First weeks in NZ - Photos

Here we go, two lots for starters. Enjoy.

First week: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157600029654862/

Fishing trip: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157600029660926/

Oz photos

Here's a mish mash of photos from my two weeks in Oz (click on the photo or copy the link): http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157600029933457/

Commercial shatterings

Is it really acceptable for the national TV channel here to only transmit 5 minutes of a programme before breaking for a 5 minute commercial break, and repeating this throughout the whole programme? It drives me insane!

I've probably been a bit spoilt with good old BBC, but give me the British system anytime.

Next steps

For so long I've been going to New Zealand. For so long, all questions of 'so what are your plans?' have been easily and swiftly answered with 'I'm going to work and travel in New Zealand for 2 years'.

Now I'm here and those questions are greeted with a perplexed 'um, I dunno'. Not having a plan isn't my most comfortable of states, but it's bothering me a lot less than it would have half a year ago. I'm actually coping ok with 'I dunno, just going to see what happens, and whatever does happen, it'll be good'. For now...

Road rules and rage

Driving in new countries always means learning a new highway code.

The New Zealand roads have an eminently sensible rule of giving way to oncoming traffic turning right. Wonderful.

The joy of this discovery is immediately shattered by the discovery of their bloody ridiculous rule that you can undertake on motorways and dual carriageways. Which completely defeats the purpose of multi-lane roads. I almost felt safer on my moto in Vietnam than I do on Highway 1 to Auckland!

Fisherwoman

I am sunburnt, my shoulders ache, I smell and I am knackered. And no, this is NOT the result of a day of outdoor samba drumming/shaker shaking. Over here, it is because I 'ave been fishin' on a boat all day. What surprised me most is how much I enjoyed myself. It helps that I, the novice, caught the most fish of all 3 of us: 9 of the 18 keepers-for-eating were mine, plus loads of return-to-seas, including 10-15 snappers, 2 king fish, 2 trevally and, my favourite, a metre-long hammerhead shark.

The 2 lads reckon it's something to do with female hormones rubbing off on the bait and/or my gentle (?!) feminine vibe being transmitted down the line.

Whatever, I am feeling very smug, sorry, satisfied, and consider myself a fishing genius for the timebeing. So there.

South-East Asia round up (for now)

As it is now exactly 6 months since I left home, I thought I'd a) give you the quiz answers and b) do a random roundup.

So, quiz answers:
1. 25th birthday: Kampot, Cambodia
2. Easy-riders: Dalat, Vietnam
3. 'Man of the Forest' = Orang utan, 'Dutch monkey' = munyet belanda = proboscis monkey
4. Thai king was celebrating his 80th birthday and the 60th anniversary of his accession to the throne when I was in Thailand
5. Mt Kinabalu: 4095.2m
6. I did a cookery course in Luang Prabang, Laos that Jamie Oliver once did
7. In my 5 1/2 months in SE Asia I stayed in a total of 68 different guesthouses/homestays.

Random SE Asia roundup:
* favourite food discovery: Laos (sticky rice and water buffalo) and Vietnam (condensed milk)
* worst food: Malaysia
* favourite city: Hanoi or Chiang Mai
* worst city: Johor Bahru (closely followed by Sandakan) in Malaysia
* best wildlife: Malaysia
* friendliest people: everyone, but Laos does stick out
* cheapest: Laos again
* most expensive: Brunei
* craziest traffic/transport options: Cambodia
* most beautiful scenery: Laos
* worst toilets: Cambodia
* best toilets: Malaysia/Singapore
* most boring/least inspiring: Brunei
* worst road: Laos (Huay Xai - Luang Nam Tha) and Malaysia (Sandakan - Bilit)
* fastest internet: Thailand

Kia ora from NZ (group email)

Believe it or not, I am writing to you from New Zealand! Yes, I got here eventually. I'm still settling in and starting to figure out what happens next, so I'll leave kiwi stories for future emails. But I'm here and I'm ok.

My fortnight in Oz was fun, despite a constant struggle with culture shock. I had great giggles overhearing Oz students' perspective on Europe (incl. that Strasbourg is the headquarters of the EU), enjoyed shouting at Ozzie politicians, and tried desperately to find somewhere to eat that wasn't westernised Vietnamese, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian, Indian, Chinese or Japanese (succeeded eventually).

My time was shared between Melbourne and Adelaide.
Melbourne's a lovely, VERY British city. Art galleries and shops saw most of me. I even got involved in a piece of art where visitors are invited to construct buildings from white lego to add to a lego cityscape. It kept me happy for several hours but they refused to give me a cut of the artist's commission. Dammit.
I also discovered Aussie rules football and had a great afternoon cheering on the North Melbourne Kangaroos playing Fremantle in an excellent game.
Adelaide was festival time. Skipping between the Adelaide Fringe (second biggest after Edinburgh) and Womadelaide (World music festival) I had 4 days packed with arty stuff. Big tip if he comes back to Edinburgh this year: Tom Crean, Antarctic Explorer. Really excellent.

My flight to New Zealand was made interesting when, the day before I was due to fly out, a plane took a nose dive instead of taking off at Dubai airport. The airport closed for the rest of the day, causing total havoc for Emirates flights. But the wonderful airline that they are, they'd moved me on to an Air New Zealand flight before I even found out my original flight was cancelled. I still got to Auckland on 13 March AND got a longer lie in. Score!

