Going underground...

Its been a while since I got off my arse and updated this thing. So, as its a Sunday and I'm (yet again) hungover, I thought I may as well sit down and give you a run down on my latest adventures.

Right, probably best if I go back a bit...I've never been Kayaking before, and to be fair this is probably something that I should have told the nice lady who stuck me in a Kayak and sent me sailing off down the Puhoi River. Apparently it is generally seen as bad form to wear jeans whilst participating in water sports. The reasoning behind this became clear after I fell out of my Kayak after about 15 minutes on the water, much to the amusement of my chums. Top tip for when you fall out a Kayak, don't try and turn it back over in the water. The bloody thing just fills up with water, making the rescue operation even more cumbersome. Despite my rather haphazard approach to the day, it was pretty good fun.

Have a look at my pics, I've actually updated them for once. You'll see that I've been doing a bit more beach combing. Bethells has been added to my growing list of top NZ beaches (but Karekare is still in the top spot). We took a day trip up to Goat Island, which was NZs first marine reserve. The water was pretty choppy, but you could still see the little blue fish (insert correct fish name here) swimming about. I was very brave and dipped my feet in. Luckily they'd obviously had their dinner and decided not to attack.

You'll also probably notice from the pics that the weather is starting to get really good as well. This weekend has been particularly nice. So, there was only one thing for it...I went down a cave. More specifically I took my first blackwater rafting adventure down a cave. Blackwater rafting is bugger all like whitewater rafting really (there are no boats involved, just a big rubber ring). I've obviously developed some bravery somewhere along the line as during my 5 hours underground I abeiled into a black hole, jumped off a bloody great ledge about 20 ft into the water (not that you could see the water - it is, unsurprisingly, pitch black down there), jumped off a waterfall, climed up the same waterfall and did a flying fox in total darkness. Well, I say total darkness, but the big attraction of the Waitomo caves is that there are inhabited by millions of glow worms. I have to admit it was a pretty incredible experience to be floating through a cave with the roof lit up like a pretty green starry night sky. The caves themselves are spectacular, but you really wouldn't want to have a sudden attack of claustrophobia down there. God knows how they would get you out. I got very drunk after and started a chorus of 'blame canada' in the pub. Needless to say the Canadian travellers didn't appreciate it, humourless bunch.

In other news, I've got a contract extension so I'll be working at AUT until Christmas. Good job really as I've got a fairly hectic list of exciting adventures to pay for:

Next weekend - Grey Lynn festival
Weekend after - Going on an adventure to the very north tip of the north island
Weekend after - Flat warming/welcome to summer/pre-birthday party at the flat
Weekend after - Waiheke Island
And so on.....

I love it here. I really don't want to leave. I might not...we'll see :)

Miss you all muchos - come visit me!

Tambo x

Welcome to paradise

Hello blog fans!

Where to start. Have you looked at my photos? Okay, lets start with the boring job stuff first. I have now 'downsized' from 3 jobs to 1. You may remember that I mentioned in the last blog that there were some interesting job developments on the horizon. Thankfully I was a flooky b*stard once again and I am now an employee of AUT University. Yes, I've travelled to the other side of the world and I'm still working for a bloody university! I'm working on a nice wee project creating online handbooks for the faculty of design and creative technology. The contract is full time through to the end of November....perfect timing for me to check out the job market for a while and use the last few weeks of the year to explore the North Island before my good chum Alan arrives and we embark on our South Island tour. Sweet as!

You will notice from my photos that I've been spending a lot of time at the beach. If you haven't had a look at the photos from Karekare yet, go and have a swatch now. Looks good eh? Trust me, those photos do it absolutely no justice whatsoever. It is the beach where the piano was filmed and is possibly the most stunning place I've ever seen. If you had told me a few months back that I'd get a bit emotional over the sight of a baby seal sunbathing on the rocks I'd have laughed in your face. I did though. That said, I had been drinking for 15 hours straight the night before and I was a bit 'tired and emotional'. Seriously though, this country can be quite overwhelming at times....in an entirely good way.

I've just returned from a weekend at the bach. A bach is an NZ family holiday home, generally near the beach. My very generous flat mate kindly invited me up to her family bach for the weekend. The trip was fantastic, although my watch met a sad demise when my flatmate unleashed a high impact 80s power ballad interpretive dance move. Photos from that adventure will be up shortly. The flatmates have been very good to me and contintue to put up with my drunken antics. Bizzarely one flatmate is my birthday twin, so we are celebrating with a visit to Waiheke Island (vinyard tour and dinner on a boat - woohoo). She has also kindly invited me down to New Plymouth for Christmas. I hope she knows what she's letting herself in for!

