes that far!

It I don't at all remember what I ordered to eat on the day, but I know that it was good, but the Mudbrick Pinot Noir that I washed it down with suited my palette quite well which forced many to have more than one glass.

When the time for the opening dance arrived, we were in for a treat as the happy couple had rehearsed a dance for us. No it was not "nobody puts baby in the corner" kid of stuff, but we were well surprised and Rick, although I could never see him in Take That, or "Take That - the musical" for that matter, he pulled a couple moves which left the by now inebriated wedding party clapping and shouting for more. Fortunately for us he did not cave in as I think he may have used up his bag of tricks on that one.

Rhys treated us all and a group of old ladies to his 'robot dance' which had its place in the late 20th century, but not now buddy. You did have whoever was watching in hysterics though.

As the morning crept nearer and they threw us out, fortunately we had a old London bus to take us home which dropped us off in the exact place I asked him to and when the 5 of us got out my sense of direction completely evaded me and for about 20 min I thought we were completely lost which in my half sober (always an optimist) state was still embarrassing for me as men, especially German men do not get lost. Fortunately it was only my inability to read and understand street names which got in the way and once Celia sorted that one out, we were home in one piece.

Once home we still had a matter of my birthday which had in the last 2 hours come up. We cracked open a vintage bottle of $9 sparkling Brut and saw my birthday in with more unnecessary alcohol. we also decided to watch 'Murderball' at 3 AM which left me waking up at around 7 with my cheek stuck to the leather couch.

Over the moon

It was perfect, an awesome quiet spot away from the smells of the natural springs and I managed to hire some fly-fishing gear for $5. Goodbye Celia - see you later. I fished my butt off for the first day with no results, really started to get despondent. I hate not catching fish!

Second day was the winner, I was missing some key gear on my rod set up and once that was set I pulled in two good sized wild rainbow trout. Call me a loser but since I started fly fishing it has been a dream to catch some wild NZ trout. Don't worry, I do have others, but this one has now been scratched off and a space remains for a new one.

I tried for the rest of the day, but they fish knew my tactics so we said goodby to a smelly Rotorua and off to auckland so we could catch the ferry to Waiheke Island for the wedding of the year. Note: Ours was last year.

I was absolutely shagged, so Celia had to drive most of the the way to Auckland, but unfortunately by the time we got there the last car ferry had gone so we searched a bit for a place to camp and then it struck us, sleeping in the car at the ferry terminal was our only option. We met a group of Canadians (who I stupidly called American...doh) who we're doing the same so I didn't feel so bad. Morning came pretty quickly as I was was really tired and when the trucks started arriving for the first ferry, I knew it was time to go.

The first morning on the island was pretty lethargic and a non event. It did take me about 3 hours to iron my shirt and steam my suit which left me just enough time to pick up Rhys, Susanne and Kate from the ferry so we could head off to the wedding. Too excited, weddings are always a blast, especially with the great wine at Mudbrick wineyard where we are headed.

Tongariro Crossing

Well this was truly an adventure with an ending I did not expect.

I drove all night from the ferry drop off in Wellington at 1AM to get to Tongariro by first light. We managed to get there alright, dodging rabbits; possums; lost sheep; cows and the thick fog, and by 5AM we were both sleeping in the car waiting for first light.

The thick fog that engulfed the car in Whakapapa village that morning was really disappointing because it meant one thing, there would be no tramping today. The crossing takes you over some tall mountains which in this weather, even with my skills, would be very tough to navigate. To make matters worse, it started drizzling and we never had any rain gear.

Breakfast was the only option. It went down a storm and gave us renewed life so we headed up to the ski village to see if there was any better visibility up there. Nothing to report except a scarf that Celia took a fancy to in the shop setting us back a couple more sheet. Out only option was to get out of this horrible weather so we headed up to Taupo, but that was not far enough, so on to Rotorou and a lovely little campsite along the Waiteti trout stream. Too excited!!

