Wanaka - Wa Wa Wa Wa Wanna Car?

Friday 7/9

I caught the bus to Wanaka. Once I dumped my stuff at the hostel etc, I walked to Puzzling World, which I had seen in a magazine prior to coming across it (but not going into it) in 2003. There was an outdoor Labyrinth, which was ok, I did the 4 corners, but didn't bother trying to get back to the start, as it would have doubled the amount of time. The other part (illusion rooms) were interesting, but it didn't take long to go through, and it mucked havoc with my sense of balance. I walked back to hostel and slept.

Saturday 8/9

I got up and got a "bus" (it ended up being more of a shuttle service) from the i-Site to the Toy and Transport museum - which was good, huge and reasonably cheap. I had lunch in the cafe at the Warbirds and Wheels museum, before walking back to the Wanaka Beerworks, which was in the same premises as the Toy and Transport museum and partaking in a beer tour and tasting. Subsequently I checked out the Warbirds and Wheels museum - there wasn't a whole lot there, I managed to see it all in the 1/2 hour I had left, which is one of those things, it makes you content that you haven't missed out on anything, but at the same time disappointed that it wasn't all that fantastic.

In the evening I came down with the worst food poisoning I have ever had. The positive was I asked for and was given a bottom bunk in a less full room for the rest of my stay, which was a relief, as it would've been hell otherwise, especially as I got up at least 5 times that night.

Sunday 9/9

Recovery, and since I had done everything I had wanted to do in Wanaka anyway, I went for a walk beside lake. Beautiful white mountains. I went to the supermarket and bought my Paris speciality of croissants, cheese, and salami. More sleeping, and missed dinner again, I believe it was after the kitchen had closed, so I couldn't access my croissants, so I was weak and hungry still.

Monday 10/9
Woke up, checked out, walked along waterfront, and checked out the millennium project they had - basically 2000 paving stones representing 2000 years with notable events marked out eg 1066 Norman invasion. Some cheeky people had written on blank ones "Rufus and Jemima were here 2012...

Once I had accomplished that, I sat around at the backpackers until about the time of the bus.

I got back to Queenstown late afternoon, so I sorted my bags (I had only taken the bare-minimum to Wanaka in my little backpack) and the next few days travel plans out and did my washing, so nice to have clothes clean again.

Had a soup and the remaining croissants to soak it up (as well as using them up - similarly chewed on the salami to use it up too.

Getting Down in Queenstown: The Long Awaited Holiday

So I finally got my act together, made a decision, (Free choice is a privilege of the modern capitalist society, but sometimes life would be so much easier without the need to make choices) and packed my bags and got off the North Island. I decided on doing a trip around the South Island, and doing the things I didn't manage to do the first time - when I went around with friends in Summer, January 2003. I decided against anything international, simply because it would cost 10x more, and I didn't have a job/income to come back to, and it was adding another level of difficulty to the decision and planning.

I wrote most of the next few entries on my iPhone, on the Notes app, and then transferred them here. I am currently going through and editing them before posting, but you may notice the style being very "note-taking-like"

Tuesday 4/9
Dad drove me up to Auckland domestic airport, I hopped on a plane and viola! Queenstown. Plane didn't rev up like usual, disappointed, but when I got off the plane it was totally awesome - had to walk across the tarmac to the terminal - but with mountains with snow on the top as the backdrop - nice, and I'm not even a snow-bunny (I'm more of a water-baby, and it seems as though I have had 3 straight winters in a row at the moment.) I had done my research and saw that it was only 6km into town (and I had 2 hours before the hostel would let me check in, so I had contemplated hiking it, but then discovered it was only $6 for bus to town (I had a paranoia that Queenstown was going to be a tourist trap) so I took that option.

Dropped bags off (couldn't Check in until 1pm) at my hostel and proceeded to get lunch - across the road at Ferg burger, world famous in Queenstown apparently. I had the Big Al, and it really was big.

