Blades of Glory

Helen: C and I are now the proud owners of Pank crafted knives. Ok, so we had a bit of help, but I reckon we made at least 60 % of the knives ourselves - everything from forging the metal in hot coals and bashing the hell out of it on anvils (C was very good at this part - I was a bit pathetic and the man (with lopsided shoulders) had to come and help me out). Then we made the handles (from late 19th C wood no less) and spent hours and hours grinding the blades into shape and then polishing them. Mine is long and curvy and C's is short and stubby - you can definitely tell which is the girly one and which is the manly one. Unfortunately they didn't run a sheath making workshop too, so our beautiful new knives are now being stored in carboard tubes held together with packing tape!

Other than that we haven't done much exciting for the last few days - Greymouth was pretty grey and uninspiring and now we're in Ch-Ch, which, although not so grey, is also not very inspiring. You can punt on the river, and the botanical gardens are lovely - but they're not a patch on the real thing in Oxford or Cambridge. But...none of that matters too much just now as we have other things to keep us busy - Bob, Laura and Will arrived yesterday :) I don't know what the collective term for a group of Panks is, but we are now it. They are remarkably un-jetlagged and we're heading out of town tomorrow to start some proper sightseeing along the south coast.

Will write more when I've got something more interesting to report!

Hxx

PS forgot to tell you that when we were on the Abel Tasman walk we saw lots of marble. I know that sounds like a daft thing to add as a PS, but I think it's super cool - the whole of the park is made of limestone, but some of it got so pressurised in the earth's crust that it turned to marble, and now there are great lumps of it just lying around on the path - proper white shiny marble with veins in it - I just couldn't get over it, considering how expensive marble is at home - I wanted marble kitchen works surfaces til I found out how much it would cost!

PPS you'll be glad to know I now have another sewing project on the go. After all, as C pointed out what is an old sew-and-sew do do with nothing to sew... (I got some Maori print material to make a dress with sleeves - trying to get C to help me choose which print to buy was like pulling teeth. Getting material was the last thing on our very strange shopping list: pipe cleaners (for cleaning the camp stove), liquid fuel (for stove), red plastic (to help with C's colour blindness - if you look at a red light through red plastic you can still see it; if you look at a green light through red plastic it disappears. V important for sailing so you can tell which way the boats are going!), strong thread for fixing my shoes, some parcel tape and a big laundry bag).

Abel Seamen

Helen: No news for a while because we've been at sea or up hills. It was odd being back on board again after so long on land, but we settled back into the routine well enough (the routine including mandatory sea-sickness for the first 24 hours) and had a great week. Our sailing instructor turned out to be my friend Eva's uncle Johnny (I swear there aren't many people in NZ, or the world for that matter, who Eva doesn't know by some roundabout way or other) and he was about as different from our last RYA instructor (who was an arrogant knob-head) as it is possible to be. He laughed and encouraged me through 5 days of sailing and manoeuvring leaving me feeling much more confident about our exam on Feb 9^th. Still not sure I'm going to pass...but at least I feel I have a chance now. C did really well too – but he was always much better at all that stuff than me anyway. He bought himself a 'Drizzabone' hat so he looks like a professional now too!

Nelson is a friendly wee town – not as much character as Wellington, but nice enough. Got some yummy cherries from the road side on our way in, have met our yachtie friends Pagos and caught up on all their news, and are feeling very smug as we've booked the next leg of our journey... C is mortally embarrassed about this but we are going on a CRUISE from Sydney to Singapore from Mar 19 to April 4. Yes, I know it'll be full of blue rinse old bats, but it's way way way cheaper than getting a cargo ship (weird, huh?) and it means we don't have to fly – we've got this far without flying (ok, technically we did fly a teeny weeny bit in the Caribbean, but not much), so it would be a shame to start now. We're also deep in discussions with Igor and Anastasia (I kid you not – I bet their real names are Darren and Tracey) in the UK who are going to sort out visas and train tickets for us for Russia, China, Mongolia and Khazakstan. Just so long as I don't have to do it!

We've also been hiking in the Abel Tasman National Park (top of the south island) – the place is crawling with tourists, but 95% of them do the easy walk along the coast – we opted for the inland route and got the place mostly to ourselves (we saw 13 people for 3 days, apart from the last half an hour which is along the popular Coastal Route where we saw 49!)

