Adventures of the Superfly

Road Trip #4 - Waiheke Island!

2007-09-15T10:07:00.000+12:00

2007-04-01

Yay, it's roadtrip time again! Pieter started working 2 weeks ago and spent that time in Auckland on product training. Saturday morning I flew to Auckland to join Pieter in a little roadtrip adventure.

I arrived in Auckland after a quite uneventfull flight. Pieter met me at the airport and we set of for the first stop. Auckland ferry terminal. Now I'm sure you're wondering why we were heading to Aucland ferry terminal since we are ultimately heading south to Wellington. To be quite honest, the explanation is quite simple. Auckland is surrounded by quite a few small islands, which are quite off the beaten track... And that is exactly where we were headed. I head an awesome quote this week "The beaten track is an easy journey but the traffic is horrible!" hehe, anyhow, traffic or no traffic, we were straying from the beaten track, leaving the highway and hunting solitary spaces. Destination - "Waiheke island" Waiheke Island is a 45 minute ferry ride from Auckland harbour. Even the ferry trip is quite scenic. As we left the hustle and bustle of New Zealand's largest city in our wake (pardon the pun hehe), I turned my face to the sun and breathed freedom of salty air as a massive container ship parted the horizon... The route to Waiheke is littered with odd little volcano islands, seagulls, and a colourfull collage of sails in various shapes and sizes. Auckland isn't called the "city of sails" for nothing! No sooner had we arrived at the island than we were ushered to a tour bus and taken on a little joyride around the island. Waiheke has a vibrant close knit community of 7000 residents. It is a place where people still wave at each other as they passed by, where "the selling price of the house on the hill, you know the one with the great view?" is the talk of the town. Warm people, lovely scenery and lots of places you could get just lost enough to have an adventure!
(Have I mentioned the Norwegian ladies?)

Anyhow, our tour did somewhat of a round trip of the Island. The local rugby team were playing some club from Auckland with quite a few locals out in support. Next were the vinyards and hilly bit (everything is hilly but this part was even more so!) As we got to the pinnacle of the hilly section, Keith, our tourguide / busdriver interrupted his consant, and quite amusing commentary, with one of 3 pit-stops. We got out for some photo's and to enjoy the scenery. The amount of space and water that greeted this view destroyed any perception of distance you might have had. To the east the coromandel peninsula embraces your view leaving a huge gulf in wich the cloud covered great barrier island is only just visible. A few leagues down the cliff we were standing on lay a large white sandy beach, inviting indeed... The beach is split in two by a cliff-faced headland running through it's heart. The left side, and smaller one of the two is the local nudie beach and the larger, righthand side of the beach was the loacal family beach. Funny that! As it goes with little towns and small places, each cove and every hill has a story. We were lucky enough to have a tour guide that knew all of these and were all too happy to share them! It is quite amasing how colourfull the people are in small communities like these. They aren't part of a statistic, they're definitely not just a number and they're not even the "guy down the road with the nice garden"... Small places like this go as personal as "oh that's jim, he's a hard case but we all love him... you know his son played for the all blacks back in 1974, was quite the player too. Man he loves a game of footy (football)! I once invited them over for dinner and they damn near ate my house too giggle giggle, they sure are big boys..." Yup, small towns sure are different!

After our tour we stopped in the town centre and ate lunch while enjoying a "view envied by the gods"... Really people, even a picture worth a thousand words would not do the view any justice... The norwegian ladies did help some and with their excellent waitering skills and friendly conversation we almost missed our bus... To be honest, I couldn't care and wanted to stay longer but alas... we had to leave. Back in auckland we started the journey south. Pieter's new job lavished him with a new model Nissan station wagon. Space age ergonomics meet japanese enginuity. Enough said. We talked about this that and every other thing for the next 4 hours as we gradually won the tug of war and pulled lake taupo in sight!

Our first stop was just around the bend... that is if one of the largest volcanic crater lakes on the planet has a bend around which you could go hehe. Anyhow, around we went to find our host for the evening quitetly waiting (at 10 pm mind you)
The lovely Japanese people at "Samurai Lodge" - Taurangi took real good care of us, I highly recommend them if you need a place to stay in the Taupo area.

And with the usual happy ending... some photos! Same old thing, click on the image to see it full size :o)

The Ferry Building in Auckland... and the 2 remaining stooges

Auckland City Harbour
It's a hilly island with a massive hole...
You guessed it! Another Volcanic Island!

Boys are out to play...
See, the wind is your friend!

Highest trees catch the most wind.

Port Waiheke

Auckland in the distance - from the Port

Catch a birdie...

The port and some nearby Islands from a hill

Private beach anyone? That's great barrier island in the background.

Pretty bay on Waiheke Island

Manawatu Gorge outside Palmerson North

Road Trip #3 - New Years 2007 (Part 3)

2007-05-24T17:43:00.000+12:00

Whoa, back for more aye!? EXCELLENT! Back to our little tale of roads less traveled!
(Just a reminder, I moved the blog here cause this site allows for heaps of photo's and so I'll be posting some more! Double click on the photo's to see them in full size, or right click the photo you want to view and select "open in new window" from the drop-down list)

Sooo at this point in the road trip I've traveled from Wellington to Auckland with an overnight stay in beautiful Taupo. Then I picked a slightly shellshocked/jetlagged Pieter up at the airport. He actually survived both the 30 hour trip from Johannesburg and the rigors of New Zealand Customs!

Hehehe guys, I'll give you a little tip! If you plan on bringing golf shoes or fishing tackle into New Zealand be honest and upfront about it with the nice customs official (They pick the Massive Maori boys to do the inspections for a reason aye!) If he asks you if the shoes are new, tell him the truth or the dude will interrogate you to death and back, threaten to escort you to an airplane taking your lying hide back where you came from and slap a fine on you for good measure too! Moral of the story... Wash and shine your shoes! hehehe

Anyhow, I picked Peter up from the airport on New Year's Day 2007 and the fun part of this little adventure got underway. I showed Peter some of the sights Annelize, John and I discovered when we arrived in New Zealand. I'm still amazed at how certain areas in New Zealand's cities, towns and landscape reminds me of South Africa. For instance Auckland's southern suburbs has the feel of Johannesburg's eastern suburbs and any woodland area feels like Sabie in Mpumelanga. It's nNo wonder I feel at home here! The next stop on our journey would be Coromandel town. I've heard much about this little coastal gem and... yes you guessed it, I've a few photo's to share!