For now, I'm going back to giggling at the kiwi accents on TV before heading into Auckland city for a scout around.

It will please you all that, after 6 months in balmy, tropical (if not always dry) climates, I am now shivering with cold and no longer able to wear my flip flops/thongs/slippers/jandles that I've practically lived in for the past half year. Booh. And it's very rainy and windy too.

Final destination?

Well, I'm here. In NZ. It seems somewhat unbelievable. The weather's horrible, I'm staying with family friends who go back years, I'm miles out from the city... I might as well be at the Old Mill in Drumoak, except my parents and Barney aren't here.

But I am here, and now we find out what I do next. Watch this space...

NZ124

Six months after leaving home and here I am, the last leg of my long long one-way journey. In 5 hours, I'll be in NZ. The excitement's worn off in that half year, but I'm still looking forward to it in some ways. We'll just have to see what happens.

Field Festivals

Less than a year ago I went for the fourth time to a well-known rock/pop festival in Kinross. I now find myself on the other side of the world in a different field (well, Botanic Gardens, but let's not be pedantic) at Womadelaide, a large world music festival.

In terms of climate, genre and scale the two are incomparable. Nevertheless, my Womad experience reinforces my vow last summer never to attend a fifth T in the Park in favour of this style of music festival.

Here are some of the (unfair?) comparisons:
- At both, bags are checked at the gate for alcohol and glass. At the Scottish event, this is primarily to avoid anyone bringing in potential weapons. The Oz event does it to ensure all the people wandering around barefoot don't cut themselves on something nasty.
- Two essentials are finding your way round and knowing what's on what time and where. To find this out in Kinross, you have to shell out another 7GBP-ish on a glossy booklet and lanyard card set. You can buy a glossy programme in Adelaide too, but the basics are in a free (!) compact map and programme listing.
- Toilets: T in the Park: never enough toilets and differing cleanliness; Womad: clean, plenty and little handmade soaps at the sinks!
- At T, you wade through a carpet of rubbish all over the arena. At Womad, you recycle or take your rubbish home with you.

Oh, I could go on forever. In essence, T in the Park just ain't me. Womad is happy, varied, green, pleasant and laid back. It's me.

Civilised sport

I went to watch North Melbourne Kangaroos play Fremantle in Aussie rules football today, and it left me with a real feel-good feeling. It's so civilised compared to the football back home.

Sure, here too the ref is a wanker, various players should go back to their farms where they belong, and there's plenty of shouting, swearing, cheering and booh-ing. It's the inevitable result of that potent mix of testosterone, competition and adrenaline. There was no actual aggro though, no violence or serious bad-feeling. There's no segregation of supporters, they mix freely and happily throughout the stadium. Supporters of one team don't sneak home via circuitous routes out of fear supporters of the other team might be waiting to jump them and bottle or chib them. 'Mixed team' couples walk hand in hand wearing their opposing tops. No problem. When a Celtic supporter married a Rangers fan last year, the local tabloids ran a 2-page spread on the story.

Having spent long enough in Glasgow and Edinburgh to have become thoroughly disgusted with the 'beautiful game', it's so refreshing to encounter in person a type of football that's still sporting.

Exciting outfit

This has to be one of the most exciting outfits I've ever bought. A $3 top and bargain jeans. Why? Because they're normal. THey're not fisherman's pants and baggy t-shirts (much as I LOVE those clothes too and will continue to wear them). I don't want to blend in per se, but it's nice to have the option of not obviously looking like a scruffy foreign backpacker.

Little Asia

I love Asian food, I really do. I had very few serious cravings for western food while there and could very happily live off their diet for a long time.

But I'm in Oz at the moment, so I fancied eating something western last night and simply couldn't find it. Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Thai, Korean, Japanese, 'Asian Fusion', no problem. But a pub meal or even an Italian? The most helpful anyone could be was to point out the local kebab shop. When I did find a greasy caff that did western food, it was cooked for me by a Malaysian and tasted like most western food tastes in SE Asia: crap.

So it's westernised Asian food, asianised western food, or McDonald's then.

Black and white

Things that made me want to scream today:

• Oz seeming to be even worse than the UK at providing clothes for tall-not-big women.
• Trying to find somewhere for dinner that wasn't Asian cuisine (see other post).
• IDD phone cards not working.
• Trying to locate body spray.
• Ozzie politics.
• Culture shock.
• Shoe sizes.
• My cold/throaty flu that won't shift.
• 'Airline' being broadcast on Ozzie TV.

Things that made me smile today:

• Emirates sorting my ticket to NZ.
• Talking to my mum.
• A mural in a restaurant apparently depicting customers throwing up spaghetti into their plates.
• Asking about a Ramsay Street tour.
• Learning the rules of Ozzie rules football.
• Excellent buskers in the streets of Melbourne.
• Chocolate chip biscuits and apple juice.
• Finding bargains.
• Drinking fruit juice described as 'five fruits blended with an infusion of rosehip, dandelion root and raspberry leaf. Everything a girl needs for internal harmony'.

So it all balances out really.