Greetings from Papamoa near Tauranga in The Bay of Plenty region {North Island}
Kia Ora Koutou!
As I write {pm thursday Sep 22nd} from a strongly Maori area, it seems appropriate to use a Maori greeting - literally "be well/healthy" and 'Koutou' added when addressing two or more people.
No, Kia Ora is not an orange drink!
It's now over a week since the last upload - travel, catching up with friends old and new, and great Kiwi hospitality have distracted me.
I will have the chance to bring the blog more up to date over the coming days, with some good broadband access.
Over 35 new entries, accumulated on my travels, awaiting upload for your delectation!
Keep watching and stay patient.
Subject to availability, I'm travelling down to Christchurch next monday/tuesday via a 2-day train/ferry journey starting at Hamilton, North Island, to Wellington
[8 Hrs] then ferry to Picton, South Island [3Hrs] and mega-scenic coastal train to Christchurch [4Hrs].
The last leg of my stay here will be with old school friend Simon and his family in C'church.
Exit and return to the UK was to have begun on October 7th, but an unexpected message last week from HQ in London asked me if I would be available to do a tour in Australia from October 14th to November 17th!?
So my stay in NZ is extended by almost a week, and I get to see Australia too! How lucky am I??
I'll post this entry on FB too, to maximise exposure.
New Zealand ... ... ... Wow!!!
What a Country. If you're in the right area, you could be surfing on the the beach in the morning, and skiing on the mountain in the afternoon - it's true!
Land mass 10% larger than the UK [103,483 against 94,060 Square Miles] but with a population 92% smaller than the UK [4,393,500 compared to 62,262,000]!!!
I'll leave the rest to your imaginations.
If I'd visited here 20-25 years ago, then maybe I would have stayed. It's so 'outdoor', it's so varied, it's so clean ... ... ...
Obviously nowhere is 'perfect', and no doubt NZ wouldn't be for everyone - some people couldn't handle the space and the pace [laid back].
It's also a long way out from anywhere else - roughly 3 hours flight to get to any other significant land mass, the nearest being Australia. No wonder the Kiwis love a UK base - 2-3 hours to get to most places in the rest of Europe! No wonder Kiwis and Poms who've visited both find it difficult to know where they really want to be!
The South Island is in The Pacific Ring of Fire, Christchurch sitting right on top of the abutment of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates - and the Christchurch population has suffered significantly in the last two earthquakes of September 2010 (when there was no loss of life) and February 2011, when tragedy struck hard and still the recovery task is far from over. I've said it before, and I'll be saying it again - the more I travel, the more ignorant I feel. The sheer e n o r m i t y of variations of culture, outlook, physical geography, language, climate {the list goes on} is overwhelming.
Watch this space, and feel free to comment or feedback - I know there are plenty of you taking a look, but are not
'registered followers' - so the blog goes on :-)
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