Avalanche!

One of my big fears is avalanches. Not at the moment - there's not enough snow! But this one looks pretty gnarly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HxxzfUfFGk

Leaving Whitianga

Genuinely absolutely gutted to be leaving Whitianga to head off on the next stage of the adventure. Meeting Silvi the German girl was really cool - it was nice to have someone to spend time with after the energetics of the previous few weeks. I really feel that out of everywhere in New Zealand that I've been to, Whitianga was by far the place I'd like to live. Walking with Kizumi to the beaches, talking and hiking across the cliffs was so beautifully therapeutic I doubt I'll ever be able to put into words how much those two and the friends I met, have impacted the life of Narg for the better.

Narg has been stuck in love limbo ruefully thinking about the ex for too long, to meet two amazing people in such a short space of time really did clean out the last vestiges of regret and provide a happy finality to that chapter in life.

Of course, there's other bits to the place. Never really got over the whole shark thing. I mean, you read about them in the paper - people getting munched and stuff - and all the local fishing tackle shops sell these fucking massive hooks that look like they could double as anchors for boats. Narg's arse still makes noises like a dolphin thinking about the number of times there could have been a whacking great big carnivorous fish within poking distance whilst waiting for waves. Very sketchy and in fact my rusty sheriff's badge just puckered briefly writing this.

Anyways, jumped on the Magic Bus to voyage back up to Auckland for a bit of posh lunch on the docks surrounded by the America's Cup boats. They are mad - just sitting still they hum with speed and lethal elegance.


America's Cup yachts

It's time to meet up with Mr and Mrs Narg Snr to fly together to Singapore. I'm only going to stay for a few days, they're going to be there for a while on business. Really looking forward to it. Got the hankering for chinese food.

Lonely Bay

Have been in Whitianga for a wee while, with people flitting in and out of the place travelling their way around New Zealand and often the world. The German girl (after making Narg a few meals - result!) has continued her travelling. She was cool too - got on well.

There's a great beach about 100 yards away from where I'm staying. Clams sink into the sand just accessible at low tide, huge green-lipped mussels can be gotten to with a snorkel and crayfish (if you're lucky enough) can be grabbed from rock pools and with a bit of free diving. The other day, 4 of us went out and collected seafood for dinner. Just amazingly delicious clams in simple white wine and cream sauce with a bit of parsley. Entire meal for 10 people cost around 8 quid - you could easily multiply that number by 20 or 30 to get to London prices. Just incredible.

It's nice staying in one place for a bit, especially after running around New Zealand from funzone to funzone for the past few weeks. It's been great to basically wake up, check the tide times, check the surf conditions up and down the coast by talking to a few people staying here and random people in the street. I've managed to squeeze in riding slightly better than every other day and the Narg skill level is definitely improving. It's a pretty solid swell here every day, nothing massively spectacular but nothing too tiny either. Every 7th wave jacks up pretty nice and caught of one of these waves perfectly yesterday, popped onto the board and had the best ride of the holiday so far =)

There's a beautiful japanese girl who works here who I've spoken to a few times. Yesterday we caught the ferry across to the other side of the bay and did a hike for about an hour or so past Shakespeare's Cliff:


Shakespeare's Cliff

To Lonely Bay, a beautiful beach only accessible by foot:


Lonely Bay

There was only 4 people there, myself and Kizumi and on the other end of the beach another couple. The waves were crashing in with about 3' swells and it was just amazing. We stayed there for about 3 hours surfing and chatting and chilling out, then walked back a different way through the bush to the ferry. Had to cross a couple of shallow streams along the way so carried Kizumi over as she wasn't wearing flip-flops. Very romantic. Even plucked up the courage to ask her out for dinner. So we got changed out of board shorts and flip flops and Narg slipped on a shirt and had a fantastic night. Umi rocks - funny, pretty, slightly weird - perfect! Even did a little kissin' after the meal. We walked back home by the small marina with the sailboats - very romantic! I'm gonna be sad to leave to walk away from Umi and Whitianga. She's very cool and it's an amazing place.

Pool practice

Yo people! Staying in Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula the at the moment and it's absolutely chocking it down. And I mean lots and lots of really heavy, hard rain. In fact the whole place inland is subtropical and looks like a bit of a rainforest. We're on the coast though, and this place looks the spitting image of the town in "Jaws". Real 1950's beach houses. It's tiny - one main drag with shops and lots of beaches. There's a little ferry to jump from rock to rock, too. It's a pretty cool place (apart from feeling a bit nervy going out into the water!) with some fantastic beach breaks in the bays up and down the coast within striking distance. Had a fantastic time getting here:

They had some sort of pool comp on at the place I was staying in Auckland (just there for a night) so entered into it, won it (thanks Kuntesh for all that practice!!) won a bar tab for the evening - WAHEY! and promptly managed to get seriously pissed and pull two girls. Awesome. Found out later that they were in the same dorm room as each other - hehehehe. Somehow managed to get on the bus to Whitianga at 7am the next morning after a couple of hours sleep - ably assisted by Nerofen and Red Bull in equal quantities. So awesome, arrived here via Cathederal Cove which was incredible. Going to Hot Water Beach tomorrow to get funky in geothermally heated rock pools that you can get to at low tide. Wicked =)

So tomorrow is a bit of bum warming followed by a spot of fishing from the rocks. Met this rather nice German girl here who went for a wander on the beach with earlier. She's making Narg dinner tonight. Pasta on the menu so have even splashed out on a bottle of red - bless.

