New Zealand 2

The journey continues and I now need to introduce my two new chums, Frank and Betty. Frank is the official big mike transportation system!! I am not prone to anthropomorphisation  (a great word for naming and giving human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects), but spending so much time alone in the car, I thought I would name him so as to enable me to vent spleen on a ‘personal’ level from time to time.

The rather jolly Indian lady at the hire company reluctantly handed over his keys as if she was passing  the lead of her favourite spotty puppy to an employee of Cruella DeVil, a little over the top considering Frank is a 12 year old, battle weary, 1500cc, automatic ,Toyota Platz – a what I hear you say, as did I – but that was the best deal in automotive hire history according to Mrs ‘Madras’, and it was actually much better than some of the tugs I was offered.

 He is best described as a rather unfit relation of the naughty locomotive on Thomas the Tank Engine He occasionally changes gear on his own, either up or down, refuses to accelerate properly when required, most embarrassing when trying to overtake a ¼ of a mile logging wagon, runs out of puff at the sight of any sort of incline and makes his own mind up when and for how many doors the central locking will apply. For all that, it makes the driving a bit more exciting than Mr Reliable Saab back home, and to be fair, a vehicle I thought would be unlikely to get out of the company compound has performed brilliantly for my tour around a considerable proportion of the top half of the country and I have no reservations that he will be up to the challenge from now on.

Betty is a different proposition. Hers’ is the voice that emanates from the accompanying satellite navigation system. She has a broad New Zealand accent that I think probably belonged to the wife of a deaf miner from  middle Earth.

 Unfortunately Betty hasn’t been updated in at least 5 years and has not realised that an extensive improvement and rerouting of many of the national highways has been undertaken, and, therefore, despite being on the correct road, she insists on yelling at me to ‘perform a U turn as soon as possible’ with infuriating regularity, causing me to engage in a colourful explanation that I am on the right road. Eventually, she shuts up, tells me she is re-calculating and then re routes me, onto the same road, but with an attitude that suggests that she was right all along, then calm returns for another 20 minutes or so. ....... oh, the joys of travelling !!

My pre arrival impression of New Zealand was a bit vague. ‘A bit like Wales’ was probably the most quoted description. Well  .....  where do I start? .......  the most striking thing is that, apart from, the main cities/towns,  there are only 26 people that live here, and most of those seem to only come out at night. This is certainly the impression you get. I have driven many hundreds of miles and have only seen a handful of people in the countryside, two of which were European hitch hikers, and there is one hell of a lot of countryside here.

 Hour after hour I have passed empty, mainly brown fields, just meadows, very few crops until I reached the Hawks Bay area, very rarely do you see cows or sheep, OK they are having some problems with reportedly the worst drought in many years, the effect of which has been to turn the fields brown, but where is all the livestock? Where is the New Zealand lamb, Anchor butter cows etc??  It really is quite amazing how much empty space there is.

 Geographically it is awesome, and bear in mind this is North Island, which Kiwis regard as bland compared to the south, but even here there are mountain ranges with peaks higher than anything in UK covering over 20% of the land mass and three volcanic peaks over 2,000 metres,  a sensational and dramatic coastline with countless coves, beaches, off shore stacks and islands mostly set in a blue/green sea, huge tracts of forests both natural and native and vast prairie like pasture land plus a couple of pretty substantial lakes and a very active geothermal scene, and it changes seemingly every twenty minutes.

Getting around is easy, they drive on the left, they have good signage and, although the roads are almost all single carriageway and mostly unlit, many are arrow straight for miles and they are in great condition. They have very few speed cameras (I ve only seen 4 so far) and even Frank can rattle along at the speed limit (100 kph), or more when he feels like, without any problems, for hours.....but.......when you get into the mountains, the driving becomes phenomenal.

On the main highways reduce your speed warning signs are common, but usually can be treated lightly, in the mountains ignore them at your peril, as few of the bends have barriers and 40kph on a 25kph bend, with a 1,000 + foot drop to the sea, will most definitely be something you only do once!!. Twenty minute ascents or descents are common with countless hairpins and ridiculous adverse cambers, but it is amazing fun .

Most of my time since leaving Auckland has been spent towards the Pacific east cost with stays in the Bay of Islands, Coromandel Peninsular, Rotorua, Napier and finally, a change, on the south western tip, Wellington.

