More then Half Way Around the World

I don't want this trip to stop ... the fast-paced change of scenery has been mesmerizing; like a giant slide show with an old projector:

slltrr vineyards
slltrr desert
slltrr city
slltrr beach
slltrr ocean
slltrr old friends
slltrr glacier
slltrr ...

And now the slide show is almost over; the second-to-last slide shows the tail of an Air New Zealand jet against the backdrop of a ring of mountains (is this the most beautiful airport in the world?) and then the projector will come to an end, there will be just a white rectangle on the wall, the lights will come back on and I need to go back to my normal life.

But I don't want them to come back on yet.

Just give me another slide. One more. Something different.

Tomorrow, travelling back in time to before I left as I cross the international date line, and then the last slide.   
sllttr San Francisco

South Africans Abroad

There are supposed to be large numbers of South Africans living in New Zealand and Australia. I only came across traces of them. In Sydney, on the subway, I listened while an Afrikaans mother read out the names of South African animals to her daughter
Dis 'n klipspringer ... 'n steenbok ... 'n slang
It was eerie.

And in Brown Bay, there were butchers seling boerewors and biltong and a South African shop close to the beach. You could purchase your favourite Leon Schuster movie. Or how about that old Rhodesian flag, together with the Orange, White and Blue of the old Apartheid republic?. But to really get that nostalgic taste of home, there is nothing like a packet of Smash instant mashed potatoes. Hmmm. The fine taste of nostalgia.

Auckland

My last night in New Zealand was spent in Auckland in the company of family: my cousin Shirley, her husband Dos and (briefly) their children Daniella and Graeme, who I'd last seen as infants back in Zimbabwe, and who are now freshly married and freshly graduated respectively.

It's always interesting to see how people react and adapt to new conditions. Shirley and Dos live in a two-storey house in North Shore, on the dge of urban Auckland (which sprawls out into a giant hour-glass, constained by water on two sides). They are different to the way I remember them: they've taken up cycling, swimming and running; take part in protests (open up the Auckland bridge to cyclists!) and in general seem to be loving their new environment. And there is a lot to love: calm sandy bays and forrested hills close by, cheese farms and old bars, good restaurants and a lot of outdoors stretching to the north.

On my last night they took me into the centre of the city, up Mnt. Eden (one of the highest of a cluster of old volcanic cones which dot the city) to show me the 360 degree dusk views and the skyscrapers and giant tower (flushed pink for breast cancer week) of the sklyine; we had a good Indian meal on the bay and coffee in the Viaduct, a waterfront development dominated by a giant yacht suspended in the air. Its the one which won the America cup which has had so much influence on the recent development of the city. Fuzzy photo; I took it without a tripod:

Corrugated Culture

There is a pleasant quirkiness about some of the small towns in New Zealand. I was just going to drive through Tirau on my way to Auckland, but I had to stop, grab my camera and get out the car because it was plasted with colourful signs and statues - all made of corrugated iron. Maybe its because I grew up under a roof of these metallic waves, but I found it really appealing.

Kiwi Experience

Its really rare to spot a Kiwi in the wild. They're nocturnal and shy and many of the species have been ferreted to the edge of extinction. I went to a Kiwi nursing project (they incubate and hatch eggs and care for the young birds until they can be released into the wild). It was close to Rotorua, a town in the middle of beds of hot springs and geysers.

The Kiwis are like no bird I'd seen before: feathers like fur, long beak used to root through the soil while snorting loudly, no tail, tiny stub remains of wings (under which the long beak is still tucked while sleeping). And whiskers like a cat's.

Atene Skyline Hike

Today was the only day in New Zealand which didn't go according to plan (not that there has ever been much plan). I was going to attempt the Tongariro Crossing, a day's walk across the high slopes of a volcano. But the weather was against it: low cloud and the constant threat of rain.

So instead I spent 5 hours on the Atene Skyline in the nearby Whanganui National Park. There I got rain and mist, but also beautiful views through the forests onto the surrounding hills and the Whanganui River, and a quiet close-up with some of New Zealand's beautiful and often pre-historic looking vegetation.

Wellington

Got up at 4:30 am to catch the 6:25 am ferry from Picton to Wellington, New Zealand's capital on the North Island. It wasn't my choice to go this early (the next ferry was full) but it worked out well, because it gave me most of the day to spend in Wellington. The ferry trip (the bit I groggily remember) was interesting because a lot of the route on both sides was through long fjords and inlets, so it felt more like a trip down a huge river than one across open sea.






Wellington reminded me a lot of San Francisco: it has wooden terrace houses, forested hills, lots of coffee houses, a compact down town and what any city needs to be compared to San Francisco by a tourist: a cable car.

Te Papa (Our Place) is the sprawling national museum on the waterfront at which I suffered through a cringingly bad tour by an ex-South African guide. Lot of good mixture of modern multimedia and old artefacts.