I better go wash me hands.

Narg the Adventurer

So the peoples and peoplettes of the trip, both family and friends, decided before we came out that the last week be laid aside to spend as they wish. Some smaller groups and couples return back to previous places, others to see old friends living here, some are pondering the small oceanic jump to Fiji and others are choosing island hopping. Narg has decided to get back to his adventuristic roots by finding somewhere hot, beachy and rainforesty in order to while away the days surfing, reading books, and getting on the smokey treats.

After much deliberation and furrowing of brow, the flight back to north island has been booked as well as a place on the Magic Bus around the Coromandel Peninsula. I'm actually looking forward to spending a bit of quiet time by surfing and reading - just taking time to gather the thoughts before the move. Feeling big love for the future, people!

So mooching around Queenstown this morning, going to take a gondola up the mountain next to the town and watch people bungy from a platform built on the top. Who knows, I might even be persuaded to join in!


Queenstown urban bungy!

Life changing in Milford Sound

Oh ... my ... god ...

Milford Sound is one of the top 5 places on earth to blow your mind. Have just come back from an overnight cruise around the sound and it was completely and utterly insanely beautiful and breathtaking. Essentially it's a fiord where the mountains drop right down into the sea. So imagine a mountain 1692 meters high, with a sheer cliff face that drops down into the sea continuing a further 600 meters down. Just incredible. Then throw in waterfalls cascading down the mountains all around and the fact there are sheer cliffs either side and you start to imagine the place.


Ship next to a waterfall in Milford Sound

Moss clings to the rocks feeding off the mountain springwater cascading down the shining volcanic rocky faces. The endless waterfalls cascade down like the hair of a beautiful girl flowing in the wind, bright flowers intersperse every shade of green that seems to dapple each spare piece of inhabitable rock ledge available. Towering high above, snow peaked mountains strain their heads upward above the mist into the brooding clouds as if fighting for the precious sunlight. The water is the deepest green, sinking down into unimaginable depths below.


The sea entrance to Milford Sound

The wind tosses and curls the tops of the waves as if beckoning the casual observer into the deep. Dolphins cruise alongside the boat, surfing its wake and tilting to one side to make eye contact with those on board before throwing themselves into the air in a variety of spins, splashes and somersaults and diving down to hunt for the shoals of fish that lurk and dart under the hull. Seals call from ancient black rocks thrown up by volcanoes 120 million years ago, honking their greeting and diving into the water with graceful abandon. Birds fly between the cliffs getting doused with the white mist of the waterfalls, crying out to each other in their search for a place to perch. All around on the less severe cliffs, a forest of trees consumes the mountains like a dense leafy fleece wrapping it's way around and providing habitat and cover to the wildlife as well as the cleanest, sweetest air to those who breathe it.


Waterfall in the sound

I took the option of taking a kayak around the cliffs and rocky bays, poking the nose of the canoe into the caves that yawn their black mouths to the sea. You can't land around the sound, it's a conservation area, but it's so amazing you don't really want to. I spent a few hours paddling around the shoreline and rock faces, then saw a disturbance in the water and went over to find a ball of bait fish being hunted by two seals, the small fish leaping from the surface to escape the silky black mammals.

It looked too good to resist - it was time to go for a swim. The cool water stung at first and then mellowed into a pleasant, bouyant clean feeling with the water not as salty due to the endless stream of fresh water cascading down. Of course I fucking shit myself later when the nature matey decided to tell us all that several species of sharks (including great whites and hammerheads) use the sound to clean themselves in because the fresh water from the mountains helps them remove parasites. Bastard. Was pleased that all of us on this part of the trip decided to swim though, very rewarding and kudos to the family Narg braving the monsters of the deep. In fact, aside from one young american lad, we were the only ones in the water!

We stayed on and had huge dinner on the boat, had a few drinks and then settled into our lovely cabins to sleep with the sounds of inquisitive seals poking their noses against the port holes. An early start saw breakfast followed by more touring of the fiord, each scenery, each waterfall as breathtaking as the last, including the boat coming to within a meter of the side of the rock and staying underneath a waterfall 3 times as high as the Niagra Falls! Really spectacular.

