Saturday 29 November 2008

Pomp and Circumstance

Helen: Visiting our friends on Marnie at the moment (the one's who rescued us when we were having a horrible time in Tahiti and made me a 30th birthday cake) - had pancakes and strawberries for breakfast, and pizza and smoothies yesterday so feeling totally pampered. Walt got out his guitar and harmonicas last night and he and C played and Tigs and I sang and it was all very silly, probably not all together tuneful, but wonderful fun :)

Went for a wee stroll after lunch to the suburb of Devonport where there's a hill (a volcano, Auckland is full of them - apparently there's 53 cones in the city - makes us feel right at home after living next to Arthur's Seat for so long) - and the hill had bunkers and gun implacements on the top. Daddy would have been in his element. Apparently the guns were for keeping the Ruskys out last century, but were only fired once and then decommissioned (because the locals complained about the noise and the vibrations cracked several windows!)

Still haven't managed to find any lamb (other than chops and legs) - I guess they must export it all! (Actually, we haven't seen all that many sheep so far - I was expecting sheep as far as the eye could see...) And today we're using the free internet in the marina to upload all our photos, so check out www.flickr.com/charlieandhelen to see what we look like now...

We found an ipod in the middle of the road the other day - we tried to return it (phone numbers through letter boxes) but to no avail - so it looks like we've inherited it. We were trying to work out the owner's nationality based on the music choices - some are the same as ours...some are very strange! One of the albums is the sound track to A Clockwork Orange which has lots of Rossini and Elgar - we were blaring out March 1 of Pomp and Circumstance (Land of Hope and Glory) whilst sitting at the traffic lights (makes a change from gansta rap) and the car next to us rolled down his window to approve - he said he was an Englishman and it was very patriotic. He didn't have a big bushy moustache, unfortunately, but C has said that we can try to get some for us for the next time that we play that particular track.

OK, had enough of internetting now - been in here for an age
Lots of love - don't forget your advent calendars tomorrow
Hxx

PS C says I have to tell you about our hostel experiences of the last week - we were very pleased with ourselves for having chosen a lovely hostel in the suburbs - cheaper and much more civilised than the city centre venues for drunken 18 year olds. But then the police got called out twice in two days! First time was for an intruder who stayed without paying (and who C caught stark naked shaving his nether regions in the middle of the boys loos at 2am); second time was for a lady who was very very drunk and screaming the house down. Takes all sorts!

Wednesday 26 November 2008

Bond, James Bond

Helen: It's official. Daniel Craig is a god. He is the best Bond in a billion years. Make that a gazillion. Just seen Quantum of Solace (can you tell) and it was bloody marvellous. Ok, so not as good as Casino Royale (not sure if that would actually be possible) but still pretty darn good. My head is spinning with all the twists and turns and action (what a horrible thing to do to an Aston) but definitely a great way to spend an afternoon. If you go see it (go, go, go) stay to see the credits otherwise you won't find out what Ms Fields first name is... Try not to laugh at the state of the Bolivian roads though - nowhere in our travels in Bolivia did C and I see a road in the desert even closely resembling the smooth dark black snake in the film. Most of the time there isn't even a road, just ruts in the dirt. But I guess the Aston wouldn't go so well in those conditions...

Speaking of roads, we went on a road trip in our new car yesterday (new to us that is, not new - it's done nigh on 180,000 k's so it's definitely no spring chicken) - up the coast about 120 k's to walk along a lovely beach and the cliffs. Gorgeous. But it did take us 2 hours to go about 80 miles because even the main highways here are like A roads at home. Patience is the name of the game.

Day before that we even managed to go climbing! Wooo hooo! Have been trying to go climbing ever since we left the UK, and, while it wasn't a patch on our favourite climbing wall in Edinburgh, it was a good way to while away a few hours. C even enjoyed it once he'd stopped being frustrated at being so puny.

Still haven't got our DHL package - the saga continues (now they want nearly $200 for putting the package through customs. Can you believe it? They actually want us to pay for them delaying our package by 2 months. Imbeciles.) On a brighter note, C went for a harmonica lesson this morning and came back playing something resembling 12 bar blues. And we're even going to try going dancing tonight. Not sure if it's going to work so well in flip flops, but we're going to give it a go.

That's all for now
Hxx

Friday 21 November 2008

Wheels

Helen: We have wheels! C & I are now the proud owners of a Mitsubishi 'station wagon' - can't tell you anything technical about it (it's blue if that helps) - all the oily, greasy messing about is most definitely C's department (he's in his element now what with a laptop and a car to tinker with). So...hopefully we should be hitting the road fairly soon...

