Up a Bit

Labour day bank holiday weekend – 20-22 October 2012

This will be my first blog post, bare with me!

Another bank holiday – and I managed to not work! Yay! This time it was commemorating labour day. Very kindly Rich's work provide us with information regarding all the NZ holidays . Thank you Spendvision! Labour Day

Labour Day commemorates the struggle for an eight-hour working day and is held on the fourth Monday in October .

New Zealand workers were among the first in the world to claim this right when, in 1840, the carpenter Samuel Parnell won an eight-hour day in Wellington. He encouraged other tradesmen also to work for only eight hours a day and in October 1840, a workers' meeting passed a resolution supporting the idea. “And just a quick reminder that it was this weekend last year that the All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup final!”

We decided to head a little way up North, about 2 and a half hours drive. This turned out to be the right decision as the rest of the county was wet! No weather bomb though!

Set off a bit later than planned due to a very loud/late party next door the previous night. We must be getting old!

A lovely drive north out of Auckland (and out of the fumes) took us to Waipu, a historic town initially inhabited by the Scottish. A drive further on through Waipu took us to one end of Bream bay, Waipu Cove. A beautiful, surprisingly fairly quiet long white beach. It was even shorts and suncream weather, although not warm enough for me to paddle for too long, just long enough for some photos.

Arriving at the cottage on a farm for our weekend, we took a recommended, short walk leading to the beautiful Mangere falls and a secluded tiny chapel. Very cute.

The directions we were given by our hosts led us through their neighbours gardens (but it was OK we had our visitors badge on!). Took us a few minutes to actually find the chapel from the directions given as it really was hidden in the trees PHOTO 3613. We could hear the waterfall but not see it. We were given a lovely view of the falls once inside the chapel, that overlooked them. The award winning chapel's (photo 3590) entrance was a large wooden door, locked by a large bolt at the top. They even had a built in drop down step for those vertically challenged visitors to be able to unlock it. Once we stepped in we were amazed. It was beautiful. I didn't expect it to be a working chapel but there was a photo album which showed services and weddings. The window behind the lectern looked out onto the falls. It also allowed us to see the hydro electric generator powering the chapel.

A little walk out of the chapel down the bank gave a full view of the falls.

Dinner was taken in at a very “local” tavern. Decent portion sizes, 1st look at it and you didn't quite know where to start!

The farm we stayed on was owned by a couple who had British parents. Her father, a World War 2 veteran, also living on the property. A really interesting man in his mid-eighties with an extensive workshop where he restores wooden items. One of these items was a wooden box holding some war time medals, of which he was very humble of. A few were his (grand)fathers(?) but the rest were his. He seemed quite reserved about what his rank was, I felt he should have been very proud what with being a Regimental Sergeant Major in the Royal Engineers. That concludes our 1st meeting with a war veteran! Although I do feel he could have talked for a lot longer!

Sunday started with a trip to Whangarei Falls http://www.wdc.govt.nz/FacilitiesandRecreation/WalksTrails/Pages/WhangareiFalls.aspx Beautiful and fairly peaceful. Looked like a nice place for a picnic and probably a walk along the river, but we were saving our feet for the coast. Next headed over to the Tutakaka coast. http://www.whangareinz.com/destinations/tutukaka_coast/l

The first sight of the coast line was in Matapouri where we started our walk along to Whale bay. PHOTO 3637 Matapouri bay was a calm inlet with an almost white sandy beach. Again, really quiet which I didn't expect for bank holiday weekend, especially when we have been told that Aucklanders head out of Auckland for bank holidays! Where were they? Not that I was complaining. With a beautiful walk along the bay we ventured over the hill and found a completely contrasting small beach. Rough sea, due to the exposure out to sea and pebble beach. It was such a surprise, but that's why we love NZ. (If you look really close in the third photo you can see Rich).

A further walk along the headlands brought us to Whale Bay, another quiet, white sandy beach, backed with Pohutakawa trees - the NZ Christmas trees. They have the most beautiful red blossoms over the summer, Christmas. We cannot wait for them to start blooming. Whole sections of coastlines around Auckland (and many other places) are lined with these trees, making for a lovely scene. Watch this space!

The evening was spent in Whangarei, struggling to find somewhere for dinner! The place was virtually deserted with only one restaurant open – needless to say it was busy.