We departed from Auckland on 2 January 2007 and headed South before taking the route towards the eastern coast. After crossing a wide valley of farmland we crossed a short mountain pass and hit the coastal route snaking our way around a thousand bends , each more breath taking than the previous, before reaching the small town of Coromandel. At some points the surroundings reminded you of Ballito Bay on South Africa's north coast while the road hugged the shore of the Hauraki Gulf. We were blessed with amazing weather and rediculously calm seas. Sea? No my friends, in some places it looked like a lake, a very very calm lake!

Like I said, it was a wide valley to cross! Look, Pretty mountains!

Slap me silly and call me susan, a Jacaranda tree! For all the non-South Africans, that's the large purple flowered tree in the middle of the shot :) hehe

See, it looks like Balito bay!

On the way up the pass to get to the coromandel coast....

What movie does this photo remind you of?
10 points for the movie buff who knows their stuff...

Any of y'all ever been to Clarens in the Free-State?
This is the Kiwi version, very nice!

Is this a paddock with a view or what!?

On top of the pass, or world, take your pick!

Coromandel town is a picture of serenity. It's a coastal version of South Africa's Dullstroom... for real! (No fly fishing here sorry boys, that's available 2 hours south in Rotorua/Taupo!) We were lucky enough to enter town on the busiest day of the year (the ONLY busy day in the year!) when Coromandel town celebrated their Celtic Fair... Loads of music, people dressed in bright colors and the scent of suntan lotion inviting you to the beach mate! For a few minutes I was 6 years old again and on holiday with my family, good memories! We booked into a quaint backpackers, entertained our Austrian room mates for a bit and struck out to the beach... No no, not the beach, the HOTWATER beach! This place is just too much hehe... You can buy a shovel at one of the candy stores (snoepie winkel ouens) and uggghhhh well... You might ask why this is even worth mentioning, it's well known that children all over the world can get their little hands on a shovel and pale set when they get to the beach... however... At Hotwater beach in the Coromandel peninsula the shovels are... FOR THE ADULTS!!! Hehehehe... hahahaha... hehhehe some more hehehe Yea yea, it's for the adults... At low tide you are allowed to dig yourself a hot-water spa on the beach. HOW COOL IS THAT!??? You can soak in a spa while sunbathing and drinking in beautiful scenery of white beaches embraced by blue water nestling under even bluer skies. The water that "powers" your self made spa is subterranean water heated by Geo-Thermal activity. MATE! It's a must do! What makes this even more memorable is that there is a surf beach right next to hot water beach, hiking trails everywhere, canoing trips, and it's not crowded at all... awesome! (I know you Durbanites, Capetonians and Vaalies have NO idea what an uncrowded new years beach looks like!) Pure Bliss!

We spent a leisurely day at the beach then enjoyed a exciting drive back to Coromandel. True to form I decided to take a back-road which consisted mainly of some off-roading along mountainous passes, rivers and waterfalls. Where is my BMW F650 GS when you need her!?

This is 650 GS country!

The sign says it all.

Did I mention Coromandel reminds me of Dullstroom?

One of Coromandel's fine beaches...

That evening, after a leisurely stroll through town and a dinner of Fish and Chips, we slept through a deluge of note... Somewhere around 1am the rain told my brain that it was time to go relieve some pressure. Usually no problem but this particular backpackers only had one restroom area, and that was next to the main kitchen... in another building... Anyhow, I huffed and puffed and tried to hold it in but ran for my life instead! Luckily I got to the bathroom in time but the 10 seconds I spent in the rain was enough to soak me good and proper. Ever seen a half-a-sleep-totally-wet-south-african? Well, empty a 5 liter bucket of water on a sleeping cat and you'll have an idea. Not funny hehe, well, maybe a little!

Now listen carefully young ones, you cannot visit the Coromandel peninsula and not take the Kayak trip to Cathedral Cove! Got it? That's exactly the to do list for the day. We set of quite early, phoned ahead to book accommodation in one of the small coastal towns - all of which is remarkably fully booked over the holiday season as we raced to be in time for the Kayak trip. Our guide had brilliant local knowledge and related stories of the first Maori settles that landed at the exact same beach where our mission began, the preservation of marine life and the formation of all the small islands - remnants of a ancient volcano! Peter and I shared a Kayak... Well let's rather say he was in charge of direction while I did all the paddling. OK OK he did the paddling and gave direction while I took photos! Come on!!! Getting good shots is important, we take this photography thing seriously hay hehe... Photo's follow soon, I promise! Halfway through our trip we stopped at cathedral cove, a pristine beach with a cove and got served cuppachinos on the beach. Really Cuppachinos! I know this seems like a odd thing but how many of you have had a cafe quality Cuppachino coffee on the beach? I rest my case your honor. hehe The most amasing thing of it all is that the Tour guide brought all the coffee making stuff along in his kayak... brilliant! Our return leg saw much banter as we paddled close to shore. Every so often we would be silenced by the guide to listen to legend or just be forced to silence by towering white cliffs and stingrays gliding underneath us!

Pete the "mad" rower getting the hang of 4-way independence...

Weird Island...

Another Weird Island...

I'm sure you get the point!

Awesome! Yes we paddled through this one humming a tune!

I've heard of blue skies but this is just breathtaking!

White Beaches, Pristine azure waters, Forests...
Did I miss the pearly gates on my way in?

Kathedral Cove Beach, our kayak trips halfway mark...

Some more Cathedral Cove Beach...

The Infamous Cathedral Cove!

How's this!?

Our expert guide-beachCappuchinoBarista dude...
No I wasn't kidding about the coffee on the beach!

That evening we slept in Mt Manganui, one of New Zealands premier holiday destinations. This was definitely the most beautiful backpackers I've ever seen. We checked in and scouted the town for a lunch spot. That evening we met 2 great friends, Tim Kimball and Natasha Smit, a couple from Wellington. We joined them for dinner and had a really good time. Mt. Manganui is a quintessential beach town, it has all the surf shops, restaurants and vibe you would expect. At this point we've seen only sunny HOT (Not warm, HOT!) days and this town was no exception. There wasn't even enough wind to windsurf! (Good for sunbathers, bad for me!) It was also in this uber laid back surroundings of palm trees and beaches that I came to understand why some of my friends hate boy racers... Now for you guys who haven't been introduced to the boy-racing culture, here's a low down. Kids can get their licenses at 16 in New Zealand. Japanese import cars are cheap so the kids get their hands on some second hands, they drop and chop 'em, do rediculous mods to the engine and basically do not drive miss Daisy! One would think this is for speed but most of it is to drive down the main street of your pad at a crawl... not once, and not twice but a gazillion times... How can this be fun? I have no freakin clue but after my first day I was ready to stick someone's head up is own freeflow! Right, calm down... hehe The next morning Tim (new American friend) joined us for a hike up the hill that gave this town it's name... in one word AWESOME! White beaches as far as the eye can see, literally! Here's a photo, see!?