Went to the Auckland Museum yesterday - we learned more about Pacific island culture in 2 hours there than we have in a whole year actually travelling in the islands! Interestingly, the display they had for Niue was very Polynesian - lots of tapa barkcloth, woven mats and tikis - but we didn't see any evidence of this at all in our visit there. Peculiar. More than any other island Niue seems to have lost its Polynesian heritage and become European (as an aside, we found out yesterday that in the middle of the 19th century The Auckland Acclimitisation Society planted lots of European plants and trees in the city to make it more like home! You can still see the legacy of this policy all over the place - I finally recognise lots of the plants from the UK after months of tropical curiosities). C took lots of photos of all the Maori carving in the museum so he has lots of ideas to take to see the tattooist...

Still totally overwhelmed by how nice everyone here is. Going to the maritime museum this afternoon if I can ever tear C away from the internet cafe.

Hx

Wednesday 19 November 2008

Living it up downtown

Helen: So we left the UK to 'get away from it all' and leave the hustle and bustle of city life behind. Well, there's nothing like a year in the middle of nowhere to make you appreciate all that hustling and bustling. Boy are we glad to be back. We have achieved more of what C calls 'life administration' in the last 2 days than we have in months and months of living and travelling in Polynesia. There the islands are dependent on irregular supply ships and if it's not on the supply ship you can't have it. Simple as that. I think that even a tiny wee remote community like the Isles of Scilly in Cornwall is more connected to the outside world and better supplied than even the biggest city in Tonga or Fiji. But here, it's business as usual. You want a new pair of shoes, no worries. You need to get your Leatherman fixed, easy. You want a haircut, a new laptop, a second hand car, to go to the theatre, the cinema - all totally and utterly possible. Only downside is that we have also spent more in the last 2 days than we probably have in the whole of the last year put together! Oh well, it's worth it...

So now I have fancy new hair - it's all straight and I keep catching myself in the mirror and wondering who that glamourous lady is - don't worry though, won't last for long - it'll be back to its wayward former habits soon enough (quick aside, using that word, 'wayward' has reminded me that our guidebook describes our (very good) hostel as a 'former home for wayward women' - the mind boggles...) Can't tell you if it's a good haircut or not as C will only say that he likes it - but then, in the same breath confesses that he wouldn't tell me if he didn't like it. He's not daft.

We met up with Marco yesterday evening - haven't seen him since Grenada. Was lovely to see him and hear all his stories. He's going to cook for us this evening which will be great - pasta cooked by a bona fide Italian - the last few boats we've been on with English people they've all complained when I've served pasta 'al dente' and asked me if I could cook it for longer til it resembles a sticky sludge. Yuk.

C went to see a tattooist yesterday about finishing his arm. They were recommended to us...but when we got there all they had on the walls was very colourful hearts, daggers, monsters, dragons and generally evil motifs. All very well done...but not really C's bag! But, very kindly they directed us to another guy who is a 5th generation Maori tattooist who's nationally aclaimed...and also booked til March! Oh well, the search goes on.

Still haven't got our bike gear yet - the wrangling with DHL continues - but think we might want to buy a car instead now. So contrary. Hopefully will be finished with all our chores today and can go and explore some more cultural stuff tomorrow - might even go and see Kafka's 'The Trial' at the theatre - if you're not going to see any theatre for a year, when you do see it it might as well be something serious! Actually, shopping here has not been too much of a chore - the staff in the shops are all friendly and know what they're talking about. So very different from the usual spotty oikes who don't know nuffink at home.

Right, more later
Lots of love
Hxx

PS Feel awful that I never mentioned Armastice Day - we were at sea and it totally passed me by - I only realised on the 12th what day it was. I've never forgotten before, and never not bought a poppy (usually I have to buy at least 3 because I lose them). It really upset me that I forgot as I think it's more important than I can possibly put into words that we don't forget. It upset me more though, that when I expressed my concern at having missed the minute's silence the lady we were sailing with asked why and what Armastice Day was all about. How could she have lived in the UK for so long and not known. Everyone should know. (ok, ok, I'm ranting. I'll stop now...)
PPS And the other thing that passed us by when we were at sea was the US election. OHMYGOD. Wow. Wow. Still can't believe it. (Actually, it didn't quite pass us by, we did manage to catch about 5 mins of an Australian news show on our long distance SSB radio - there was much celebrating when we heard the wonderful words 'Senator McCain's speech to conceed the election'. Why didn't they just vote that way 4 years ago? Who knows (ok, on verge of another rant now - time for a nice cup of tea and a cake...) Hxx

Sunday 16 November 2008

First anniversary

Helen: Wow, believe it or not, we've been gone exactly a year today. Not sure if it feels like a year or longer or shorter. Home doesn't feel so far away today as it's been raining and grey all day - just like a November should be. Don't know what all this talk of Summer is all about.

