California Listenin'

Last night was another first for Amanda & I. With a couple of friends we headed to Holy Trinity Cathedral in Auckland's oldest suburb, Parnell. Think old colonial villas and lots of boutique shops; although as we discovered later in the night, not many drinking establishments. It is also home to one of New Zealand's most revered heritage buildings - the Auckland Museum.

However, visiting Parnell was not the first of which I speak; nay, that was listening to a live symphony orchestra. The world famous California Youth Symphony Orchestra was in town for the first NZ show of their 2012 world tour.

We recognised the names of two of the three composers but not the pieces of music. Perhaps our more cultural readers do?

• La Valse (Maurice Ravel)
• Clarinet Concerto (Aaron Copeland)
• Billy the Kid, Ballet Suite (Aaron Copeland)
• Suite from Der Rosenkavalier (Richard Strauss)

The cathedral was not full, surprising given the population of Auckland and that free entry. We concluded that it must be the "really cold" temperature of 5C that was keeping everybody at home.

Thankfully did not appear to affect the sound quality at all and also made it easier to get a view of the orchestra. My personal highlight of the evening however was the encore, which you can listen to below - guess that makes me a philistine!

Despite not recognising the music and not knowing squat about orchestras it was an entertaining evening, even if the conductor's gesturing reminded me of this guy...

Finished the night off with a Kilkenny's in Parnell's only pub - an "Irish Bar".

Just another weekend in Auckland...

A very quick update with this weekends adventures. A mixed bag and one of the things we love about living here at the moment.

Started the weekend with a stroll along the wild black sand "Bethells Beach". Amanda had just finished three long shifts and so the fresh air was welcome, even with the increasing wind.

A quick bite and a bit of afternoon sun - it hit 17C degrees which those of you in the UK would probably kill for right now! Run some errands before dinner and a movie on the home projector with the housemates.

Sunday a leisurely cooked breakfast before heading to the Auckland Domain to take in the "Super Special Stage" of the World Rally Championship. A first for both of us and we moved around frequently to get a taste of the action from various angles.

The cars were really hooning around the narrow roads of the Domain, launching over speed bumps, tyres squealing and engines back-firing - all with the Auckland Museum /city in the background.

Managed to grab glimpses of the legendary Sebastien Loeb, Kiwi up and comer Hayden Paddon and "youtube sensation" Ken Block Hoonigan, who you can watch in action below.

Below: Ton up in a 20K zone - where are the rozzers when you need them....?

Watched a few of the classics but made our way to the Musuem once the cars started getting more normal. Timed our exit well as we only just made it under cover before a torrential downpour started.

Marvelled at the outstanding photography on display in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. Some photos here and here. Rich is tempted to get an SLR again!

Headed over to the North Shore for a Thai and a couple of glasses of beer with one of Rich's friends and his partner- Leffe Blonde for the men, cherry beer for the ladies...

Some footage on youtube posted by a fellow JAFA...

And a couple of videos we took ..

rally musuem from Rich & Amanda on Vimeo.

rally fast from Rich & Amanda on Vimeo.

Rotorua

May 2012. Approximately 210 minutes drive south of Auckland is a town affectionately named by some as Rotovegas. Yes, this week reader, we are taking you on a quick trip to Rotorua, a town known for its motels, and love of the tourist dollar.

It's also, more appropriately known as home of geothermal activity; at least as far as the North Island is concerned.

Headed south straight after work in the trusty Corolla and arrived around 9pm, just enough time to grab a beer and check out the hot pool - geothermally heated, naturally. Quite cool as it was a clear night and we could see in the pool and look at the stars - ahhh.

In fact this was a momentous evening for Amanda - on the drive down she saw her first shooting star - ever!

Up early the next day to check out one of the famed geothermal parks - the wonderfully named "Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal Wonderland" - which had Rich half expecting to see Willy Wonka, or at least some oompa-loompas. Once again the weather gods where shining on us - another blue dome day; if the park could live up to its name and match the weather we were in for a treat.

First we have to mention the steam however. It seems to be erupting from just about everywhere. Drains in the road, peoples back gardens. Some enterprising individuals have even used it make their own hotpools in the back yards.

It did not disappoint. While essentially, just some holes in the ground, bubbling mud and funny coloured rocks it was an absorbing couple of hours. Never seen anything like it. Sulphurous steam vents all over the park, from just about any crevice and in some cases is quite overpowering due to the strong eggy pong.