OK, got to go now – just put Star Wars 1 in the CD drive (I know it's awful, I know, in fact I'm sure the first time I saw it I swore I'd never see it again, but we want to see 2 and 3 again and they won't make sense if we don't watch this one first, so we'll grit our teeth and bear it. All particularly galling considering we could have been watching Erol Flynn's Robin Hood this evening at an open air screening – but it's too far away and C's not feeling well – sore throat – so it's Darth Maul instead.)

Okey Cokey – that's all for now,

Lots of love

H&Cxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

South Island

Helen: Woke up this morning in Wellington...and now we're in Nelson - have gone from the south of the north island to the north of the south island! Was sad to say goodbye to Eva and Den and the boys - has been lovely having a good friend just down the road - but good to get back on the road again. C said going on a ferry always makes him feel like he's going on holiday as he always went on the ferry to go camping in France when he was little.

Wellington has great galleries, museums and gardens. And lots of cafes, bars and shopping. And hills. And walks. And the sea. And quirky wee buildings. All in all, our favourite place so far in NZ. Reminded us both of San Fran. You won't believe it, but we both quite enjoyed 'cat-sitting' for Noodles for the last week or so - we're both so definitely dog people and not cat people though it was quite a revelation to find that somehow we'd ended up with a ball of purring fluff on our laps every evening! We won't miss the telly though - we watched loads while we were house-sitting - just goes to show that if it's there we'll watch it - we're only human!

Nelson, from what we've seen so far, is great. More later when we've done some exploring. Won't be for a few days though as we're off sailing tomorrow - we have 5 days with a sailing school to prepare for yachtmaster (and then the exam on Feb 7 - yikes!) So, will likely be incommunicado til the weekend (I can't wait for Friday night - we're going to go and see an open air screening of Erol Flynn's Robin Hood - I've been trying to get that on DVD for years now)

OK, time for bed. C is already passed out with the lights on - he had 2 pints of strong stout/dark beer from the independent pub over the road! (The pub had oodles of charm - it had black boards on all the walls with quotations to read, cross words to fill in, points to argue (who would win a 'no-holds-barred' fight - Emimem or Elvis) and things to make you think (can you name 10 body parts with only 3 letters - abbreviations like bum, pec and ass don't count - C and I finally managed it in about 12 minutes - the record is apparently 3.5. Don't worry, next time I write I'll tell you the answer and put you out of your misery...)

Lots of love
Hxxx

Happy New Year

Helen: 2009 is just around the corner and we wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year. 2008 has been a bit crazy for us - not really sure what next year has in store - I hope you all get everything you wish for. As I type I'm waiting for the computer to load up train timetables for Bejing to Mongolia to Uzbekistan and Moscow...

C uploaded a whole bunch of photos this morning at www.flickr.com/charlieandhelen - I'll get round to naming them all at some point, but right now I'm going to get changed and go out to celebrate!

Lots of love
H&Cxx

Happy Christmas!

Helen: This time last year we were about as miserable as it was possible to be - on Santana with an incompetent captain, big seas and a sea sick cat. What a difference 12 months makes! This year we had yummy food, great company and sunshine. Trifle, chocolate and cream cake, a huge ham (Eva had to beg for it at the butchers a couple of days ago - she hadn't ordered it and they didn't have any to sell...but they gave her their 'emergency ham' when she looked on the verge of tears, clutching a small baby with a toddler in tow!), asparagus, C's pizzas and my fairy cakes (the family we're house sitting for have 2 small children so their pantry was full of baking goodies - sprinkles, cocoa and lots of food dye - cue green, yellow and pink icing - I drew the line at blue).

Lots of Eva's friends came round to say hello throughout the day - a lively bunch (including a very lively 78 year old who wore his silk pyjamas all day and sang 'O come all ye faithful' several times clutching a champagne bottle). We had beer, wine, bubbles, ginger ale, apple whiskey and juice - all with the right glasses - Eva has more glasses than John Lewis!

After we stuffed ourselves silly we went for a walk along the coast and now we're watching a film on telly. Perfick. (Still doesn't feel very Christmassy though - no Slade or Bob Geldof on the radio and I didn't get woken up by C letting off one of those balloons that makes a horrid whiny noise and whizzes round the room (a regular occurance when we stay at his parents house for Xmas as he always gets one in his stocking)). This year Father C brought me a lovely brown merino top and C got a hand stitched advent calendar full of sweeties.

