First of all apologies for the lack of updates but we are back in working life and regular updates would consist of the below routine:
7am : Get up
8am : Go to work
12pm : Lunch
5pm: Get back from work
6pm: Gym/football/dinner
10pm: Bed
Now is the time for an update ; one year on from leaving the motherland for pastures new. It has just flown by and what we have done still hasn’t sunk in. Anyway we have settled very well into Kiwi life, I started working for JBWere Private Wealth Management in the city at the start of February. The office is on the 38th floor of the Vero Centre (known locally as the toilet due to its toilet seat shaped top.) View is stunning from there looking over the Haurakii Gulf, surrounding city all the way to Manakau Harbour. Katie worked for a while in a restaurant/bar in Takapuna on the North Shore but this was just something to fill in time whilst looking for something 9-5.
We lived with some mates in the North Shore which is renowned for its beaches, bars and general laid backedness (if that's even a word) The house had a stunning view over the Hauraki Gulf onto Rangitoto Island which is an extinct volcano, we often just sat with a drink while admiring the view from the pool. Infact its surprising the amount of volcanoes around the city…..fingers crossed they don’t go off! (Don’t worry Mum they’re extinct)
We stayed “on the other side for 2 months and I won’t bore you with everything we done but highlights include seeing Train in Takapuna, somehow landing seats 2 rows from the front causing “Hey Soul Sister”to be lodged into the depths of our brains for about a week.
Also managed to sneak in seeing the Blues vs Crusaders Super 15 rugby game with all the Americanisms like side entertainment and cheerleaders, luckily the rain held off for us.
Auckland hosts a yearly Lantern Festival to celebrate Chinese New Year, in the midst of the Auckland Skyline. Very much like stepping back into South East Asia with food markets, spectacular lanterns and a smattering of Asian music. Saying that, there is a huge Asian community in Auckland so if there was a lantern festival every weekend I’m sure it would be packed.
One event which has overshadowed our stay has been the natural disasters which have hit Christchurch and Japan. Unbelievable and so sad to know people who have been affected directly by these events. Was quite a shock actually being warned about a Tsunami, even though it is just part of life down here having earthquakes and tsunami alerts……being from calm Scotland where the occurrence of such disasters are about as likely as a Scotsman Morris Dancing while enjoying a spot of cricket!
Katie has recently started a new office job involved with the 2011 Rugby World Cup, which works out much better for us, as working opposite shifts from each other just doesn’t suit the Taylors. We upped stix from North Shore and moved to Parnell in the city centre, which has a very Scottish village kind of feel to the place full of pubs, restaurants and cafes. Most importantly its about a 20 minute walk for both of us to our works and is conveniently close to Rangers Supporters Club….oh yes!
First weekend in our new digs I managed to snap my finger playing football for my new team (Celtic Supporters Club…..who’d of guessed that!), not just a simple injury though. Oh no I never do injuries by half and I needed 3 screws and a plate to fix my finger. I did however get a tour of Auckland Hospitals and not many people can say that! Luckily it will heal in time for our visit to Rotorua, Lake Taupo and Waitomo Caves this Easter Weekend closely followed by the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.
As we hit our one year anniversary of leaving the UK, and the next London to Oz trip departs…..we hope all the Odyssey Overlanders Year 2011 have a blast and feel free to give us a shout if you end up over here for the Rugby World Cup.
PS. Photo Album has been updated for your perusal.
The Great Ocean road is a 243 km coastal drive along the south east of Australia starting in Warrnambool and ending in Torquay. It was built to commemorate those who fought in World War One and winds around limestone rocks, beaches, rain forests as well as little towns and hills. Scenic photo stops are dotted along the route which include the 12 Apostles, London Bridge, Loch Ard Gorge and the Grotto. These are all limestone rock formations which have been created from the waves and the weather, the so called London Bridge actually party collapsed in the 90s so the amazing rocks are subtly (and not so subtly) changing over time. Luckily we were travelling east against the traffic along the road as the sun was out and day trippers from Melbourne were out in force, sections were queued back about 5-6 kilometres.
A visit to South Australia wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Barossa Valley, the
famous wine region and home to Jacobs Creek and Penfolds wines. We had an objective to find a bottle of wine for our Christmas dinner. The winner was a bottle of Moscato from Jacobs Creek after much free tastings and dodging the plague of locusts which have hit the region just as we arrived. Shelly has been painted red with the blood of insects a fair bit on her travels but nothing prepared her for having locusts committing suicide on her face! We’ll clean her soon.
Adelaide is quite a modern city with the CBD being surrounded by parklands and the centre being full of grand buildings and churches. Weirdly enough the shops were quiet, compared to what Christmas shopping is like back home. Adelaide is known as the city of churches, and they ain’t lying as almost every corner has a church on it. Quite a strange sight to see was Santa driving around in a mini-moke and wearing shorts. I don’t see it catching on to be honest……big red jacket, full beard, santa hat and a nice tight pair of khaki shorts, mmm festive!
We originally planned to be in Coober Pedy for Xmas but luckily we ended up ahead of schedule and lucked out on a 4 star apartment in the centre of Adelaide, complete with swimming pool, balcony, Sky TV and most importantly our own kitchen. After 9 months on the road, all we craved was to be able to cook our own food so it was great to be able to cook proper food and even a batch of Chocolate Balls (thanks mum for the recipe.)
To be honest it never really felt like Christmas, as being used to snow from back home it felt weird being in 36 degree heat. It was great though to settle down for a few days as after being on the road for the best part of a year, we are ready now to settle down for a while.
We are currently on our last leg of our Australian adventure, via the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne, where hopefully Shelly will gain a new owner to continue her travels. We shall then be flying onto Auckland and hope to get a job for a while and sample a bit of Kiwi life.
Our visit to Uluru was short and sweet and after our walk we set off south in search of opals in the 4th state of our visit, South Australia. Coober Pedy was our first destination, meaning hole of white man in Aboriginal, basically because 90% of the worlds opals are mined here and people from all over the world wanted a piece of it so moved there to mine. Temperatures in Coober Pedy can be excessive (50 degrees plus) which has drawn many of its occupants into underground houses where the temperature stays the same all year round. When we heard this we thought the whole place would be underground, but it was only a handful of shops and accommodation and since we arrived on Saturday afternoon nearly everything was closed so the only underground place we could see was the Catholic church, which was really small but really pretty. There was a drive in movie theatre here too which was closed for Christmas so we missed out on that too. Taylor did a bit of noodling (looking for Opals) and found a little piece. Unfortunately after all my hints for a new (not green-turning) wedding ring made from opal we left empty handed and continued our drive south. This started with miles and miles of nothing and ended in the third largest city in South Australia, Port Augusta.