Abel Tasmin National Park

Today I was really looking forward to as I have been told so much about this area. Abel Tasmin national park was founded back in '42 and named after the explorer Abel Tasman. It has some of the best tramping (walking in Kiwi) tracks and sea kayaking in NZ.

We unfortuantely only had 2 days and a night to spend here so we couldn't do any of the cool things like kayaking and tramping.. Time is not on our side!

We took a tour of the national park by boat instead seeing all the sights they have to offer. Never saw any orca's, but we did see loads of seals playing around which was very cool. Don't get sick of them. Our guide was also very entertaining and took us to some amazing places off his route too.

This would be the end of our time on the South Island as Celia & I decided to catch the ferry this eveing from Picton and drive overnight to get to Tongariro so we can do the world famous 'Tongariro Crossing' in the morning. It's a tall order, but I'm dead keen.

The drive through Havelock along the Queen Charlotte Sounds is truly breathtaking. What an end to the south island.

Glacierland

Our aim today was to get as close to the glaciers as possible. The idea was actually to do a heli-hike, which involves flying up onto the glacier and doing a couple hour hike on it, viewing the crevasses, beautiful coloured ice and other amazing things on the glacier. Well it turns out that it was stretching the budget a little. Celia said that I should go and she would hang around till I came back, and we went to and fro with many option until we finally decided that we would both do a 20 minute helicopter flight over the peaks of Mount Cook and the Fox glacier.

Now Fox glacier falls 2,600m on its 13km journey from the Southern Alps down to the coast, and although it's been retreating for most of the last 100 years, it has been advancing since 1985 at an average of about a meter a day. This is really awesome because I thought all glaciers were getting smaller :)

The flight was really special because neither Celia nor me had ever been in a helicopter. Its a weird feeling the way it just lifts up and you can see right below in the bubble. Soon enough we had come right over the glacier and were snapping away madly at the amazing sights ahead. I had no idea how high up we actually were until we saw a mountain buck running around which I had to strain to see it was so small. This really put into perspective how big the glacier actually is. By the time our time was up and we had all the shots we needed I think we were both happy to be on the ground as all those 360deg turns in the helicopter had left us both a bit queasy.

We continued that evening up to Westport along the famous west coastal drive, turning down the option to drive through Arthur's Pass, and pitched the tent for the night

Fines, Queenstown and more

So we headed off towards Milford and Doubtful Sounds not too sure weather we would be staying there that evening as people had warned us about the bad weather and it is really expensive. They also mentoined its a must do.. so really not sure. Then came the decisive moment, on the road to Cromwell from Alex I got pulled over for speeding. I was only doing 120, but in NZ thats 20km/h over the speed limit so a nice $120 smashing fine made my mind up for me, no Milford or Doubtful sound. I never argued at all as I knew if they had caught me the day before my license would have been gone, all karma.

Instead we went to Queenstown to have a look at what all the fuss is about. It deserves the fuss as the center of all adeventure sports in NZ and has a really cool vibe about it, it feels very alpine. We wish we could have stayed there at least one night but due to time we drove on towards Haast and the famous Haast pass.

The mountain passes here were both beautiful and treacherous as you had to use all your concentration to negotiate them. It was one of Celias favourite parts of NZ and she recalls it fondly. Just a little past Haast on the coastal road going south is Jacksons Bay and a popular area for Pengiuns. This time of the year they are moulting and not that active so the best times to view them are at dusk when they are most active. Now as luck would have it, as Celia and I were speeding down the road to get to the place where they hang out I spotted one waddling along side the road. It was the cutest little Crested Penguin I had ever seen, well the first actually, and it stood there posing for us as we snapped away. Once we had driven off I looked in the rearview mirror and saw it waddling away down the road, extremely cute.

We were very fortunate to have seen that one penquin as on Ocean Beach there were none and every other place we looked also turned up zero sightings.

