Ginger DJ Rob

Woke up with the plan to leave the campsite for a less crowded one but our drinking excess and the Summer daylight savings cocked this up. The 10am checkout had passed so resorted to finding a better spot to park. Skydiving and the Shotover Jetboating were both cancelled because of the weather though with the hangover I was feeling it wouldn’t have been a good idea. We met up with James and Emma in town later for a chocolate based lunch. The guilt of the extra calories and the thought of not wanting to waste a day we hired some mountain bikes and explored the lakeside park. The evening was kept short for the first Shotover slot the next morning so opted for the best takeaway pizza courtesy of Hell Pizza . We loved the creative touch that the box would convert into a cardboard coffin (as modeled by Kerry and a camp James). Sounds like they’ve upset a few Kiwis with their other creative touches as per this Family First website . As this is a short entry here's a summary of what we li

Our solicitor rang us last night at midnight to confirm the completion of our house which was welcome news. We’re now the proud owners of an empty house on the other side of the world. Wanaka is a poor man’s Queenstown but has its own quirky attractions. One of them I wished we had time for was the local cinema having settees and a car inside. The first we visited was Puzzling World which was a bit rubbish but was cheap to get in. The optical illusions were fun but very busy with kids hogging the activities. The sky dive was still canceled and we realised we bought mutton sausage rolls instead – where’s the pork, dudes?! So bought possibly the best burgers ever from Red Star and had the best picnic view of the lake in the campervan. James and Emma, our other reason in NZ were around the corner in Queenstown and drove over to see us. We headed out of town to try the clay pigeon shooting at Have a Shot which was a good laugh. I couldn’t quite get the hang of the .22 calibre rifles so

Our heli-hike wasn’t scheduled until midday so treated ourselves to the biggest, greediest breakfast ever. Whilst scoffing through French toast and yoghurt topped granola I read the local paper, the Greymouth Star . There was one story that really defined the NZ experience for us:- “Farmer finds Ford Cortina Mk3 wrapped round a tree with a skeleton laid out in dying pose trying to escape out of the car window. Police believe it’s in connection of missing man from 1985.” However, I found the real story here so I apologise for the slight exaggeration. The rest of the breakfast was realising how much of a hicktown Fox was with mothers breastfeeding toddlers (too old for that sort of thing) and barking dogs on Utes. The weather was looking very dodgy with clouds near the mountains which could have meant the helicopter tour was off. At the tour desk we felt luck was on our side but it felt every minute one of our party delayed us the tour would be off. The helicopter ride only took 10 mi

As soon as we got back to Methven we started our long, long journey to Fox Glacier , the other side of the mountain range and opposite coast. We were expecting a 5 and a half hour drive! This was possibly the most breathtaking but demanding journey I’ve ever taken. We really should have driven during the day to fully appreciate the scenery and we couldn’t help stop every half an hour to take photos. Highlights were: A jaw dropping gorge in Canterbury Plains ; A shortcut away from the main highway (from Lake Coleridge to Lake Lyndon) which turned out to be a 24 km dust/grit track through the driest part of NZ vibrating the campervan and us to bits – slightly worrying; Arthur’s Pass was slap in the middle of the highest mountains I’ve ever seen with roads reaching extreme heights; The sunset shadows and last rays of the sun over the peaks; A mad descent reveals a rock shelter like tunnel and a massive industrial size drain pipe to protect the road but trying to avoid sight of the sheer

We woke up to the most clear blue skies we’ve seen this holiday which was perfect for our Edoras tour . I didn’t really know what to expect on the tour guessing some LOTR stuff would dominate the day. Our Kiwi guide, who bizarrely lived in Lewes last year, turned up in a 6-wheeled off-roader with full-on radio mast at the front and a party of 15 people. After a coffee break we stopped off for a number of photo opps at Lake Camp and Lake Clearwater. There’s a mini-town just for holiday houses/sheds by the lake where no-one is allowed to build or live permanently. The views are perfect today with distant snowy mountains surrounded by light blue sky. The off-roader really came useful as we approached the site where Rohan scenes were filmed driving through rivers and over rough rocky roads. Our final parking place meant a 5 minute hike up the hill to where the Golden Hall was built (in Two Towers). You didn’t have to like LOTR to enjoy this as the scenery made you feel glad to be alive. M