Rotorua is famous for it - it's own distinct pong. It was not that noticeable the night we arrived - perhaps due to the clear skies. Here at the source, however it was unmistakable.

One of the highlights had to a pool known as The Champagne Pool and the adjacent "Artists Palette". Very hot and with clouds of steam constantly rising from them, clearing frequently to show the rock coloured various colours - the exact colour dependent on the minerals deposited in them.

Also saw a famous geyser called the Lady Knox geyser which they ensure erupts on time with the addition of some biodegradable soap.

In the afternoon we visited a small town called Ohinemutu on the shore of Lake Rotorua, the regions original Maori settlement (now a suburb of Rotorua). Quite noticeably poorer and more run down than the rest of Rotorua - but with a charm all of it' nonetheless. There is an impressive meeting house and church opposite each other with the church containing a window etched with the image of Jesus clad in a Maori cloak - he appears to walk towards you across the surface of the lake.

As the sun was setting we popped over to the Old Bath House and surrounding botanical gardens.

Lost our luck with the weather the following day. The blue skies turning a depressing grey and rain falling all day. Headed to to the Redwood forest, however, where the canopy provided ample protection from the rain. Wow. What a beautiful place. Walked for a couple of hours through the forest, working up an appetite for lunch before heading back to Auckland.

The forest also has loads of mountain bike tracks, rated just like ski slopes - 'Sweet' says Rich with a far off look in his eye. 'OK' says Amanda, 'We can come back...'

Snapper!

Weekend last, Rich headed out on a fishing charter with a couple of colleagues (and about 15 other people!). An early start as we had to be at the docks by 6.45 and so up around 5.50-on a Sunday!

Quite a cold day, especially out of the sun. Good job we had many layers on and thankfully it remained dry all day.

Was told to expect to come home stinking of fish and to wear some old clothes - since we ditched all the old clothes before heading to NZ I had to go out and buy some old clothes.

First time I've been fishing as I recall. We headed out about one and half hours, erm, sail and dropped anchor.

Had a quick lesson on how cut up the bait (Pilchard) and how to bait hooks so that it does not fall off (hook around the backbone) and then we were off.

In no time somebody had landed a small Trevailly, not good eating apparently, but unfortunately for the fish, legal size and promptly cut up for bait.

First fish landed that was legal size was a Red Snapper. Unfortunately our skipper had not told us how to take the fish off the hooks, or, how to kill them. Pretty important stuff really.

The hooks are pushed out and can be tricky to do. The fish are killed, not by whacking the heads on the deck as some of us thought, but by inserting a knife into their brains.

Unfortunately, one clueless group of four where not even aware they had to kill the fish and were ready to chuck them straight in the cooler. And despite further instruction, they never got the hang of it and many fish suffered an agonising death at their hands.

One of the four, early on, was trying to kill the fish by "suffocating" it with a rag; before thinking about stomping on it's head.

Was very disappointed with the skipper by this point, who turned out to a bit of an arse, more interested in making sure he got his fair share than making sure everybody knew what they were doing and indeed, the welfare of the fish.

Don't want to sound like a bleeding heart, but in my opinion, if you are are going to hunt, or fish you should respect the life of the animal you are taking and give it as quick and humane a death as possible.

What made it worse was that it turned out that many of those on board had no intention of taking the fish home with them, they were just landing them for sport and then butchering them. It was pretty grim, seeing how many fish were being chucked into the cooler still alive.

I could see little point in this and once I had a couple I threw the rest back. Two was easily enough for me considering Amanda does not eat fish and at that point I had no idea how to gut and fillet them.

In all I landed 3 Snapper and 3 Kahawai. Learnt how to gut and fillet the two Snapper I took home via youtube and had sautéed snapper as a starter that night. Yum! The larger one is in the freezer ready to baked.

We moved around a few times, changing location when the fish stopped biting and ened up about 2 and half hours from home.

One of the highlights was cathcing glimpses of dolphins by the boat; and fishing near a huge flock of gannets or the like and watching them dive into the water for fish.

Great to eat fish you have caught yourself - I'd do it again - just not with that skipper and ideally a smaller crew, who had a little more respect for the fish...

Home on the Overlander

OK, a very quick post here, as this was a long time ago. Easter weekend in fact when we headed down to Wellington. We were chauffeured there by JetStar Airlines, and a fine hassle free service it was, with livery reminiscent of that well known European budget airline.