Porpoise bay

I had promised Celia that we would go down to Porpoise bay to go and swim with the dolphins, so we decided to take Angela with us as she was not working, something to do with dodgy South African teaching qualifications not recognised in NZ. We totally underestimated this trip for two reasons

1. How bloody far porpoise bay is from Alexandra
2. How absolutely freezing the water is that far down south

It turned out that the trip down took us just over 3hours and some 260km but it was definitely worth it. Porpoise Bay was really beautiful and once we had spotted the Hectors dolphins, it was all worth it. When we saw they were swimming towards the shore, I got brave and decided to go and swim with them. Let me first give you a bit of history of the dolphins here. Hectors dolphins are the smallest breed of dolphins in the world, very curious, but also very shy. So if you lie still enough in the water, they often come up to you and have a little sniff and see what all the fuss is about.

I swam pretty far out towards them but eventually they swam towards me, a small pod of about 10 dolphins. Once they got about 20m away they had satisfied their curiosity though and swam away. Angela and I went back in, and me a third time, but they never came closer than that. The woman at the Park office said they seemed to be feeding today and were not in a particularly playful mood. What happened when we left was the icing on the cake though, the dolphins as if to say goodbye and thank you for all your hard effort in saying hello swam right up to the beach in the surf and jumped around in the waves. What an amazing experience that the three of us will never forget!!

The trip home was a little hair raising and the Corolla went around those bends at speeds never been seen on the South Island but the girls kept quiet as they knew we would be late for dinner otherwise.

Dinner on the other hand was an entirely different affair. Ang & John have become quite friendly with the chef at the restaurant on the Shaky Bridge wine estate so we were treated like special guests. The food was delicious and that lamb rump was the most tender I have ever eaten. We tried may bottles of Pinot Noir that night as the region is famous for that grape, but the best according to my palette would have to be the only one I cannot remember the name of... devils back or dragons back, something to that effect. What is more amazing is that the restaurant never charged us for one bottle. It pays to have friends who run restaurants. Which reminds me, the couple who run this place are originally from Dunedin, NZ and they have cooked for Prince Charles, and Charlie apparently asks for hard boiled eggs with every meal as well. They also cooked for Chris Martin & Gynneth Paltrow who they just call Gwn.. when you are that close you can just afford to shorten their names. Can't recall what they said about Gyn's special macrobiotic, or was it microbiotic diet. Whatever it was, it's just silly. My new diet is called 'macrobeerotic' and it involves having more than one beer a day or you may risk losing weight.

Saying goodbye to John and Ang was pretty tough as Ang n' Cath are like extended family. When you haven't seen your close friends in a while like Catherine, I started seeing loads of qualities in Ang that are the same as her sisters, like her humour and laugh which was just as infectious as Cath's always is.

Happy Waitangi Day

Once everyone surfaced as a result of last nights antics, now i'm talking midday, we went to Clyde dam for some waterskiing and wakeboarding. I was having none of it and was more interested in the pate' and food that was on offer. I think that red wine did actually get to me in the end because I just lay on banks of the dam all day not really in the mood to do anything. John did some pretty good waterskiing, and even tried some barefoot skiing. I never realised he was such a poser.

We never lasted that long and soon enough we went home for some legendary Greek Moussakka. Turns out, its just a lasagne without the pasta...., trust the Greeks to come up with another name for it, pronounced (moose-aka).

The Glorious water of lake Tekapo

We managed that evening to end up at the most beautiful lake I have ever seen, Lake Tekapo. The water is a baby blue colour as result of pulverized minerals (rock flour) that occur in the ice which is melted down from a glacier. The campsite was in a perfect position having the lake between it and snow covered cliffs of mount Cook. That night we went to bed with the side of the tent zipped down so we could watch the stars as we fell asleep (gag, I know), even though it was close to freezing outside. On my morning run I had a look at some of the trout hanging around along the banks and really wished I had a rod there with me. I do wish we could have spent more days relaxing there, but with me unable to find somewhere to rent fly-fishing equipment - there was not that much else to do, nothing in fact.