Everywhere is spotlessly clean and in my experience the people are, almost without exception, relaxed, chatty and rugby mad. Prices are pretty similar to back home, although beer is a bit more expensive  -  beer averages at about £4.50 a pint, but a small bottle of SA will set you back £8!!

The weather has been 99% fantastic, considering it is now moving into winter, and clearly a stark contrast to UK at the moment, it is easy to see why I have met so many Brits who choose to overwinter down here rather than stay home as living expenses are similar and the cost of heating your home for 3 months will more than cover the airfare.

New Zealand has only been in existence since 1840 when the Treaty of Waitangi ensured that the British ripped off the Maori for their land and started promoting settlement here. Consequently it has very little history other than the Maori culture, especially compared to what I’ve just had seen in Sri Lanka, and a big issue is made of some  pretty insignificant things – the oldest petrol station in New Zealand for example, so the main attractions are natural and they have heaps of them.

As before, I do not intend to type a guide book, so do your own research if the areas mentioned are interesting, but briefly :-

Bay Of  Islands  -  of huge historical importance because of the Treaty and the Treaty Grounds museum is a brilliant 1/2 day out

 I stayed in Russell, formerly the ‘hell hole of the pacific’ cos the original capital was set up across the other side of a small estuary in Okiato, and Russell was where everyone came to let their hair down, but now it is a very well to do resort, but where everyone goes to bed before 10 pm!!

 Some good fishing here, as evidenced by the stuffed exhibits, including marlin and tuna, that adorn the walls of the Swordfish Club I decided to rekindle my school boy  interest and managed 5 snapper off the pier.

The islands themselves are very pretty and have homes and boats for the rich and famous including (allegedly) several Russian oil billionaires, Tom Cruise, Richard Branson and Dame Kiri Tekanawa .

The natural beauty of the area, the worlds biggest canoe, an 85 seater, and New Zealands biggest tree, a 2000+ year old Kauri, of huge Maori significance, are the things that really stick in my mind about this area, apart from some guys I met. 

A big thank you to Ange and Don, my hosts at the Family Park, Russell, and a big hoorah to  Jim, Anne & kids for a great few days and not forgetting Pete from Leeds, my neighbour across between John Motson and Carl Pilkington !!

I stayed a week to recharge after Sri Lanka, I could have stayed a month but feared that I would have to start drinking cocoa and learn how to knit just to fit in

Coromandel Peninsular - is a much lauded area of north island. Essentially it is a sea hugging road up the west coast to Coramandel town, a cross over the mountain to the top of the east coast, a couple of celebrated beaches and a long trek back down the east coast.

The weather on the day that I tackled the peninsular was not that good and although the west coast road was fab, literally yards from the sea, twisting and turning for about 20 miles, when I crossed over the top, the views were not great and the wind was howling.

On the shoulder of the east coast are Cathedral Cove and Hahei beach, so called legendary beaches (??) which are best accessed by kayak and renowned for the scuba diving. The weather was still not great and the sea swell was huge so I moved on.

The whole  experience I  found a bit disappointing - hey we've got the Gower  -  so I didn t hang about too long heading instead for Rotorua, although this was a 3 hour drive.

Rotorua – a pleasant enough place but for me it was spoiled by the ever present smell of rotten eggs. This is a thermal centre with lots of boiling springs and sulphur laden smoke belching from the ground.

 The city museum was formerly a health centre where people used to visit to take baths in the mineral rich water and soak in mud.

 

 

 Having taken a thermal bath in dirty looking stinky water I spent the next 2 days trying to get the smell out of my system.

Box ticked, no need to repeat that one ...  move on. The only real big plus for me was that I was able to watch a full re run of the Wales v England game  .......  oh yes, looks like a hat full of Lions to me

Napier – Self titled as the art deco capital of the world, it is a small city nestling in the middle of Hawks Bay, the one area that is covered in vegetable, fruit and wine cultivation.

 I decided on a home stay here and was able to find a b&b in the home of a German couple, Kurt & Charlotte. They have an incredible house up a ridiculously steep drive, followed by 2 staircases, that seems to float on the treetops but is so peaceful.

A lot of the local architecture has been retained since the town was totally rebuilt following a devastating earthquake, and resulting fires, that struck in 1931 and I found it quaint and very relaxed a bit like Bournemouth before the stag & hen parties.

 

Wellington – the quite rightly named ‘windy city’ was given quite a big build up on my way down the North Island,  most people regarded it as the place to be and, rightly so, I loved ‘Welly’.