Afterwards I went for a walk and went to the underwater viewing room on the waterfront, which I remembered from 2003. It was still worth it, you get to see trout swimming around and every now and then a duck dives down for food. What surprised me (in 2003) is when the duck rises to the surface again, it tucks it's head into it's chest, I imagined it would have gone up nose first, but then I guess they would do it different to us as their nostrils are on the top of their nose, whereas ours are on the bottom.

That night I did a pub crawl. I saw they had one that went to an ice bar. You may have heard me mention that I have being wanting to visit an ice bar ever since 2010 when Merinda and I first stumbled upon the Absolut Ice Bar in London, which we never quite got to, and I missed out on going to the Auckland one. The pub crawl (and Ice Bar especially) was awesome. On the pub crawl I met some girls, including one from Hamilton, so will probably catch up again.

Wednesday 5/9

Got up and got the gondola up the hill and did the luge, always good fun.

On Monday night I had come across someone on Couchsurfing wanting someone to join them on a wine tasting thing - essentially as one of their mates pulled out. When the time came, they were too hungover, but I proceeded anyhow as the girls from the above mentioned pub crawl were apparently doing it too - but they never showed up either, so I was all alone, tasting wine in a shop (initially I assumed it might be in a nice winery or something,) I'm not a huge wine drinker as it is.

Thursday 6/9

There were 3 English guys in my room, and we'd gotten on on fairly well - they asked me if I wanted to join them climbing the hill (with the gondola and luges) so I did. Not an easy mission, but the luge rides were worth it. I was quite stoked on one of the runs I started at the back of the pack, but ended up winning. Once we got back down the hill we played a little bit of soccer, and had a beer.

Chiefs, Clans, and other Family Ties.

So, since my last entry, I carried on at the Mount for a few more weeks, twice having to pop back to Hamilton for cardiologist appointments at the hospital (in short I was born with a heart condition which was fixed when I was 6 years old, but they keep tabs on me every 2 years or so, however, I fell out of the system it seems when I moved up to Kaitaia, and then went to London, so this was my first appointment since late 2006.

One weekend before coming back home, I did get the chance to go to a career's expo at the Tect Arena - which is behind the Baypark stadium. That was informative, albeit surrounded by high school kids. Thankfully I didn't pass any of my cynicism onto them.

The last couple of weeks were OK at the beach, unfortunately it rained most of the time, but on the positive, Suzanne started her new job at the Mount, so we got to spend some time together, which was nice.

Other highlights included finally making contact with one of my maternal grandfather's cousins, who had the McDonald family bible in his possession, and has lent it to me for my perusal. It appears to have been given to my Great great Grandfather Donald McDonald in 1897 at Opunake, Taranaki. I had hoped it would contain some answers to some questions, but it ended up creating more questions - it appears Donald may have been adopted, which vaguely rings a bell from something I remembered hearing as a child. It also mentioned someone who at this moment in time I can only assume is his sister-in-law, (as she married a James Alexander McDonald). But it's all good information. Donald's daughter (my Great Grandmother) Grace McDonald is pictured below

The other family tree progress that I made was in regard to the Pearson side (also maternal Grandfather) - I had come across a post on a message board from 1998, and basically was trying to track this person down to see if they found a link and what information they did have (they were referring to Joseph Pearson of Oxford, who was the brother of John Pearson, my 3 x Great Grandfather (the grandfather of Ken Pearson pictured above, and the father of Thomas Pearson in the below picture - the same Joseph Pearson has verified the likeness of the photo- you will see that if you click on that image.) Anyhow, this person had changed his email twice since 1998, and he would be 86 I ascertained, so it was a possibility that he may have died, however turns out he is still alive and well, albeit, probably not related. He did however give me something to look up.

Other than that, well there was the little incident of going to the stadium and watching the Chiefs win the Rugby Super 15 final - my mate Scott had hooked me up with a ticket, $22 was well worth it. I was conveniently free on the Monday as well, so I got to go and see the victory parade down the main street - and as you can see, I made it onto TV. My picture has made it into the paper several times (The North Waikato Tatler when I was a kid, and more recently the Northland Age for the couple of plays I was in, in Kaitaia) - but this was my first time on screen.

