Just a Few Piccies

Just thought I'd add a few piccies as not updated blog for a while. The first is a view of the City from the top of Mount Victoria which is the mountain behind my house, just a short (but steep) walk up. Lovely views up there, you can see the whole harbour and just how big the city is. The other picture was walking home from Lambton Quay, the sun was setting and it was a full moon and the sky was this gorgeous strawberry colour, I was so glad I had my camera with me!

Another Day Another New Zealand Dollar

Hiya folks and welcome to another blog from your wonderful host, Nettles. I've had a wonderful couple of weeks, as its been Easter and so 2 weeks off Uni, sorry thats 2 weeks 'working from home'. Although its supposed to be autumn here now, we've been blessed with good weather and we're able to enjoy some of the holiday delights on offer.

Simon joined me at the end of March and we planned a nice break on the Kapiti coast. First we hired a car and drove to Scorching Bay where the Choclate Fish cafe is. Its the place that all the crew from Lord of the Rings used to hang out. We sat outside with our bowl full of tea and lattes and enjoyed the good food on offer.

After a stroll on the beach there and playing around on the rocks like little children, we set off north to the Kapiti coast. We were warned that the traffic might be bad, so we took it easy, it wasnt that bad. We made it to Levin were we had booked to stay in a lovely B&B for a few days. The place was called fantails and was run by a crazy English lady. Actually she was really nice and cooked us lovely organic food from her garden (see picture).
That weekend we were lucky enough to see the Levin balloon festival, there were balloons in the sky everywhere, it was realy wonderful to watch them, they were so peaceful and graceful in the sky. I have a very romantic notion of going for a ride in one someday, but alas, this was not the weekend for romantic escapism.....oh no...much more fun things were in store for us.

After trekking through the Tararua forest park, hiking ridicoulously steep hills (but seeping fantastic views). We trekked through a little woodland on the way back and found these wonderful but poisonous fungi (must find out species name) and decided to take lots of pictures of them because I thought they were pretty. Its a shame I couldn't find any in Manchester to poison my ex with. Anyway.....after an exhausting time we took a lavender spa bath that evening, after watching the dusk take off of hot air balloons, returned home and blew up an organic bottle of champange (opppss).





The next day, we set off again to explore Levin, it was our last day, so we decided to have some fun and head for the gorge. No sooner had we arrived we had booked a quad bike session and a horse ride for the next day. Quad biking was way cool, but unfortunately I didnt take any pitures as I was afraid I would break my camera. I managed to leave my sunglasses with the mad farmer that took us biking around his land, and it turned out it was his brother than ran the horse trekking and he found our car the next morning and left my sunglasses there for me. What a lovely person!!!

The next day we planned to walk the gorge and found a track nearby. First we had to go horse riding which was lots of fun. After that we took a lovely walk along th gorge, through some lovely sub-tropical forest and with lovely dense vegetation. We also spotted lots of birds, including the fantail. The fantails are meant to fly near you (which they do, coming up really close). The Maori believe that they come to tell you a message and help you find your way out of the forest by flying towards the nearest way out.

After a lovely couple of days we headed back to Kapiti coast. We had permits from the Department of Conservation to visit Kapiti marine reserve. Its one of the only (if only) reserves that allows only 50 visitors a day. It has many protected birds, a protected area of sea, and flightless birds that are very unafraid of humans. We were put on a boat, had our bags examined in case we had any stowaway rats or mice - these have been eradicated from the island, making it a safe place for certain plants and animals there that have been re-introduced.
A guide met us on the other side where he took us through the history of the island, how it came to be a reserve and what we might expect to find, mostly a lot of birds, and what kind of sounds they make.

In the 1700s and 1800s Māori settled on the island. Te Rauparaha formed a base here, and his Ngāti Toa tribe regularly sailed in canoes on raiding journeys up to the Whanganui River and down to Marlborough.

The sea nearby was a nursery for whales, and during whaling times 2,000 people were based on the island. Oil was melted from the blubber and shipped to America for use in machinery, pre petroleum. Few whales are seen there now.

The conservation potential of the island was seen as early as 1870. It was reserved as a bird sanctuary in 1897 but it was not until 1987 that the New Zealand Department of Conservation took over the island. In the 1980s and 1990s efforts were made to return the island to a natural state; first sheep and possums were removed. In an action few thought possible for an island of its size, rats were eradicated in 1998.

In 2003 the anonymous Biodiversity Action Group claimed to have released 11 possums on the island. No evidence of the introduced possums has been found. Possums are a real problem in NZ because they do really well in the bush, eat all the endemic birds, eggs, etc and you see poison baits all over the place on the mainland (and wool and possum mixed scarves and gloves in the shops!!!).

