The Essentials

I have had a couple of days in the shops getting essential things for my new home. I didn't fully stick to the essentials but I now have more nice things to surround myself with. I don't yet have a car, bed or sofa but who needs transport or furniture when you have beautiful china, a cake stand and a selection of scatter cusions.

A friend has commented that my purchacing patterns may reflect a lack of confidence in putting down roots - I can't imagine where they got that idea. Is it odd to be content living out of a suitcase? I have found that a limited wardrobe makes morning decisions about what to wear much easier. I acknowledge that living alone will be different to sharing with my sister, a lot less borrowing/sharing potential and I don't just mean clothes. By default I will have to have my own stuff. Can one person really justify a whole set of household things? I have to have my own ironing board, iron, sweeping brush, pots and pans etc. All these things which can be shared between quite a few without compromise are still needed if you are just one. I feel guilty about the impact on the planet, the energy and effort that has gone into making these things that will just be dust collecting for most of their time. The economics of this is also not in favour of solo living. I have no one to share the cost of this with. I get the to choose exactly the sweeping brush and bathroom scales I want but have to pay 100% of the bill. I have found a few things in the Hospice charity shop, buying second hand eases my concience and saves money as well as helping out a charity, unfortunately they didn't have everything on my list.

An upside of solo living is getting to choose not to have things, top of this list for me is a Television. There will be no TV in my house. I can't be bothered buying one for a start, that whole zone of electrical shops makes me tired. I think this feeling must be captured and brought home in the box. When there is a TV on in the room it is so easy to get hooked into watching rubbish instead of doing something else like going for a run. When I am solely reliant on my own motivation to get up and go it will be harder to resist just flopping down infront of the TV and letting it take care of my free time. I have a laptop to watch DVD's so if I need to veg out I still can. Internet and radio should provide all the news I need and there are so many books out there to read I should not be short of home entertainment. There is a risk that I will lose touch with what the rest of the world are talking about, e.g. what happened on Desperate Housewives last night etc.. but its a risk I am willing to take. After all I can always choose to change my mind and get a TV.

Sign here

This morning I have been to the beach to watch the last of the sunrise, it has been my alarm clock while I living here. The black clouds which formed a filter as the sun climbed higher into the sky have now arrived overhead as rain, so I am back inside.

I have a couple of hours to myself this morning before I set out to town. I have two appointments, the first is to sign the contract for my new job with the Bank of New Zealand and to make a start on the visa paperwork that will keep me in the country after 8th April. It is 6 months to the day that I finished working at Sky, my feelings about starting work again are mixed. If I could, I would not go back to work at all. I would probably not spend the next 6 months hanging out here at the beach either, but working 9-5 (or more) in an office wouldn't be my first choice. However I have to be realistic, I can not stay on holiday for ever, neither can I stay in New Zealand without a visa for much longer so getting a job fits well. Given that this is the direction I have chosen I am really pleased about my new job. It is similar enough to previous jobs to be comfortable but different enough to be interesting.

My second appointment today is to sign the tenancy agreement for my new home. For the first time ever I will be living on my own. I could have looked for a flat share, it would be a fast way to meet new people but I really want to get my own place, thus I am renting a 1 bedroom 'unit'. Coming from the UK the term 'unit' doesn't mean much to me, here it seems to imply a self contained dwelling, either a flat, apartment or in my case a terraced 1 bed bungalow, number 5 of 6 'units' on the same plot. Its fairly small but newly renovated and the rent is reasonable. I don't have much stuff, I only arrived here with a bicycle and a suitcase so small is good. I don't anticipate needing much space as I don't plan to buy too much stuff in the near future. The 'unit' comes equipped with some the big expensive things like a fridge, washing machine and cooker but no furniture. Leaving me to furnish and adorn to my own taste.

So in a few weeks time I will have quit the beach and will be getting up to go to work with the masses. I have put an alarm clock on my shopping list as the sun will soon be on its winter schedule. I will miss my sunrise starts but I am sure we will synchronise again in the spring.

Rats and boats

After a few weeks of effort I am still on the bumpy road to employment. There has been progress, I did tests yesterday, verbal reasoning was a breeze, numerical reasoning was a bit of an effort and the personality questionnaire was just annoying but after 2 hours sat in a tiny room with a computer I was done.  Since I had to drive into town for 9am I planned a little tourist outing to the Auckland museum.  The Vaka Moana exhibition, about the origins of the pacific island populations caught my attention so I went.  It was OK, not amazing, but fairly interesting.

