Gone again

It feels like she only got here yesterday and already my beloved mum and best friend has gone home again. We've had an unbelievable three weeks together on the North Island, but more importantly it was just brilliant to see her after a year and a half, and to get to spend proper time together.

Naturally I'm feeling a bit homesick at the moment and wondering why I picked a country quite this far away. However, there are more exciting things still to come, including the NZ Festival and a visit from the other female member of the Odds clan (the males of the species are slacking).

Kiwi hospitality

Kiwis are generally - and quite deservedly - known for giving friendly an excellent service. It's one of the real delights of being in this country.

There are always exceptions though. Pak 'n' Save and Warehouse (both big budget superstores) are a sure place to find surly sales people. Unfortunately, the past couple of days we've come across some real crackers in new places.
The guide who took us round the New Zealand Parliament was of the particularly defensive variety of kiwi. Defensive instead of proud of her nation - it's a fine line but there's a fair number of locals who cross it. She also produced a stunning array of question responses, all with a general sense of 'harrumph'.
Our Wellington backpackers seems to be run by a similarly rare strain of kiwi. It took great effort to get them to tell us how to find our room in a rather large, labyrinthine hostel. Housekeeping seems to consist of changing the pillowcases and hoovering the downstairs hall, and if you manage to secure yourself a knife or mug from the kitchen here, you have to guard it with your life, they're so scarce. The first conversation we had with a fellow traveller in this place was: "Whatever you do, don't open the fridge. It smells like something's died in there".

They're really letting the kiwi side down.

I've seen a kiwi!

A real life Little Spotted Kiwi in the wild (and I'm talking about the bird). Mum and I just did a night walk at the wonderful Karori Wildlife Sanctuary near Wellington and we saw all sorts of rare indigenous wildlife. The highlight though was definitely our wee flightless showman who hung around doing snuffly kiwi things for a good 5 minutes while we watched.

I can leave NZ happy now, whenever that may be.

Satisfying shapes

Wellington is a strangely satisfying shape on a map. The centre is a neat grid, like the centre of a flower, and from there radiate loads of random squiggles in all directions (in the 3D, real life version: roads winding up the steep hills of suburban Wellington).

Very pleasing.

Disaster feet with tales to tell

My feet are a mess, but they do tell the stories of recent travels:

For starters, there's the alien life form that's been with me since Borneo - my ringworm friend.
Then there's the big bruise under the big toe on my right foot - the result of the endless downhill at the end of the Tongariro Crossing. The nail will probably drop off again. Poor thing, it's only recently probably grown back after the same thing happened coming of Mt Kinabalu in Malaysia.
My little toes are recovering from wee sandle blisters incurred in the quest to find a disused tunnel along the Forgotten World Highway.
Finally, my heels have been ripped open by giant blisters after tramping 37km through the NZ bush yesterday.

How come all mum has suffered so far is a 'bit of rubbing' on her right heel?!

Out of the jungle, into the sun (group email)

I'm finally back in New Zealand after 2 glorious months in Borneo. I'm actually pretty gutted to be back for a range of reasons, most simplest: at the moment I'm happier and more challenged by life in SE Asia than in NZ. And that's what I want just now.

Poor NZ's getting a bit of a hard time from me - it is a fantastic country, very easy and friendly to live and travel in, so I can't really complain too much. I had New Year on the beach with my NZ family. It's full on summer here and it's brilliant weather at the moment. I'm now in South Auckland preparing for my mum's arrival in a week. I haven't seen any of my family for almost a year and a half, and I can't wait to see my mum. Hurrah!

Back to Borneo though. So much happens in 2 months there's no way I can cover it all. I was 'volunteering' at the river lodge again for most of it - hosting tourists, helping out with housekeeping, guiding, other bits and pieces. Last time there were 11 fan rooms. Now there are also 16 aircon rooms and an extra 8 members of staff. It was good, almost better than last time. I'm getting my teeth round the language a lot more and pushing my weight around a bit more with regards to some of the more serious issues that need to be resolved there (such as rubbish disposal - into the river is really not a viable option!). I also spent a fair amount of time helping out my new Belgian friend, Gert, with the lodge he's building. He grew up about half an hour from where I grew up. Him and Jason (Malay) are building a lodge in the hills opposite ours. It's beautiful and it was great every now and again to pop over there and help varnish, paint, plaster, whatever.

As before I also spent a lot of time out on the boat trips watching animals. I can now recognise most of the primates from a distance by the way they move, I've become much better at spotting birds and at least distinguishing their broad type (i.e. whether they're a hornbill, bird of prey, etc) and I'm slowly learning to recognise the specific species of bird by the way they fly and the sounds they make. Some of the highlights of the past two months:

• losing 3 of my 8 pairs of knickers when Ujy threw them out, thinking they had been left behind by a guest
• staff dinner with the head honchos and having the chance to really have it out with the big boss (diplomatically, of course!)
• having an entire T-shirt eaten by a rat living in my wall
• watching Nelson and his brothers catch a 9m python
• learning to drive the boats
• meeting Richard and Jo, English photographers and divers living in Kota Kinabalu who come to the lodge several times a year
• going to a restaurant and not speaking a word of English
• daytrip to Nelson's family's old lodge and the areas they used to take tourists
• being taken on a 'nightwalk' around the restaurant by a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old, discovering insects and reptiles and rats
• nights out in karaoke clubs in Sandakan

There are just so many wonderful memories, as always.

In the lead up to Christmas, Gert and Jason (well, Jason cooked) laid on a beautiful, delicious meal as a thank you; Christmas eve was spent in Kota Kinabalu having turkey dinner with Richard and Jo. Christmas day itself was a quiet one on Pulau Labuan, an island off KK.

I had a wee shopping trip in Bangkok on the way home, enjoying the HUGE weekend market there at Chatuchak. I secured 2 (replica) Billabong surf shorts, 2 bikinis (that fit!) and a t-shirt for 660THB (that's about 10 GBP). I also stocked up on (pirated) DVDS - 10 films and 2 5-DVD series for 25 GBP. Excellent.

As you may know, about halfway through my stay in Borneo my camera was nicked, so I only have photos from the second month. Big shame, but never mind. At least I've got some! I'll start getting stuff uploaded to flickr over the next week.

I'd like to say a big thank you to my medical team, Dr Mizen and her assistants Miss K. Odds and Mr Deo Campo, for all their advice and support while I was in the jungle. Thanks to them my bladder and kidneys did not fail and the aliens have not eaten my foot (although they are still trying). Thank you, guys.

For now, it's NZ. A visit from mum and then a month later a visit from Kathy. Other than that, it's all a big unknown again.