It's been a year and a half. Thats a long time without seeing your parents. The only contact I had had in that time was a phone call now and again and the odd viewing through Skype and a web-cam. It's not really enough is it?!?
However, with summer holiday's begining in England and the parents preparing a trip away - what better place to head than to see New Zealand and their beloved son. After a few days in Hong Kong the parents arrived in the land of the long white cloud. I had just returned from skiing and headed off to the airport to meet them.
Our first meeting in 18 months was an emotional one with many hugs and smiles. It was all a bit overwhelming to be honest but in a good way of course. After we spent the rest of the day chatting about past events and naturally of the footy.
The next day I happily showed them both around Auckland (Queen Street, the harbour, where I work, K-Road, Ponsonby), which involved a lot of walking but was very enjoyable. Of course we stopped for a drink or two along the way and talked over past events and naturally of more footy. That night, Harriet and myself were taken out by my Mum and Dad to the Sky City Tower - Orbit Restaurant. It is a revolving restaurant right at the top of Auckland's Sky Tower, the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere!!! You get incredible views at the top of the entire city. Harriet and I would point out landmarks, where we both worked, our flat (which is only a minutes walk from my parents hotel) and of course all 50 or so volcanoes. The food was deliceous too and we spent the night chatting away about past events and naturally of the footy.
The next day, the parents left for the South Island. They caught a flight to Nelson where, like true travelers, they would venture through the beautiful New Zealand countryside. I would be flying down to Wellington in a week or so and travel the North Island with them, showing them some highlights of places that I have been and some places that I have not yet ventured to. Until then, I had jobs to sort out, some goodbyes to say and some parties to attend............
Friday 31 July 2009
The Parents Come To Town
Thursday 30 July 2009
Skiing On Mount Ruapehu (An Active Volcano)
So, on a Wednesday night, Harriet, myself, Pat and Steve took the 4 hour trip down south, heading out of Auckland, past Taupo to the Tongariro National Park. We were staying in a cool little town at the southern end of the national park called Ohakune. I had been here before. It reminds me of a small version of Queenstown, a proper little skiing town where folks come to sit in warm huts and drink mulled wine and beer around a warm fire, or bathe in geothermally heated pools after a hard days ski. The mountain that we would be skiing down is the tallest mountain in New Zealands North Island - Mount Ruapehu. It also happens to be an active volcano. It last erupted in 2007 although it was minor and last properly erupted in the mid 1990's. The mountain was also used for close up shots of Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings. There are three ski fields on Ruapehu, we would be skiing on the southern mountain slope - Turoa. They have volcano warning systems in place all around the mountain, although I hoped that they wouldn't be needed over the next few days as I don't quite feel my skiing is up to the experienced level of escaping from an erupting volcano!?!
We stayed in a cool little backpackers in town that had a large snow man outside, although it wasn't made of snow. On the first day we all spent chilling as the weather permitted us to ski that day. Pat and Steve like a drink or ten too, and that night we all went to the famous Powder Keg Bar where we drank ourselves stupid mainly on B52's as I vaguely remember. Harriet and I ended up a drunken mess and decided it was a good idea to steal the snow man's nose (which was a traffic cone). I don't know how long we were there trying to get this nose, but Pat and Steve found it hilarious as they took embarassing photographs of the whole event from the sideline. We all ended up crashing somewhere in a heaped state and woke up with hangovers that would make having Swine Flu seem pleasant. The weather cleared in the afternoon and we got a half day ski in. It was much better skiing on the mountain and I really improved the little skills that I began with. Harriet remained on the side, too hungover to continue with life itself. We took it easy that night, having just a few quiet drinks, bathing in the geothermal pools and eating a lot of beef.
We were joined by two friends of Pat and Steves - Shane and Christa, and were later followed by Leith and his French friend Yan. The second day was perfect skiing weather and we were on the slopes by 8.30am. With no hangovers and a mountain full of snow - we really had a great day skiing. By the end, Harriet and I had mastered the green runs with ease. That night however, everyone was back on the booze and as usual, Harriet and I were the last two standing - playing drinking games with three Kiwis we had just met. Earlier that night, in a pub, I had bumped into an old friends sister, who was now living in Auckland but who had also come down for a bit of skiing. It was Toby's sister, Zoe. I had not seen Toby since the first days of my travelling, where after two hours of landing in Bangkok, I bumped into him and his (now) wife Vicky. Zoe told me that Toby and his brother Ollie had gone on to the Dragons Den Tv Show and been given 100,000 pounds to help fund their idea. Good on them!!! I chatted to Zoe for a while before we all left to get drunk. It would be another messy night and I knew the next day would possibly kill me.
The final day started off slow for the two drunk ones. We eventually made it up on the mountain - a little later than the others in our party. In our still drunken state, we ended up taking the wrong ski lift and headed up to the top of the mountain. There, at the top were the black runs down, which we took one look at, realised that we couldn't take them on even if we were sober and ended up taking the ski lift back down to easier slopes. From anywhere on the mountain you do get the most incredible views. We were sat on Mount Ruapehu in the very middle of the North Island. From here you can easily see Mount Taranaki, which sits on the very south west coast of the North Island. Thats like standing on a mountain in Birmingham and seeing another in Devon (well very roughly). Eventually our skiing got going and we were back down the slopes.!?!