I was cruising around the exhibits at the same time as a couple, they looked like they were recently retired, and were interested in everything but sort of in a hurry.  The guy overtook me while reading one of the exhibits.  I don't mind and I am not a frequent enough visitor to museums to fully understand the etiquette but I am sure that when it is not busy you should respect other people's personal space.  That last inch of air between you and them should not be crossed.  He clearly didn't think this. My new commitment to inner calm meant I didn't scowl at him, in fact I managed a half smile for his wife who looked a little embarrassed.

The reason I went to see the exhibition is that I am reading the Kon-Tiki Expedition at the moment, it was a voyage to test a theory that the pacific islands were populated from Peru.  I was a little disappointed that it didn't even get a mention, even if they don't agree with the theory it would have been nice to at least acknowledge one of the most famous expeditions exploring exactly what they were trying to explain.

However I did learn that the Polynesian rat did not breed with other rats and thus is a useful indicator of human population migration which it accompanied.  Unless, of course, there's a counter theory somewhere that the rats built tiny boats and sailed the oceans on their own, independent of humans - that would be cool.

Uninvited Guests

This evening we were visited by a special guest, had he told us he was coming we may have been more welcoming but when a 5 inch long, mouse eating, giant centipede wriggles out from under your armchair you forget your manners and become less than hospitable.

Luckily for Clare and I, Malcolm was home and rapidly sprung into action. We knew it was serious when he insisted on putting shoes on before trying to capture the poor creature. We learned they have nippers which can give even trained rangers a nasty bite. I am sure It sensed our hesitation when it made a dash for it under the door to the spare room. Like most people's spare room ours is full of stuff, all perfect hiding places if you are a big insect on the run.

At this stage I would normally deploy chemical weapons in the destruction of most uninvited insects but since this creature is not that common we had to take it alive. Clare and I waited outside the door while Malcolm rummaged after a good 5 minutes of searching he had it cornered down one side of the bed, moments later it was trapped in an empty ice cream tub. You could tell it was angry by the hissing noise it made - who ever heard an insect hiss?

We delivered it outside and after a photo shoot on the lawn Malcolm returned it to the bush where I hope it will find a comfortable home. Now all that remains are the questions, how did it get in? How long has it been here? Did it bring any friends or family...?

Run and Float

Clare and I have been running, 4 times a week since well before Christmas. We have a goal in mind and are progressing steadily towards that, however some days are just more difficult than others and you need a little something to motivate you to pick up the pace or even just to get out the door.

Since summer arrived it has been tougher on me, its just too hot to go running. I have bought super lightweight running clothes, the next step would be to run naked and that would be good for no-one. On one run after a brief rainshower Clare took to running under low branches to knock rain from the leaves onto her head, this may have worked for her but left me trying to run and laugh at the same time.

Usually I feel hottest when we stop running, last Sunday morning I was redder than my usual traffic light face and too hot. Salvation came when we made it back to the house, after throwing our trainers over the gate into the garden we headed for the river that runs past the side of the house and then out to sea. Jumping in we were quickly refreshed and cooled in one. We floated with the current out along the estuary to the end of the sandspit, got out and walked back up the beach to the house. I think I could get to like summer running.

Job shoes

There is an unwritten law somewhere which says all girls love to buy shoes. I am the exception which proves the rule. I don't hate shopping in general, although I am trying to avoid it where possible as part of my bid to save the planet from becoming a giant, overheated landfill but thats another story.... Today I was forced to shop for shoes, I have a job interview on Tuesday and no shoes.

I did bring a few pairs with me but I mostly haven't seen them since I arrived. Although a job was always on the agenda here, it was far from the front of my mind when packing. So, I have a couple of pairs of trainers, hiking boots, cycle shoes and flip flops.

None of these go with the chocolate colour suit I plan to borrow from Clare. She has a lot of shoes, she is one of the shoe loving masses. Unfortunately her shoes are just a little too big for me. I did once borrow a pair of shoes for an interview, many years ago - I was fine when I set off, by the time I got to the place I could barely walk my feet hurt so much. I couldn't concentrate in the interview and didn't get the job. I don't want a repeat performance here, I need to get a job and am lucky enough to have seen one that I like the sound of, I am not going to risk it.