White Beaches as far as the camera lens can see!

Mt Manganui Harbour, Town, Sunset Beach strip and lagoon... in ONE SHOT!

Mom can I have one? Action photo's rock!

A little Mt Manganui recreation!

Why would this little town need an info kiosk? Let's see, white beach,
lovely ladies playing volleyball, hiking trails, bla bla bla, o yea, SHEEP too...
For real, check it out, they're everywhere!

And some more...

Aaaannnndddd, that's a wrap for this edition! Next time the I land on the site I'll have some detail of Rotorua, National Park and the last ride to Weliington, home sweet home!

Supafly out!

Road Trip #3 - New Years 2007 (Part 2)

2007-04-09T21:26:00.000+12:00

Imagine this, the Superfly is catching up... ha 2 posts on one day!

In the last part we reached Taupo.

So it's 1 January 2007, I excused myself from the new years party at the backpackers and retired to lala land. Around 6 AM I got up and prepared for the last leg of the journey to Auckland.

It was a cool morning in Taupo with mist hugging the hills. It hills actually seemed to be steaming! It's A L I V E ... OK enough of that - hehe :)

Steaming Hills @ Taupo

Before the trip truly got going I stopped at a cool tourist spot just outside of Taupo. "Craters of the moon" forms part of the "Volcanic explorer highway" and sure is a weird place... Steaming 24/7 , the volcanic activity keeps the forest at bay.

10 Points if you can make out what this is!
Post some comments on your Ideas and I'll let
you know how close you are!

Some of the craters

Some more of the same...

Does this remind you of the alien plants in "War of the Worlds" or what!?

The road from Taupo to Auckland snakes through small towns, forests and a million paddocks. I reached Auckland airport with forty minutes to spare and spent that time laughing my head off at Jeremy Clarkson's book "The world according to Clarkson". Pieter arrived a little late, after having to explain why he would dare bring his DANGEROUS golf shoes to New Zealand to a "nice" customs official. He even survived to tell the tale!

Just a note, double click on the photo's to see the full size version, it's worth it!

Auckland Skyline

More skyline

This is a monument to... wait for it
A POLITICIAN!

Politicians of the world listen up! If you
want a goal in life, be such a leader that
your followers will write this about you
once you're gone!

Pieter and I... blue sunny skies etc.

I booked us into Oaklands Lodge backpackers, you might remember that John, Annelize and I spent 2 weeks here during our first month in New Zealand. After this we set out to explore the City. I know Pieter had just spent the last 30 hours traveling but now he had some proper scenery! Here's a few snaps of Pieter's first sunset in New Zealand. It was a lovely day. This actually marked the beginning of the road trip. We were standing on the brink of a one week adventure down the east coast, around the Coromandel peninsula, via Rotorua and National Park to our destination, fair Wellington!

More about that in the next Part of this road trip, till then...

Supafly, out!

Road Trip #3 - New Years 2007 (Part 1)

2007-04-09T19:08:00.000+12:00

Yup I'm still playing my little game of catch up in cyberspace...

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but last year around August, one of my friends in South Africa gave me a call and said he was thinking of coming to New Zealand. I was ready with a few pointers of course and would you believe it, one week later he had bought his plane ticket! Now Pieter was scheduled to arrive in Auckland on 1 January, no jokes, he spent new years eve of 2007 crossing timezones at 35 000 feet!

I decided it a good excuse for another road trip so, 2 breaths after sparrow fart on 31 December 2006 I set off on the first leg of the journey. I planned to take a scenic route from wellington to Taupo, the halfway stop to Auckland, smack bang in the middle of the North Island.

I reached Taupo with daylight to spare. Here I had my first (and until now the last) bout of hayfever since being in New Zealand. After stopping at a pharmacy for a quick fix and treating myself to some 1st class curry for dinner I checked in at the backpackers. I've always known German people love beer and a good party but this new years eve I got first hand proof of it! I shared the backpackers with quite a few tourists being 1 American and like 15 Germans. Great people for sure! At 12am, 1 January was welcomed with fireworks and German drinking songs... Funny funny. Soon after 12 I retired to get ready for a early start...

Following my trusted and proven method of staying away of the beaten track, I found a few quaint sites and enjoyed serene scenes. Here are a few to share...

Leaving Wellington

Keeping under the speed limit

Little back-country church, pretty isn't it?

Hills in the country side

Windfarm outside Palmerston North

Desert Road - The eastern side of Mt Ruapehu

The Tui beer brewery - World famous in New Zealand :)

What the???

Lake Taupo just before sunset

Majestic Mt. Ruapehu behind lake taupo

Christmas Time in Kaitoke Forest

2007-04-06T14:56:00.000+12:00

25 March 2007

The superfly is back and trying his best to catch up on some history... To be totally honest I'm like 3 months behind on this blog! :o(

Anyhow, this is a bit of a postmortem of Christmas 2006... Enjoy!

28 December 2006

It's happy season again! Before we knew it the year was on it's back and 2007 is upon us. I look back on the year past and find my mind awash with emotion. What a year it's been! This time last year (2005) I was enjoying the Christmas time with my family on my parent's farm. This year however I'm celebrating in a rainforest. There's only one thing missing in this picture, the family! John, Annelize and I were sharing this predicament and decided not too spend the day with other expats who are missing their family and friends. Instead, we decided we were going to have a HAPPY Christmas and do something fun.

We got together on Christmas eve, gave each other a few cool presents and went out for a lovely steak dinner. On Christmas day Wellington was clothed in a cloudy blanket and it was one of those days where the city really did need a blanket! Only problem was it needed a raincoat too. The day's forecast seemed a bit grim but this wasn't going to get us down! And so, at precisely half past sparrow fart (very early), the three happy expats (musketeers, stooges, not so blind mice pick one... hehe) set off for a joyride. We knew we were going to have a monster picnic but we had no Idea where. John set us on a general northerly course, all systems go! We passed the Northern suburbs of Petone, Lower Hutt and as we were passing through Upper hutt something really odd happened. It was like God himself pulled that leaky grey cloak away and let the sun shine... It was the weirdest thing, one moment wet and cold, the next pure blue sunny skies! Whoa, game on! We still had no idea where we were going though but North we went! The weather was finally playing along, it was destined to be a great day.