An impressive waterfront, a vibrant arts scene and a super impressive national museum ticked the cultural boxes.
I took the cable car to the top of the overlooking Mt Victoria and then walked the several miles back to the waterfront via the botanical gardens for the exercise, the views and to keep me out of the pub !! The city has more cafe/bars that New York!! and has been dubbed New Zealands ‘ ‘capital of cool’ and its not hard to see why as the place is absolutely bumping.

 There are a huge number of restaurants that all seem full early on but it really comes alive from about 11.30 and keeps going until  5 or 6 in the morning, but I didn’t see one indication of any trouble and not even a policeman!!!!

 Unfortunately it also has a Welsh bar, which was rather limiting for me, as I found it on the first night and didn t really move away from it. Mike & Jo, the owners were great, Jo had done her teachers training in my school, Llanishen High, and we reminisced about some of the old staff which was not what I had expected on the other side of the world , but the real stars were a couple of the locals and bar staff. Cheers to Andy, Chris, Enda, Scotty, Big Bri and Tom.

After 4 nights with a great bunch of guys I retired as champion of drinking, lawn bowls, darts, jenga and pool and also won one of the town poker tournaments, $250 thank you very much

What a great advert ......  come to New Zealand for extreme sports !!!

 

South Island next ......  bring it on....

New Zealand 1

Arrival

Having had such a full on schedule in Sri Lanka, I knew that the next phase of the trip would be less eventful and consequently that would mean less to report, to be honest I was doing so much I almost felt obliged to detail nearly everything which was becoming a bit of an unnecessary commitment for me and I feared may be becoming a little tiresome for some of you chaps. So with a plan to reduce my output, I packed up my gear and headed off south.

The travel was pretty straight forward, a 4 hour flight to Singapore, 7 ½ hours to Brisbane and then 3 hours to Auckland, with the ever impressive Emirates airlines. The times of flights meant that I had to overnight in Singapore and, although I was only there for 18 hours and obviously saw very little of it, I was impressed with how open and spacious it was, wide, tree lined roads all spotlessly clean and a great climate!! I look forward to my return here to meet up with my mate Nick in June.

I had no idea of what to expect from Brisbane and it was not a place that had ever figured in my plans, but as I had a very early morning arrival, and an afternoon departure, I had arranged to stay an extra night so as to give me a chance for a quick look around, firstly because this was my first visit to Australia and also, as my plans at present are to spend most of my time in the south of the country when I return, I would not get the chance to see it otherwise

I was advised by the staff at the hotel that the most popular destination in town was South Bank so I jumped on the local bus and set off. As the name suggests it is the area on the south side of the river, or creek, a huge mud coloured waterway busy with ferries and boats. On the opposite side of the creek is the main commercial centre with the typical inner city skyline of high rise office space whereas the southside is home to theatres and cultural centres, fronted by a lovely park area with gardens, walkways, cycle tracks, a small man made beach and swimming pool area, plant covered shady arcades and plenty of bars/cafes and restaurants.

 I have never seen so much lycra in my life! It felt like all of Brisbane was either jogging or cycling, or had just jogged or cycled, and was now enjoying a compulsory salad or fruit juice. I found myself tempted to break into a power walk just in an attempt to conform but fortunately, whilst passing the 23^rd place to get a zero calorie refreshment, a Maori visitor, the size of a small block of flats, asked me if I had a light and I noticed, almost inconspicuous in his enormous paw, a cold bottle of Corona beer. Result!!

Two and a half hours later I wandered across the river bridge into town to find a couple of civic buildings, a few quirky and historic sites and a shopping centre and could have been in any UK or European city centre, not all the shops have the same names but the lay out and atmosphere is identical.

From very limited exposure, I liked Brisbane, but there again when the sky is blue, the temperature is nearly 30 degrees and the beer is cold how could you not!

 

 

So the  next morning back to the airport for the final leg.

New Zealand is a country I have always wanted to visit - the land of the long white cloud, the world’s best rugby and super wine. Also, geographically, it is as far away from home as I get and, although not time wise, it is the  half way point of what was the main aim of all of this for me, the circumnavigation of the planet . I have deliberately allowed plenty of time here to see as much as I can of both islands, so I was pretty excited landing in Auckland.