Another stupid early alarm call for 6:30am (call this a holiday?!) for the whale watching and rang the tour operator to see if it was still on. It was canceled as the seas were too choppy. Obviously whales are bit fussy when it comes to showing off. So we went back to a warm bed for another 90 minutes of snoozing. The weather was beginning to be a major factor affecting our holiday and retrospectively should have stuck to the original plan doing the skydive over Marlborough Sounds or even over Lake Taupo. After a few phonecalls we’re now doing the Edoras tour on Thursday and the Heli-hike on Friday. Thank god for 0800 freefone numbers. We packed in a second breakfast (my favourite, French Toast) in Kaikoura and set off to Hanmer Springs so I could do a bungy jump at the same place as Kerry 12 years ago. Thrill Seekers Canyon had jet-boating, river-rafting, quad-biking but I was here for the leap off the road bridge. I was pretty much pre-occupied by the cold weather than the normal n

We left the Richmond campsite and went back to Nelson to try and meet Kerry’s old friend, Christine. We’d been told that she started work at midday so tried looking for a laundrette. I wasn’t able to get my undies washed but we were lucky with the old friend reunion. Both ladies were chuffed to see each other again and will hopefully keep in contact. We’ve been putting off the sky dive for awhile now but today we wanted to get down to Kaikoura, home of the whales as soon as possible which was on the other side of the South Island. We drove on the same twisty roads to Picton through the vineyards and through Blenheim. With the Marlborough Sounds behind us the roads got more remote, twisty and very windy. The coastal road was beautiful to see and saw a sign warning us of seals. Normally we’d dismiss this as the rare encounter but there they were sunbathing on the rocks next to the highway. The views just got grander as to the west of Kaikoura huge mountains showed off their snow topped c

Headache had gone but a 6am alarm wasn’t very enjoyable in preparation for our ferry across to Picton on the South Island. The weather wasn’t all that appealing either rain hadn’t let up all night for our 3 hour crossing. As soon as we boarded, we took some motion sickness pills and booked some cinema tickets for Transformers which turned out to be quite good. Both of us felt ropey a third way through and I had to seek fresh air before returning to the movie. As soon as we docked we headed for Nelson, Kerry’s home some 12 years ago in a convoy of campervans. It was field after field of vineyards of Marlborough country. We stopped in Havelock for lunch, world capital for green shell mussels. All the shops had comedy mussels doing the activity the shop represented. Landscape changed to Twin Peaks like country with hardly any cars around. As we approached Nelson, Kerry’s memory started to activate. Personally, I was surprised how built up the place was from her description and headed out

Our first task to find a campervan site near to Wellington ready for the next day ferry which turned out to be a motel with a powered carpark. After that we caught a bus into town for shopping then the main reason for choosing this time to visit NZ, the Wearable Arts Show. Wellington had a better vibe than Auckland even though it was raining. A lot of cool shops around the Cuba Street area again set amongst the tattoo parlours and sex shops. With a recommendation from some shop assistants we checked out Fidels for lunch for the best milkshakes. Décor was styled on the bearded dictator’s country. Next we explored the arty dock area where the national museum, Te Papa was situated. It was free entry luckily as only the Maori art and earthquake simulator was worth the visit. On to the main event, the World of Wearable Art (WOW) show was just the other side of the dockside. Wellington is a compact city and easy to get around by foot. The events place was buzzing with entertainers like ju

We drove all the way down to Wellington via a place called Tai Hapi, the gumboot throwing capital of NZ under the advice of the Brass owner. Before reaching this place, we'd read about a giant carrot statue in a place called Ohakune in the Lonely Planet as pictured. The carrot has something to do with this festival . Tai Hapi turned out to be slightly disappointing and like a lot of small towns, its identity statue made from corrugated metal – a giant gumboot. More amazing scenery along the way with multiple cows and sheep filling the fields. Stopped at Mangaweka which had a café in an old Dakota plane and stocked up on the lovely NZ chocolate and coffee. Another stop at a place called Bulls which it seemed every business used the town name as cheesily as possible e.g. the medical centre is Cure-a-bull. We approached Wellington, the country’s capital without a real idea of where to stay and it turned out to be quite stressful finding somewhere which allowed campervans, close enou