One thing I was doing was basking in the Giants superbowl victory coutesy of an Eli Manning / Plaxico Burress double act. Can't wait to see the highlights, it's been days and i've just found out the result.

Celia di end up getting some Merino socks in the village, we did want possum but it was sadly out of price range, and we headed off on our way. We passed a salmon farm and got about a kilo of salmon fillet for our dinner that evening. I promise you there will be no boerewors repeat. We drove and drove for hours through some very special countryside until we got to Cromwell. Its is a tiny town which is well known by some for the giant sculpture of stone fruit which stands outside the northern end of the town commemorating the stone fruit production in the area. We stopped and had some lovely pies, the best cider ever and some good good ice cream to top it off.

Next stop Angela & Johns place. I suppose we should have stopped to call, but you needed a phone card in all these public places. I manged to give her a ring when we were a few streets down in Alexandra and she was over the moon to hear from us, and in true Williams / Greek style, went back in to the store to get another two bottles of wine. We had a great evening with the Salmon prepared Greek style, Kiwi & South African wine, trading jokes and old stories.

Fortunately for all the following day was Waitangi Day, NZ's national holiday. I don't believe, and according to the people and press, that it'll be anywhere near as big as Australia day, so we're i the clear there.

Literally, driving me crazy

We spent about a half hour in Christchurch, first having our cereal in the car along side the river Avon in the pouring rain, then trying to find a toilet while avoiding the the trams that scoot by every now and then. Once we had enough of that we headed for Akaroa, another seaside village that is famous for its seal swims and Hectors dolphins. It claims to be the only place in NZ where you can see Hectors dolphins and therefore the only place in the world as their habitat is in NZ waters. All a lie as we know we are going to see them in the Catlins, NZ.

We stopped off along one of many of the winding passes to have coffee as we were freeeezing. The green lipped mussels on the menu looked great so we tucked into a serving each which was fantastic. They are the best mussels I have eaten in a while and compete with the ones I ate in Belgium. Further down the road towards Akaroa with picked up a hitchhiker from Holland, this Dutchie was proud to say we were his 62nd lift in NZ so far and he rattled off the places he has been with some delight. I was pretty envious. We only had three weeks here and I would love to slow down and do more, less often. This guy had also been to Ghana to teach when he was 19, he reckons nobody wants to learn there so all he did was teach them music, in Dutch. Within a month he had them singing dutch songs while he played along on his guitar (no BZN I hope).

Akaroa turned out to only be a filling station for us as we missed the immediate attraction. The area was apparently settled in 1804 by French settlers who had intended to establish a colony. The English got wind of this and claimed the land under the treaty of Waitangi, otherwise the South Island may have been French. The area still has a French influence, reflected in many local place and street names.

We decided to head for the mountains and I had a couple places in mind on the Christchurch - Queenstown road. We had little time before nightfall and many kilometers to cover. We covered those kilometers, but not without a hair raising moment or two. At one point I chose to try overtake a truck and two cars in one manouvre, coming desperately close to the rather large all terrain vehicle passing me in oncoming traffic. Enough scares for one day, I was really and truly getting sick of driving and it was taking it's toll.

InterIslander

Jumping on the Bluebridge ferry from Wellington to Picton is not a cheap affair, but it does reap some really fantastic views of Wellington harbour with all the sailing boats tacking away (you like my sailing lingo) and mind blowing views of the Cook strait and the Queen Charlotte sounds on the way into Picton. I may not say that it is worth the $200 you spend per trip, but it must be done to get to either island by car so throwing in some fantastic scenery tends to cheer you up.

'Sounds' as they are called in this part of the world are actually more famously called fjords in Scandinavia. A fjord by definition is a long, narrow bay with steep sides, created in a valley, carved in a glacial period by a glacier moving from the top region of the mountains to the sea. It all sounds very simple (see what I did there), but it's something that should be witnessed at least once. The water here, has this dark rich blue colour, and in the parts that were not disturbed be the wake of the ferry and is as calm and silent as you can wish for.