I can't emphasise enough how much I'd recommed visiting this ancient, majestic place. The cliffs, waterfalls, trees, flowers and animals will totally blow you away but having the chance to kayak and swim amongst the dolphins and seals will make it unforgettable.


Just majestic

Wanaka and Queenstown

Backdated 2nd - 4th Jan

Made the return dash over the Crown Range road from Wanaka to Queenstown after going out for dinner and doing some general relaxing. Took the day off in Queenstown to soak up some sun, eat ice cream, get on the smokey treats and generally just chill out with the imminent cruise around Milford Sound coming up.

If Wanaka was the quiet energy - beautiful and serene, then Queenstown is it's rock n roll big brother. Nearly twice the size but stretched out over the eastern edge by the bend in Lake Wakatipu. It's again amazingly hot here and there's relatively a lot of people. It's weird, I mean Queenstown has a population of 10k or so but stretched out over an area the size of Central London - everyone has their own space. It's just total poles apart from cramped London with everyone literally jostling each other for space. The lake and the mountain range called The Remarkables dominate the view. And it's so beautiful. During the journey you could see these great gouges from the rocky peaks, like a giant dragon had slashed a talon into the living rock and ripped it out with vicious force. Cleared spaces in the forest and higher on the rocky plain showed where landslides and rockfalls had tumbled down during an earthquake, they looked like teeth marks from some astral monster biting into the giant ridges streaching skywards. By the same token, there's this beauty in the ruggedness that draws you and dares you to reach the summit of those peaks and look down, like you've conquered this land.


Queenstown by Lake Wakatipu

Needed to loosen up the other night so I went in a sauna with ass, pubic topiary and piercing on display, bowed my head and shuffled towards an elevated seating position. When I glanced at the thermometer it read 40°C (we were just heating the beggar up). I remembered the last time it was 40°C indoors - the frigging central line on the tube this summer! Admittedly, I ALWAYS wanted to do a tube run nude. Oh! The freedom! Imagine the space you'd get around you in rush hour =) Awesome. Anyways, I digress. Yeah so I kind of closed my eyes and made myself think about all the guys back in the city, wished each one a happy new year in my mind and hoped they all were well and cheerful. Weird then to find a couple had posted comments on the blog! Cheers Duffman and Welsh Chris! The ESP connection obviously still works - and I hope that you guys, and the others, are still chirpy =)

And if it makes you feel any comfier, then realise that I was wishing you all well when i was NAKED. Yeah, how does THAT make you feel? Hehehe.

From Waihi to Wanaka

In the continuing New Zealand adventure, yesterday has got to be one of the most incredible days that's ever happened to Narg. The long and short of it was I need to get from Waihi beach on the north island:


To Wanaka in the south island:


The plan was to drive to a place called Rotarua in the middle of the north island from Waihi Beach to grab a quick flight to Christchurch (south island) then change to a smaller plane to fly to Queenstown and drive to Wanaka. Simple eh?

I've been waking up around 7am here but yesterday I awoke at around 6.30am at Waihi to the sound of the swell thundering into the break a mere 30 feet from the beach house. Jumped out of bed faster then a flea having it's ass dipped in vinegar and promptly grabbed board, dove into the water and surfed a good while. A quick outside shower then sliding down a fresh fruit breakfast and jumping into the car to the airport rapdily followed. Rotarua is beautiful - this big volcanic crater containing the lake with the smell of sulphur and hotsprings everywhere. Real "Planet Earth" stuff. Taking off from the tiny airport there and looking down on the lake was incredible. The lush vegetation and thousands of these huge ferns called ponga trees making it feel like you were lifting out of a tropical rainforest.


Ponga tree fern.

My board shorts were still wet jumping onto the plane and I still hadn't sorted out any footwear - tis very liberating travelling in bare feet =) A brief touchdown in Christchurch then onto Queenstown in the smallest passenger plane I've flown on. Narg struck gold in the seating arrangments too. Ended up sitting next to this gorgeous half maori girl with the most beautiful dark skin and brown eyes. She was hugely chatty and we spent the entire flight laughing away and working out on the map the names of the majestic snowy peaks slicing their heads through the clouds. We even saw Aoraki (it's the Maori name for Mount Cook - the highest mountain in NZ - its name literally translates as "Cloud Piercer") very cool.

We were struck dumb when the plane dropped between the mountains into the valley to land at Queenstown though. It really takes your breath away. These huge, craggy peaks misted at the top towering aggressively over the tiny plane banking it's way through the giant folds of land. The plane dropped down to land at the small airfield and there was a palpable sense of excitement in the air from all on board.


Queenstown airport with the lake in the background.