After driving down a few trails John made an impulsive turn in the direction of Kaitoke forest, which none of us had heard of before but I have to tell you, this little hidden piece of forest is a real gem! Apart from being absolutely breathtaking with massive trees, crystal clean rivers and streams, it was also the film location for "Rivendell", the Elf city in Lord of the Rings. We practically stormed the riverside and were dumbfounded by the cleanness of the water and surroundings. This is a popular picnic and camping site with the locals, yet there was no rubbish spoiling the scene, and what a scene it was. We stood on a white stony riverbed with azure skies covering the massive trees towering overhead. I felt small, really really small. The best thing was that the whole forest was alive with the song of sun-beetles (Cicadas) and birds. Paradise. The picture before us was a patchwork quilt of memories from our lovely South Africa. The sun-beetles reminded me of the African bush, as did the sweet smell of the forest... The trees and landscape seemed transported from Sabie, the stream was a baby version of the Tugela river in the Southern Drakensberg... The only thing that blows by mind is all of this was a mere 30 minute drive from my bed.

At this point it the day had heated up to about 27 degrees, enough to literally start melting our parking lot's tar - no jokes! I remembered seeing this same thing happen as a child when we lived in Skukuza. The tar in Skukuza only started melting at 40 degrees though... Anyhow, what was even more amusing is how unbearably hot this 27 degrees felt! (Ons het soos 'n spul softies gevoel hoor!) We had a little look around and settled down in a shady spot to have our picnic, and in good South African fashion ate till we were to full to speak! hehe But speak we did! We shared good memories, times with friends and family, and even though we missed them greatly, these memories were a great source of joy. As daylight started to retreat we returned to Wellington and found the heavens still leaking gently over her. The harbour seemed even more pretty than usual, the misty hills surrounding the city were strangely welcoming. We were home.

Please click on the photo's below to see the full version. The blog site seems to cut off the right side 1/3rd of pictures is shown here in full size, so I had to resize them a little!

This is the view that greets you as you leave the car park...

On the swing bridge...

Good friends, good food, awesome location - Now this is a picnic!

Looks like a movie scene doesn't it!?

This is the gateway the world of faeries hehe

And we cooled off a little...

Still to come... Our January road trip to the infamous coromandel, Levin River Festival, Dragon boat races and whatever else we get up to in meantime... Just a hint, Peter and I are doing another roadtrip from Auckland to Wellington next weekend!

That's all for now (The wind is blowing and I have a windsurfing itch to go scratch, check back soon for more!

Superfly

A thing about nature

2007-04-06T14:31:00.000+12:00

4 February 2007

I’ve been very quiet for a few weeks now. Sorry guys and gals! In the following posts (Whenever they happen) I will tell you some stories of holidays in December and the “Levin Organic festival”

It does seem quite strange that I have to make apology for being very busy over the past month, I am living on an Island after all and they are notorious for laid back living. Truth be told, I have relaxed a lot from my old busy-bee self, but a little of that multi-tasking thing still remains.

It is quite surprising that in a place as beautiful and diverse as Wellington, I’ve longed for a place to be alone. I hoped for a place of solitude with only the comfort of trees whispering silence and streams lazily telling stories of yesteryear.

Today I found such a place. I walked over a steep hill and up a wooden staircase on the sun drenched hillside. Wild flowers smiled as I passed, beetles greeted me welcome as only they can. So here I am, surrounded by a forest of pines, enjoying the company of trees of many years. It is strange how close and approachable God feels in places like this. It must be the silence that never really stays silent. Even before we get started on all kinds of ritual and pomp to make Him feel welcome, He’s presence is announced in the rustling of leaves and the patterns of shadow that chase each other on the forest floor. Before we start to say all the wrong things in attempts to say “Hi”, He puts a finger to our lips as we are silenced by a sun drenched feather floating by. Instantly I know I’m not alone, and I prefer it that way!

And on this note I'll show you some of these friendly field flowers... I've waited for an opportunity to show off the micro photography I've been getting into lately. Enjoy!

The entrance to my forest... Yes it's real hehe

Actual Size

A little closer...
Some people are like the photo above... They seem to become more and more beautiful the closer you get to the

Spot the dewdrop

Windsurfing - FINALLY!!! First day out...

2007-04-06T14:27:00.000+12:00

24 December 2006

The Superfly has landed!

It's been a few months in the making, but I've finally gotten a basic windsurfing rig together! I have to tell you all that there's a bit of history here. When I arrived in New Zealand just over 7 months ago I was invited to a product launch at a prospective employer. One of the attendees, a aging fellow, enquired as to why I would ever want to live in Wellington.

(A little later I came to understand that there is a "friendly" animosity between Auckland and Wellington. Auckland being the financial hub and largest city in New Zealand but Wellington being the prettier of the two sisters, and the govermental capital at that!) Anyway, this Aucklander seemed close to being offended that I, a fresh immigrant dared to pick Wellington over Auckland. For lack of a response I told him as tactfully as humanly possible... "Well sir, I'm quite an adventurous person and love windsufing... It would make sense to live in a windy city if I was planning on doing lots of windsurfing, doesn't it?"

From the articles I've posted on this site you'll know that there were a million other reasons I could have given as to why I would like to live in Wellington, but none of those came to mind as I haven't even seen the city at the time of this conversation! The old man wasn't tactfull in his response at all. He just threw it out there, "Well that is no reason to move to Wellington" I guess he hasn't clung to a sail for dear life yet. Only a windsurfer would know the feeling!

And so here I am, I've been in Wellington for 6 of the last 7 months and all that time I spent my savings on residency applications, a vacation in South Africa and loads of other entertainment, but for a few months the windsurfing kit wasn't in the runnings. A little over 5 months ago I realised that I worked with a fellow windsurfer. While I am still in my baby shoes with the sport he has spent many hours in the water and is quite an expert at wave sailing. After a few conversations with him I was as motivated to save for gear as ever, and that is exactly what I did. Painstakingly, bit by bit, I bought every little piece as I tracked them down in the limited second had market. I was surprised at how difficult it was to find cheap secondhand gear in a place as windy as Wellington. One would have thought that there would be thousands of windsurfing fanatics just dying to get rid of old gear but this is unfortunately not the case. Maybe the windsurfing revival that has hit Europe will spill over to New Zealand soon!

