A WonderFoo Wedding

As mentioned in my last post, the following weekend was my brother-in-law's sister's wedding down in the Hawkes Bay. We'd saved up some time before hand, so on the Friday Mum, Dad, & I could leave not long after lunch time. It was a pleasent drive down, and we arrived in time to join Bevan's immediate family for dinner, which was a fantastic Chinese feast.

After dinner we returned to our accommodation - which was an apartment across the road from the port - quite a nice place, I'd happily live there.

The next day Dad and I had a look down the street, especially because it was Art Deco weekend there that weekend. I ended up buying a shirt and hat for the wedding - to look more Art Deco.

After our look at the shops, I had a quick swim across the road- which was well received as Hawkes Bay in February is rather hot, before showering and getting dressed for the wedding. The ceremony went well, and we had an hour or so before the reception, so we went and visited my cousin Sharon who didn't live too far away.

Back at the reception it was good, the meal was a buffet, with a good selection of meat. I sat at a table with Suzanne, Bevan, Thad- Bevan's potentially next brother-in-law, Bevan's parents, an aunt, the mother of the groom, and one of his cousins. I didn't know it at the time, but my sister was/(is) pregnant and I nearly blew her cover when someone jokingly asked when they were going to have kids and I jokingly pointed out that she was drinking what I thought was wine (it was actually grape juice). There was an awkward moment, but I didn't think too much of it until she broke the news to us more recently.

Anyhow it was a good night- I've resolved that weddings are not the place to meet women, I'm just grateful generally to have been invited.

The next day we had a lunch at a Napier Chinese restaurant, which was also a great feed. I decided to try and a) not sit with my parents, and b) sit with some randoms to have some interesting conversation, which worked well, especially as the table participants didn't try to talk in Cantonese.

From there we headed back up to Hamilton.

Beautiful Manhole Covers of the World

Sigatoka, Fiji

This post is inspired by the above picture I took in  Fiji of a manhole in Sigatoka, on the Fijian mainland. If you have been following my blogs, you may recall several examples of manhole covers in Japan, which always interested me when I saw them. In fact, back then I had a comment from a German gentleman named Gerde asking if I could send him any more photos of manholes so he could include them on his website/Tumblr. I enjoyed writing the blog about Apps, so I thought a light-hearted one about man-hole covers would be fun to write as well. I'll arrange them into a Logical Order, and then identify the location and comment about them in the caption.

Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, Japan

Yokkaichi, Japan - probably the cover that started it all... this is where I lived in 2006.

Another Yokkaichi Manhole - probably taken on the same day I took the first - my first proper day off.
Yokkaichi is a "sister-port" to Sydney Port, and a "sister-city" to Tianjin in China, hence the Koala, Panda, and the Opera house etc. The spheres in the top left I think relate to the oil distillation that goes on there, and the dome on the right is the cultural centre - which was closed the day I went to have a look at it...

Yet another Yokkaichi manhole - I had to Google the Hiragana at the top to confirm that.

Yokkaichi again, you can see that this has the same picture as the above cover, albeit not in colour

I assume this is a fire hydrant cover. I only know it is in Yokkaichi due to the seal - the round symbol at 2 O'clock.

Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan

Nagoya, Japan. I have no idea how the insect ties in.

Nagoya again. The Nagoya castle features in the centre, the harbour below it,  and the tower at the top that looks like a cross between the Eiffel tower and a power pylon is the Nagoya tower at Sakae

Nagoya-jo (castle)

Kobe, Japan

Kobe, Japan. Starting at the bottom left, that is the Kobe tower, and the top right is a steeple of a house in what was the old foreigners area,- Kitano in fact it was called the Thomas house, hence why I remember it.

Kobe again, note the symbols on the hills on the background. I assume the anchor relates to it being a port, the other is the symbol for Kobe.

