For some reason..

...my last few posts don't seem to be showing up. This is most annoying. If somehow you can see them though I can't, please e mail me to let me know. Ta.

The Italian Job goes Bollywood

Well today has certainly been the most movie day I've had so far. Not only did I decide to pay two trips to the Embassy (I couldn't decide between 2 films and I can never get enough of the Embassy) but on my wander round the waterfront after the first showing I came across the filming of a scene for a Bollywood remake of the Italian Job being filmed here in Wellington. This was fascinating so I stayed to watch for a couple of hours as they set up a shot. You might be able to tell from the photos that it was pretty windy, but it was also very humid (29 degrees so the weather said) so the wind was actually welcome.

The New Year so far

Just a few pics from the last 3 weeks, which were in fact the first 3 weeks of 2011 so Happy New Year!

 

Kiwi Christmas

I hardly dared hope that such a day might be possible on one particular date - sunshine, no cloud and a gentle breeze - but along it came and the fact it only stayed for that one day made it even more amazing. It was great to be able to experience a true antipodean Christmas of eating outside and lounging around in the sun. I even got a Christmas tan! Plus I was allowed to play Dire Straits all morning - what more could I want?? Here are a few snaps of the day.

Aussie Slideshow

Animal Antics

Well here I am back in NZ after my 4 week adventure in Oztralia. The first thing I’m doing (apart from catching up on Strictly and Merlin) is sorting through my photos. Undoubtedly some of my favourite pics have been of the different animals that are mostly unique to oz (just as some of my more frightening moments involved wildlife - a nice balance you may say). Here below you find a selection that I think are just begging for a caption so Bring It On.

A

B

 

C

D

Tastastic

I only have one minute to write this so all I'll say is I'm in tassie and it's good. Time out.

Crikey!

Hullo again to you all. We are now safely located in the Whitsundays and will be boarding our boat in T minus 3 hours. It was absolutely peeing down when we arrived yesterday - so much so the pilot had to take two goes at landing. The airport itself was one small building and baggage claim was just that; they drove the trollies round to the side of the building and you had to go and find your own bag in amongst everyone elses. But I get ahead of myself. I must first tell you of our trip to Australia Zoo which was an absolutely fantastic day and I can't wait until I can put some pics up to show you.
We set off from Brissie at half 8 and drove north for about an hour to get there. Sarah's friend Debbie was our driver and we are very thankful to her for that. Surprisingly there were no queues to get in and though there were plenty of people about it never felt crowded. We made it just in time to see the tortoise show and then proceeded on to the croc show in the aptly named crocoseum. The rest of our day involved feeding the roos and elephants, watching the tiger and bird of pray demonstrations and wandering around to see any of the animals (or indeed keepers) we fancied. The animals were all really well cared for and (except for the crocs) all had really good relationships with their keepers. If you ever find yourself over here I highly recommend you go. The zoo does an amazing job and any donations you give go directly out of the zoo to conservation projects, not back into the zoo itself which you might expect. All in all I have to say well done Steve and co. You beauty!
So, back to the Whitsundays. As I say, we arrived yesterday in very wet conditions and were told this was the forecast for our entire stay. Thankfully today the sun has been out so far (apart from a wee shower) and hopefully it will continue that way. Our overnight accommodation was the YHA and we were pretty shocked with how basic it was. Our room looked more like a cell and faced out onto the main street so wasn't exactly quiet. We soon decided not to come back there on Saturday night and booked into another boutique backpackers a little out of town. We then had to go and check in for our boat (which was news to us as we'd received no information after booking) and despite a minor hassle that was relatively painless. Last night was uneventful due to the rain, we just spent the evening in our cell reading (thankfully I'd decided to purchase a book at Brissie airport).
Now we find ourselves killing some time in between our checking out and our boarding. We will be back on land on Saturday and I shall hopefully be able to fill you in about our boating adventures then. Anchors away!

Brisbane Day 1 feat. Bernard

Wull hullo. It's our 2nd day in Brisbane and we were supposed to be at the zoo today but the forecast was storms so we decided to postpone until tomorrow. Instead we have come to the internet cafe (a novel experience after 4 years away from this sort of thing) and are booking our zoo tickets online to get a discount, amongst other things (which is proving to be rather difficult).
Yesterday was a very long day. I was up at 5am (the equivalent of 2am in Brisbane where I have learned there is no daylight savings) and had a smooth journey over to meet Sarah and her friend Linda on the corner of Edward and Turbot Streets - though there were so many 'big black cars' I did miss them driving by and Sarah had to run back for me. Linda then kindly took us to our home for the next 3 days - the Kookaburra Hostel. We dropped our stuff off and I got changed into my new summer dress (bliss) and headed out into town. We wandered to the main shopping street, had a spot of lunch and then headed over the river to the south bank. We followed this past the city beach and lagoon and then headed back to the north side for a walk through the Botanical Gardens where we came upon Bernard. Bernard was, and hopefully still is, a lizard of some sort, the biggest one I've ever seen in the wild, but not big in Aussie standards I'm sure. He was chilling out in the sun, though kept eyeing us up as we took photos (even doing a fabulous little walk to distance himself from us at one point).
In the evening Sarah's other friend Debbie came to pick us up and we went for a meal at a Meditteranean restaurant. I had a Turkish Pizza with Spit Roast Lamb, Rocket, Yoghurt and Sumac. I put these ingredients in capitals because they were soooooo delicious. Debbie then took us up to Kangaroo Point to look at the city by night. I have to say I was pooped by this point (about 8.30) and we were soon back at the hostel for an early night. Sadly I didn't sleep too well, as is my way in new and unfamiliar places, but I made it through and hope for a better snooze tonight.

Flaming Gollah!

G'day folks. This is the last in my surge of posts and it is just to say 'see ya later' as I'm off to Aussie in the morning and am not sure when I'll have the chance to blog again. To give you a quick idea of what I'm up to my itinerary is Brisbane, The Whitsundays, Tasmania and Melbourne all taking place in the space of 4 weeks. My current feeling is excited nervousness. So I bid you tarra for now. Take care possums.

The 5th of November

After a gorgeous day of catching the rays it was hard to believe the fireworks display on the harbour could be in jeopardy but sure enough the southerly rolled in at tea time and I was checking Stuff regularly to see if it was going to be called off. In the end it wasn't and I headed down to the city to sea bridge to watch this years' display. I remember 2006 being brilliant but I really should learn not to have expectations. Don't get me wrong, it was a good show (especially the end) but I found myself a little underwhelmed. Whether this came from watching it on my own when I'd expected to be with a group of friends I don't know but that's the way of it. Anyhoo, here are a couple of pics of the event.

Julia's back in town

I'm trying to get all of my recent antics blogged about before I head off to Oz so here follows a brief account of my reunion with Ms Julia Inkster which took place on Monday 1st November at around 4.10pm (on account of the train having brake issues).
Our first important activity was getting on the trampoline. Julia was a pro, I was a wuss (Sally, Fred, Lals, recall the hamster wheel if you will). Here Julia demonstrates how it's done.

We then went out for an drink at the waterfront bar and sat out in the glorious evening sun.

After a spiffing tea (many thanks Chef Julia) we went for a walk along the beach to catch the last of the sunset. It was beauteous as you see.

On the tuesday we went for a walk in Queen Elizabeth II Park and had a wee picnic. It was another stunner of a day and South Island was very clear right from the sounds down to the snow covered Kaikouras.

The afternoon saw us relaxing with a book and later on a bit more bouncing ensued. Thankfully I was less of a wuss on this day (though as you will see from the pic I was nowhere near as good as Julia).