It was a hot sunny day and I live at the beach, to me it made no sense to be going anywhere. I decided to make this a one trip only mission vowing to come home with whatever the best pair of shoes I found were, even if I hated them. I have never shopped like this before and with only 3 shoe shops in the whole mall it was a brave plan.




I tried about half a dozen pairs and then saw a nice pair of trainers in the sale - time to move on to another shop.....nice t-shirts...keep going.....2-for-1 paperbacks in the book shop.....after checking all 3 shoe shops things were looking dire, I was on my second lap and took another look at the trainers then I'm not sure what happened but I soon found myself buying not one but two pairs of shoes - sorry planet.

I just hope the interview works out as well today's mission.

Old Year, New Year

I have been mindful of not blogging for some time. I have had good intentions to extract photos from my camera and post them with an update but as the days creep by it just feels more and more like old news.

In summary, I had a great Christmas and a good New Year. Being a wierd bunch we went hunting for bugs in the woods after dark on New Year's Eve. Midnight passed as we were walking back to the house along the beach. We could have just as easily been asleep had the bug hunting trip been shorter. It was refreshing to see in the New Year with other people who like I couldn't give two hoots about "Celebrating" - besides we had to be up at 4.30am to go to the airport the next morning.

(Photo of bugs - Wetas - as big as my hand)



I spent the first week of this grand new year with Clare, carbo loading for the year ahead. That means eating more than we need to build a store of energy available for... well, for the myriad of activities we may plan this year. The first opportunity to burn some of these stores was taking her brand new mountain bike for some exercise. My year old bike looked equally new so rather than head for the recommended mountain bike trails on the West coast we opted to bike on some quiet tracks at one of the other regional parks where we could make fools of ourselves in peace. After a couple of hours walking our bikes up hills and re-learning how to ride down the steep bits both Clare and I looked well worn in but the lack of mud kept the bikes looking mint - bummer.

The second week of this year I spend updating my CV. I have not actually finished but when I do it will be superb. As well as having an amazing CV we will have the cleanest house in Auckland and I will have read all the books I recieved for Christmas plus those given to Clare and Malcolm. I have been procrastinating a little. But there is always this week. Apart from today which was spent cycling and preparing for Malcolm's birthday (tomorrow). I may have been able to put in a bit of time this evening but on the way home from shopping/work Clare's car broke down. We were left stranded on the side of the motorway with no Breakdown Cover. A few phonecalls later and we manged to establish the number for directory enquires (Here in NZ its 018, UK - 192 in case you ever need to know) and then numbers for tow trucks. The nice man loaded the dead car (broken clutch cable) on to the truck and we headed for the garage. Then he dropped us home, all in under an hour. Far better than any story I have ever heard of the AA and we got to listen to the police scanner in the cab of his truck. No idea what any of it meant but I'm sure it was very exciting really.

Fear

Every time I gather up my goggles and pull on my wetsuit to swim in the sea I am afraid. If I am swimming with my sister then the fear is very small but when I am going alone it is something I work hard to control.

Firstly I try to manage the risks. The beach here at Wenderholm is regarded as a safe swimming beach. It is shallow for a long way out and there are no strong currents along most of its length. I swim on an incoming tide parallel to the beach. At the northern end is the Puhoi river estuary, I always start and end my swim at this end and never go within 50m of the river current. If I am going out during the day I call Clare before getting in and immediately when I get out, if she doesn't hear from me within an hour of the first call then something is wrong and she can raise the alarm. I keep close enough to the shore that I am never out of my depth and will get out and walk back to the house if I get tired. Without relying on someone to watch me, where they would be put at risk of dying from boredom, there isn't much more I can do.

My fear is mostly from the risks I cant manage. There are so many things living in the sea that are alien to me, I am very wary of close encounters with sea life, in particular jellyfish and sharks. Even after Clare's recent jellyfish incident the shark still occupies my mind the most. Yes there are sharks here, ones big enough to put a hole in me but by all accounts they almost never come to Wenderholm. But they could if they wanted to and that is enough to scare me.