For the trip back we decided on something a little more scenic and booked ourselves on the Overlander train. A 12 hour journey that winds it's way though past some stunning scenery, through 14 tunnels and across over 350 bridges.

We left Wellington promptly at 7.25am and George kindly got up earlier than us in order to drive over and pick us up and deliver us to the station.

The journey, really was picturesque, some amazing views of the heartland of the North Island, lots of rolling pasture, some forest and bush and some jaw dropping views as we crossed some very wide and deep valleys.

Can't say we would rush to do the journey again however. Already long at 12 hours, our actual journey took almost 14 due to a broken down train on the (single) line. The rolling stock also dates from the 1960s and despite some ongoing refurbishment is pretty dated, while the food available was very poor - and only instant coffee!

Our day did no end with our arrival at Auckland station either as we still had to find our way home. So a long old day. Glad we did it as some awesome scenery, but will not be doing it again in a hurry.

Unfortunately our photos do not do the views justice as it was often hard to get a good one due to reflections or other people in the way; however a few are below, including some for all you train buffs...

Wellington: Lake Ferry, The Pinnacles & Cape Palliser

Another blue dome day, another day exploring. This time we travelled a bit further afield - about an hours drive south west of Wellington. We packed quite a bit into the day and so have lots of pics for you and even some videos...

We started the day with a walk along the shore at Lake Ferry. Rather a bleak shore which could probably be mistaken for the moon, if not for the water, but picturesque nonetheless with the misty outline of north of the South island just visible in the distance..

Spent some time watching the locals surf-casting (fishing in the surf) and they were have quite a bit of luck. With one guy in particular continually landing snapper and even a Barracuda. Lake Ferry enters the sea here by a channel and it was quite visible on the surface where the currents mixed. In fact all along the shore you could see how powerful they were and you would not want to wander too far out.

Had fish and chips (pronounced "Fush and chups" in this part of the world) at Lake Ferry Hotel. They are apparently world famous but while they were a welcome feed, we were not blown away and the coffee was not great either-must do better!

After brunch we headed further along the coast to the Putangirua Pinnacles - one of the best examples of badlands erosion and earth pillar formation in the world. It also happens to be the location for "Dimholt Road" in LOTR. Scattered amongst all the scree you can also find rocks, covered in fossils. Below is one we prepared earlier...

With the sun high in the sky, we set off along the wide, rocky streambed and headed North. We stream snaked up the bed towards he higher ground and we had to cross it several times before we reached the foot of the valley in which the Pinnacles were.

As we moved further into the valley the ground, wall to wall scree started to get a little steeper. The reward was the sight of the pinnacles, or "hoodoos" themselves. Great examples of what the elements can do over time and quite an eerie landscape. Also plenty of opportunities to act the fool, not that any of us would... The valley narrowed as we proceeded further in and turned into a steep and narrow crevasse with towering walls of (rather fragile and loose) scree and shingle. Had a little explore, but could not find a way out so headed back for camp.

The sun was pretty strong today and (foolishly) not packing hats meant Rich had to resort to more creative methods of shading his bonce. Meanwhile, his feet gave him no complaints despite being shod in his five fingers whilst covering some pretty rough terrain - must have adapted quite well...

Could have stayed and explored here a little longer but sunset was approaching and we wanted to make a seal colony further along the coast. A first for both Amanda and Rich, we were able to approach to within a few meters several large fur seals that were sunning themselves on the rocks. An awesome site but the smell of these creatures was, rather less so and quite unique.

One last stop. We headed a little further along the coast to Cape Palliser names by Captain James Cook in honour of 'his worthy friend' Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser and is the site of a lighthouse originally built in 1897 and fully automated in 1986 -with some of the work completed by none other than our tour guide George!

The were great views to be had from the rock on which it was perched, but the slight obstacle of 250 steps to reach it. Missing his CrossFit Rich decided to set himself the challenge of running all the way to the top..he made it, just! Got about halfway quite easily but as the steps got narrower and steeper his legs were starting to get a bit heavy and the last few were completed at a pace not much more than a walk.

Amanda, Liz and George took the more sensible option of walking up...

But all were rewarded with some awesome views....

Videos!

Views near Lake Ferry

Pinnacles

Rich running up the steps

View from the top