Once back on Terra Firma, we headed down through the wine region of Blenhein and along the east coast towards the picturesque seaside town of Kaikoura. This town used to be a whaling station but had now turned its interests to a more humane sport, that of whale watching. The drive down to Kaikoura was fantastic and reminded me a little of Cape Town and the way the mountains meet the ocean. On the way we stopped off for some amazing apfel strudel and at a seal colony. They have j0ust had their pups and so naturally their were many photo opportunities.

Once in Kaikoura we booked our whale watching trip which guaranteed us a sighting of a Sperm whale or our money back. NZ also has a pod of around 200 Orca (Killer Whales) which circle the south island so the chance of spotting them here was better than in most places. After negotiating a couple Speights on happy hour we set off to find a campsite, easily done. The grumpy lady at the counter warned us not to pitch our tent too close tot he beach as the South Easter was due in that night and we could be in for some fun and games. Well that little gypsy was right, that night I feared for the life of our little tent, it almost blew horizontal. I lay awake for a few hours supporting the sides so the poles didn't get ripped out the ground. They fortunately never did, but we did awake to find half our tent pegs had been pulled out the ground by the menacing wind. I thanked my lucky stars that they had been such a curse to put in the ground in the first place.

That morning we headed off in the drizzle for Christchurch as there would most certainly be no whale watching in this weather.

Down to Wellington

We really wanted to go to Tongariro National Park in the morning to do some of the great walks, but we were told about this other great gampsite in Vinegar Hill which we would drop our stuff off first, then head out there. Unfortunately this campsite was about 80km past Tongariro and not all that so we had a decision to make, go back or head down. Down it was and driving along the roads in our new Toyota Corolla was a pleasure. Its not the worlds best selling car for nothing. When we eventually made a stop in Otaki on the west coast towards Wellington the temperature had dropped significantly. I must add that Celia, unbeknown to me, thought that New Zealand was as warm as Australia so never brought one warm jersey with her. We found a really great Clothing shop called Norsewear, apparently famous for their socks, they also had some pretty nice merino and possum wool clothing. The salesman sweet talked us into a ridiculously overpriced merino zip-through jumper for Celia which I hope she keeps for life :

Now possums are a pest in NZ we learn and not the cuddly creatures Aussies think they are. You see possum roadkill all over the roads here as some clown introduced them years ago along with the rabbit, both which have no natural predators. This leads me to another funny story, over easter every year they have an easter bunny hunt in NZ which usually yields about 40k dead rabbits.

Back to the road and we looked all over for a great campsite to stay. I was looking for the mountains and Celia the beach. In the end we found neither as in Tararua national park they had no BBQ facilities and the beaches we found were not great. In hindsight they were a whole heap better than the one we ended up in. Up on a hill in one of the worst parts of Wellington. Not the end of the world as all we need is a place to rest our heads before we catch the 9AM ferry to the South Island.

Traveling for the last 4/5 months as we have we have met people from various nations, but the majority of them are Dutch. Celia and I love the Dutchies, their humour, tales and just their kindness (gag) are all quite endearing. The Dutchies here were an exception though apart from monopolizing the kitchen, they then went on to criticize the way I was cooking my boerewors. Wrong fight to pick dutchmen. The boerewors was cooked to perfection. Do you see me telling them how to make pancakes or croquetes. The fact, it you have been paying attention to the dates on the blog that I bought the wors 3 days ago and we have kept it unfrozen in a car since then is another matter. The greenish tinge made it an interesting meal, so interesting Celia would not touch it, so I scoffed the whole lot - and lived to tell the tale.

Those dumb drunk Dutchies (hows that alliteration) kept us awake all night and luckily we left before they woke up or I may have given them a piece of my mind, or even worse, some green boerewors.