The Thomas house steeple in the centre here, the Kobe tower in the top left, and the port in the top right. The steeple is flanked by the Kobe symbol, and something resembling the logo of the Imperial Forces in Star Wars - however I wouldn't put it past George Lucas to be ripping that off too, as Darth Vader's suit is suspiciously similar to that of a samurai (as are the Jedi and their protocols), and the story of Anakin Skywalker and the Empire have pretty strong parallels to the Holocaust.



Universal Studios, Osaka, Japan

Not actually in the real Beverly Hills. This is actually in Universal Studios Japan, in Osaka. I don't think the real Beverly Hills would allow a paint strip to cover it's manhole.

I haven't actually been to New York City, so obviously this is the same story - Universal Studios Japan, in Osaka.

Himeji, Japan

Himeji, Japan. Again I had to confirm this by translating the hiragana. I wonder now what the original manhole looks like, as the anti-littering message seems to be stuck on top of the original design. Himeji is home to a really awesome Japanese castle - one of the few that has survived antiquity, and namely the war, and therefore is a Unesco Heritage site.

Himeji again, the White heron is the city's bird, and I believe there may've been heron "gargoyles" on the roof of the castle.

Kuwana, Mie Prefecture, Japan

Kuwana was the neighbouring city to Yokkaichi, on the way to Nagoya.

Not sure how the origami birds relate to Kuwana.

Iga, Mie, Japan


This is a ninja - this manhole is in Iga, "the ninja town".

Seoul, South Korea

Seoul, Korea. It seemed at the time that they were in love with the fact that at one point in time they hosted the Olympic games. It may have seemed that way to me also because I was staying in what was the Olympic village.

Los Angeles, USA

This is legit - the real LA.

Bratislava, Slovakia

One of the must-see sights of Bratislava.

Hamilton, New Zealand

I saw this manhole at the Base shopping centre, and thought it warranted a photo and a mention, especially since it is in my hometown. Unfortunately it is not so clear - those square tiles are actually the symbol of Hamilton - basically an S-shaped river flowing through it.

Jandals, Sandals, Ketchup, Coromandels, Swanndris, Butterflies...

Once again I find myself writing a catch up blog, dating back to October...

I believe it was probably the weekend after I returned, that Mum, Dad, and I did a delivery up the Coromandel. It was a nice drive, and I went the furtherest I had been yet up there. We had a picnic lunch after we made the delivery, and had a quick look at the beach (hence the photos). On the way home we stopped for afternoon tea at Thames. At the bookshop there I picked up several books quite cheaply, including a Lonely Planet guide for Central Europe.

On a Wednesday following this, I went to an evening at the STA travel at the university. It was quite good, especially with the food on offer - the thing I remember the most was the Blue Cheese wantons... Delicious. I also answered a question and the prize was a Lonely Planet guide of my choice - I chose one for South East Asia - probably worth $40-60, and it was one I had debated getting in the weekend but held off, so naturally I was rather stoked.

Later in the month Centreplace reopened - Hamilton's central mall, in recent years, due to the creation of the base and it's plentiful parking, the CBD had suffered, so the council combined the two malls next to each other and gave them a face lift, changed the road layout, and viola! the new Centreplace. To be honest, it isn't particularly geared up with male-oriented shops, so I have only visited it that once.

At the end of the month was Labour day, despite great ambitions, I went for the tried and tested weekend at Papamoa, chilling out and doing pedestrian activities.

Mid-November I went down to Rotorua to catch up with my old mate from Tech, Steve, who was over from Sydney. Steve had rented a cottage for a week, so once I got down there on the Saturday, we went and got some dinner, and also tried several places to redeem the voucher I had got for a 12 pack of new Tui Lager at Big Boys Toys the weekend before (by spinning a wheel and then letting them wax a strip of my leg). Eventually we found somewhere that a) would honour it, and b) had it in stock. That night we just chatted away in the spa pool. The next morning we went to the park at Paradise Valley. We walked around it, checking out all the animals, once we had done that we had half an hour to wait before we could pat the lion cubs. I wasn't too bothered, but after doing it I'm glad we did wait. 

After that we went and had a good lunch at Valentines.

The following weekend Steve and I met up at Papamoa. We took in the Hot Pools, as well as the Drift carts on Parton Road.