I said goodbye to my travelling companion then waited for a while in the middle of mountains until some of the rest of the group pitched up on a later flight. Blue skies, snowy peaks, hotter than satan's crotch - no problem guys, take your time! Arrive they did though and we jumped into the hire car and crossed the Crown Range Road to drop down into the spectacular Wanaka sitting by the side of the lake shown further above.


Crown Range road.

So we stayed over in our wooden chalet by the beach, drinking the local white wine that was grown in the vineyard owned by a friend of my brother-in-law before crashing out. Ended up sleeping with a blanket to fight off the unwanted advances of an inquisitive mosquito.

Today's a new day and a beautiful one. The mountains rise up on all sides encompassing and hugging and feeding this warm glacial lake, the sun is shining and the small town has a strong, quiet energy to it unlike anything I've ever felt. Glaciers fork their iced tongues down the side of sun baked rocky outcrops in the distance. Trees of every shape, colour and variety imaginable cling to the shores leaning their branches to the blue water as if using their delicate leaves as fishing lures. The people are warm and friendly and generous. There's a sense of peaceful vitality and I'm looking forward to spending the day relaxing and getting ready to continue travelling.

It will be a shame to have to leave this place.

Mount Maunagnui

Backdated to New Years day

What a party. Barbeque at Mount Maunganui to celebrate the New Year looking up at the volcano with the surf crashing into a beautiful beach break in the background. What a way to smile into the face of the future.

Unfortunately some of the English contingent managed to get lost on the way up to the house after getting progressively more "uplifted" by a combination of the seemingly endless supply of cold beer and smokey treats. Amusing as they recounted about getting a speeding ticket 10km into their first journey in NZ (so they actually were going no-where fast!). Apparently Kiwi policemen don't react well to being chatted up by a 6' 3" englishman trying to talk his way out of a fine. As a side note, if they're not gay, why wear the Village People outfit? Yeah, they have no sense of fucking humour either. Still it's great to see the boys and girls around the place as we've known each other for some 16 years or more and it would definately not be the same without them.

Woke up on Jan 1st and celebrated by going body surfing with one of the extended family at his local break at the Mount under a clear blue sky. Beautiful.


The Mount at the top of the pic is the extinct volcano bit, the beach down the side is the main beach with the break moving up and down with the tide.

First few days in New Zealand.

This place rocks. Totally. It's beautiful - like a warm Scotland with more hills and more diverse flora and fauna. The place we are staying is staggeringly cool. Acres of land, swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi, massive house - it's trippy. There's just friends and family here and you could walk around the forest surrounding the house for a long time without seeing anything. Nearly got my cock caught in a possum trap in the woods trying to figure out how it worked. Never mind tho eh, no harm no foul.

Been down the beach at the Mount a fair bit doing some surfing and general idling and partying. It's great meeting the extended family here - cold beer is offered upon entering any residence regardless of the time of day or day of the week. It's required because it's so damn hot too. Wearing factor 50 at the moment, sitting in front of a monitor for the past 4 years getting pasty white termite skin is definately not good build-up to deep tanning. Still, bought a new cowboy hat so fitting right in with the locals.

Feeling total peace, for those who have never been to New Zealand before, I'd really recommend it. It's the most beautiful place with the most generous people. The beaches are pure white sand and an atmosphere that makes you relax just breathing in the oxygen-rich sea air. There's gentle talk of a Narg family outpost here, maybe with a bit of land/small farm thingy so it looks like the boy Narg may well need his new cowboy hat for rounding up the sheep in future.

Yee-har!

Flying to Auckland

Backdated to 24th December

This totally rules. Flown Manchester --> Singapore then Singapore --> Auckland. Just spent 24 hours on a plane playing Super Mario Bros, who wants to be a millionaire, watching videos and being served bloody mary's by staggeringly attractive stewardesses whilst sitting in an arm chair. Talk about heaven. Only problem was that I spent 8 hours getting to level 16 on Super Mario Bros then changed planes in Singapore. Fuckers. Still, undaunted carried on and then spent a further 5 hours getting back to the same place in the game on the new plane. Yeah baby, 1-0 to the Narg for having too much time on his hands!

Stayed over in Ackland for the night, driving to Mount Maunganui tomorrow. Weather is awesome. Fried lizard on the menu is a little weird though.

Packing

Packing today ready to fly tomorrow. It really sucks to choose what not to take. I'm contemplating just travelling across there with a wallet and a smile and just buying stuff appropriate whatever day it is then giving the previous day's clothes to charity. Funky idea.

Flying Singapore Airlines and heard you get the old tv screen in the back of headrest of the chair in front. Sweet. If I could get a few smokey treats on the go and watch Blazing Saddles, Get Shorty, Star Wars, etc going across Asia and the Pacific Ocean - well it would be a bit like flying in the comfort of my own living room.

Only a short post today. Bit busy. Will try and post again later =)