Couldn’t deal with the coldness of the van so delayed getting up this morning. First on the hot thermal roadshow was Te Puia , a Maori and geyser theme park. Entry was quite steep at $50 but it was the cultural part that was worth it. More smelliness and walking around but didn’t quite compare to the extremeness on White Island. The main geyser was quite interesting but took awhile to really kick off.  The Maori midday ceremony was very special for me the guide asked for someone to act as visiting chief which I volunteered for. There’ll be a couple of YouTube videos of this coming soon but in essence I had to accept a peace offering and rub a few noses on stage. From my ‘throne’ (ok maybe not throne but best seat in the house) we watched the song and dance show which included Poi, the catching sticks game and a few warrior moves. The second smelly place was Wait-o-tapu or Geyserland which had loads of multi-coloured pools with some creative names like Champagne Pool, Artist Palet

We’d booked our boat trip to the volcanic island off Whakantane (pronounced Thakatanae) weeks ago but according to the captain, gale forces were on they way. Strange really as it was a beautiful, still day so totally gutted we’d wasted our time. We then looked into an alternative to getting there calling the Vulcan Helicopter tours instead. It was quite expensive at $400 each plus another $400 to pay for the extra empty seat unless another party came forward. We took the chance and were treated to another exclusive trip and have the island to ourselves. It was a short drive outside the town to a toy-town airport and Mark, our pilot dismissed the weather forecast. It was a wasp-like chopper (similar to Magnum PI) taking 20 minutes passing Whale Island. It was certainly windy but the pilot did well to land it on the crater like island. We were given a safety helmet and gas mask in case the volcanic activity misbehaved. The landscape was incredible and felt like walking on the Moon or

We were on the first Waitomo Caves boat tour as we had to travel to the East coast for tomorrow’s White Island tour. It was quite tame compared to yesterday’s tour but still worth doing and a lot more glowworms. Fact: Glowworms are actually fly lava with glowing poo in their arses. They have spider like threads catching other flies. The caves were spooky and the cluster of glowworms very pretty like night stars. We posed for the end tour photo pretending to be hooded muppets but the camera missed us. We headed for Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty stopping off at a few places en route. First stop was the Otorohanga Kiwi House , a native bird park to view real Kiwis. Taking photos of MC Hammer trousered dudes were quite tricky being nocturnal and housed in a dark room. Outside were other NZ birds just as cute. Keas are parrot-like and just as clever plus we timed our visit for their feeding hour. Left the aviary for more animal filled scenery passing cows, sheep, goats, deer and e

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr Jetlag strikes back with a vengeance waking us up at 3am and our bodies refused to sleep again. With a couple of weeks without TV we took advantage of the hotel’s facilities and watched the morning programmes. There’s a right character who presents their GMTV equivalent whinging at every opportunity amusing us. The taxi driver for our trip to collect the van was very helpful lending his mobilephone to speed up the Maui van hire process. Lucky really as it took ages setting off a little later than hoped after 1001 instructions on how to use the campervan. The traffic to the main motorway was quite busy by NZ standards but after a few kilometres out of Auckland only a handful of vehicles were sharing our journey. One story suburbs dwindled away for lush green countryside dominated by hills, sheep and cows. We were lucky to arrive on time at Waitomo Caves after stopping for some food and booked into the campsite opposite the meeting point. There was

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr After well deserved ten hour sleep I left Kerry to enjoy the room’s comforts whilst I went up the Sky Tower to enjoy the city views. Better views than the Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower but only worth 30 minutes ignoring the bungy jump for another day. The Lonely Planet guide recommended ‘K’ Road for some unusual shopping so bought a day pass and headed over. It was a mix of sleezy sex shops, tattoo parlours with cool boutiques, a bit like San Francisco’s The Haight. Lunch was a sandwich in a palm tree lined park on the way back to the main town. The day pass tickets also allowed us to use the cities’ ferry service so explored the other side of the bay for Devonport. Not too much to see apart from cute antique shops and a hilled park for more city bay views. Returned to the mainland and headed for Mount Eden on the other side of the city for more lofty views. Nearly didn’t make it before sunset after stumbling over some really cool clothes shops and off