I should back up a few days though and tell you about our walk on Monday - after waiting for nearly a week we finally managed to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. The clouds lifted in the morning and we could see the 3 volcanoes perfectly all day - Ruapehu in particular is a spectacular lump with snow on the top. The only problem was EVERYONE ELSE who wanted to do the walk that day too - we reckon there must have been about 300 people on the trail (they get 60,000 annually as it's the most accessible, and scenic, one day tramp in NZ). The walk has become a victim of it's own success - by the end of the day we were stuck in a conveyor belt of slow moving single file ants. It felt more like a 'wilderness themepark' than a real wilderness. All the paths are heavily reinforced with mesh and wooden sides to prevent errosion and we saw a helicopter emptying the toilet tanks (toilets in the wilderness - what's that about anyway?!)

But...at the same time I think it's great that all these people want to go walking - we met lots of people who were hiking for the first time - C and I looked mildly out of place with our thermals and our walking boots and our big bag among all those sandals and strappy t-shirts! The new kids were nervous about it and really pleased with themselves for having done it. I wouldn't want to put them off - but maybe the DoC could promote another walk nearby to take the pressure off the Alpine Crossing? It's a tough call...

The coolest thing we saw on the whole walk was the mountain Taranaki in the distance. It's a perfect triangle with snow on the top - we recognised it immediately...because C has it tattooed on his arm! Remember I said that Rangi, C's tattooist, was from Taranaki and that that was how Maori introduced themselves? Well...he must've put HIS mountain on C's arm as a 'signature'. Cool huh?

OK, enough for now. The rubbish film on telly (Conspiracy Theory) is nearly over and it's time for bed. Leftovers tomorrow :). Hope Santa is kind to you all

H&Cxxx

Rain rain go away

Helen: Just had breakfast – always an interesting meal in a hostel – C and I play a game trying to guess where people are from – the Brits are easy to spot with their jars of Marmite and the Germans are a dead give away as they always have salami and cheese and bread – C is worried about what they then have for lunch... We haven't seen a Tongan at breakfast yet, but we spotted one at our last hostel – he was in bed, fully clothed, at 4 in the afternoon – typical!

Since I last wrote we have been up to Ohope on the north east coast of the North Island, near Whakatane – C got his right arm finished – it took the guy about 6 hours to draw and then tattoo, and then another half an hour to tell us what it all meant – lots of stuff about the sea and mountains, which are important for Maori people to be able to 'place' themselves – a Maori will introduce himself to other Maori, not using his name, but by saying where his mountain is. If you can see mountains you can recognise in the distance you can use them as reference points – geographically and emotionally.

Rangi (the moko artist) drew many vertical 'hake' (ribs) which are a connection between the living and their ancestors. Ancestral Maori houses are designed to represent a body with the central beam along the roof as the backbone, a face at the apex at the front, the sloping beams as the body, with hands at the end at the front. The ribs (also called hake) that the roof rests on represent the living, connecting the earth with the ancestors. Each shape is filled with loads of horizontal lines or layers which represent 'whakapapa' (genealogy) also represented in the ancestral house by the sloping roof beams and the horizontal slats that go between the sloping beams. Hope all that makes sense!

It was hard listening to him as some of the Maori ideas are very different from Western ideas – it helped having been in Polynesia for a year, but still Maori culture is based on very different cultural assumptions. For example, Rangi explained that when Maori talk about going forward into the future they do it facing backwards, so they can see the past, rather than facing forwards with your back on the past, which is how I always imagined it. He also told us how Maori tribes used to be divided up into 'upper jaw' and 'lower jaw' people – the 'upper jaw' lot learnt all the knowledge to do with ritual and the sacred and the 'lower jaw' people learnt all about fishing and farming etc...

When I called this 'practical' knowledge Rangi said he didn't see it that way as all the ritual/sacred stuff was practical too and he didn't want to make a value judgement about it. Fair enough. It was hard talking to him sometimes though as we both got the feeling that he was very defensive – for example, C said he thought it was amazing how the early Maori explorers set off into the big blue ocean not knowing where they were going. Rangi immediately said that was a very Eurocentric view that assumed their vessels were less seaworthy than ours are now. That's not at all what C meant though – all he meant was that, after months of experience of being at sea and knowing how scary it can be not to see land for a long time, he could imagine how brave the early explorers had been. But sometimes it's impossible to explain yourself properly when someone doens't want to see it your way!