We took a path up to the summit, and we did see a lot of birds, robins, fantails, kiwis (but they are nocturnal), takahe, kokako, brown teal, stitchbirds, and tieke (saddleback), miromiro, piwakawaka, ruru, weka (hybrid of North and South Island subspecies, pictured below, they look like chickens but are clever and try and steal your lunch), hihi, and toutouwai. We were lucky enough to get a glimpse of a number of these which was pretty amazing, and they are not shy birds, and if you stay still they will come really close to you, looking for insects that you may have disturbed walking along the paths.

At the summit we took a picture after getting blown around and tried to eat our lunch without it being stolen off the wekas! That was quite fun as they are pretty clever and try and sneak from behind you. The trip down was nice and much easier, the rest of the group were nice and friendly, and I couldn't wait to get back on the mainland for a cup of coffee to warm me up! It was pretty windy that day, and although I was wrapped up warm, needed some rest and respite after so much intense walking over the last couple of days. So we headed back to Wellington, the big dirty city (well not really) and checked back in to Hataitai, ate well in Parade cafe (my new local) and enjoyed the ambience of the City at night.

Nettles Goes to Mount Doom!!!

Hi everyone, here are pictures of my first field trip around the Ruapehu Valley. We hiked up mount Raupehu, a good 2600 metres high. The first leg we took ski lifts but we had to climb the summit (near crater lake) for a good few hours. The terrain was pretty rocky, and part of the climb involved walking through snow and ice, pretty tiring, especially at altitude, I was soooooo tired. Getting to the top was great, a lunch break and photo session later we went down to the crater lake to investigate. It has recently been breached, causing a massive lahar (mudslide) to slip down the other side of the valley, the lahar reached miles down, and totally flooded some areas with mud. Luckily there are procedures in place to ensure that people are evacuated in time. The lake (in the picture behind me) was about 28 degrees on that day (it was about that hot on the day, I got sunburnt!) and there was sulfur streaming through it making it a nice blue/green colour.

It was a pretty amazing hike and the next day we did part of the Tongariro crossing which is a famous day hike here, following beautiful mountains and volcanoes. During the walk you can see the old lava flows where there have been recent (1975) eruptions. Mount Ngauruhoe (said as Narahoeie) erupted 45 times in the 20th Century. Its the very last picture. It was also the volcano known as Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings, so pretty cool to have seen it from the top. Its possible to climb it, but its really steep, and the mountain I climbed was bad enough!

As you can see some pretty amazing scenery. I'm hoping to be in the area again soon, to maybe pick up some more tracks or just enjoy the countryside and the views. I'm not planning to hike up any more mountains soon though, one is enough for me at the moment!

Last a short video of us mucking around on the glacier!


Netty x

Blog Update

First of all, I had to incude a picture of Tim (oldest with the cat) and Oskar (with the umbrella). They are my 'roomies' but are very sweet, as you can see, like posing sweet for the camera!

The next piccie is another roomie, a native praying mantis that I spotted climbing up the lamp shade. Isnt it lovely?! There is also a South African species that was introduced in 1978, although I am not sure if it was legally introduced or not. NZ has very strict biosecurity. You can't enter the country if you have anything that looks like mud on your shoe, and don't ever say you live on a farm (actually if you do you should......). I also decided to include a picture of a cicada. They are little noise creatures that make 'jungle' sounds all day, harmless really, it makes me feel like I'm on a tropical island! They are quite pretty as far as bugs go. But then I do like insects. I'm going to find myself a NZ fauna book sometime and get looking into whats over here, its fascinating knowing there are so many different things out here.

I was also told a story about why there are so many British birds here but I dont know if its true or not (perhaps Louise Hussey might know????). Apparently some Shakespeare lover decided that all the birds ever mentioned in his writings should be introduced into New Zealand and thats how they all got here. It would sort of explain why I've spotted so many British birds, I dont think somehow that they could migrate all the way here, and seeing as NZ used to be part of the Antartic, there doesnt seem to be any other explaination, but if someone knows I'd like to know please!!!
Well that just about ends my little update, will keep you informed after my field trip this weekend coming, hopefully it will be nice weather!!!

Weekend in Wellie!

Hello folks, Heres an update on my 3rd weekend in Wellie. This weekend has been beautiful, with the sun out shining and a great atmosphere in town. It was the dragon boat and jet boat racing, so I thought I would walk into the city and check it out. First I took a few piccies on the way in, as the sea looked so calm and serene. Spotted this guy fishing, I'm walking along Oriental Parade, which is a nice walk along the edge of the city, you can see the city skycrapers in the background (click on the image to make it bigger). Then I took a little stroll along the beach, its an artificial beach, the sand was imported from the south island, but who cares! A beach is a beach and I dipped my toe into the pretty cold sea water.