The following weekend I went to the Christmas show at Riverlea theatre - Bring Back Burlesque, which was entertaining, but semi-awkward as I felt a little pervy.

 

On the 7th of December I moved into my new residence in Deanwell. Its nice being independent again, and I have enjoyed making a few changes, pulling out old stumps, changing cupboard handles etc. It was probably a good week before I really got to cook in the kitchen though, as it seemed to be a week of Christmas dinners etc

 

Christmas was over at Papamoa again, but at Suzanne and Bevan's new house. How the holidays fell this year, it meant five days there, two back in Hamilton, and then another five in Papamoa, which was nice.

 

January, to be fair seemed to be relatively quiet. Probably partially because I have had Sky installed at my house to make it attractive for flatmates (as well as giving it Wifi at the same time) so I have gone hard at recording a lot of documentaries, and subsequently having to watch them.

 

Again, a long weekend at the end of the month found me at Papamoa, and again the  weekend of the 7/8/9th. On the in-between weekend I checked out the Classic Car Museum, on the first weekend of every month they do an all-you-can-eat breakfast, and I finally got the timing right. For what it was, the museum was very well done, perhaps if I was more into that sort of thing I may've enjoyed it more. The following day was Mum's birthday, so we went out for lunch with Suzanne and Bevan.

And here we are, mid-February.

 

Next weekend is Bevan's sister's wedding in Hawkes Bay (as well as being Art Deco weekend). The Plan for April is to use Easter and the couple of days after it to visit a mate in Nelson, and knock off the few things I haven't seen on the North Eastern side of the South Island, such as Kaikoura, and Hanmer Springs.

Return to the South Sea, and onto Mango bay Resort

So from Barefoot it was back to the South Sea resort, which was an interesting combination of feelings - I had enjoyed my first foray there, but this time it would be with a new selection of fellow travellers, and as it turned out, most of the staff were different also.

Anyhow, the next evening I caught the boat back to the mainland, and then was transferred to my resort on the mainland - Mango Bay Resort, which was on the Coral coast, which is actually nowhere near Denerau as it turns out... however the silver lining was that I had an awesome conversation with the Indian driver. I tactfully broached the  topic of Indian history in Fiji. It was very interesting, especially comparing it to New Zealand history, and that of my ancestors. The driver's family would have come out to Fiji around the same time as my ancestors came to New Zealand, approximately in the 1870s. From what he said, combined with what I later learned at the museum in Suva, the British, when they colonised Fiji quickly realised that if they weren't careful, the native Fijians would become the underclass (to the British). The solution to this was to bring in Indian workers, India being somewhere else that the British was colonising at the time. Due to the caste system in India, a lot of Indians jumped at the chance to go to Fiji and leave their low position in the caste system behind. Unfortunately, it seems the good intentions of the British lead to the Indians becoming the underclass, essentially slaves.

 

On arrival to the resort, I happened to be checking in at the same time as an attractive German girl. Turns out we were also staying in the same dorm, so once we had dropped off our stuff, we went and had dinner together.

 

The next day Anna, (the German girl) was heading to another resort to attend a friend's wedding for the day, and I decided to head to the nearby town of Sigatoka, where the below photos were taken.

It's fair to say the Fijians like their rugby....

Sigatoka was alright, it was mainly shops and a market - it was a service town essentially for the resorts nearby, of which there were a few. 
 

The Sigatoka river. This photo is taken from near the top of the hill, where the fort was located.

I had read in my travel guide that there was an old Tongan fort nearby (apparently Fiji was settled first by the Tongans). I asked one of the shopkeepers and she helped me to not get ripped off by a taxi driver who would take me there and wait while I checked it out. The custodian of the site gave me a tour and told me all about the different things we came across.

From memory I think she said this tree was several centuries old.