There then followed a lot of faffing about at the airport, due to poorly staffed immigration desks and having to be interviewed by the biological warfare department, as I had been on a safari in the last 30 days – I actually thought that my sitting on animal exploits had caught up with me – I got into the concourse to encounter similar delays trying to get cash and a phonecard and I gave up trying to talk to anyone about car hire. It appeared that everyone from my flight, and every other flight, wanted a campervan and so I decided I would research car hire from the hotel which took a further hour to get to as the bus didn’t turn up on time    .......   ho hum.

The reality of rejoining the 21^st century pricing structure clicks in quickly when beer becomes £4 a glass, but a hotel bar with non stop Rugby Channel coverage and an entertaining bar man made up for it but .... everything stops at about 9.30!! Anyone who knows me will now that I am quite nocturnal and even though I had only slept about 12 hours in 3 days , partly because of the time difference between countries, I was still quite disappointed to be on my way to my room before 10pm

The next morning into town. I had been warned that Auckland was a place to get out of and when I had asked a fellow traveller at a coffee bar what was the best thing to do in Auckland on short visit, she advised me go to Wellington!!

After 6 hours there, from what I saw, I think she was probably right. It’s a bit like a small Southampton with a lot of hills. The harbour is ok, made much more exciting due to the presence of a thumping great cruise ship, a couple of nice parks and a tower, which having been to Dubai begged the question, ‘You call that a tower?’

 

 

My priority however shifted to getting in front of a tv at 3.25 the following morning to watch the Wales match v Scotland. The channel EPSN was covering the game but no hotel bar, club or restaurant within 5 miles of my hotel subscribed to it and in any case the prospect of anyone being awake after about 11.30 was not good. The hotel internet coverage was priced on download and they advised me it was going to cost about £50!! So I got a couple of bottles of beer on room service, ate the contents of my room fridge, listened to my i pod whilst doing sudoko counting down the hours in anticipation of the radio coverage on Talk Sport.

 Imagine my delight when at 3.30am they announced the live coverage of West Brom v Swansea !!!!!!!...not even a mention of the rugby in this rugby fanatical country, the only other options on the radio was some vacuous twerp playing 90’s music or a discussion on the introduction of the dung beetle into New Zealand ...... bugger!!  I ve since read about the game and despite the win, the dung beetle may well have proven a better option

So, time to get out of Auckland, I got my car (more to follow about this!!), got my map, and I m heading North .....

Sri Lanka 6

Unbelievably my time here is nearly at an end. I hope I have been able to convey some of the magic of this place in my blogs

If you have enjoyed it or it has been interesting, or you just want to stay in touch, mail me at bigmikeontour@gmail.com

In conclusion I offer you some  thoughts and handy tips for a Sri Lankan visit

-          HISTORY

Too much for me to deal with here, many world Heritage sites each of which could occupy a life time of study. Many unique historical places coupled with very important religious sites for Hindu and Buddhist followers. You will never get bored if this is what floats your boat

-          FOOD

Do sample the local cuisine everywhere – in particular the fish alters quite a lot according to where you are- and eat like a local for maximum payback, (pizza and chicken and chips is not what you come here for) even going as far as discarding cutlery and  eating with your fingers.

 

Their food is naturally quite hot (chilli wise) which I love, but if you ask, most places will tone it down for you.

Village food has been the highlight for me, roadside pull ins, places that usually just cater for locals using traditional open hearth fires with clay pots serving  great food, and it can be embarrassingly cheap.

Breakfast of ‘rice and curry’ sounds a bit weird but here it is normal although the rice is normally string hoppers, tasty rice noodles. Today it was hoppers, roti  (like a chapatti), 3 small bowls of potato, lentil and fish curries and a coconut sambal,( fresh grated coconut, chilli, onion and lime juice), followed by fresh fruit, fresh coffee, and toast to follow, all for less than £3.50 !!

Tonight a delicious whole baked fresh fish, pineapple and chilli salad and chips, 4 beers £10

-          GETTING ABOUT

Personally I would not be happy driving here without some considerable exposure to what goes on, it is wild!

Get a driver who knows how things work and can guide you and advise you, but, you get what you pay for and mine was not cheap It wil take away a lot of hassle and save a lot of time on public transport which is not too bad but quite basic, very full and leaves you dying for a shower

 City driving is crazy as I have referred to before, but rural can be just as worrying especially with what you might encounter, especially at night.  

The post war government  has spent billions on new road construction and a lot of it is excellent but they are also undertaking massive road renovation, and this is ongoing - and when they go for it it is all or nothing,

The A12 is approximately 120kms of roadworks!!! It took about 5 hours to cover and was like negotiating Port Stanley airport after it had been carpet bombed and then covered in red powder paint.