When your a skier, the main hazard when taking on the slopes is unquestionably - snowboarders. Beginner snowboarders really can't control their speed or direction in general, and one clip from a heavy snowboard and it's game over for a skier. Actually there wasn't too much clipping - they generally headed straight into Harriet and I, knocking us clean over and creating a white-out all the way down the slope. I believe that was the main reason we fell over. Of course I did manage to take a few people out myself. Once, I slightly clipped a kid's ski's causing him to perform the splits which then followed with crying in agony as his dad tried to bring him upright. I skied as fast away as I could so not to get blamed - a drive-by ski-knock as I have named it. I also gave the lightest of clips as me, Harriet and this kid tried to all get on the ski lift. The knock sent the kid spinning out of control and the ski lift bashed him on the arm as he tried to get on. We then had cries of pain the whole journey up as I just turned to Harriet, trying to hide my embarassment. Apart from all those minor incidents the skiing was very successful. We finished our last day, returned our gear and headed back home. Tomorrow my parents were arriving in New Zealand. I hadn't seen them for a year and a half - finally it was time...........
The Calm Before The Storm
Just last week I finished work. Since the begining of July, most of my volcanology had been wrapping up the project that I had been pioneering for the last 8 months or so. Part of the wrapping up involved a day trip down to Wellington with my boss. There I had arranged a meeting with a whole host of people at GNS to discuss what I had been doing for half a year (cue presentation) and where we should take the borehole database project that I had created. It turned out to be very successful indeed. From the meeting discussions it was decided that GNS should create a national borehole database for the entire country by amalgamating all borehole data stored at GNS. One day, when you want borehole data from New Zealand and you go to the National Borehole Database to find what your looking for - just remember, that you may have never had access to such data if it hadn't been for the meeting that I had set up. Within a few weeks, my final report was in and I said a goodbye to all my work collegues that had become good friends over the last year. They put on a farewell morning tea for me and gave me a card and present too - which just highlights what amazing people they all are. I will certainly keep in touch with many of them.
With work complete, I was sitting in the calm before the storm. I had so many things planned, that were all going to hit me in one manic swoop. The first major event was a skiing trip, planned down at the Tongariro National Park, but before hand, Harriet and I had a very important sporting event to attend.......
......On a cold, windy night, at the Mount Eden Stadium, two brits, with only half an idea of what the hell was going on, turned up to see one of the biggest games of the year. The two brits were a Miss Harriet Willmott and myself and the sporting event was the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team take on their ultimate rivals - Australia (the Wallabies) in the Tri Nations Cup. In front of a packed stadium, we watched the gruesome battle unleashed. We were first treated to the Maori war dance that every All Blacks team performs before a game - The Haka. It was heard from everywhere in the ground and it looked scary from my seat at about 6km from the players. I think I would have ran away if I was an Australian Rugby player. However, it was the Wallabies who started the better - taking a comfortable lead by half time. The game was fierce and tackles were flying in at all angles as you would expect. Yet, the All Blacks are not a team to give up easily and by the end of the match, the kiwis had taken a 22-16 lead to win the game. We had the only All Blacks try down our end of the pitch too, which was good. The atmosphere at the end of the game was electric, and although we had spent most of the match huddled and shivering, we celebrated in style with our fellow New Zealanders. Harriet and I were fully dressed up in All Blacks gear and we partied all the way home and then continued the celebrations on late into the night.
Harriet and I had also been to Pat and Steve's (Harriet's Aunt and Uncle's) farm to spend some time with them. We were going on a skiing trip with them soon and so we all decided to do a couple of warm up rounds by going to Snow Planet - the dry ski slope, as practice. I had never been skiing before (only a day snowboarding), but luckily I had Pat and their friend Leith (both experienced skiers) to help. Harriet had done a bit of skiing before but not for years so we both took it very slowly. It was a lot of fun and with skiing I found that you could go a lot faster, a lot quicker than snowboarding - so I enjoyed it. Thats not to say I didn't fall over. Hell I was up and down like a yoyo and often I wasn't just falling over on my own - I would often take out the 6 nearest people around me too somehow.
Leith has been skiing for years and he's one of those folk who like to push the newcomers. You have to take a risk sometimes if you want to improve. By the end of my first ever skiing day, I was not only skiing down from the top of the run but I actually (still can't believe it myself), successfully made and landed a ramp jump. There are man made ramps all down the ski run and Leith said that I was ready to head straight for the big one. With ignorance on my side - I thought 'what the hell', and whizzed down the slope. I reached the ramp, flew straight over, leaping a few feet off the ground before landing with suprising ease. The first thing I thought is 'no-one will ever believe I did that', but luckily for me, Pat had photographed me all the way. Check out my New Zealand pics - there are four or five of me taking on the ramp.
We actually did two days at Snow Planet, the second day I appeared to be a lot worse than my first and I'm sure that me and Harriet took each other out on nearly every run. Still, we had both learnt the basics and we were ready for the real thing - bring on the mountain................