After an enjoyable tour, I headed back to the town and continued having a look around. There wasn't much to see, so I found the bus heading past my resort and hopped on. It was kind of a surreal journey, as they were showing the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy so here was I, someone from the first world, holidaying in the second world, watching a movie based in the third world (in the 80's no less). I also had to keep an eye out for when we were close to my resort - not the easiest as I wasn't that familiar with the landscape, having arrived there the night before in the dark.


Once I arrived back, the resort staff informed me they had upgraded me to my own bure. It was nice, but I realised it was because recently I seem to have developed a snore - which I wasn't aware of prior to this trip, so I also felt stink about it.


That night there was a "pub quiz", my team took it out at the end when we got the tie-breaker question correct.


I decided the next day to visit Suva. In order to do that the staff dropped me off at the gate and I waited for one of the minibuses that operate as unofficial buses. I didn't have to wait long. It was actually quite a cool feeling, like I was an intrepid traveller, travelling with the locals on their way to work etc. Unfortunately my morning bladder started calling, so I had to ask the driver if I could use the toilet somewhere - so I ended up using a service station toilet somewhere, and the bus waited for me, so I said a hearty thank you to the driver and other passengers for their patience.


Once I got to Suva I had a walk around, had some breakfast at a local Scottish restaurant - mainly to see if there was a Fiji burger... no there isn't, the only difference between NZ and Fijian McDonalds seems to be the fact they don't put bacon in their burgers, I imagine because then the Muslims in Fiji don't have to think twice about eating there.


Once I got bored of the shops, and fighting off annoying shopkeepers etc I went to the National museum. I'm a little over museums, but I enjoyed the social history section, as you may have gathered from above.


Again I returned to the resort via the "intrepid minibus". Something I enjoyed about the resort was the choice of dinners. On the islands the meals were nice, but had a high salad to meat ratio. At the resort, there was a choice, and meat-centric choices. I was joined again at dinner time by Anna, which was nice, as I had been looking forward to catching up with her as I was feeling lonely. We decided to play a board game or something, but we attracted the attention of a hypoactive little American kid with some pretentious name  - he was like "my name is Jefferson Mansfield Something-Field junior." After interrupting our ping pong game, he proceeded to tip the monopoly set on the table, and totally didn't get the concept of Connect 4.


The next day Anna and I hung out. We had a quick snorkel after breakfast before doing a trip to the local school to have a look. We had some morning tea with the teachers - sandwiches and some tea made from some lemon-flavoured leaves. After that we sat in on a class for about 10 or 20 minutes, the kids sang us a couple of songs, we took a couple of photos and left. It was interesting, but it was more about tourist fund-raising for the school than it was about teaching the kids about other cultures, which I thought was a lost opportunity on the part of the school. The funny thing was, last Friday on Beauty and the Geek, the contestants visited the same school.


On returning to the resort we met a French girl that had just arrived. We'd chatted about checking out a dead whale that was apparently up the beach somewhere (I haven't included pictures because it wasn't that nice...) and invited her along. I'd be liar if I said I wouldn't have preferred all Anna's attention to myself but at the same time I was glad she would have company when I left.


It was a good 45 minute walk each way, and what was left of the whale was a little bit gross and smelly. Once we made it back we ate some lunch, and organised a snorkelling safari trip. The snorkelling to be fair wasn't as good as the islands, especially after all the snorkelling I had done this trip.


That night I got my stuff all sorted for an early departure - I was getting picked up at 3:30am.
I woke up early, and got up, better to be early than fall back asleep. Managed to catch some more sleep on the car journey back. Had some breakfast at the airport, but I suspect they mistook the dishwashing detergent for cooking oil when they cooked it, as it didn't stay down too long. Anyhow the flight home was otherwise uneventful, and in some ways I was glad to be home again.

Barefoot Resort

My apologies, once I got to this island I got my blog up to date, and then gave it a rest, as I figured things weren't happening as fast - it's easier to retrospectively write about things sometimes, than it is writing about things happening in the recent past.

I believe this photo was taken on the day of my arrival - I figure that as it is of a sunset, and from the place where we ate our meals - in this case dinner.

