So on Friday we launched a piece of software I’ve been working on for the last couple of months.. (when I’ve not been holidaying somewhere ;) It’s a system for logging calls in the contact centre – classifying the call with respect to ‘what the call was about’ ‘who called’ ‘what was done with it’ etc.. and then if there’s follow up action to be taken it’s easy to log a request..

Aaanyway – it seems to have gone well and that’s kinda satisfactory..

Then my college friend Lorcan arrived. No rest for the wicked… arranged a party in his honour.. pretty much ;) well, good excuse anyway. Mulled wine + mince pie – my favourite. Really fun night – though I’m not sure how the next morning was for everyone ;)

At the party my friend Marcel said he was heading out sea-kayaking in Akaroa – and Lorcan got an invite. Lucky thing… well, I think after 2 hours paddling back against the tide he wasn’t quite sure how lucky he was…. :)

I was planning on tidying the house and getting ready for a road trip – but easily persuadable as I am.. I headed off snow boarding with Dave, Emma and Sarah.. lots of fun – once I managed to get the hang of nut-crackers again .. I spent about 30 mins – at least – trying to grab on and falling onto my bum.. still, once I got the hang of it again I was happy enough on the slopes. Though I do seem to have issues going from toes -> heels.. ahh well, will get there eventually.

This pic was off castle hill as we drove by..

Then back to watch the lions loose again – though a much better match. And now, off in the BMW again – up through Lewis Pass, and back down via the glaciers and Wanaka.. well.. that’s the plan anyway!! :)

map.swf

The map is kinda fun, you can zoom in and stuff on it too – I’m going to spruce it up a wee bit – but you can test it out here. I actually bought this application (for $5) it’s called Indy Junior. You can add links etc. to it.. quite fun.

Well, this is the rough plan. Africa is out now as it was quite a bit more expensive – but more than that, I’ll be seeing mum and dad in Dublin for christmas anyway, so it doesn’t really make too much sense. I’ll get there before they finish up with their aid work though.

6 months I have decided is simply not long enough to travel.. OZ is getting a more thorough looking over, and then a 2 1/2 month trip through Asia.. not long enough – but enough to see a bit I guess :)

Still, it’s really exciting stuff.. It’s SO much fun planning it all. And then back to ChCh in Febuary – to make this residence stuff permanent.. hopefully there’ll be a job for me too…

Finally, on my last day in Northlands – I took the Fullers Cream Trip. A long time ago (in a galaxy far fa – no – in New Zealand actually) the islands in the Bay Of Islands started dairy farming. They needed a boat to come around the islands and collect the milk and cream (and drop off supplies, collect mail etc) and so the Cream Trip started.

Again, lucky with both the size of the group and the guide (Andrew this time).. we saw rays, all sorts of fish, penguins, two pods of dolphins..

If anyone is feeling rich – this small island was recently put up for sale.

It didn’t reach the price they wanted, so it’s still up for grabs. And no, I didn’t find out (did ask) how much it was going for.. There are some very rich people with holiday homes around here – though fortunately most of the islands are either NZ owned, or state owned.. which isn’t always (sadly) the way of nice NZ property.. :(

So yes, went cruising around the bay

we went out as far as The Hole in the Rock (Cape Brett) so big that you can steer a boat through it. Apparently a boat got stuck in there once.. and even more incredibly (to me) the entire cave can fill up with water in a big swell. That’s insane… it’s HUGE.

Met some lovely ozzies on the boat though, from Brisbane (where I fly into Oz) so that’s kinda cool.. maybe even with climbing contacts..

Then back to get my plane. It was the smallest commercial plane I’ve ever been on – everyone had a window seat ;) But it was good to be back in ChCh and see my breath again! (oh it is cold here! why don’t kiwis believe in insulation and central heating..)

Then on Sunday I took the Dune Rider trip up to Cape Reinga. We were totally lucky with our guide Paul. He was really excellent, knew all the local knowledge, and was happy to make extra stops along the way. Admittedly I planted myself behind the drivers seat and didn’t stop asking questions for 9 hours. But I’m sure he appreciated it ;)

So we stopped at a Kauri grove on the way up. These are massive massive trees – now protected. The can grow to be about oh – 13m in diameter – or something mental like that. Unfortunately the most impressive groves are about 2 hours out of the way – so I’ll HAVE to come back up and visit. They grow incredibly straight, and thus were highly prized for building, ship masts, waka’s etc. So while they were once very extensive, there aren’t so many left now. On the way back (but I’ll put it in now) we visited a kauri woodturning shop. There’s a staircase through the middle of a trunk.. and this is a small one!