We left Yamana this morning which was kinda strange as we've been with them so long (nearly 3 months). But, it was good to leave - NZ was the end of the road for them and they were busy trying to sort out cars and schools and houses and all that normal stuff. Strangely there wasn't a lot of crying and wailing and shouting and getting very drunk when we arrived a couple of days ago. We all thought there would be...but it was a bit of an anticlimax - everyone felt a bit deflated as it had been our goal to get to NZ for so long...and then we were here...

C and I are having all sorts of discussions at the moment about what to do from now - ranging from the short term (which hostel do we stay in in Auckland tomorrow?) to the long term (do we want to go home on motorbikes or bite the bullet and buy a boat?) to the real biggies (maybe we should go home and have kids and a dog and a garden). Yup, decision time. Like I said the other day, yikes. Will be sure to keep you all posted.

At the moment I don't have any great cultural insights to offer about NZ - we are in the Bay of Islands just now, where the thing to do is whale watching/swimming with dolphins/sailing in the bay/beaches/hiking, all of which we are totally maxed out on just now. We have absolutely no inclination to do any of that at all at the moment. In fact, today we were just regular normal people in town - we got a mobile phone card, went to the supermarket and watched TV (we were delighted to find that they had the rest of the new series of Spooks on DVD at our hostel - we got hooked on Rahula in the Caribbean and have wanted to see how it all ended for months)

You won't be surprised to learn that on our first day of 'Helen and Charlie' time in weeks and weeks Mr P has spent most of the day in a humpf. We have done all manner of travelling to tin pot places in the back of beyond in our time, and have always turned up with nothing more than our plastic cards to get money out of the wall. No worries. Now we are in NZ - the most civilised place we've been in ages, and our debit cards don't work! C is incensed about this and has already written a stroppy email or three to our bank. He's also grumpy that NZ customs appear to have impounded all our bike gear that was sent from the UK a couple of months ago and that they are being pretty unhelpful in getting it back (you know the routine - you get passed from one numpty to another and have to explain yourself anew each time and no one has the authority to access the right records....Oh well, we'll be there in person by tomorrow so can harass them face to face instead)

Anything else to tell you? We both have cold feet. C has even taken to wearing socks with his sandals he's so cold! I try not to look like I know him when he does this. We must look like such wierdos though - dressed in our ramshackle boat clothes that are not in the slightest suited to this climate and topped off with huge fluourescent waterproof sailing jackets. You might like to know about our experience with NZ quarantine when we arrived? Everyone was a bit worried about exactly what they'd take - in the end they took all our beans/popcorn/garlic/onions etc... basically anything that had the potential to grow (they didn't mind our split peas though as they were already damaged and therefore couldn't germinate). Apparently this is to protect NZ from GM crops - they are GM free at the moment. They also took all our meat, dairy and honey products and asked about our insect infestations. According to the quarantine officers they don't have any fruit flies here so the fruit growers don't have to use many pesticides which gives them a distinct advantage over other countries.

OK, think that's all for now - off to the big smoke tomorrow
Lots of love
H&Cxx

PS we got a guide book today - first time ever we didn't get the Lonely Planet - nearly did, then decided that everyone in the world uses LP and we fancied trying something a wee bit different so we went for the Rough Guide - really enjoying it so far and have a stack of galleries and museums lined up for Mr P (although I think I'll have a job dragging him away from car/bike auctions and computer shops!)

Saturday 15 November 2008

We made it!!

Helen: Right, this is going to be the quickest post ever - I have exactly 4mins and 4secs according to the COIN operated machine that is in charge of this computer terminal.
Thought you'd like to know that we got here ok, without any dramas whatsoever. All the panicking and preparing paid off and we had a breeze of a passage. Flat seas and bearly any wind. Now we're here and clean and have clean clothes. All good. Leaving Yamana tomorrow to head off on the start of our own NZ adventure. Have a lot of decisions to make about where to go from here. Yikes.
Lots of love and more news soon, promise
H&Cxxx

Thursday 6 November 2008

On the way to New Zealand

Thursday 6 November
This is Charlie's Mum, under instruction from Charlie whom I spoke to on the phone last night. He asked me to post a blog to let the fans know that Charlie and Helen were setting sail for New Zealand at 12 o'clock midday Fiji time - that's midnight yesterday here in the UK . So I assume they are now on their way on Yamana and expecting to arrive in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, in ten days' time. They waited for some good weather and are hoping that they'll have an easy sail.