A happy-go-lucky English rambler dude goes to New Zealand for a year. Here he interfaces with some of those he left behind and details his nefarious activities. Or summat.
Recently clicked on MP3s - 7th June 2005 The Lucksmiths - Warmer Corners
Jens Lekman - When i said i wanted to be your dog
The Trashcan Sinatras - Weightlifting
Teenage Fanclub - Man Made
Laura Veirs - Carbon Glacier
The Decemberists - Picaresque
The Eels - Blinking Lights
Monday, July 29, 2002
Just a quick post as i've got to get one's arse onto the train to Geelong in half an hour....
Having a great time here in Melbourne, thanks in no small part to Emma, who's been driving me all over town to various groovy bits of Melbourne. It's a truly cosmopolitan type of place, and i think i could happily spend a bit of time here. Sadly my plane ticket says o have to leave on Friday at 7.15am (Nngah!) so i'm rushing round like an eejit. I'm heading down to Apollo bay on the Great Ocean road, to either (depending on the weather) do a two day Paragliding course (Good weather) or go mountain biking in the Otway National park (Bad weather).
The Great Ocean Road (In the summer)
As well as seeing plenty of Melbourne i've also seen two ace films this weekend (Melbourne is dripping with arty cinemas) - Ghost World and About a boy.
Whilst snowboarding at Mt Hutt with Greg a few weeks ago, we met his photographer mate, who i had an enjoyable photography geek chat with. He's put some pics of the day up here.
Sorry i've not had much time for emailing people lately, i'm getting round to it, honestly. But the Geelong train is going very soon, so i've got to leg it at high speed to Spencer street station. EVERYBODY PANIC!!!!!
4:31 am Friday, July 26, 2002
Well i'm still sat in the same internet bar only a day later. Had a quiet night in last night, with Emma and Phoebe, watching the Footy show in preparation for my trip to see my first Aussie Rules game this saturday, Hawthorn vs Brisbane.
I've spent the day looking round the venue for the game too, the MCG. The tram i was on going into town passed right by it, so i hopped off for a quick look round, and accidentally ended up on a tour of the stadium. As well as nosing round the various museums & halls of fame afterwards.
It's an impressive sight, although oddly doesn't look quite as big as you'd think for a ground that has a seated capacity of 97,000 (Cor). The tour was super-duper - we got onto the pitch, the commentators boxes, changing rooms and best of all, the little room all the England Cricket players get filmed in looking grumpy after having been got out during test matches. Foolishly i admitted being English, and the guide constantly reeled off anecdotes about how "We beat England by 45 runs in that year and oddly enough the same score 50 years later too", yadda yadda yadda. Not to mention loads of Bodyline stuff, "There's two side out there, and only one of them's playing Cricket!" - Oddly enough, a quote that could be applied to most of my own indoor cricket matches :o(
9:32 am Thursday, July 25, 2002
My whistlestop tour of Aussie continues apace. I've just arrived in Melbourne, and am currently located in a rather swish internet cafe/bar called E55, thanks for the recommendation Ted's Sister :oD
24 hours passes....
7:40 am Tuesday, July 23, 2002
G'day from Aussie cobbers!
Sorry for the tediously obvious intro, but i've made it to Australia, and they do actually say things like that. Honest.
My last few hours in NZ were super emotional, for a number of reasons.
(1) I was leaving a bunch of really dear friends
(2) I was typically unprepared, and finished my packing at 4am ish, approximately an hour before my flight left
(3) I drank a bucketload of white Russians that evening (Courtesy of Jo, thanks again!)
Although i didn't get to say all the things i wanted to to everyone, as it all went by in such a blur, it was possibly as entertaining a departure as you could imagine. I was driven to the airport (With 45mins-ish to departure) by the kingpin of the Christchurch music scene Matt "Westside" Westbrooke, in a small, rather knackered car, that really shouldn't have had Jo, Wee Al, Michael, Michelle my luggage and me in it as well. But despite a few worrying noises, it got us there, and then lots of running around the airport ensued. I didn't have the correct visa for Australia, so i had to cough up $20 for that, as well as my $25 departure tax. This irritated me, but it completely outraged Michelle (By far the drunkest of our party), who started complaining in a highly entertaining style at the innocent-ish airport gimps. In true Gonzo style, I insisted that she was my lawyer, and also mentioned that the NZ government owes me $100's in tax, but all to no avail, i had to pay up like everyone else.
Perhaps this was due to the scene we made, but on arrival in Sydney i was taken aside at customs, as my name was similar to someone they were 'after', luckily though i didn't fit the description, and they then let me go. Only to to have to totally unpack my bag at the baggage checks, because of a suspicious looking 'round thing' in it (A soap on a rope i got for Christmas from Alex's auntie's and Gran). My advice - don't cause a scene at airports - they'll get you back every time!
Thanks to Gill, Aimee and Tom, everything's gone about as well as it could have done in Sydney so far. I arrived at their flat in a rather dishevelled state after my flight / departure, and then slept the worst of it off.