Yesterday I had the fright of my life while swimming alone.  I was already working hard, the wind had made the normally calm bay quite choppy, in between trying not to inhale waves, keeping an eye out for jellyfish and not thinking about sharks I was pretty busy.  I certainly did not expect to find a helicopter hovering about 10m away when I turned to breathe.

I have seen helicopters flying around here before and I know they are used to collect samples for water quality testing, but my first thought was SHARK. I have heard stories of the pilots making detours to warn surfers of sharks they have spotted from their vantage point above.  It wasn't until this pilot gave me a thumbs up that I realised they had just come over to check me out. Perhaps I looked like I was in trouble, what ever it was I smiled waved and they flew away. I assume that there were no sharp toothed fish just off shore which gave me one less thing to worry about for the remanider of that swim.

Each day we all have to face our fears. How we deal with them can often dictate what we achieve. Once I have taken care of the practical stuff I try to meet mine head on. I don't want to let fear stop me doing things I enjoy. Each time I make it out of the water without being eaten I am a little more confident that Jaws won't be visiting and a little better prepared for the next time I step into the unknown.

Swim Race - 22 Nov

Yesterday Clare and I headed for the busy Takapuna beach on Auckland's North Shore to go for a swim. Although we have a beautiful swimming beach right on our doorstep where we can swim in peace we were lured to compete in a 1 km race whilst being buffeted by the elbows and feet of about 100 other swimmers. After registering and being issued with a nice green safety swim cap we got changed into our wet-suits and joined the other whale impersonators on the beach. There were a few people who looked OK in a wet-suit but I think I saw the worst case of VPL ever on one guy who's speedos could not have been comfortable.

This race was the third in a 16 week series of races, we had missed the first two so paid attention to the briefing. The concept is pretty straight forward, at the sound of the horn run into the sea, try not to trip over anyone and then as soon as you can, start swimming in the general direction of a big yellow marker buoy, if you make there then turn left and complete the triangular course to finish back on the beach. With lots of arms and legs splashing around it was impossible to see where the marker was so I went with the herd based on the hope that someone at the front must know where they were going. With our agreed goal to make it to the finish without incident and preferably not last we had a relaxed start, trying to avoid getting hit and keeping together. After a couple of minutes I had lost track of Clare - like her, everyone around me was wearing black wet-suits with green swim caps, I did catch sight of the marker buoy so I carried on swimming, my aim was so good that I almost swam into the marker. Once around it I had my first chance to look back along the course, thankfully there were still a few people behind me. On the second leg I put a few extra curves into the course when I kept alternating between heading for the second buoy and the yellow vest of one of the lifeguards off to the left. The home straight lasted longer than I thought it should but soon enough I was back on the beach and running to the checkpoint to have my time recorded.

I did not see Clare waiting for me even though I was sure she was ahead then I saw her walking over fully dressed - how fast was she! It turned out that she hadn't set a course record but managed to swim right into a jellyfish (the only one for miles). She had to retire before reaching the first marker buoy and got a lift back to the beach in a rescue boat.

I managed a comfortable 24 mins 30 sec about 10 mins slower than the fastest girl and 10 mins faster than the slowest. Given that the field included some pretty serious competitors including commonwealth athletes I am pleased with my time. Next week I hope to go faster, Clare is hoping to avoid any close encounters with sea life and make it round the first marker buoy.



 

Road Trip

A couple of weeks ago, while Clare was away in the UK, Malcolm and I took a road trip to explore the East Cape. He called our journey a Surf Trip but since my only surfing for the whole week was less than an hour on the super tame wave at Tologa Bay (below) I don't think I really qualify as a surfer.



The lack of suitably gentle waves to accommodate my lack of finesse did not leave me idle, there was the role of video camera operator while Malcolm was surfing, after watching some of the early footage I began to wish I had gone on the Sky induction and had a go on a TV camera.

There were a few afternoons with no waves at all so we went fishing.


I thought I did pretty well baiting my own hooks with dead fish and I even managed to cast it out more than a few feet from where I stood. Unfortunately the only thing biting was the particularly vicious seaweed. It put up a good fight but in the end I managed to land it for a prize photo.




Malcolm was very unsporting and actually caught a fish.














