Farewells to New Zealand

My last day in New Zealand and I’m frantically writing down in my diary all the wonderful things and places I have been and done. Not to mention being so wifi starved for the blog – ignoring all the messages asking when the next post was coming – sheesh! and bugger it, I have to pack yet again! Grumble, I sat facing my suit case, clothes strung all around me, whiling them to pack themselves!

Off to the beach for some tanning and body boarding that morning then it was quick goodbyes to Andy and Sarah and I was on the road again. God I loved that little automatic speed machine! Any ways, I left Tauranga at 1pm for Auckland and in no rush I decided to do lots of stops along the way. I arrived in Auckland during peak hour traffic so that wasnt exactly well planned, I spent a full hour in the traffic trying to get to my hotel which was in the heart of the city. The hotel I was staying at was called Auckland Oaks Hotel and was not signed properly so I proceeded to spend 15  minuets driving up and down Gore road. Grrr!!! Luckily I spotted my grandparents and hooted madly to try get their attention, not an easy feat when your grand father is deaf. haha! Found them and they explained as we had all planned to stay in the same hotel for the last night so we could do dinner and spend some time together. All checked in and I’m hauling my suitcase up the stairs from the underground parking and I walk smack bang into my aunt and uncle – great success, dinner plans now sorted!

Into the elevator and lets push button number OH MY LORD THERE ARE 38 FLOORS! eeek, large buildings have elevators on steroids that zoom up and down but then do that booooooing stretch and stop thing on your floor. Yuk, stomach does flip. Spilled out onto my floor shake the stomach feeling and into my room. Lovely who needs to do the Auckland Sky Tower with this view!! First things first shower and dinner with the family, so into the bathroom where I discovered a washing machine and tumble dryer! Yay, bugger the shower I can do some clothes washing – sweet as!

Dinner was an experience – chinese food and lots of it. Thank goodness for veggie plates because that pork did not smell remotely like pork. “me no see your cat so no more ask”. LOL.  A lovely evening and the old folk were off to bed with me thinking “hang on, its Friday night in Auckland city!!!!” I called the Tokyo crowd who, would you believe it were already out having some vino on the same street as my hotel – yet another score! So off to The Brewery Britomart - my night out in Auckland began. What a seriously fun night, we partied there till midnight then Steve, Karen and myself thought it a good idea to hit the gay night clubs! Whoo Hoo – gotta love me some dancing.

The first club we hit was unsuccessful with no dance floor and I won’t even mention the bathrooms so out into the night air and down the road to a club called FAMILY. Great success aaaand with dedicated female bathrooms! fantastic these club owner obviously know that us ladies will always venture to the gay clubs for a night of un-harassed dancing. To cut a long story short we danced, laughed and drank lumo green shots out of tea pots before climbing into a taxi and getting home at 3am.

OMW, was I feeling all kinds of hung over the next day when I had to check out at 10am and drive to the airport, catch a flight. **please pass the air sick bag**

New Zealand antics continue

After my totally wicked near death experience of White River Rafting we all went to the Rotorua Luge & Skyline ( http://www.skyline.co.nz ). This is a marvelous way of experiencing the amazing landscapes by travelling up a Skyline / Cable Car to the top of a mountain. High up and raining there was no ways I wasnt doing the Luge and any excuse to buy a jacket that’s of course a typical tourist one and I’m ready. The Luge are basically toboggans on wheels and you can choose various routes to ride down the mountain. 13 adults became children and caused utter chaos down the hills. Proud to say that I actually air-lifted myself on one of the downhills! Hell Yeah!

From there we all ventured home and did our separate things in the evening. I spent the evening with my family eating, drinking and laughing. The next day up bright and early to climb Mount Maunganui which over looks the bay of plenty and is 232 meters high. The Mount also over looks the town of Mauao and this climb takes about an hour – an hour of torture I say! The climb is no climb but a hike and my knee was screaming at me but the time we reached the summit. We had light drizzle the whole way up which was actually perfect because I think I would have died if it was hot. It is worth taking time at the top to just sit down and relax – either side having breath-taking views! Either out to sea, or east down the coast towards Papamoa, Maketu or Whakatane. (Ya, now try pronounce those! Bloody Kiwis and your way of adding too many vowels to every word). LOL, my best was a town called Fakutani. *sort*.

That afternoon I had the option of travelling with my cousin and a few of the wedding guests to Auckland for the SA vs. NZ cricket game but decided to stay in the mount with Sarah and Andrew’s Friend Steve. Now Steve was a fabulous girlfriend to have around that day… we went off to the natural hot salt pools and wallowed in these steaming sensations for the afternoon – which was a wonderful way to soak my now stiff legs and severely stiff upper body from the hike and rafting. We also may have indulged in a back & neck massage which was to die for! Totally annoyed that SA did actually beat the Black Caps and I had had the opportunity of going to the game. Ah well, I was a Saffa in New Zealand screaming at the TV so that was all good too!