Other than that, I went to a Vietnam evening put on by Calder & Lawson Travel (the people I bought my ticket to the UK with) - at some point I want to see South East Asia, the bits I didn't see while I was in Japan. A friend of mine told me she had made a goal to travel somewhere once a year, which I think is a goal I will try and adopt myself.

For the past week and a half I have been working at Waikato Cleaning Supplies, while Mum & Dad are away in Raratonga. I'm slowly trying to sort out a trip to Fiji and plan to return via a trip through Australia catching up with some good friends from various times of my life, as well as taking the opportunity to do some family tree stuff, and then fly into Christchurch and check out Oxford (re the Pearson's mentioned above).

10 Things I Love about London

I was going to start off by saying that this post might seem weird coming from me at the moment, but the truth is, you don't live in my head or feel my hurt - so that won't make much sense to you.

To give you a basic understanding, right now I should be back in London. But I'm not, cos I got dumped. So naturally, having radio stations going on and on about "London Calling" and then the Olympics on 24/7 is just rubbing salt in my wounds.

Admittedly I have started to feel a bit better about it all this last couple of days, and had this random thought that I should write an entry remembering the things I loved about London (rather than the irritations), kind of like a travel piece, like you might find in the New Zealand Woman's Day, written by Sarah-Kate Lynch (- which I find mildly entertaining especially because the readership of that magazine aren't as into travel and stilettos as the magazine thinks they are). The other reason is, I know I did a similar thing when I came back from Japan, but I don't think I really did a London one.

So, in no particular order -

1) I would go to the all-you-can-eat Pizza place in Bayswater, next to Hyde park. Specifically for breakfast, because it's all you can eat breakfast, hash browns, bacon, sausages, eggs.

2) The Belvedere - £2 dinners - I'm not really sure now why I bothered cooking... and the bangers and mash were divine...

3) Morrison's, about 9pm - just before closing time - when I could pick up some food for half price - such as bacon hocks etc

4) Public Transport 24/7. As much as I would bitch about the Underground being out of service, it really was forward thinking, having an underground train network that is 100 years old is pretty impressive, and there would always be some bus going near to where you needed to go at any time of the night.

5) Underground trains - in principle. Tunnels, maps, bridges, and obsolete train stations and stuff are cool.

6) My Acton flat. My room was small and cosy, and upstairs, not unlike a tree hut.

7) Some good people that got me through the hard times, Scott, Luke, Adrian, Campbell, Suzanne and Bevan, to name a few.

8) Magical Tours - without them, I wouldn't have had the funds or motivation to see some of the places I saw.

9) Pound shops. Anything for a pound.

10) Touch rugby - oh how I loved playing you. And you gave me the best body I have had in ages.

Live Now

Today I happened to come across this speech that I originally wrote in either 2003 or 2004. To be honest it was one of the best speeches I did at Toastmasters - and I can probably safely say that it was probably the one I put most effort into. I thought I would share it here, because as of late, this blog has just become a list of stuff I have been up to, not particularly interesting or profound stuff - but then if I was any more honest, I would probably be spilling out my broken heart to you all, and that probably isn't great reading either.

I'm not sure where I fit on the scale at the moment - as I think I have been pretty good in recent years just doing it, possibly to the detrement of  my career and moving forward. Anyway, may be this will inspire someone.
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.

Good evening fellow toastmasters, contest chair, judges, and distinguished guests.

TIME - Too often we take it for granted, we will do something tommorrow, we will get around to it at some stage, or “One day it will happen”.

Something you probably don’t know about me is that – I grew up in a place called Naike - a small rural community out west of Huntly in the mighty Waikato.

At high school, when asked where Naike was, my friend & I would jokingly reply “next to Reebok”. However it is spelt different from the shoe brand. Despite this minor detail, I like the shoe brand’s slogan “JUST DO IT”, and tonight this is what my speech will be about.

Several years ago now there was a CanTeen ad on TV that ends with the point that the one thing worst than getting old is not getting old?