Bored of seaweed hunting I donned mask and snorkel and took to the water to check and see if there really were any fish in the sea. I found plenty right where I had been fishing and they all looked like they were laughing at me. Why didn't we pack a spear gun?
While exploring a narrow gulley I was amazed to see a stingray swim right under me, with only a few feet of water for the both of us I had visions of Steve Irwin headlines. I am sure they really are very placid fish but I didn't want to put that to the test by cornering it in a narrow shallow gulley so I made a hasty exit.



I am sure that somewhere in the Surf Trip rule book it says that lying around is a bona fide activity.

Going Solo

I decided to give solo hiking a try

My first attempt was not the most difficult of walks but setting out alone I was responsible for everything from the menu, timing, pace and my safety. I chose a 2 day hike to Pinnacles Hut in the Coromandel, at 80 bunks this is the largest hut in the country. The guide book rates the trail as easy-medium and it was less than 3 hours drive from home to the start. Tipped as popular walk I planned my trip for Thursday to Friday to avoid the weekend crowds, it would defeat the purpose of going hiking alone if the trail was busy.

With no one to act as a pace meter I was puffing up the hills at my pace. Actually I puffed up them a little faster than I expected and surprised myself at the time I made. As a result of my haste I sacraficed some enjoyment and appreciation of the forest I was visiting. It was an easy track to follow, apart from clearly signposted junctions with other routes the only choice once I got going was between crossing rivers via the wet boot or swing bridge method. On all but one occasion I opted for wet boots. Call me crazy but I just like blisters better than bouncing and wobbling on semi taut wire ropes suspended above rocky rivers. I never expected to be given the choice but since the bridges were posted as Flood Routes and the rivers were clearly not in flood it would not have been sporting to use them. Apparently I am in a minority, other trampers I talked to seem to prefer the dry wobble than the wet one.


Not having challenged my dislike of heights on the river crossings I dumped my pack at the hut and braved the side trip to the top of The Pinnacles. Ladders, another personal favourite, were employed as an alternative to rock climbing, this time I took the assisted route. For the final scramble DoC had installed iron loops stuck firmly into the rocks to help when scrambling over and around bigger boulders near the edge of an un-quantified drop.


In the ascent I used a significant amount of will power to propel me upwards so I was determined to take the time to enjoy the peace and sunshine. Further reward was the chocolate I carried up in case of emergency, with a fear of heights the mere thought of being at the top of a place called The Pinnacles counts as an emergency. After half an hour trying to relax and appreciate the panorama I braved the decent. If I hadn't already had the chocolate I would probably have needed it before heading back down the ladders.



The hut was palatial - built to accommodate 80 people, there were only 5 others spending the night, 2 German backpakers and 3 middle aged Kiwi ladies.

I slept well but at dawn I was awake as others got up to pack and go. With only 4 hours walk out and all day to do it I was in no hurry and was looking forward to walking alone. I didn't start breakfast until I had waved them off. I managed to transport a raw egg in my pack without it smashing, my reward was a fried egg sandwich for breakfast (gourmet camping).

The clouds provided me with company for my walk, the rain held back its decent to coincide with mine. Immediately on setting out I was startled by the first day tripper to arrive at the hut, he practically ran into me, he was trying to escape the rain, moments later another and then peace again. A short way further along the ridge the track ran alongside electricity pylons (of the shortish wooden variety), from the loud buzzing above me I assume that the rain was not welcome. The sound of angry pylons was motivation for me to up the pace until their route cut away down the valley away from mine. Soon after this I had to stop to let a "jogger" past. Within half an hour he was passing me again on his way back down - annoyingly he was not even out of breath, my excuse was that I was carrying a heavy pack! I didn't see another soul until I reached the car park at the end by which point my main concern was to see if the car would start.

Welcome - Why Blog?

Welcome to my Blog.

I am keeping this blog for a variety of reasons, it is a good/lazy way to update everyone who asked me to keep in touch, its a place to share what I'm doing and my photos (they are not going to win any awards but they will give you an idea of what I am seeing and how I look).

It is unlikely that I will not post an updates everyday, unless I am up to something of interest. So this reading blog should be just like knowing me - random sporadic contact. I still have e-mail etc. to keep in touch directly I am just adding a blog.

I have done a few things since I decided to make this blog so there will be a little retrospective posting going on

Please feel free to add your comments, they will probably be the most interesting bits. Finally if you just hate the very idea of a blog - pretend it doesn't exist!