South Island Holiday pics

Have good old gander at pics from our jaunt around the South Island at the start of this year:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157632627101033/

Christmas photos

We had a wonderful kiwi Christmas with the Histens in Christchurch, followed by an excellent new year with Bex and Shane in good old National Park.

Check out the photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157632588218847/

Golden Bay

Thank goodness for Gregg's stubbornness.  I scoffed at his suggestion to go up and over the (big) hill to Golden Bay at the north of the South Island.  We were 'supposed to' be heading south, far south, and this was completely the other way and off the route.

Golden Bay is gorgeous.  One of my new favourite places in New Zealand.  Because it is more off the beaten track, it is also less packed with tourists, and it has so many hidden treasures.

Number one treasure is Wharariki Beach.  It takes quite a while to get there, but by golly is it worth it.  Wide open beach; hardly anyone there; limestone formations to die for, including caves and rockpools to explore to your heart's content.  To top it all off, multiple seals and seal pups hang out at some of the rock pools while the tide is out, the little black pups frolicking and squealing in the pools.  I could have watched them for hours!

We explored the beaches and the cliffs, enjoyed scrummy beer and food at the Mussell Inn (their Monkey Puzzle beer is spectacular, we would have brought home a case if they'd had an off-license), scoffed AMAZING chocolate from Rosy Glow (Collingwood), browsed the many and varied arts and crafts galleries, and generally had a bloody marvellous time!

Matthew

When I think of dream jobs, the very last thing I would put on that list would be a geographically isolated, repetitive job cleaning up after tourists and with a less than compassionate boss.

M seems to love it.  He manages an isolated campsite, 25 minutes from the nearest pub.  His home?  A converted fire truck.  Yes, seriously, a converted fire truck.  And a very nice job he has  done of it too.  The flashing lights still work (but cannot be used on public roads), but unfortunately the siren was disconnected.

He has diverse and strong opinions about a wide range of (mainly political) topics and so provides fabulous entertainment of a summer's evening, even if he does tend strongly to the pessimistic end of the spectrum.  His habit of nattering at length and taking any topic on a tangent as wide as the Pacific is less endearing when you just went over to say thank you and goodbye.  Ten minutes later, you find yourself in the midst of a monologue about tax and stupid credit limits.

I wonder where he will end up next in his fire truck?

Havelock-tastic

My first proper flat ever was on Havelock Street in Glasgow, 2001.
My first proper job in New Zealand was apple-picking in Havelock North in 2007.
2013 and Havelock continues to provide for good things.

On our way down to Wellington for the ferry, we stayed with our lovely friends, C & A, at their gorgeous house on Havelock Road and had a good old catch up.

Today we have randomly ended up spending the night in Havelock on the South Island.  What a fantastic fluke!  We had booked a table at the amazing Mussel Boys for dinner but gave it up very quickly after the owner of our hostel invited us to join them and a bunch of other guests for a shared dinner of mussels and salmon.  Yum!  Lots of interesting and chatty people to fill an evening.  Completely unexpected.  To top it off, we were taken on a late night walk up to a waterfall where we saw the most AMAZING glow worms I have seen yet here.

What next?!