That was kinda nice for a while, but I continued on until I got into town. It was pretty crowded along where the racing was taking place, and then I spotted some sting rays in the shallows! I took out my camera and filmed them!

After that I watched one of the dragon boat races but I didn't stay out too long as there were lots of stalls and things to see, so I wondered off and had a nice time in the city!



The last picture is just to show you how steep it gets in some places. This house has its own cable car to take you up the steep slope to your house!

Wellington Cuba Street Carnival

I was just in time for the Cuba Street carnival which is every 2 years, its a parade of floats with food and markets stalls in the day, bands and stuff. It was really nice to watch. Also included a picture of the view from my new place! This is on a nice sunny day, although at the moment its pretty chilly (for Netty standards)....still exploring the area, getting lost quite a bit but in a nice way.

Also included a short video clip of the carnival, although it was pretty dark when I took this.

Hello from Wellington!!

Kia Ora everyone!

Finally made it to Wellington after missing my connecting flight from Auckland. I think that they expect you to be super-athletes and run to the domestic terminal with all your bags (you have to re-check them all in) and make it in the record time of one hour (after spending most of it in the queue for customs). Customs, ah after arguing with the customs guy about global warming, he gave me the wrong stamp in my passport i.e. 6 months tourist instead of 3 years student. GREAT! good job I noticed though.....

Now at the university, not collapsed in a big heap yet, but after almost a day of travelling, well actually being stuck in a tiny seat wondering whether I am about to be the next DVT victim, I'm feeling OK. maybe it was the coffee or something.

Weather good. Cloudy but warm. Sez and Hels - wearing my new top! yeah!

Will keep you posted when something more exciting happens!

Cheerio

Netty

NAIL CITY

Thanks to Leanne and Nazia, I now have shiny metallic blue/green nails (no not like the algae) after a ladies that lunch session in Nail City, followed by some extremely nice sushi in Mai Bai. After an exhausting lunch time, we settled down to some lovely cakes afterwards from the Chinese bakery, which I couldn't eat all of, but enjoyed nonetheless. And here is a picture of our nails (without Nazia because she skives off at 3pm).

VORTEX @ Royal Exchange, Manchester

What can I say apart from 'Utterley splendid darling!'. It was very kitcsh from the beggining, fabulous costumes, accents and music!
Living in the 1920's must have been quite wacky! Heres a lowdown on The Vortex:

In Coward’s savage portrayal of 1920s cocktail society, Young plays musician Nicky Lancaster, who loses his fiancée to his sophisticated mother Florence’s toyboy lover. The Vortex (the title refers to the "youth vortex of beastliness") launched the then 25-year-old Coward’s career as a playwright and leading man.

Overnight critics were divided about the success of Young’s performance. While some praised the pop star for creating a touching character and bringing out the repressed homosexuality other actors in the role have “glossed over”, most agreed Young did not invest enough rage in Coward’s own “angry young man”. Some also noted that, while Young was brave to tackle such a complex role, he is simply too inexperienced to rise to the challenge. However, they were all impressed by the performances of Diana Hardcastle as his mother and the supporting cast in director Jo Combes’ production.

Anyway, we all had a good time. The food in La Vina was pretty poor though. I thin general disappointment, but the show certainly made up for it. And despite the hard press that Young Will received, I thought he was rather fab my dear! Oh do let me have a smoke now darling....

Quick hello!

Hiya folks, today I am hard at work but recovering from a hangover coutesy of Sarah and Chaopraya which was feeding us free tapas while we sat and chatted and drank lots of wine!

Almost forgot is was a working day, and finally got home (on my bike in the freezing cold) although the details are a bit murky.....

Off to see Vortex (with WILL YOUNG) tonight at the Royal Exchange, should be fun, going with work and eating in La Vina which is an ace Spanish tapas restaurant on Deansgate (been there a few times!). Apparently part of La Tasca, but the menu is much better (for us veggies) and the atmosphere is very relaxed, dark and candlelit.

Will update on the Will Young adventure.

Canary Islands

BON-VOYAGE RUTH!

We said goodbye to Ruth on Friday, as she leaves for her epic 9 month adventure around the world. Don't worry though, we will be keeping an eye on you! And of course we will have to get round to playing the after eight game at some point....if Leanne hasn't eaten them all!!!



For now heres Ruth leading the sisterhood of the travelling disco ball, with her wise demonstration on how to eat an after eight mint by only using your face (well sort of, in the end she ate it with her hands, but the face full of choclate was funny!).

The Big Smoke! November-December 2006

Hello folks! Hope you are all well.