My last day in Mount Maunganui and I have to say was the best. I moved over to stay with my married cousin his lovely new wife Sarah and Steve. Thier place is right on the beach so we spent some time tanning and body surfing. adventurous am I not now!! Booya! We did absolutely nothing that evening but finished off all the left over bottles of wine from the wedding and caught up with one another. Andrew, my dear cousin what can I say?? You rock! because you are just like me of course. LOL *personal joke*. Sarah, it is so lovely to finally meet you and to welcome you to the family, so much love to you already! Steve, save a spot for me in Japan – I’m coming to visit!

That night we… after considerable amounts of wine made our way down to the “Fish & Chups” shop ordered and went down to the beach to play this fun ball game. Can’t for the life of me remember what it is called, but you basically have to throw the white ball out then with your two coloured balls try to land as close to the white ball as possible. So a little like Bowls but you have to throw the ball a certain way. FUN! Fish and Chups on the beach (more wine) the fish & chups came in news paper and the chups being the best slop chips ever I was in heaven. It get’s better… Sarah pipes up to me “Have you ever skinny dipped in the ocean at night?” I’m like NO! and No I am not doing this because not a few hours ago did you mention to me the wild rip tides that NZ has!!!

Guess what? The ocean is really warm at night and the creepy crawly Plankton glows! So it looks like someone has dumped a tub of extra-large glitter in the sea! PRETTY!!!!!! What an amazing evening which didn’t end there of course as we still had more board games and more wine to get through!

Sweet as Bru!

River Rafting in Rotorua

“but don’t worry, only 1 person has died so far” This was the response I received from my cousins bride. Never the less those of you who know me, know how most things in my life fall under “Carpe Diem”, so White River Rafting it was.

13 of us all piled into 4 cars and off we went. We went south of Tauranga to the geothermal city of Rotorua which was a beautiful 45 minuet drive through pine forests and along the Kaituna River. This would be the river that would dam near half drown me later on. haha. Now I had been told that I would know I was in Rotorua by the smell and they weren’t kidding. Rotorua smells of sulphur due to its unique volcanic landscape with escaping hot airs and natural springs. Rotorua is a popular tourist destination because of  the living Maori culture and natural hot springs. Awesome bit of info there but stinky at times.

So we arrived at (www.rotorua-rafting.co.nz) and were met by one of the guides who spoke exactly like a typical Kiwi. He tried to break the ice with his speech about signing the indemnity form. “Alrighai, first tings firs, please sign your life away hee first”. Off to get fitted for a “Non-life Jacket” because we were informed that this is NOT a life saver but a PFD. Personal Floatation Device… Ok great but then they go onto say the added bonus of “because you can still be floating face first”. That was the first time I shook my head and thought, aah, you didn’t need to say that bit. So anyways, PFD, helmet and booties and we were set. (opted not for the full wet suite).

A quick Do’s and Don’t and YOU WILL listen to us or drown basically and we were off in the bus to the starting zone. Our guide – Chris then pipes up “Can you all swim?” and throws our raft into the water and says “Go fetch”! WTF!!!! So while the other teams climbed into their boats all gentle like we had to without a thought jump in and “go fetch”. Brilliant! Now when we’re all in the raft literally the first rapid arrives and well, what a perfect way to learn than but doing…

Now, we were taught as we went along all we knew was to either paddle forwards, backwards, hold on or get down and I soon realized that our guide Chris was actually Satan’s Spawn as he had no qualms about directing us backwards down a waterfall or hitting one of us on the head with his ore and calling us “bloody muppets”! Satan’s Spawn then announces that this is his last river raft as he’s moving and that he’s going to have some fun with us. ah… nice one spawn of satan, we kinda already got that when you sent our boat into the river without us and directed us down the first water fall backwards! LOL.

What I have yet to mention is that along this River is the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world. The fall is 7 meters and is a Mother F@#%er of note. We were basically told that “if” we flip, find an air pocket but DO NOT under any circumstances let go untill told to and If you can’t hold on assume the ball position and count to 10 slowly praying that your “non-life saver” floats you out. GREAT! Guess what??? We flipped!!!!

Imagine the scariest moment of your life, a near death experience if you please…. got it? Ok, now triple that!

It happened so fast and I couldn’t find air or anything to hold on to and when I heard Satan’s Spawn say let go I was like, this is it i’m  a goner. I came up for air just in time to have the raft smash down on my head so another breath and I was under again. I swam to the raft and was the first one pulled in and started pulling Alex back in realizing now that I was not only the only girl back in the boat but that we were 3 people short! Holy shit! The other two girls had been pulled onto another raft but Steve was nowhere to be seen. He was already floating, no wait, scrap that, being pulled down the river by the intense current.

All back on board with the adrenalin pumping though our bodies and dearest Christ / Satan’s Spawn tells our man over board – Steve, to go sit at the front of the raft facing us. He then instructs us to row into the base of the waterfall! Again, a case of WTF? but we follow because we don’t know any better. Let me tell you what happens when you steer a raft into a waterfall against the current! the front gets sucked in. Scary at first but fun after you realize that this you won’t die from. Don’t get me wrong you are hanging on for dear life but once we all had a go it was great.

There were photos taken of us throughout the entire experience and when we were back on dry land and saw them our group was in hysterics at each photo. 45 photos in total and of every single angle of our raft flipping. Our near drowning experience can be relived over and over again!