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr Landed in Auckland around 9am and were introduced to New Zealand’s paranoid immigration having our hiking boots taken away for cleaning and sterilised. The officials were also keen to know what sort of trainer Kerry was at home, why she was here and how close was Sussex to Surrey where the Foot and Mouth outbreak was. The hotel shuttle bus delivered us to our first stay, the Siebel Suites on the waterside. Our early arrival meant the room wasn’t ready so we searched for a decent breakfast and scoffed some French toast . Gained some nice harbour views and some feathered friends with cheeky sparrows stalking us for leftovers. The Siebel Suite room was amazing with all the modcons you could need like washing machine, dishwasher, DVD player etc. All we were interested was regaining some much needed sleep looking more like a zombie with Rage. With a couple of hours kip we ventured out looking for more grub. Found an Asian mix restaurant called Monson Poo

Just spent the best US$40 (about £20) at Hong Kong airport. Now relaxing after 15 minutes massage, a decent shower and all you can eat buffet. Still smell like a sweaty bast@rd but feeling so much better. Oh yeah. Flight entertainment was slightly boring with not the expected latest films. Watched Blades of Glory which was quite funny. Otherwise almost zero sleep in our exit door seats. Now taking advantage of the free wi-fi. Couple of observations: Yangtze river in China looked well brown with pollution; and the Cantonese announcer sounded like 'she sells seashells on the seashore' - lots of 'she' sounds.

So I've been doing a million and one things in preparation for the holiday, house move, parent problems ( Orange screwing over my dad's email ) and obviously my 9 to 5 work to stop me updating the blog. Last weekend was just tidying the flat and packing. Watched Bourne Identity and the follow up which we avoided for some reason (Matt Damon maybe), and was pleasantly surprised how good they are. Maybe we'll see the third one on the plane to NZ. Kanye West has wound me up for the third time. The first was his tizzy-fit at not winning best video last year and dissing Justice vs. Simian . Secondly, for stealing Harder, Faster etc., though I should blame the French robots in disguise, Daft Punk for allowing it. Is this his warped sense of respect to French house music? But it's only since seeing the Stronger video was I slightly riled after noticing him copying scenes from Akira . Whether Kanye knew what the director was upto or whether he wanted to break the Japanese mar

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr Just picked up the latest listing for Komedia and spotted Potted Potter (not the one pictured). Its two blokes acting out all 7 Harry Potter books in 60 minutes. Shame we're on holiday. Not much to report this week. New Zealand holiday is shaping up. The snowmobile adventure trip is off as we arrive too late in the season. Slightly concerned that there'll be a lack of snow for boarding. Capoeira is going okay. This week I went to the slightly more advanced class ending the night with some clapping and singing. I thought I had rhythm but clapping three beats then singing (more like mumbling) to a 4/4 beat is well tricky.

HobNobs3 Originally uploaded by Ginger DJ . Here's my letter I'm considering to send to muppet snack producers, McVities for their poor excuse of a cream biscuit:- Dear McVities Please find enclosed my part eaten packet of Hob Nobs Creams. I am returning these as I am totally unsatisfied caused by high expectations of the product. These biscuits are rubbish and I want my money back you muppets! If you think the amount of cream inserted represents the picture on the packet then you are either working in total darkness or are completely blind. Yours truly, Angry Shopper

Here's a bit of film news that slipped my net. Speed Racer, a classic anime, will be directed by Wachi wannabe woman and bro (they of Matrix and V for Vendetta). I don't think this cartoon ever got televised in the UK hence its the low media interest. All I'm aware of it is seeing T-shirts and the odd poster coming up in other movies and US TV. Website looks a bit crap but only because the big bucks haven't diverted their PR funds yet. A potential Summer 2008 blockbuster me thinks.

Popped up to Norfolk to do a parent catch up thing for the weekend. My mum needed some support rails installing for the stairs as she’s still suffering mobility problems after having both hips replaced nearly two years ago. Whereas my dad is suffering from ISP dial-up hell as Orange cancels his webmail account for no reason. No wonder he splashed out for a 50” flat screen TV to cheer himself up. Has anyone seen the Phil Collins drumming gorilla yet?