How are things going? Bloody great thanks!

Adventure in bro town

Kia ora

It's been a wee while since my last update due to ongoing broadband issues at my new place. Everything moves a bit slow in NZ. Switching over the broadband account has been an epic task taking about 2 weeks. Aaaah, it wouldn't be like that in bonny Scotland (aye right).

It has been a very busy couple of weeks since the last update. I'm settling in well to my new place in Ponsonby and my flatmates have been very accomodating of my drunken behaviour, especially the high impact Salsa I unleashed in some random pub down at the viaduct last weekend. The Kiwis really have embraced the 24hr drinking culture with clubs staying open all the way through the night until 12 noon the next day. Needless to say I've been taking advantage. New flatmate moves in at the weekend...I hope she is equally tollerant.

I've also been getting stuck into NZ working life. The Oxfam job is proving particularly interesting. My uniform consists of Khaki shorts, big green socks, hiking boots, green t-shirt and....wait for it.....a nice sweat band for my napper. Photos to follow at some point if you don't believe me. Got an interview for an interesting job tomorrow...more on that if I get it.

In a rather random addition to my trip, I've also been attending a Samba into course. My mate Jane plays with AK Samba and I've been banging various instruments for the past couple of weeks. All very enjoyable (and theraputic after a day in the call centre).

For all of those expecting a postcard I promise I'll get round to it at some point, but don't hold your breath as I'm a bit rubbish at that malarkey.

Missing you all

Tamster x

Sweet as bro'

That's me survived my first week in NZ. Here is a list of things that have happened in the order they occurred:

1. I got a new job! I'm officially a call centre monkey. Did my training today and I have a contract for a minimum of 20 hrs as a Market Research Interviewer. The money isn't amazing but the shifts are really flexible. I'm hoping to pick up other bits and pieces of work, but this should be enough to keep me in beer money

2. I bought a car. I am now the proud owner of a 1989 Toyota Corolla. Everyone drives realy old japanese cars here...so I went with the 'when in rome' option. Lets hope it keeps moving.

3. I got a flat. As of Sunday I will living in a great flat in Ponsonby, a sort of Auckland equivalent of Glasgow's west end. I'll be sharing with 2 lawyers and the star of a NZ beer commercial. Free beer and legal advice. Hurrah!

I'll be going for a little adventure up North at the weekend. I say 'up north' as I haven't quite mastered the spelling of the place names here. They all start with W and then seem to feature a sequence of random letters. I'm sure I will have worked out where I am buy Sunday. I'm also going to see the Black Seeds (a big band in NZ) on the 19th of Sept. Sweet as bro'!

E-mail me all you goss troops. Missing you all x

Some people stay in the darkness, afraid to step into the liiiiight

So the big news is I've finally made it to Auckland. It doesn't quite seem real yet, but that's probably because I've been awake for about 36 hours now. I can't sleep on planes, which was a bit unfortunate given my flight was 12.5 hours. I also can't sleep during the day, which made arriving in the morning a bit of an arse. I also lost Friday completely as we crossed both th equator and the international date line on the way over from LA. So it's now Saturday, which means some drinking will be done later. Could be messy :)

A little bit on the LA stopover....it was great. Wouldn't stay there for longer than I did. I'll freely admit that I didn't really explore much or do any of the really touristy stuff (visit the walk of fame etc). I just sat on Santa Monica beach and contimplated the adventure ahead. I have the say the walk down Santa Monica to Venice along the beach was just what the doctor order. However, it should also be pointed out that Venice is clearly LA's answer to 'care in the community'. Also went on my first backacker night out. The pub crawl around LA was most enjoyable, but didn't help my foot which I had sprained that day. The hangover certainly didn't make the flight go any quicker either. Photos of all my adventures will following the next few days. So, here begins the next chapter of my adventure. Wish me luck!

1 sleep to go

It's true! Only one sleep and then I'll be jetting off to LA. Will be in New Zealand by Saturday. How can such an incredibly large rucksack hold so little! Its been great to catch up with a lot of you over the past week and it goes without saying that I will miss you all. You will notice that we now have a picture on the blog. That wee box will have a slideshow of all my travel pics for your perusal. Click on it if you want to go to Flickr and view them in more detail. Well, here it goes, adventure of a lifetime. Chow for now troops x

Preparing for launch

Yikes, I've created a blog! Stay tuned to these pages for all the lastest new on my adventures. Love and kisses Tx