Fed up with the air con I had opened the window of the car for some fresh air......bad move........ a bus  steamed past before I had time to close the window and left us looking like two tomatoes. Edward was not amused!

WILDLIFE

Everything from multicoloured termites to whales, swarms of butterflies to eagles, an unbelievable diversity in keeping with the range of climates and vegetation here

My experience with wildlife on the road has been that most dogs, cats, goats, monkeys and birds will get out of the way, but do look out for mongoose, peacocks and large monitor lizards, who seem to consider themselves a bit posh and expect you to wait!

 Slow down and most cows will move, maybe a little beep on the horn will help.

Water buffalo get a bit more respect as they will seriously dent your Toyota and tend to move at their own pace and do as they please- we met one standing in the middle of the road before dawn one morning, only just seeing him in time to stop, about 25 yards in front of us, they are seriously big chaps,

And elephants.......yes..... ELEPHANTS.....  although not easy to do....don t panic,  leave the area with as little fuss as possible.....in reverse if necessary..........!! !if they are in a bad mood this can be a big problem

There is quite a large wild elephant population here and the control seems to be by electric fences, but  particularly at dusk you may well see one on the roadside or even in the road. I saw two one evening, one causing  traffic mayhem, as he wandered around on the highway, the other on a grass verge, a little bewildered at the fuss he was causing as cars pulled over to photograph him. You stay at your peril as they are easily spooked and quite capable of turning a mini bus full of people over if angry

We stopped to buy fruit at a roadside stall on a side road we took as a shortcut, and I was admiring a treehouse that looked newly built. I was told that it was the ‘safehouse’ where the family of 6 had spent the last few nights, as elephants had been around the house after dark and if they had been startled by noise inside the house they could quite simply smash the house so the family feared for their lives at the moment and had moved out to sleep where it was safer......staggering!

VARIOUS

-          If you intend to wash your own gear, bring a plug, they are very rare beasties in mid range accommodation, alternatively most places will arrange cheap laundry service

-          (One for the chaps)  Bring a ‘harp’ toothpick. Putting your Asian adapter into the mains is very difficult as the top (earth) hole, internal cover, prevents it going in. Locals use a key!!! My suggestion prevents pushing a metal object into a plug socket which is a bit of a result

-          Be aware that tipping is expected but not expensive ‘100Rs (50p) for carrying a bag, 200Rs for a waiter if service charge is not included, 500Rs if you are very impressed by someone would be acceptable’, was advice to me from a local .... I tended to double it

-          At every site of interest you will find beggars and hawkers. They are persistent but no threat. Speak in Welsh, even if it is gibberish, refuse to recognize English and they go away

-          Mosquitos, but very few other bugs or crawlies, live here, If out after dusk ask for a mosquito coil to be lit under the table.

-          Many ATM s are rubbish and will cause your card to block for 24 hours I found Commercial Bank to be the best

-           My pants!! There was much hilarity pre tour about my research and quest for the ultimate tropical underwear. I can now state officially that it was all worth it. I have trialled my usuals by way of a comparison and the new ones are so much more comfortable in hot weather FANTASTIC buy, Ex Officio are the way forward

-          AND FINALLY

Book more time than you think you will need it if you want to learn about this wonderful place, although quite a small island on the map there are so many things to see and do.  If you just want to laze in the sun that is very do able as they sure get a lot of it, but it might be considered by some a wasted opportunity Doing quite as much as I have done has been  unrelenting, but so rewarding

It is as diverse an island as you could imagine ranging from desert like scrub to towering mountains, thousands of acres of un-navigated ‘jungle’ and even more under the many crops including coconuts, bananas, pineapple, rice, tea, coffee, rubber etc etc...honestly the list is endless.

There are enormous lakes, sea lagoons, spectacular beaches and stunning waterfalls but for the most part it is very green and teeming with wildlife

There are a lot of poor people here and you wonder how many of them survive, but almost without exception I have found everyone courteous, helpful, interested, extremely polite and what will remain with me ..... always smiling

I will remember Sri Lanka very fondly and certainly plan to return

 Next stop New Zealand, but I can t see this amount of blogging continuing!!

A few more photos from the nearly 500 I have taken, they are not that easy to get on line with poor internet and videos ( of which I also have 200+!) are very problematic. I hope these are successful..