What an absolutely amazing experience and a definite do again!

Wedding Day

My cousin’s wedding day arrived and we all woke early….. ah, no…. let me rephrase that….. I didn’t sleep much so was up reading my book way before the rest of the “un-jet-lagged woke up. So with the groomsmen getting ready at our house a state of mild panick and speadsheet checking ensued! While the spread sheets were passed around I decided to change the “Merry Christmas” paper cut-outs that hung on the wall to something more wedding like. So Sharon and I began the massive task of making & cutting out the wording “Andrew & Sarah 19 Feb 2012 <3″. now if I may say so myself *ahem* this looks rather nice and a lot better than Merry Christmas in the backgroundfor the photographs. The groomsmen and photographers arrived and did their thing with the rest of us trying to hide out of sight (still in our pyjama’s and all).

The ceremony was held at The Elms, which is a historical site (http://www.theelms.org.nz/). Lovely. In the heat of the day and in the blistering sun but short and sweet being the perfect amount of time, so nice to be family and to automatically have a seat in the front. A family photo session followed with some of the funniest wardrobe malfunctions ever seen. Sun screen not rubbed into my Grampas balding head and my grandmothers knee highs falling down to her ankle! HYSTERICAL!

From The Elms we were all bussed off to the reception venue, a winery called Mills Reef (http://www.millsreef.co.nz/) and what an absolutely stunning venue! There we did the traditional group photo and started being fed champers and copious amounts of sea food! nom nom…. fresh oysters, prawns, mussels, calamari, salmon and and. The table settings were stunning. White and silver with mirrors and candles – very elegant. I sat at a tabled called Dubai. Each table was named and tagged with a picture of the happy couple and of a place or fabulous adventure they had. I was with Morgan, my younger cousins girlfriend (who I just have to add is awesome and I definitely approve of) my grandparents, aunt and uncle and another random couple with such broad accents that I could hardly understand, nevermind that nearly every 2nd word was a profanity! A great table never the less with endless chatter.

Onto speeches and dinner and both were of course out of this world. The father of the brides speech was heartfelt and witty and a tough act to follow. The best man – Dean was hilarious and again hard to follow! So much love and thanks in those speeches and of course an awesome little shout out from the groom to yours truly!

Cutting of the cake and on to the dance floor where I got to join into the couple first dance with my grandfather. This I had been waiting for I think subconsciously for years and which made my night! The old man left directly of course as it was way past his bed time and me, well… in floods of tears. Thank you to the family for all the hugs, and Morgan for the amazing photos of that moment. It is a memory I will not forget!

We partied till the wee hours of the morning and slightly hungover the next day but well worth it! Still jet lagged we made our way home after +- 3 hours of sleep only to shower and change and start prepping for the full BBQ that we were hosting. This BBQ was aptly dubbed the recovery BBQ and there were a lot of people nursing hangovers. 4 rounds of BBQ’ing over about 35 people over the entire day and I now had no clue if I was Arthur or Mathur! Jet lagged and running on almost only a total of 15 hours of sleep over 3 days – KAPUT!

James, Morgan and I decided to call it a day and when the party continued on to another bar we headed off to the Woolworths and bough munchie food and vegged in front of the TV. Man oh man did I all of a sudden start having the weirdest out-of-body experience. Top half of me was hot and sweaty with the lower half of me freezing and I swear my eyes started spinning. Lol.

In the end I crashed hard and slept like the dead. Finally utter bliss!

Time Zones…

JHB to SYD, 13 hours. SYD stop over – 3 hours. SYD to AKL, 3 hours. 3 time zones crossed and I’m still standing… just!

 

When I finally arrived in Auckland it was 12:30 am. Caught the shuttle to the Holiday Inn and I have never been happier to see a bed. Actually I’m not even sure if I took note of what my hotel room looked like as I literally fell face first into bed. 6 hours of sleep and it was off to sort out my hire car, which was not delivered to the hotel as arranged in Joburg. Grrrr…. Don’t mess with this SA girl. One phone call from me at the reception desk and 2 very large men with about 5 front teeth between them quickly arrived at the hotel to escort me to my car.

The drive from Auckland to Tauranga and Mt Maunganui was easy and took me 4 hours in my lovely little automatic Toyota! What a pleasure to drive and no I didn’t keep trying to use my left leg on the “clutch” but I did keep putting my left hand down to “change gears” haha – fun! I drove through vast open farm lands then mountains then along the coast. I  nearly drove my car off the road when I passed a sign that read ~Highland dancing and Tattoo~ WHAAAAT! Had to pull over and take a picture to show mom and the studio! I later stopped and did the tourist thing at a beach called Waihi. HA! most words in New Zealand have way too many vowels in them – ridiculous to try pronounce.

 

Staying with my Aunt Sharon in a house with 4 others, Sharon and her partner Andrew, my cousin James and his girlfriend Morgan and Betty - Sharon’s mom so a little busy but very homely. One nights sleep and then it’s wedding day!!!! All the boys will be getting ready at our house so between the photographers and the extra grooms men its going to be entertaining to say the least.