So over the last 2 months I've collected the pieces of equipment like clues to a puzzle and yesterday, I finally got to put it all together for the first time. After weeks of looking at a rigless board, missing the old days at Bronkies in South Africa and praying hopefully for many windy days to come, the day finally came! I ended up with a Hifly 145l free-ride board, easy planing, fast and maneuverable it promised much but all that is yet to see. I have only one size sail which will prove a bit limiting in Wellinton's normal wind range of 25-40 knots but will be fine in anything from 14-25... I hope! It's a Tushingham 6.5 sq slalom sail and complements the board beautifully! Yet again the windsurfing community has proven itself to be more hospitable and generous than any other! My windsurfing buddy at work gave me his old boom and mast extention, saving me $600!!! I bought my sail from antoher sailor who promptly invited me along to the next day out, which in Wellington translates to tomorrow! hehe

In South Africa I would have to wait weeks and sometimes months before getting a chance to go sailing in proper wind. In Wellington I can go sailaing literally every second day after work (sun only sets at 9:30 pm) with plenty of lagoons, inlets and beaches to choose from. This place really is awesome if you can appreciate wind. And you wouldn't believe it but om my first day out it just happened to be the ONLY NON WINDY day in the last 2 weeks!!! NOOOOooooooooooooo!!! Hehehe. It did give me a good chance to set the gear up properly without getting thrown around too much but with the wind hardly reaching 12 knots it was a pretty boring ride. Just watch this space, tomorrow is another windy day in Wellington!

Just a week ago I went out to Evans bay, aka "The Ditch" and watched 7 or so windsurfers play around in 35 knot winds on 3.7 sq sails and threatening to break the sound barrier!!! Was totally awesome, but not as awesome as seeing those guys play around in Lyall bay (wave surfing spot) with nice swells and a 30 knot southerly. All I can say is freaking awesome... And soooo here are the much anticipated pics...

Oh yes, just to put my old windsurfing buddies in South Africa at ease. I've gotten a propper wetsuit and solemnly swear to leave my booties-and-speedo fashion statements in the past... where it belongs! hehe I suppose I have to clarify that a little. A year or so ago, I went sailing at our beloved bronkies and it was one of those precious (and scarce) days of goood wind. Constant 20 odd knots and we were all out there. Pieter (the coach!) , Malcolm the Speed freak, Gabbi the Master of hungarian pop, Phillip the great, Colin the Savage and I were out sailing for the day. Somewhere along the line the wind really picked up and I got stuck with way too big a sail and battled to get back to shore. After a hour of muscle tearing work I managed to get back but had quite a walk back to our lauch area and so did the hike of shame. The guys weren't too hard on me as I'm sure they know the pain of being out on the wrong size sail and not getting to use the wind while it is there! Then came the critical mistake! I rigged a smaller sail and got out of my wetsuit (was way too warm out of the water) and was too lazy to get back into the wet thing when I had finished... Soooo I went out for the next session wearing a speedo, gloves, booties and a harness... Yes, in retrospect I hang my head in shame. :o) hehe luckily that is all in the past. To the guys credit they made me promise to never ever go sailing like that while in New Zealand... South African sailors still have their pride! Anyhow, you guys best save up and come visit me for some good sailing hey! I miss you all! What is a day of sailing without some beer, choclates, hungarian music and laughs with you guys anyway? Well then, here's some pics. In a few months time I post some as I near the speed of light on a 80liter board in 35 knot winds :o)

John was my partner in crime for the day, it was a good one! Thx Jo!

New board - she's a beauty!

Look - proper wetsuit hehe

Using what little wind I had... Watch this space... (Good form hey!)

Oh yea, you'll notice that I was the only idiot out there... The locals don't even bother to go out if it ain't blowing over 20 knots. Most of them use 4.7 sq as a stock sail... Scary hey! That's all for now then, will be back soon!

Superfly out... :o)

Holiday in South Africa 2006-11

2007-04-06T14:22:00.000+12:00

10 December 2006

Time for another road trip hey!? Well, this one is worthy of the term, “air trip” and hereby I don’t mean breathing on “medicated” air to get “trippy” at all!

I’ve just arrived back from a 2 week holiday in South Africa. Yes it’s my country of birth and I know that very rarely counts as a holiday but I had so much fun that it had to be a holiday!

(I spent time with most of the people reading this blog in those 2 weeks) Now if I didn’t get to see you in that time, be sure that I wished I could but time was very limited! Come visit me whenever you have a chance!

Here's a pic of my little home in Wellington, who wouldn't want to come back to those blue skies?

Wellington had some foul weather for the last 2 days but I awoke to birdsong and sunny skies. The heavens are clothed in royal blue and my reading corner in starbucks is bathed in sun. I’m having a tan as I am writing this and it is 7pm. :o) Smiley faces abound on days like this! The beaches are loaded with people, parks enjoyed by lovers taking a stroll, reading together or having a picnic. I am very fortunate to be here. Anyway, this post is about my South African trip so I’ll keep the NZ stuff for another time! Hehe those of you who know me have seen how easily I digress.

I was scheduled to depart Wellington on Saturday 11/11/2006 at 13:00. It was a beautiful Saturday. I spent the morning taking photo’s of the city and packing for the trip. My good friend Calvin took me to the airport and off I went. Approximately 33 hours later I arrived in Johannesburg smelling, and probably looking like a rat. :o)

I'm Leaving on a jetplane hehe Departure from Auckland...

I had quite interesting conversations with people from various countries during this journey. First I flew from Wellington to Auckland, spending 2 hours in transit. Then we flow 3 hours from Auckland to Brisbane and spent an hour down under. From here we flew 8 hours to Singapore, refueled for a hour and then pushed on for another 8 hour flight to Dubai. As for Dubai, I have to tell you, it really is an amasing place, if man made marvels are your thing. Nothing about the city is natural, except the dust, sand dunes and sweltering, energy destroying heat. It is quite well known for it’s golf course, gold markets, indoor snow ski slope, super luxurious hotels, man made islands, cheap fuel and the Dubai Rugby Sevens championship. The only thing lacking in all these things is something authentic, something natural, something that can’t be built by engineers. There was one thing that took my breath away though. As I was strolling through the airport, which is a splendid airport indeed, I stumbled across an Irish pub! That’s right. In the middle of this sweltering dust cloud, I was able to sit in my own green décor, air-conditioned booth and enjoy a marvelous medium to rare pepper steak and an ice cold pint of draft. That’s heaven in the middle of a desert I tell you. (Especially after a day of airline food!)