Unfortunately it is a sad fact. We won’t all live to be 70 or 80. We may die tomorrow, or 2 years from now, or when we are 45. This fact hit me the hardest 8 years ago, when one of my childhood friends died in an avalanche, a month before he was going to turn 19. It simply hurts to think that he didn’t even get to celebrate his 21st, he will never get married, he won’t have children, and he won’t get to develop a successful career – because he is dead. What I can take comfort in is that he lived a 19 years to the full – he didn’t hold himself back, he gave everything a go, adventure was his middle name – Unfortunately his sense of adventure on this occasion lead to the mistake of getting caught in an avalanche while snowboarding – but at least he died doing something he enjoyed.

Something I had been guilty of was putting my life on hold. I had lived by the theory that when I finished high school things would be so much cooler – and I would have heaps of free time to do all the things that I had put off.

Then I discovered that Tertiary education was actually quite full-on, and that I didn’t “have the time” – but no worries I thought, when I get a job I will have heaps of free time and also an income to use.

Fate of course drew me another cruel blow, and 5 months after Graduating I found myself back at tech, on top of working a full time job. My mistake was not making time. What if it was me that had died? I spent a good 10 years of my life pretty much not enjoying it, and possibly not achieving much more than an education.

Think about this. And remember that Time waits for no one. You should treasure every moment you have.

So what is there to gain? As much as it is a cliché – it is true NO REGRETS.

There must be nothing worst than looking back on life, and realising how little you have achieved, or how little you have done. On the other hand, think of the contentment you would feel knowing you had done your best, achieved your goals, and made your mark – and enjoyed it. Old age is a time when you should be living on the fruits of your youthful successes, and not getting bitter and twisted because of your regrets.

Similarly, if you still have things left undone, there is no time like the present. I like the saying “it ain’t over till it’s over.” - Don’t let age, or any other barrier hold you back. Remember also that if there is something fun, do it today rather than leaving it until tommorrow – because if you like it today you can do it again tomorrow.

I was listening to a tape not long ago, and there was a 68-year-old lady who decided to do a degree at University. Her friends told her that she was silly, because it would take three years, and she would be at least 70 before she would finish it. Her reply was “well in three years I’ll be 70 anyway…”

Don’t you love that attitude? She lived and did, rather than just existed for those 3 years.

Like the Nike saying “Just do it”. Don’t let fear get in your way. A lot of lives are limited because of fears.

Fears of failure. Fears of rejection. Fears of enclosed spaces, spiders, or heights.

Some people choose to live within their boundaries, whereas others climb over them. A good portion of us here may’ve started coming to toastmasters because we had a fear of public speaking.

If so, congratulations, you have taken the first step of jumping out of your comfort zone.

Fears are enemies to your life. They are preventing you from being what you could be – and from what you could give the world.

Lets face it, you may not always be successful, you may not achieve as much as Edmund Hillary, but in the end you are only competing with yourself.

Tonight’s Thomasism is “If you’re going down – go down with both guns blazing”. Basically what I mean by that is, that you may be struggling, but give it everything until you hit the ground, and that way you may succeed, but giving up means definitely failing.

So, Congratulations everyone – by being here you are one step closer to bettering your life

To finish tonight’s speech, I want you to go away with this:

Life is not defined by how many moments you live, rather the moments that take your breath away. You may not get as many moments as you think you will, so make them count.

M.I.A. in the B.O.P.

So last you heard was me at mum and dads work. I ended up helping out there for most days of 2.5 weeks. I had an interview in that time. One day Dad and I did some deliveries to Tokoroa, another day I went with him to Whangamata where he was sales repping. That was quite nice, he showed me the Waihi mine - a huge hole in the ground, probably the best part of a kilometre deep. We also went to Opoutere .


One night I went to the Trade day at Gilmours - unfortunately I was too late for the freebies.

However, I happened to stop next to a Zm truck one day and got some freebies - soup mixs and tissues and a ticket to the premier of Rock of Ages at the movies- pretty cool, funny and well done.

I also went to the Field days again, which was interesting again. On the way home I stopped at the Scottish shop in Melville and picked up a McDonald crest badge.