But anyway...we're now back in National Park (what an awful name for a village) and are still waiting for the weather to change so that we can go walking. I think everyone in the hostel is waiting for the same thing! But there really is no point in going for a 9 hour hike to see the stunning scenery when the scenery is hidden underneath thick cloud and you are more than likely to get drenched and cold and blown off the top of a mountain by gale force winds. There really isn't.

So to pass the time I'm sewing (nearly finished C's advent calendar – yes, I know it's almost too late – it would have been finished by now if it didn't need so many small pockets – I guess I should just be grateful that Advent doesn't start when the commercial countdown to Xmas starts or I'd have to have pockets all the way from Oct 1st!) and C is playing the 'iPod downloading blues' on his harmonica – it's taking forever and a day to backup all our music and he's (predictably) grumpy about it. Maybe he'll perk up in a bit and we'll go (indoor) climbing.

Hx

Cold Mountain

Helen: 2 hours ago, this would have been a very different post. 2 hours ago it was wet, windy, cloudy and miserable. Now the sun is shining and 3 majestic mountains have suddenly appeared out of nowhere. One of them (Mt Ngarahoe) was used as Mt Doom in LoTR. Looks spectacular – conical with some snow at the top. Hopefully we'll get to go walking right past the mountains later in the week...but we need to 'pop' up to Whakatane first to get C's right arm finished by a highly regarded Maori sculptor/ta moko artist. By then I'm sure the clouds will be back and the mountains will be hiding again. Actually, they're volcanoes, not just any old mountains. The hotel is full of signs of what to do in case of an emergency – thankfully, we're at NZ's highest hotel, so if there is a sudden rush of molten lava, or, apparently more likely, lots of mud, we should be safe!

Don't worry, we haven't gone all up market – we just found some vouchers on the back of a supermarket receipt and so could afford to stay in a hotel for the night. We got here at 10am (the last hostel we were staying in was miserably cold and unfriendly – C was meant to book somewhere else, but phoned the wrong people, as we discovered at 11pm the night before when we turned up where we thought we were staying only to find no room at the inn – oh well, 15 minutes before that I'd sent us to totally the wrong village in search of our accommodation – needless to say we were both tired and grumpy when we finally got to the right place in the dead of night in the middle of a rain storm!) Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, we got here (the hotel) at 10am and they let us have our room early, so we sat here, practically on top of their heater, using the hairdryer, watching the telly, bouncing on the comfy bed and drinking hot chocolate. Doesn't take much to keep us happy :)

But I've skipped a bit – need to tell you about Napier and Hastings – Napier was a bit of a disappointment to be honest – we had been expecting amazing Art Deco everywhere...but it wasn't even as grand as Glasgow. We did see kiwis at the National Aquarium though (wonderfully cute fluffy looking nocturnal birds that look more like rabbits with long legs and a beak than birds), Hastings was much the same, dreary town centre that sprawls out rather than up – totally lacking in character. Good baked potatoes though, and a really friendly tattooist (pink hair, fairy skirt, army boots) who did a bit on C's arm (she copied a linear design he'd photographed in the Auckland Museum from a Fijian artifact – a head rest that chiefs could lie on at night and not mess up their hair dos).

We spent our time in Napier staying with old friends from London (thank you loads Sasha and Roger) and their young daughter Arabella who's 4. Our week with them was another eye opening window on family life – ballet shows, gym shows, birthday parties with small girls in pink fairy outfits, demands for ice cream for breakfast, chocolate treats for tea and Arabella's favourite dummy at all hours. Exhausting! We thought we'd spend lots of time recovering in front of Sasha and Roger's TV – having not had one for so long we thought it would be a welcome luxury. Not so! NZ TV is worse than we remember British TV – every morning they have an hour and a half of 'infomercials' – dreadful programmes sponsored by some company or other trying to sell you their wears – everything from acne cream to pants that keep your tummy and bottom in to super-dooper-makes-the-supper-for-you kitchen whizzers. I could feel the life leaving me as I watched them – but it still took a surprising amount of will power to turn the idiot box off!

Anyway, surburbia is behind us and we are now in the mountains – all good. Will write again soon

H&Cxx