Sunrise over the United Arab Emirates Peninsula

Dubai from above

It was great seeing my family on the airport, the arrival’s hall is always a place of smiles and hugs. The next 12 days was meticulously planned to try and see as many people as possible. I was a little worse for wear at the end, but had a lot of fun and way too much to eat hehe.

My parents and I spent a few days in the lovely town of Dullstroom (Directly translated dull – stream), however, if you are a fly-fisherman or lady, this town is everything but dull! It plays host to the largest concentration of trout farms in South Africa with excellent stream and still water fishing. I had a huge amount of fun showing my parents how it’s done and quite proud to say that both of them landed their first rainbow trout! Well done dad and mom! Now my dad was a sport fisherman in his day, battling it out against king mackerel, marlin and the like. To be honest, those trout didn’t stand a chance! We shared beautiful African sunsets, casting amber, white and blue reflections on the several trout dams surrounding our cabin. Whoever dreamt up the old South African flag might have given many deep explanations for the orange, blue and white stipes… But now I know, he was actually just deeply in awe of sunset’s reflection on peaceful waters.

Sunset at Dunkeld Flyfishing estate

My mom feeding some feathery friends

Dad and I fitted some flies

And we caught our own rainbows (no pots of gold though!)

O yes just so you know... The Score now stands at:

Trout = 1 - Louis = 6 :o)

As part of the Dullstroom treat, we paid a visit to the Bird of prey sanctuary. If you’re ever in the area, make this pit stop a priority. They house over a hundred South African birds of prey. Those that can, are rehabilitated and set free, the others are cared for as long as they live, very noble work indeed. It was a humbling experience to sit next to the mighty eagles and listen to their haunting cries. Maybe I’ll be able to volunteer at such a sanctuary some time in the future. It seems like intensely rewarding work.

South African Bush-Owl... Better known as the cute large eyed furrball!

The Infamous BarnOwl

White Faced Owl-A pretty buggar if you can manage to ignore the nose hair :o)

Faster than a speeding bullet - The Lanner Falcon

Master fisherman and known for their heartwarming call - the African Fish Eagle

The highly endangered king of the African skies - The Black Eagle.

This place, with all its wildness and beauty is very foreign to any city dweller. I’ve lived in both of these worlds, and the contrasts they paint are astonishing. Being confronted with the absoluteness of life in the bush is humbling. The principles that are lived there, and taught from parent to child are so wise that their tutors should have been human but they aren’t. This place of wild beauty might be one of the greatest testimonies of an incomprehensible wise Creator. Close study might convince anyone of a God that made these things with a purpose, even if only to please Him or astonish us. Much of this “wowness” is lost when you live in a concrete jungle that defies the existence of any God and professes indulgence, self reliance, productivity and busyness as the answer to every need. If you live in a city you have probably heard yourself say “I need to simplify my life, things are to complicated… I hate this rat race…”

I’ve read in many books that people from America and Europe left their homelands to come to Africa in the search of themselves. Search of themselves? What is up with that!? I never got it until now. The sheer diversity of the African bush, with its rich abundance of animal and plant species moves you to a place where you understand how terribly small you really are and how ridiculously short a lifetime is. While cities try to impress with non-living, non-growing, static man made statues, buildings and shopping malls that last only a few years anyway (I say this even though I AM impressed by these man made things, and I do enjoy them!). I see now how it is possible to find yourself here. I never appreciated it in this way while I lived in the bushveld. Then all this “wowness” was normal. Now I see that it really is spectacular beyond being described with heavy handed words. I am convinced. God is an exquisite artist. This great mastery of sound and color, arranged in the throes of life and living and survival really is mind boggling in its greatness. I enjoyed every moment there!

Thanks to all my family and friends who made time to see me. I love you all! Thanks to Louise and Mom for the early Christmas, it was lovely. Congratulations to Dewald and Reinhardt on their debut album. Keep an eye out for their band “Errand of Mercy” if you’re into good modern Rock.

Hopefully you guys will be able to come to New Zealand soon! Well that is all from me for now. I deliberately did not write anything about the crime, poor service, and infringement of human rights or crap mentalities that abound in every day South Africa.

I spoke to many dejected South African’s during this trip. I had many of them tell me “I think people who move abroad are deserters, rats leaving a ship etc”. Somehow most of those told me in later conversation that there must be more to life than what they are experiencing. Some told me they were extremely tired with the way things are in South Africa. I'm sure the stories shared on this blog will give you some hope with regards to possibilities elsewhere. If stuff in South Africa cuase you to fear for your future and that of your children, and you decide to stay in SA, do something about it. Pray, but don’t stop there. Do something. Organize peaceful protests or something but don’t suffer in silence. Right, I’ll stop here. Next time I’ll steer clear of politics :o)

There are many evils in the world. Evil only prevails when good people decide to do nothing.

Love you all,

Superfly!

Snowboarding @ Mt. Ruapehu: Episode 1 & 2

2007-04-06T14:15:00.000+12:00

15 October 2006

White, pure, feathersoft, bone-breaking hard, blinding, cold, wet, winter… All these nouns would do well do describe snow. A month ago 2 friends and I hit the snow-clad slopes of mt Ruapehu for the fist time and added “andrenalised, fun, laughter, joy and pain” to the list of nouns describing snow!

Our little troop of brave men included 3 South African Expats. Marchant “Marc” Jooste - previously of Pretoria, Pieter du Plessis – previously of Richards Bay, and yours truly - Superfly “boskind” of Pretoria. Marchant and his entire family have been residents of Aotearoa “Land of the long white cloud” for seven years. He’s employed at the infamous WETA-studios (King Kong, Lord of the Rings ring a bell?) and performs his wizardry as an animator. Pieter and I will be sharing a house soon :o)

So we organised half a day of from work hit the road at 13:00. The surrounding scenery changed so many times over the next 4 hours that it felt like it was over in an instant. The only common denominators were green fields covering rolling hills and basking under the sun which seemed suspended from a surreal blue sky. Oh yes, don’t forget the sheep, they’re everywhere! Grazing and sleeping on ridiculous gradients (I would not be able to climb up some of the places they were sleeping) like they were some cross-bred Merino-mountain-goat thing. To be quite honest, they’re actually quite cute….

WHAT!!!??? Did I just say that??? Nooooooooooooooo!!!! Hehehe You know I was just kidding right? RIGHT!?