On the 18th of June I started another temporary assignment - this time at Familyworks, at Mt Maunganui. As it happens, I had only recently dropped into my agency (Kelly Services) to ask if they had any work coming in, my agent mentioned something about some in Tauranga, so I mentioned that I would keen for work in Tauranga if any came up, as I could always stay at our house in Papamoa. So I have been here for about a month now, and have a couple of weeks to go.

The first week I was here, I went to The Dictator at the movies, - which was good - and not too cringe worthy, like Borat, and especially Bruno were. That weekend I came back to Hamilton and went to a YouTube night, and caught up with Scott who is back from Kuwait. Suzanne and Bevan came home from their trip also.

The next weekend I came home as well, and went to see Dads Army at the Riverlea theatre (where I was in Don Quixote earlier this year. The acting was good, but it ended up dragging a little, probably because I wasn't so familiar with the show.

On the Wednesday I caught up with my mate Baz and watched a DVD. We were going to have a couple of Pizzas for dinner, but Baz told me Pak'N'Save was having their trade day - so I went down and checked it out - and they were very generous with their samples - I got 3 sausages, amongst some soup, cheese and cracker samples.

The weekend after that I went to Flight of the Conchords on the Friday night - I had to leave work early and drive up to Auckland - I hadn't realised until I researched it how far it is to Auckland from Tauranga - I had always just assumed it was a similar distance as it is to Hamilton, instead it is double that - which is probably why the couple of times I have done that trip that it feels it takes forever - it is actually because it is forever. Anyhow, they were great - not as exciting as when I saw them in London at the Wembley Arena, but still good. I particularly liked their rendition of I'm Not Crying - they had a guy accompanying them on a viola, so instead of being humorous, it was genuinely sad.

The following Thursday night I decided to walk around the Mount to wear in my new hiking shoes (one Sunday a few weeks before-hand I had gotten frustrated with my lack of waterproof and decent shoes, so I went and spent $600 on 5 pairs of shoes - 2 x work shoes, 1 pair of hiking shoes, 1 x gym/running shoes, and 1 pair of skate shoes - this has then led me to discard old holey socks, because if I don't it will just ruin the shoes, which in turn will ruin more socks...) Unfortunately by the time I got down there it was quite dark, however I did it - the first time in 3 years, I realised. On the way home I stopped at Pizza Hut and picked up a couple of $4.90 pizzas, and then dropped in to watch some of the Boxing at the Pap tavern. Seems as though people were drunk before they got there looking at the parking.

On the Friday I decided I would have a night in Tauranga as I wasn't going home. I also worked out it was half the price (and far more convenient) to book a night in a hostel rather than catching a bus and then a cab back to Papamoa.

The next morning I got up, and went and had a Wendy's breakfast and headed to the Karangahake Gorge. For forever I have had it on my list of things to do. I got there at 11.30, grabbed some quick lunch at the Waitoa railway station, and then just started walking. At the start of the walk was some buildings related to gold mining - kilns etc, and a museum, so I checked them out. Anyhow, I kept on, it seemed to take forever before I got to the tunnel through the hill - but it was worth it - the tunnel was really long and came out further along the gorge. The return walk didn't seem to drag as much which was good. All up I would have walked 14kms, not a bad effort. I texted my Uncle on the way back, as I would be passing where they would staying - so I ended up having dinner with my cousins which was nice - and rather entertaining, especially as they are now teenagers and wind their parents up like me and my sister to do ours, and as you can imagine - get similar reactions "You are just showing off because XYZ is here".

The following weekend Mum & Dad came to stay over here which was a nice change.

Tuesday I went to the movies again and saw Ted. Good, but not laugh-a-minute.

Friday I went to see Raybon Kan perform (stand-up) in Tauranga. He was good, but he started off badly I thought - I think he wanted to theme his show attacking religion, but didn't get the positive reaction he was hoping for, so he had to change tact. Near the very end he was getting good, but then it finished.

Today (Saturday 21/7/12) I just did Rock'N'Roll things like doing the washing, and sorting out my stamp collection - not a five-minute job unfortunately.

Trench Warfare

So where the last post left off was bang on middle of April - the 15th.