Gill, Tom and I went out later on, and had a Royster-Doyster of an evening, due to Tom's inside knowledge of the coolest Sydney bars (The best one is above a British Legion / Retired Servicemans Club!) and a ROCKING gig at the Hoptoun Hotel, with one of my now favourite bands, The Lucksmiths. Despite having never heard of the band before, Gill took to the melodic, Melbourne combo in a big way, shouting at the guitarist during the gig (Requesting details of a future gig, not heckling!), as well as shamelessly chatting up the bass player after the gig ;o)
I'd write more about the next few days in the blue mountains, but being the globe trotting music fan that i am, i've got to shoot off to meet up with Tom, and then head to a Gomez gig - hurrah! Suffice to say, the Blue mountains are nice, but not as nice as NZ mountains :o(
(Worryingly i've noticed that most sentences i've said since leaving NZ start with the words, "In New Zealand ..... blah... blah". Hopefully i'll stop soon, but in the mean time feel free to slap me if this ever gets too irritating)
9:29 am Thursday, July 18, 2002
What am doing! I've not even packed, and i'm farting around here doing a page of photos mainly taken from my north island travels - IDIOT!
8:44 am
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!
10 hours left in NZ, and frankly i'm feeling quite weird. I've not packed, i've got loads of painful goodbyes still to do and i don't actually want to leave NZ :o(
On the bright side though, i've spoken to Gill, my contact in Aussie, and discovered that Aimee has very kindly said that i can stay in her flat in Sydney for a night. Which is going to make turning up in a new city & country a whole lot less stressful than it otherwise would have been. I've also got the Lucksmiths gig to look forward to tomorrow night too - woohoo!
There's loads of stuff i feel like saying at the minute, but time doesn't really allow for it. The last year has quite possibly been the best one of my life, and i'd like to send love, respect and hugs to everyone that i've met in NZ. (Even the ones that don't read this website!) Thanks for making my year such a total joy, from start to finish.
While i'm at it, love to everyone i know in the UK too! The fact that i'll get to see you lot again in 6 weeks is one of the few reasons i'm actually going to force myself to get on the plane tomorrow morning (At 5.50 am! - yuk).
Well, if anyones still reading this drivel, stay tuned for some Aussie based action in the near future, as Ted In NZ transforms into TED IN AUSSIE! Woohoo! (You can't wait can you? I can tell)
8:08 am Tuesday, July 16, 2002
Just a quick note to those of you that phone / send me text messages on my cellphone. I'm selling it before i leave NZ, so if you want to get in touch, you have until Thursday night NZ time.
It's new owner will be a Greek, Bass-player with a Rabbit obsession, so feel free to carry on texting my number, but just make sure that you don't say anything nasty about Watership Down, OK?
8:31 am Monday, July 15, 2002
Sorry for the usual lack of posts, but i've got a proper excuse this time, a bruised / cracked rib! A legacy of my snowboarding trip last weekend :o(
I thought it was just a mild bash - one of several i sustained. But as all my other injuries started to heal, my rib remained rather painful, especially when standing up, sitting down, laughing, sneezing, coughing and hiccupping. So a planned snowboarding trip to Mt. Cheeseman for my last weekend in NZ was sadly cancelled. Happily though it was replaced with a very enjoyable & chilled weekend instead, just what i need at the minute really, as my life is going to be going back on fast forward from Friday - when i hit the road once more.
I spent a large percentage of the weekend hanging out in Jo's rather flash new house (Bought for the NZ equivalent of a UK shed, in a bad area!), drinking, chatting, reminiscing about our NZ experiences and doing the odd bit of decorating. Saturday night was a quality knees up, starting, of course, by watching the All blacks playing Aussie in the sports bar. Happily they won, so there was much "dancing in the streets of Christchurch tonight!" action later on. We (Michael, Jo, Michelle and me) expressed our joy at the result by going for a slap up curry at Two Fat Indians instead. Followed by the traditional pool marathon till 4am in Cue Time. At the end of the night i finally experimented with a peculiar NZ obsession - the Poker Machine. They're like fruit machines at home, all pubs have lots of them, and Kiwi's seem happy to pour most of their earnings into them, for little or no return.
Perhaps it was due to our reduced mental state, but none of us had any idea how they worked, and so kept putting money in and pressing buttons till it made noises and money came out. Whether you won or not seemed to be down to the combination of animals that appeared on the cards popping up. Monkeys and peacocks seemed to work best for us, and luckily, they were plentiful, so for a $4 stake, we won a mighty $6!
Making me almost as happy as all the rugby fans still dancing in the streets as we ambled home.
9:46 am
NZ Nature Time
Hi! and welcome to my latest article on the nature of New Zealand. This time we're going to be looking at Possums, Cute Bunny Rabbits and Kahu Hawks.
Possum
Rabbit
Kahu Hawk
Possums, an species introduced to NZ, cause considerable environmental damage here, chewing their way through no end of irreplaceable Native Podocarp Forest, thereby ruining the habitats of numerous other species, and reducing biodiversity.
Excessive rabbit numbers have famously caused lots of damage in Australia, and also here in NZ to a lesser extent. But they're so cute aren't they?