Right, back on point… A few scenic tourist attractions on the main highway between Wellington and National Park Village are:

-The picturesque Hutt Valley

-Plimmerton – The home of wave sailing (just so you know, windsurfing rules)

-The awe inspiring Kapiti coast and Kapiti Island

-The Car museum that houses Adolf Hitlers’ car.

-The town of Bulls … hehe no really it’s called bulls. And the police officers are const-a-bulls… for real!

The closer you get to mt Ruapehu the more rugged the terrain becomes and ultra green pastures with natural patches of daffodils give way to rocks, shrubs and brownish things. Mt Ruapehu (Maori for "exploding pit") and it’s little brother – mt. Ngauruhoe (actually a secondary vent of mt Tongariro) are active volcanoes and as such have a massive influence on the surrounding area. By the way, mt Ngauruhoe was mt Doom in the “Lord of the Rings” film. Awesome…

We reached the mountains just as the sun bid us farewell and bathed the white slopes in fiery hues. Freezing yet beautiful! We booked into our lodge ($25 a night for BBH members – great!) and went to hire our gear. “Base Camp”, a very authentic pizzaria / pub in National Park Village provided some entertainment and grub before we retired for the evening. Dawn seemed to play hide and seek with pillowland. Daybreak finally came and we set off for the mountain!

Marc took us down to “Happy Valley”, the beginners area and gave us a few pointers. Within 20 minutes we were panting like dogs in summer and my ass reminded me it was not made to fall on! (Actually it continued reminding me of this for a few days to come!)

Pieter and I were first timers so we checked in for boarding-school at 9:30 (no not the one with bad food, the one with snowboards hehe) There were plenty of us that pitched for the first lesson so the group got split into 2 and off we went. Imagine my surprise as our snowboarding instructor, a very hip dude from Argentina, asked “who of you have done windsurfing before?” HA! I could not believe my luck! I promptly said “yea, I’ve done a bit of sailing” to which he coldly replied: “Snowboarding isn’t anything like that!” hehehe hook line and sinker! The lesson lasted 2 hours by the end of which our coach told me I’ve got the basics down well enough to go explore the lower mountain. Woohooo! After gleaning a few last words of wisdom from the dude we went to have some lunch after which we hit the “rock-garden trail on the lower mountain. I have to tell you it was freaking awesome. By 4pm I’ve had many really cool runs, managed to take a few skiers out (hehehe) and survived 3 hours of cramping legs. I thought that my legs could act up tomorrow, now was time for boarding, not cramping up like some freaking wiener. Anyway, we got loads of boarding done!

Some really heavy weather blew in over Saturday evening and consequently shut the snowfields on Sunday. We watched the last SA – NZ tri nations test and got to bed at 3:30 am… To tell you all the truth, I would not have made it up the mountain that Sunday anyway! I was knackered! We headed home and started planning the next trip…

Check the photo’s!

Not exactly an African sunset but pretty none the less. Anyone care to join me for a glass of Port???

Is this a full moon or what?!

Mt Doom doesn't look so threatening when cloaked in pure white now does it?

I'm enjoying this, could you tell??? In the background is Peter. These chairlifts were sooo much fun. This was taken in "HappyValley" aka - Beginners paradise, where many a man is broken, pride lost and fun gained.

And we played in the snow too... Jealous yet? hehe

Right – fast forward 4 weeks to 9 October…

I sold the idea of going snowboarding to half the North Island in the last few weeks :o) and in the end a small crowd got ready for the exodus from Wellington to mt Ruapehu at 3pm Friday afternoon… Then the rapture came and only a few of us were left here, so we went snow-boarding anyway. Hehe. 4 of our friends cancelled due to other commitments (nothing as dramatic as the rapture though…) so in the end, Marchant and I were joined by only one other couple, however the 2 of them are galaxies of fun so we had a blast! We were joined by Marc and Karen Honeychurch-originally from the UK. They are truly some of the wittiest, fun people I know! We arrived at National Park by 8pm and were welcomed by cloudless skies and a full moon lit up the mountains beautifully. So far so good.

Marchant joined us for a quick beer and then headed to another lodge where his family was staying for the weekend. His family currently lives in Auckland and as mt Ruapehu is halfway between Auckand and Wellington it makes for a good family weekend.

Morning came and the snow report was excellent, 20mm of fresh snow on the upper mountain and all lifts were open. Springtime has the best weather conditions for snow sports but dwindling amounts of snow proves summer is coming.

Saturday was just amazing. We boarded the entire length of trails on the upper, lower and western slopes. All I can really add to that is my BUTT was much happier this time around! The view from the upper and western slopes is just breathtaking. You can actually see mt Taranaki (mt Edgemond) on the far western coast! (Check a map, it really is quite remarkable!)

Saturday evening we had dinner with Marchant’s family. I have to tell you, absolutely nothing comes close to South African hospitality. We welcome from the first moment and had a roaring time. Great company, lovely food and good wine… what more could you possibly want! Thanks a mil to the Jooste family, you guys are great!

Sunday morning arrives, lo and behold, weather is BAD! Nooooo, the weather-man said it was going to be as sunny and perfect as Saturday, what the heck is going on!!!??? We headed up the mountain anyway. Only Happy Valley’s lifts were open so we had a play on the ice… That’s right… ICE. No fresh snow means that the slope is VERY icy until ski’s, snowboards and some morning sun softens it up… Miraculously the wind subsided and the lower mountain’s lifts were opened. Yea baby! We were up in a flash and got a many good runs in before we had to leave. What a rush, what an awesome weekend

I was amazed at how many childred were blasting around the slopes, some as young as 4 years old. One mum on a snowboard was teaching her daughter in tiny ski’s while the kid was in a brace with a leash… I laughed so much at seeing this kid-on-a-leash duo that I almost fell of a cliff… hehe

Anyhouw… Here are the photo’s for this trip… See if you can spot mt. Taranaki in the distance!

This was taken from the upper mountain... what a view!

On the western slopes, Marc strapping up in the foreground. Did I mention the views were awesome?

Another "non threatening" view of the infamous mt Doom!

While on the chairlift heading back from the west side - Mt Ngauruhoe...

The world through the eyes of a boarder...Anyone who's worn ski goggles before would recognise this!

The upper mountain trails... fun fun fun...

What a place!

2007-04-06T14:09:00.000+12:00

12 September 2006

This post contains more photo's so it might take longer than usual to download. :o)

I truly wish you all could se this city through my eyes. No really! Wellington is a full-on city, well, a first world city... Skyscrapers, hundreds of coffee shops and restaurants, open air malls, harbour waterfront, suburbs... aaannnddd Rivers, forest covered hills, beaches, natural bays, did I mention beaches? Oh yea... If a city needed lots of violent crime to be called a city, Wellington would be a town... or anything else.