On arrival to the resort, I knew I was going to like this place as it had a lot going for it, a lot of other people, 3 beaches, a dive shop, and a fellow Kiwi that worked at the dive shop (which is a bigger/rarer thing than you'd think - other than him, the only other Kiwis I had come across were in the hen's party on the Sea Spray yacht.)

The first thing I did was sorted out how I was going to use my activity voucher - the down side of pre-paying for all the activities was the fact you had to be organised and plan when and how you would fit the activities in - especially as often it would require 3 others to be keen too, due to the price of petrol. Anyhow, the next day was Sunday, and I was keen to check out a Fijian church, so I asked about that, and ended up using the voucher for that - the church we went to was actually in a village on another island - if you look at the photo below, it was well beyond the point of the next island (where the sun is rising).

So once I got that sorted I had a fantastic snorkel from the beach in front of my cabin before dinner. Dinner was awesome, basically a Fijian hangi. I ended up sitting next to an Irish guy and his Venezuelan wife - who I ended up sharing several meals with in the following days, they were great company.

Sunrise.

The next day I woke up early. I decided to get up and make use of it, so I snorkeled around the peninsula that the resort was on (from one beach in front of my room, across another, and into the other on the opposite side to the one I started from. It was nice, but started to drag when I got around to the other side as I was fighting the current, and then due to it being low tide, struggling to find a way in without damaging coral or myself.

Once I made it in breakfast was ready, so I chowed down on that, and then got ready to go to church on another island.

I hadn't realised how far we would have to go by boat, I had imagined that a village was nearby, in fact it was probably about half an hours boat ride through some rough waves (in the above photo we had crossed that channel and went around the point where the sun is rising). - For a moment I felt like I was Ed Hillary on some epic journey, but then remembered Ed would do it himself, I really was just relying on the locals, which made me more like wimpy English hero in Africa, with a a pith helmet and some half dressed natives.

The church service was good, and fully in English, except maybe some of the hymns. Fairly traditional, but not boring. The village we went to (and other villages I ended up visiting) had a sense of being quite poor, but then you realise it is all in how you define rich and poor. I think the villagers had all they needed, and lived in family groups - a lot more communal than what we westerners do. They also of course live in virtual paradise. I may touch on it again later, but for now I will just say that despite the Government being a military dictatorship, it seems to function well - the island children all get educated etc.

Once we went back to the resort I had lunch and then did a bit of reading, and later did a snorkeling safari, which was pretty cool.

The next morning I woke up earlyish again, but decided to go for a walk instead, so I went to the other end of the island to see what was there - see photos below.

Pineapple plant. Interesting to see how they actually grow - I think I would've imagined that they hung off a tree like an apple otherwise.

The other end of the island, looking at another island, in the direction of the mainland (South-ish)

A cool looking bridge I had to cross.

The drum used to call the guests to mealtime.

For the rest of the day I kept myself busy getting ready to move to the next island, reading and chatting. I wasn't planning on swimming as I didn't want to have to deal with wet clothes, however the heat got the better of me eventually so I had a quick snorkel from the beach in front of my room with the bare minimum, ie just my gym shorts mask/snorkel, and flippers.

I was sad to leave the island as I had finally caught up with some people that I had met previously at other resorts (most of the time you'd met someone and then never see them again) and it also meant that I had no more new islands to explore - I had a night to go back on South Sea island, and then it was back to the mainland.

Long Beach

Looking East, the "Long Beach" to your left. To get to the "Blue Lagoon" you would go out that way, and head left (North)



Looking South, across the bay.

On the catamaran I stocked up on 2 x 1.5 litres of water as it is cheaper to buy there than it is at the resorts. I was also not sure if I would be getting lunch when I arrived at Long Beach due to the time, so I had a couple of the cheap yet delicious curry wrap things they sell on the boat.

Turns out I did get lunch when I got here, and enjoyed a great conversation with a honeymooning American couple from San Francisco. First thing I asked them when I discovered where they were from was the result(s) of the Americas cup, but they were in the dark as much as I was. They told me the snorkelling is fantastic here once you get out far enough, which is the hard part. I subsequently attempted it myself later in the day, but didn't seem to get far enough out.

