Middle Earth and 'the top bit of NZ'

It's been ages again since we wrote on our blog - sorry for anyone whose life revolves around being updated about our adventures! Ha!

I wanted to fill you in on some of the characters in our blog for those of you who don't know each other. Think of it as a getting to know each other type of ice-breaker! Ok, first of all we have Hev. Hev is Roo's mum, she's probably our most ardent follower and a quick impersonation of Hev is never far from either of our lips. 'What Hev might say' is the bench mark of whether something is a good idea or not - eg, 'Roo, this place is a shit hole" Looking at Hev you wouldn't imagine she has the mouth of a mechanic, (no offence to mechanics) but she does! Pee is Roo's Dad and a favourite game whilst whiling away the zillions of hours spent travelling in Olive, is 'what Pee would say'. It's normally a comment about what Hev would say - think Basil and Sybil Fawlty and you're not far off. Then there's Mr. Bones, the lab/collie cross, currently staying with Grandma and Grandad (i.e. Hev and Pee). Joeface is Roo's brother - a hippie in denial, but I know the truth. We are hoping he'll join us somewhere along the way. Then there is my family, I like to think of as the more stable sane bunch - which of course they aren't. My sister Sara (and husband Nev, to whom we dedicate any tree related adventure) and her little brood, Finn and Freya. My brother Stephen and his offspring, Thomas and James and my other Christopher  (happy Birthday to him and Hev and Joe too),  not forgetting Gail (my sister in law) who is by far the most normal of them all! Then of course, my Dad, who I'm delighted to say has embraced the technological age as a silver surfer and emails me far more than he ever rang me! :)

Then there are the blog followers - to whom we are enormously grateful. You 13 people make this worthwhile, particular mention to Liz, Adam, Gary, Kay, Ange and other people one of whom we don't even know who apparently follow this inane drivel!

Anyway - we've driven 3000km in Olive and we're only half way down the North Island. She has been a stalwart and has cost only $167 as she rebelled slightly and wouldn't let us close her boot (which Roo, who anthropomorphises everything, calls her bottom).

Where have we been - well we can't really remember - Roo's off to get a map!

OK - We went from Auckland to Wangerie, then Russell and the Bay of Plenty and Keri Keri, Doubtless Bay, then to Cape Reniga, which the Kiwi's helpfully signpost as 'The top of NZ'. Then we went sandboarding which I felt far too old to be doing, but it was the biz! We both managed to stand up on a sandboard too. The east coast of the North Island is beautiful, filled with huge Kauri Trees (that's for Nev who is my brother in-law, for those who were wondering, i.e. nobody) and deserted white sandy beaches. On the way back down from the Cape, we decided to drive back down the West coast - known as we later discovered as 'The Wild west' and with reason. It couldn't be more different.  We didn't linger in this part of NZ, although I did force Roo to go to Dargaville to visit the museum which houses the masts of the Rainbow Warrior - I felt old for the 100th time that week as I had to explain to her what it was, as she was knee high to a grasshopper when it was all 'kicking off'. As you can imagine, she humoured me by looking interested although she did say the museum smelt like old people. We travelled back down through Auckland to pick up Roo's mended camera, which had broken the moment the plane touched down in Buenos Aries 4 months ago. From here, we travelled to Thames, then headed to Cook's Beach (where Captain Cook landed and claimed NZ in the name of King George even though the Maorio's thought they really had claimed it 700 years previously - why do we do that? :/) and Whitianga (you say the Wh like a F, so Fitianga), you also have to punctuate every sentince with eh! For example, 'you like it here eh?'

It was in Cathedral Cove near Whitianga where our guide Markey Mark, took us sea kayaking. Unfortunately, the day before, the group had seen an Orca whale, but it had moved on up the coast, so he was just saying how VERY unlikely it would be that we would see any more, one appeared right next to his very tiny kayak and blew us a welcome through it's blow hole. I didn't realise why Roo was swearing like Hev until someone mentioned that an Orca whale was a killer whale. I had previously thought that Killer was a derivation of the work Kilo and related to their substantial girth, it was only then that it became clear that it was to do with their enormous teeth and preference for eating live things! I was quite calm, Roo, uncharacteristically was terrified. (In my defence I have watched many a documentary where big eatey things confuse Kayaks with Seals floating on the top of the water... and we had been unfortunate enough to flick past a programme on shark attacks the night before. Emma's calmness was attributed to her ignorance, nothing to do with courage!) I refute entirely. In the end we saw 4 Killer whales, one of which swam right beneath our Kayak. They were spectacular if a little un-nerving. Markey Mark (his real name) kept insisting that we chase them, we didn't want to look cowardly, but we did linger at the back, which made me more nervous because in films like Jurassic Park they always pick off the weedy one at the back, i.e Me and as I was sharing a kayak with Roo, she would have been fodder too.