Bank holiday Monday saw us head home. We took a drive around Whangarei heads with a little coastal walk. Mangawhai heads were, almost, on the way home so we thought we'd take a little detour and go for a walk. And what a walk. Despite being very windy, it ended in some spetacular views looking over Bream Bay, one end of which is Waipu Cove where we started our weekend. Just a shame we don't have a SLR camera to show you the view in better quality. You'll just have to believe us! Photo 3706, 3704 The walk allowed us to see some of the wonderful wildlife the area had to offer. Cows were the most prominent feature on our walk! And you all thought NZ was home of the sheep! Well not where we were, cows all the way! Saw a fantail, Pukeko's, kingfishers, parrots, rabbits and a field mouse. We even came across some beehives on the edge of a farm.

A Brace of Silver Ferns

Whats'up y'all?

Apologies for the lack of blog action of late; it's not that we have not been up to anything - just that we have not had time to write it up. Amanda has been tasked with writing the next blog post and she is currently suffering a little writers block.

We do however, have some news that cannot wait!

Earlier this week, and totally unexpectedly Amanda received an electronic mail saying that our immigration status had changed.

The very next day we received these in the post:

That's right people, we are now bona-fide residents of New Zealand. Brilliant! So what does this mean...?! Well in short it means that we are now entitled to stay here indefinitely, live anywhere and, most importantly, work anywhere.

For those of you worried that you may never see us again - don't worry it's not a definite that we are staying, just that we have longer to decide. And for those of you hoping to never see us again - sorry to disappoint, but you almost certainly will!

We were not expecting to receive a decision on this until well into next year; we were told to expect an answer in between 6 and 9 months. So we are very surprised and pretty chuffed to have received it in just 7 short weeks..! Brilliant!

This gave us the perfect excuse to break out the bubbles Amanda was given by friends for her birthday. And where better or more appropriate to celebrate than on a beach, with a view one of Auckland's most famous landmarks - Rangitoto island....?

Gig-idy!

It's been well over a month since our last post; we've actually had two trips away in that time; sorry, we are being a bit tardy on getting them written up!

This post woo, I'm afraid will enlighten you no further either. It's just a quick one to say hi and let you know about the awesome week of music we have had...

One thing we have missed about back home, Brighton in particular is live music, or the lack of it. we have found a couple of open mic nights but they are very hit and miss, erring on the side of miss!

Still this week has probably just about made up for it. On Saturday, 6 months after we booked the tickets we headed to Aucklands premier music venue, the Vector Arena. Our entertainment this evening was the most excellent 'The Black Keys'. Wow, what a gig. They played all their hits, but also chucked in a lot of their back catalogue.

In fact if you only know of their latest stuff from El Camino (Lonely Boy / Gold on The Ceiling) I strongly urge you check out their older albums - the breakthrough 'Brothers' is excellent, while the earlier 'Magic Potion', 'Rubber Factory' and 'Attack and Release' are also well worth you time and show their blues rock routes.

Their performance was full of power and swagger, with on hit after another. Midway through the set they returned to the origins and performed some of their older songs as a duo (they are usually a four piece on stage).

By the end of the show and two encores they had the whole of the arena up and out of the seats dancing (doing their best to do a Derrick. T. Tuggle). Great atmosphere and would seem them again in a dirty, grungy, blues-rock heartbeat!

Last night saw us return to the Vector Arena unexpectedly. Radiohead were in town. We however had failed to secure tickets before they sold out in 10 minutes back in March. The tickets had been trading on TradeMe of $500 and more and so we were all set for a quiet night in. However just 2 hours before they gig was due to start a handful of tickets went on sale, at face value.

A rushed dinner and made dash later we were back at the Vector listening to the warm up act. And what seats! Much closer and lower down than those we had for The Black Keys (although to be honest we had wanted stalls for that gig!).

Apparently I was grinning like a Chesire cat all night! Another great gig; although it did not reach the heights of The Black Keys gig. For one, they did not really engage the crowd like Messrs Dan and Patrick. Secondly they played nothing from 'Pablo Honey' or 'The Bends' and only two songs from 'OK Computer' - my three favorite albums and the only ones Amanda knew...

Still it was a great experience, the light show was amazing. Helped along by 18 suspended screens that changed formation and angles throughout the show and switched between displaying images of the band at work and abstract images, which pulsed in time with the music. Each song had it's own visual arrangement and set of colours which bathed the entire stage. Sweet, finally seen Radiohead live, just a shame the focused on the newer stuff!

That should just above keep us sated until we attend The 'Laneways Festival' in January, about as big a music festival as you get in NZ; mainly local acts but some smaller overseas acts too - a bit like The Great Escape lines ups for those in the know.

Here's a video of Derrick T Tuggle doing his thing...

Here's a higlight reel of The Radiohead show...

And here's one where you can see the screens...ooooh, screeny...

Finally, here some a couple of videos that have been playing relentlessly at my gym; love em!

Op, op oppan gangnam style!!