I was the only guest last night, was had its pros and cons, the pro being I got a bure to myself, including having a double bed, which was a nice change from the hard wooden slat beds in the last two places. From what I can tell, I have the room to myself again tonight.

Lunch on the Second Day, rather delicious.

The down side was that it means I have missed out on going to some caves as they need at least three people to do them. They said to talk to the people running the boat, who are also the package people for a refund or something. So this morning I did quite a bit of reading, I finished "Danny Wallace and the Centre of the Universe" (good, easy to read and get through, but not as good as his other works), started and finished Paul Reiser's "Couplehood" (he was the writer and star of "Mad about  You" on TV in the 1990s with Helen Hunt - ok book, and obviously easily readable, but not a good choice when you are single and lonely on an island... - I actually bought it so I had a book I could swap in a book exchange) I also polished off this weeks NZ TV guide, and a Women's Health magazine I picked up for a dollar (just like a Men's Health really, just ignore the bits about PMS)

Other books I have recently devoured include - Danny Wallace's "More Awkward Situations for Men" (good and readable. Better than the first, but nothing compares to his "Yes Man" and "Friends like these". )

- Dom Harvey (from the Edge radio station)'s "Bucket List of an Idiot" (readable, but random and seems to lack cohesion.

Adulting - a sample, about being an adult, interesting but not sure ill commit the $17 required to get the full iBook.  

I have read the last five books pictured here - I read "A Bit Mental" even before I went away, and "Adulting" was a Sample book (ie 10 or 20 pages of it)

Some of the Books I am yet to read on my iPhone - these were all free, being old books (out of Copyright)

Still to read are the iBooks on my phone (pictured) and "Sales Dogs" which is part of the Rich Dad (Poor Dad) Advisor's series, but isn't motivating to read, I seem to have lost enthusiasm for those books. Just before now I walked down to the other point of the beach to see what was there and have a bit of a swim. On the way back I got talking to one of the locals who actually lives in Wairoa, so we had a good chat, and then he invited me to have a cup of tea with his extended family group, so I did. It was nice to do the local thing, but not in a contrived touristy way. I had to smile when, while we were all sitting on a tarpaulin cross legged having a cup of tea and cake, along came a dog, (not sure if it was a pet or a stray, there seems to be less of a distinction here,) it still had it's man bits - could tell as it came and sat with us, almost cross legged as well, with a look of "can I have a cup of tea too please?" Anyhow the guy next to him gave him two pieces of cake. I've seen a smaller dog who when he saw me yesterday got excited and followed me around. I told him to sit, and considering he didn't understand that, I've treated him with caution as I assume a pet would be vaccinated etc, and would understand that instruction. (The German couple that arrived before I left nick-named him Wilson, after the ball in Tom Hank's "Castaway"

This is facing West, to get to the good stuff you have to get out of the shallows and out to in line with that set of rocks in the middle.

Following that I went for a snorkel - attempting the channel again, this time I started further out so didn't have to swim as far and took a slightly different direction. I was rewarded this time, finding the reef, and subsequently seeing either two white tip reef sharks, or the same one twice (I believe it was the latter). A little bit scary admittedly. Unfortunately my camera had run out of battery by that stage, so I don't have a photo of it, but at the same time I wouldn't want to have my attention focussed on anything but the shark either.

The good thing about snorkelling at the time I did is I could use the sun set as an indicator of time, ie sunset is at 6 (dinner at 7, and time to head in before it gets dark).

Usual routine, dinner (pictured above) read etc, power goes off, sleep, wake at 4 or 5 in the morning, snooze a bit, get up, breakfast.

This morning after breakfast we did a boat trip up the coast to the blue lagoon, made famous by the movie "The Blue Lagoon" starring Brooke Shields. The highlight was snorkelling with the fish and feeding them leftovers from breakfast, which they went metal for, so I may try sneaking some bread away next breakfast.

Hopping on the boat south shortly after lunch.