Went down to the big smoke to catch up with some pals. First we went to visit Chrissie who lives in a lovely place near Kew Gardens, so naturally we took a little visit there. We didn't really have time to look at everything, its just way too massive but it was lovely and especially like the tropical houses. They was also ice skating but we never got round to that either (I think we were far more interested in tea and cakes, and looking round the shop!).



After Kew, the next day (using my new Oyster card) we met up with Pritty and Sam in Piccadilly and they took us round to some lovely places. It was mega-busy with it being Christmas, but we managed to get a table outside momos, and have some nice tea, before trying our chances at getting into the Absolut ice bar....and we managed to get in!




Ice bar was pretty cool (literally), we had 2 drinks, all vodka cocktails of course, drank from glasses made from ice. We also we given warm coats to wear with mittens so we could hold our glasses, although Pritty's was a bit wet so her little hands were getting cold. No-one accepted my dare to lick the statue.

After all that hard work staying warm, we went to Ping Pong (I think that was the name, although it reminds me of some parts of Bangkok)....anyway, it was a dim sum restaurant and it was lovely. And I was very impressed with the jasmine tea (pictured) which came as a little bud, and when hot water was added, slowly opened, very beautiful.



Thats all for November to December except to wish everyone a happy Christmas and an absolutely fabulous New Year.

Nettles x

Sapporo Teppenyaki

The Most Amazing Japanese Restaurant! My brother Paul and his girlfriend Laura recommended that I check this place out, and being intruiged by his description organised a last minute visit - last minute because I booked a table 2 days before and was lucky to get it! But it was worth it. Went with Hugh, Helen, Leanne, Ruth, Me (of course), Simon, David and Betsy (in order of seating by the way). It was a very fun night, made even more spectacular by the personal entertainment including eggs, tomato ketchup, knives and things all over the show.





Oh and BIG FLAMES (see video) that were hot enough to singe eye brows (dont know if thats spelt correctly). And of course Leanne and I carried on the Sake tradition, which was, erm to drinks lots of it.





The others were good too and drank wine which is sort of the same thing but colder. After our night out we tried to get into Matt and Phreds jazz club but failed miserably although eavesdropping on the ex fighting with eithr Matt or Fred was entertaining but eventually got bored and went into Centro for a last minute drink. All in all a good night in Manchester.

Christmas In Manchester

Just a few piccies and a shitty video from my camera phone of the Christmas lights switch on in Albert Square. Lovely fireworks with music from ABBA (well Mamma Mia are touring here at the mo') and a few celebs to warm up the crowd.

Its Almost Christmas!

Frosty this morning, its definately colder and suddenly all the trees are losing their leaves, its winter! OMG its come about so fast but its also lovely to experience the seasons. Since I got back from New Zealand my life has been chaotic for a number of reasons. I have to deal with my psychopathic ex and his psycho mother, and they are not very helpful. In fact, all I want for Christmas is to sell my stupid house. And maybe a bit of karma to come my way. Actually speaking of karma, Leanne and I went to this crazy yoga/meditation class this week. It was like travelling back in time to the 70's. Serious 'dude' wearing robes (see picture) and chanting some mantra and singing. I felt like I was being brainwashed. Lets just say their idea of meditation was not the same as mine. Still I still stand by the 'trying out stuff even if its weird'. So there you go. I am an official yogic medititive being that is joined to the infinate loving conciousness. Now please take me to the pub for some medication, sorry meditation.

Hope to tell you guys some good news soon, but at the moment I have to keep quiet because its all top secret!

Nettles xx

September 2006

NEW ZEALAND BOUND

I'm counting down the days to a well needed holiday, just the sort of thing to sort you out after a ridiculous break up with a psychopath and all the things that come with dealing with someone who has lost all integrity. Still Jenny and I have been busy sort of planning our mini-adventure, and hopefully we are ready for our intrepid journey to that little island on the other side of the world. Will keep you all posted as and when we arrive, hopefully I will be able to download some pictures and update as and when. WOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!

You can view my New Zealand adventure as it happens on:

http://newzealandnettles.blogspot.com/

See You Soon!

Just came back from a lovely and long weekend in Oxford and went camping in the Chilterns with Simon, Jenny and Rik. We had a lovely time playing games, sitting by the fire, listening to the donkey (that we later found out was a bull), and enjoying the countryside. We were very lucky that it didn't piss it down, it tried to but failed...we also found some mushrooms (the legal edible sort) and cooked them when we got home. They were lovely.

First Posting - Woo Hoo!

Hello folks!

Welcome to Netty's blog. I hope you are well and that unlike me you haven't eaten too much ice-cream and feel sick. Its raining at the moment, the evening has darkened and its starting to feel like autumn. Soon I will be packing my bags and setting off to New Zealand! I am SOOOO excited. So this is just a tester and a quick HELLO to all you folks out there. Remember:

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

PeNgUiN