However, this Kayaking trip was much more successful than our first. We decided for my first Kayaking experience to have a practice at a sheltered estuary and hired for the bargain price of $10 two kayaks. I managed to get in to the boat without falling in the water, and buoyed by this early success we set off down river towards the pacific ocean! We positively sprinted along the water, stopping at the mangroves to photograph the Shags (otherwise known as Cormorants, apparently they are called Shags because they have the fastest breeding cycle of any bird, I've no idea if that's true, maybe Pee can help there?) The tide was on it's way out and the sun was shinning as we cruised our way towards the sea. We had a little paddled round the sea/ocean and decided as the sky was darkening to go back. This I thought to myself is a piece of cake, at which moment, my boat ground to a halt - 'Roo' I said, 'why won't it go'? 'We've run aground Em, we'll have to get out and push'!'  It was only then that I realised that we had been kayaking in 3 inches of water - the tide had gone out so far, we had become shipwrecked  on a sandbank. So feeling rather foolish, Roo jumped out and pulled ehr boat out to safer water, I sat there hoping that by shuffling as bit I would reach deeper water - I'm terrified of crabs (amongst many other things, although I'm OK with killer whales!) and I didn't want to put my feet on the bottom. Almost crying I reluctantly got out and my feet immediately sunk 12 inches into a layer of sludge and crabs and stuff and I was scared! Finally we managed to get our boats back in sufficient water and had to paddle upstream in the rain and increasingly strong wind for 3 hours back to our start point. Exhausted, but relieved, we arrived back to our site with blisters and shoulders like a couple of props!

Roo really wanted to go snorkelling, so the day after our Killer Whale experience we hired wetsuits and flippers from Wendy (the dive shop lady) and head down to gemstone bay. I thought flippers would save me from my deep fear of putting my feet on the bottom of the sea but I was wrong. We squeezed into our wetsuits and with a bit of squealing and complaining about the cold we both managed to get our faces under. Scenes from Jaws kept playing in my mind and it didn’t help when Marky Mark told us about the sting rays and sharks that frequent that piece of coastline. (Next to Gemstone bay is Stingray bay, and were hoping that by staying on this side of the rocks, we would be safe and that the stingrays would respect the imaginary boundaries.) Roo, like the water baby she is, went exploring,. helpfully pointing out fish and crabs that she encountered. this however was too much for me and like a loony, with flippers on, I tried to exit the water as quickly as possible, shaking with terror. Roo was trying to reassure me with shouts of 'oh look a cute little fishy, hello little fishy' but it just didn’t work.  Snorkelling isn’t for me, but I tried it at least!

We are now in Rotarua, after watching the first England match in Hamilton. During half time we were considering having to sell our tickets to the quarter finals, but luckily, England remembered that they are meant to be OK ish at rugby and managed to score one pathetic try. So, embarrassed but relieved, our hopes for a France vs England quarter final remain intact. I must also mention, to Roo's immense embarrassment, our visit to the Hamilton Quilt and craft fair on Sunday afternoon. Here we spent an exciting, thrill packed 3 hours, buying material and thread for Roo to practice her stitching. I was delighted to notice that we were the youngest people there by at least 4 decades.....for a change!

However, unlike the above suggests our life isn't all glamour, its not all sea kayaking and quilt fairs! We do spend a lot of time cruising the streets searching for a public toilet to wash, this morning we had to pretend to be shopping in the supermarket just to use their facilities! Our shewee has seen more that its fair share of action and exposing ourselves to the locals whilst changing in parks or car parks has become worryingly commonplace. We spend most night sleeping in lay-bys and cooking our dinner on our gas stove, on the pavement, whilst pretending this is normal behaviour whilst being stared at. Olive is now decorated with various England paraphernalia (and Scottish, Welsh and Irish for balance) we do however take this down at night in area that 'look a bit dodgy' (another Hevism).

Now we've bored you enough- We've put some photos on, so enjoy.
Miss you all, thanks for reading

Emma (and Roo)