The following couple of weeks were nothing much to write about, albeit I was finally told that I wasn't required by the my work anymore, and Susan my partner in fighting crime also left - the week before I did, on the 4th of May. In between this there was Anzac day, which really was "help Anne & Wayne around the house day".

Once I finished up at work I decided I really wanted to get away for about a week, as I would soon be house-bound in the role of custodian of Jordan & Jess (J-Dog & J-Cat). I decided I would brave a trip back up to Kaitaia and visit some old friends after 3.5 years.

So on the Wednesday - I hopped in the car and headed to Tauranga, probably shouldn't have bothered with Tauranga, but I wanted to take my wetsuit up north in case I got the chance to have a swim. Nothing much to report Tauranga-wise, except for the fact that someone near the house has unsecured WiFi, so I made use of that.

Thursday - I headed to Auckland. Decided once I got to Sylvia park that I would stay the night in Auckland, as I could casually do stuff, rather than drive some more and then have to find some dinner, and set up a tent etc possibly in the dark. I walked down Queen Street and decided to take part in a Pub crawl that was advertised at the hostel. The downside was everyone else on it was probably in their early twenties, so I felt like a real old man. I gave up on the last free drink and bar because I wanted to check out the Ice bar (bar in sub zero temperatures)- I would have gone earlier in the night, but at about 6pm when I was down that way no one else was there - Awesome if I was with someone else, but would've been lame just by myself. Unfortunately when I got there at 12.30am (they are advertised to close at 1am) they were shut, and someone said they'd closed at 12.

On Friday I got up and headed north, and got to finally check out the new bypass road and tunnel - that they had been building the two years I was up north, but not quite finished by the time I went to London. I stopped in Whangarei for lunch, and then headed on to stay with my old workmate Peter.

Saturday & Sunday - I picked olives for Peter in his olive orchard. It was a relatively easy task, almost like milking a cow. The worst bit was the hidden trenches/drains that were hidden in the long grass between the rows - hence the above title. For my work I got 10.5 litres of organic olive oil which was pretty choice. It was also nice staying at Peter's - out in the country.

Monday, I left Peter's and went down the road to Mangonui and visited a distant Bruntlett relation, shared information, and had lunch with them. From there went to Kaitaia. I kept my eyes open as I cruised down the main street to see if all my favorite haunts were still there - yes to the roast shop (albeit with a different name and owner) and the 2nd hand book shop. Nero's had closed, and my former workplace has changed it's name and one of the partners.

I stayed the night with the Brott's, who were essentially the chairpeople of the Puriri Park village where I orginally lived when I first moved to Kaitaia. I had a great time with them, in some ways they remind(ed) me a lot of my maternal grandparents, albeit a lot more youthful. Pam even made a Nek Minit joke - how she knew about that I don't know. It was great catching up, reminiscing, and telling them the stories of my travels.

While I was in Kaitaia I also went to visit the Little Theatre, where I had performed several plays in my time up there. It was now part of the Te Ahu complex that had been proposed around the time I was up there. It combined the museum, community centre, information centre, Little Theatre, and library into one building, and looks totally awesome. Probably way over-budget though...

I had to come back to Hamilton for a WINZ appointment, which really was a waste of time as it simply was a hoop to jump through.

Suzanne and Bevan went to Europe, so I am currently in charge of their house. Jess shows me lots of affection and sleeps with me (too bad she is a cat), and Jordan is a dog, he has just learnt to bark (at everyone and everything) and seems to want to chew everything. In the few quiet moments I get, I have been getting London-sick by watching 'The Only Way is Essex' and 'Who Do You Think You Are?'

I had my graduation day for my "Advanced Certificate in Te Ara Reo Maori" the other week. It was alright, but most of my classmates weren't there, so I didn't get to catch up with them, which was a real shame. The food was alright, and the sash I got to wear looked pretty awesome. It seems to be a painful coincedence that I always seem to be unemployed (or at least underemployed) whenever I have a graduation, which just goes to show that a million letters after your name doesn't make you anymore job secure.

Last week I spent helping Mum and Dad out at their work, picking orders and going out in the van to help on deliveries.