Was the best and worst of times at Lake Taupo

Our first outing at a DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. We stayed in Wentworth Valley which has amazing walks and just good fresh air really. Had a great sleep and a fantastic run in the morning, but I must be honest and add that my fat ass couldn't even make it to the waterfalls i was running towards. I did see an old lady trip over some rocks and fall on her face, but sorry Celia, this time it was not my fault.

Once Celia had packed up the tent (damn she's getting good), we headed towards Rotorua. I'm sure you've all heard of it, has all these natural springs and geysers (not the British type). On the way to Taupo we passed a South African shop where we had a long chat to the lady that ran it about all the usual suspects and walked away with some biltong, aromat and boerwors. Let me just say that that was the worst biltong I have ever eaten. It was like they had cooked it a bit cause they couldn't get it it to dry - still ate it though, lol.

Once we got to Rotorua, the stench of the sulphur in the air permeated our car and helped us come to a conclusion where we would spend the evening, not there! So we carried on to Lake Taupo and were pleased. It has a great feel to it and to add to the feel, I could get some fly fishing done. On our way we had an unfortunate incident with a truck, a rock and our windscreen though, which caused a very large crack to appear. This crack was seemingly heading towards my face from the base of the windscreen at a rate of knots which by the end of the day would have covered enough distance for our excess clause on our insurance contract to kick in. Damn..

We found this free campsite (Reid's Farm) along the Waikato river which happens to be NZ's longest river and pitched our tent for the night. What a beautiful place, from the bank I could see the trout swimming, tucked up against the opposite bank. I can't describe the colour of this water, and I'm sure none of my pictures will do it justice, but it was unbelievable, like it had flown from some tropical ocean. Unfortunately it was only about 10deg and the current was huge, so not much swimming going on.

You have to remember though, when you stay at a free campsite you cannot expect exemplary behavior or clean toilets, any for that matter.. and this evening was no exception. We only got a few hours sleep and were pretty cranky when we woke up. I decided to run to Huka Falls, which are the largest falls on the Waikato River, to wake myself up. Great run, and I felt loads better after so I drove into town to fetch milk for the morning bowl of Sultana Bran and find out about trout fishing.

On the way there and back, the car broke down twice and on the second occasion I couldn't get it back into gear from (P)ark. Celia and I came to an executive decision to try and get another car as we weren't happy with this one from the start. It took the entire day for the AA to come out and the hire company to come to some conclusion. They decided, and I think they were only trying to get rid of me, that they would come and pick up the car and give us a full refund if we were able to get a new one in Taupo. Praise the lord, we were only too pleased and a better result than we expected, especially with that windscreen going the way it was.

Got a great little 1800 Toyota Corolla for the rest of the trip from 'Rent a Dent' hire company. Doesn't instill much confidence, but it'll be better than the last I'm sure. Unfortunately we had now wasted a day in Taupo doing nothing and with our whole trip in NZ only being 3 weeks, one day was precious time to play with. We settled for that free campsite again and would set off in the morning.

One thing I must add which unfortunately cannot be captured on camera is that I went for a swim in the river that evening. The water was so cold that i knocks you breath right out your chest and trying to keep up in that current required my strongest stroke just to stay in the same spot. Celia was killing herself laughing at me swimming full tilt just to try stay in the same spot..

The Coromandel

Once we had negotiated the NZ customs at Auckland airport - they quarantined our camping equipment for pests which take about an hour, then sort out the issues with our car hire (never use A2B for car hire in NZ), we headed for the Coromandel Peninsula. The camping along the trout stream in Waihi was fantastic and I couldn't wait to get my chance to fish for some wild browns or rainbows.

The Coromandel has an amazing coastline which squash all suggestions that you don't go to NZ for good beaches. Cathedral Cove and Ha Hei were spectacular as was 'Hot Water' beach. This place has geothermal activity going on down below which releases gases that heat up the sand and water above on the beach. A couple hours either side of low tide you can dig pools out of the sand and enjoy the open air spa which in some places has unbearable temperatures.