Anyway – we visited and old Pa on the way up (wouldn’t usually..) Kinda Celtic in a way – classic fort with ditches + palisade + important buildings inside. Course it all had to change once foreigners came along with their guns..

It was a pretty drive up to cape Reinga.

Now Cape Reinga is the place where spirits travel to before they leave New Zealand and head off to Hawaiki.. (the afterworld). There’s a pahutakawa (spelling?) tree, which is the last place they visit before diving off into the ocean – and here it is.

Just off Cape Reinga is where the Tasman and Pacific Oceans meet – you can see a line (ish) where the two bodies (moving in opposite directions?! / speeds?) meet.

Then it was off to go sandboarding on the giant sand dunes. Paul didn’t initially want to take us to the steepest one, but he changed his mind (we were all pretty keen really). There’s a 3 meg video of sandboarding here

Then we drove down 90 mile beach (officially a road). It’s actually just 64 miles long, but farmers used to bring their cattle to market walking down the beach, and they reckoned they walked 30 miles a day.. hence 90 mile beach..

WE stopped (just like my hero Billy ;) on 90 mile beach and searched in the sand for Tuatua a shellfish. You can (and we did) eat them raw, though I took a few and cooked them up in the evening too.

So yes, all in all an excellent excellent day.. really informative and fun – thanks Paul.

So got the bus up to Paihia – a pretty good base for seeing the Bay of Islands (names by Cook – he first made landfall here – though it was sighted at Young Nicks Head over Gisbourne way).

Checked into the Saltwater lodge, a nice enough backpackers – en suite etc.. but I reckon I prefer smaller places.

Friday started off .. with a thunderstorm. And it didn’t really stop raining until the afternoon. Not to be deterred I took a boat across the bay to Russell. It’s a really lovely town, I’d highly recommend getting there. It used to be called The Hell Hole of the Pacific by the missionaries because the sailors would come here to resupply, get drunk and generally have good times…

I really enjoyed it there. As I’d been watching my Billy Connolly World Tour of New Zealand I had a couple of things I wanted to check off in Northlands – and Russell was one of them. Billys wife – Pamela Stephenson – her family were NZ pioneers.. and in the church there are gravestones from her family back to the 1840s

I should have ‘blown it up’ but there are actually bullet holes in this church from back when Hone Heke (more about him later) chopped down the flagstaff (for the fourth time). Really nice church though and inside – on each of the 150 or places that people can sit – there’s a needlepoint? cushion – covering some aspect of NZ life

I also took in a trip to the local history museum. There was a travelling exhibition of pictures and text from the Maori history of creation. I kinda took pictures of the whole thing.. so if you’re interested in seeing the history of creation (and the pretty pictures) then have a look at The Children of Rangi and Papa

There was also a 1/4 size?! (probably wrong sorry) replica of The Endeavour (Cooks ship) inside the museum.

After that I had a quick hike up to Flagstaff hill. Russell kinda used to be the capital of NZ (it was actually a few bays over – but Russell became a centre for trade)… then the brits headed off and set up Auckland – and all the trade etc. pretty much stopped. This irriated the locals quite a lot. And an irriated warrior people isn’t (ever) a fantastic idea.

There was a leader – Hone Heke – who chopped down the (oppressive) flagpole that the British had placed on the top of the hill when they left Russell. The British put it back up again. He chopped it down. The British put it up for a third time (this time with a metal shield for 20ft), and Hone Heke chopped it down for the fourth time (March 11th 1845). And the New Zealand – or Maori – wars pretty much started straight away.

After Russell I just caught the 3pm boat back across the water – and walked across to Waitangi.

This was where on 6th Febuary 1840 NZ became part of the British Empire (and yes, 5 years later there was war between the peoples..)

It was a good place to see though, there was the biggest waka (canoe) made (ever?!) on display.

I think that’s one of the biggest differences between the North and South Islands.. The North has so much more history (it seems to me), as it has been a more hospitable place to live – whereas the South has less people – and more mountainous rugged beauty.

I thought these signs were quite funny – very kiwi.

I was feeling slightly energetic – so ran the 5km or so to the Haruru Falls. It was a fun run (which isn’t something I’d usually say about running..) But I put my music on and off I went. It was great running through the mangroves.. It was actually very dark by the time I got to the falls – this pic is so light as it was on IS0 400 for about a second exposure.

I was kinda not looking forward to the walk home (another 5km and the first test match between the All Blacks and the Lions was on). However, a local (well, New Yorker but living there now) dropped me to my door.. thanks man!

Totally disappointed by the rugby – not that I follow it to be honest, but one wonders if Brian O Driscoll wasn’t taken out on purpose..