Kahu Hawks are majestic creatures, soaring gracefully above the NZ landscape, they wander for hours on the wing, looking for carrion or other small birds to prey upon.
You may think that these three NZ animals have little in common, but depressingly they do. In the last week i've run over one of each of them - AAAAARGH! And as a peaceful vegetarian type, i'm rather pissed off about it :o( I may have saved hundreds of trees by running over the Possum, but i didn't feel that great about it. The rabbit darted out from nowhere on a dark night driving down to Te Anau, and neatly swerved under the drivers side front wheels. The Kahu hawk was busy munching another dead Possum by the side of the road, when, startled by my approach, swooped up into the air - directly into my passenger side headlight. Thunk.
I'd like to take this opportunity to officially apologise to all of their families. I'm sorry.
9:05 am Wednesday, July 10, 2002
Hiya! Just arrived back in the 'church after my mini-snowboarding holiday down south with Michael, Emma, Phoebe, Jo and Wee Al.
A good time was had by all. Everyone got loads better at skiing, and didn't fall over too much. Unfortunately for me, i was snowboarding. I got a bit better, and fell over lots. And lots. And lots.
Me, recently
I would write more now, but i've been driving for 11hours in the last two days (As well as lots more fun stuff), and so i'm a tad tired and peckish, so i'm going to head home, rustle up some pleasant looking vegetables, then curl up with the brilliant book i'm currently reading 'Barrow's Boys', by Fergus Fleming. A rip roaring account of English explorers in the early 19th century exploring the coldest, hottest and most dangerous parts of the planet. Their discoveries, and more often their grisly deaths at the hands of dengue fever, scurvy or irate Tuareg tribesmen.
7:44 am Thursday, July 04, 2002
Oh, just remembered something that happened tonight, might not be worth mentioning......
And before any questions are asked about the victory....
YES - It was a against a full team of able bodied, adult, men, who have played cricket previously on a number of occasions.
NO - We did not have sand in our pockets, or take any performance enhancing drugs before the game.
YES - It was despite me. I had my worst knock for weeks, a sub-duck of -6
NO - I wasn't completely useless! I took a rather flash one handed catch.
As it was the last game of the season - against the only other team that had failed to win all year, we've avoided the wooden spoon too! Hurrah!
1:11 pm
Sorry for my webslackness lately. I have actually been doing some fairly fun stuff recently, but just haven't got around to yakking on about it yet. Mainly due to working long hours getting my software finished off before i leave the country, combined with laziness.
The best thing i've done recently has been snowboarding. Although at times during my first lesson at Mount Hutt i must admit i absolutely hated it, and became utterly frustrated. I was doing exactly what the instructor was saying, but would my blasted snowboard behave? No. Did i continually spin around completely out of control? Yes.
Happily though, after a couple of painful hours, i finally managed to control the fupping thing, and string together a series of controlled turns, hurrah!
As well as Snowboarding being fun, the whole day was made even more exciting by the highly entertaining driving of Greg "Snake" Chalmers. Toyota Starlets probably aren't designed for rally style driving, but Greg seems to get the most out of his. On the way to the car park, 1600m up the mountain, we overtook numerous other cars, including 4wd's, and did we bother with snow chains? Pah! Was i shitting myself? Mais oui!
Mount Hutt Access road
Driving back down was even more extreme, as we were running out of petrol, so had to turn off the engine at every possible opportunity, leading to a major decrease in the effectiveness of the brakes. Slightly alarming when hurtling down towards a hairpin with a couple of 100m drop on the edge of it. Once again we made short work of the girly 4WD's on our descent, but when a slight misjudgement trying to overtake a bus caused us to do a 180 spin, most of them re-overtook us. No doubt making them feel happier again about having splashed out thousands of bucks on their Range Rovers. Ho hum. All rather stupid i know, but along with the full on Trance tunes * that Greg insisted on playing whilst driving up the mountain, actually quite a lot of fun.
* While driving Greg has Mountain music (Trance, Hi-tempo Hip Hop) and plains music (Ambient, Prog etc). Good to see some thought being put into driving choons.
I also had a Paintballing session with "the lads" from work at the weekend. War is hell - I have the bruises to prove it.
Michael, Emma, Phoebe, Jo, Al and I are all off for a long weekend in Queenstown tomorrow. Obviously including plenty of snow related activites, at the Cardrona skifield. Recommended to me as "ideal for spazzes" by my own snowboard ninja sister.
It's my last weekend but one in NZ, and my last big road trip in NZ. Driving around, checking out the amazing scenery (Whilst trying not to plough into oncoming vehicles)has been one of my favourite things here. And my favourite drive by far, is from Christchurch down to Queenstown, via Lakes Tekapo & Pukaki and Mount Cook. If you need a second opinion, just ask Sanjay, he'll vouch for it's gorgeousness. I'm looking forward to it even more than usual now, as i got a stack of new CD's out from Christchurch library today (Throwing Muses, DJ Krush, Divine Comedy, Flaming Lips and, er, Groove Armada) Let's ROLL!!