The type of crime South Africans take in stride as normal parts of life does not exist here and the locals are absolutely horrified at news reports coming from South Africa. It makes you think, doesn't it?

Anyways... As a wise man once said, life goes on... Last weekend John rented a car so we can do some grocery shopping and sightseeing. I've tried to equate Wellington to towns in South Africa and the closest I came is a combination of Cape Town crossed with Stellenbosh... We have found some remarkable resemblances to Balito, Scarborough and Simonstad too... In short I am left with a distinct lack of graceful words when trying to describe what an awesome city this is.

We started our mini-tour by driving up Mount Victoria. It is quite like the suburb Clifton in Cape-Town being extremely hilly but it is situated in the middle of town and gives you awesome 360 degree views of the city. A bullish North Wester started blowing in early morning so visibility wasn't too good. I'm sure you'll be able to get some of the detail from the photo's though! So we stood on Mt Victoria and tried our best not to gape in amasement at the picture playing itself out infront of us. (Gotta tell you that wind was strong!)

We headed down the hill and started in the direction of Lyall bay, the notorious surfing beach with regular swells in excess off 2 ft. No really not 2 meters, 2 foot swells... I'm sure a longboard will do just fine! (Ok so it's not J-Bay, actually it's not even close) For better surfing action I'd suggest Plimmerton, Raglan and Phia. We followed the coastal road through gorgious little suburbs nestled between hills and the sea, quite like Simonstad in the Cape, just smaller. The seawater, however, is crystal clear, providing awesome spaces for freediving, snorkeling, scuba and spearfishing. Later the day John and I had a walk next to the Hutt River. I have to be completely honest, when summer arrives I'll be swimming that river like it was a backyard pool!

Let me take you on a little virtual tour. We start off at our flat in the CBD. As we climb into the car you're amazed at how many cars are parked safely on the roadside. Imagine that, your car is exactly where you left it and the radio is still there, windows intact! We start off down Boulcott Street, then turn right onto Willis st. A few lighthearted students pass cross the street at the intersection... Young ladies walking around in the inner city wearing jewelry, no fear, no worries. Think about that for a second, it actually is worth mentioning. As we turn right into Willis st your eyes catch the silhouette of St Mary's cathedral against the bluest sky you've ever seen. You inhale deeply and strangely, you don't smell the usual stench that is the normal baggage carried by city atmosphere... Eventually we're heading down the Parade. As if from nowhere, the glimmer of a million crystals grab your attention. Lyall Bay... You expect the onshore breeze to carry a strong warning of saltwater but it doesn't. Could this be the sea? When we reach the Esplanade you can hear the soft breath of a tide and a gentle salty scent confirms your suspicion - the sea it is! The breeze is just salty enough to invite you to a barefoot walk on the beach. Could seawater be so clean... It's unreal. The alps of the south island are just visible to the south, to the west are some more bays and to the east unnamed hills. We turn left toward worser bay. Every turn in the road reveals more peacefull hills and pristine bays. We pass some divers in Worser bay. They chat lightheartedly about the mysteries they've uncovered... Someone's gonna have crayfish for dinner! All the time you keep asking yourself: "am I really living here?" What a place!

A Map of the pics! Areas marked in big red squares were photo spots.

As requested, wellington harbour on a windy day... The pond grew waves overnight!

JUST A REMINDER - THIS IS WINTER...

Oriental Bay Parade... Fancy a walk?

Is it just me or is it slightly gusty!?

From mt Victoria - The CBD

From mt Victoria - Central Suburbs

From mt Victoria - Looking toward South Island

Worser Bay from above... As I said, CLEAN water!

Worser Bay - Ground level, peacefull ain't it?

Almal wil 'n huisie by die see he...

One of the smaller bays immitating a tiny pond... land of the long white cloud, Aotearoa.

Here we go, South Island's alps as seen from a Wellington beach...

This ship ring a bell? It was the original ship used in the movie King Kong! Currently moored in Wellington

I hope these pics shares a part of our every-day with you!

Be back soon,

Superfly.

It's my Birthday! It's my Birthday!

2007-04-06T14:05:00.000+12:00

12 September 2006

And so I hit a healthy 26... When my 21st birthday came around I was in the Netherlands and never ever thought I would even visit New Zealand and here I am... Enjoying my 26th in Wellington!

A few friends and I spent the weekend at the snowfields of mt Ruapehu. I'll write a bit more about that later. On monday evening some friends came over to our place to share the joyous day. Everyone brought some desert and I must say it was quite an exotic selection! We got to bed at 1AM tuesday morning after an awesome social and way to much sweet stuff!

So now I can introduce you guys to some friends! All of them made sure that I have loads of sugar in my diet hehe. Emily got me a great set of cooking tools, I have no excuse now! :)

John and Annelize decorated my room with some baloons and stuff. It was a excellent surprise waiting for me when I came back from the mountain, sore muscles and all! They really spared no effort to make my bday special. Dinner, balloons, movies... Thanks guys, love you both!

Does this look festive or what!?

Here we have "kameelperd" he's a gift from my niece... awesome hey!?

The fooood

Ma buddy Kelvin from Malaysia

In the foreground Mario from Uitenhage (Nood Kaap!) He's one of the best fast bowlers in New Zealand! John and Liza at the back with Emily from Dunedin.

From left to right Jeff, Ben, Rachelle, Leona, Shinead and Joy

Some flowers my sister sent me... awesome! I did however receive it at work! Try explaining that one to the ladies! hehe

Well then... soon I'll give you the run-down of how I lost my b-u-t while snowboarding...

Cheerio!

Superfly - out!

Ps. Thanks for all the emails, calls and text messages. You all really made this bday special! Love ya!

First Flyfishing attempt in New Zealand!

2007-04-06T14:00:00.000+12:00

25 July 2005

The official score

Trout 1 - Louis 0 :)

Hi everybody!

I just came from work and decided to stop over at my favourite Starbucks, get caffeinated to my eyebals and share a little about fly-fishing in New Zealand.

My good friend Bertus came to New Zealand for the Underwater Hockey world championships a few years ago and he couldn’t stop talking about how awesome New-Zealand’s trout streams were. He told tales 'bout mountains and hills of green, rivers that were ever clean… there’s that rhyming thing again, doh!

It might just become a habit! Anyways, I’ve been craving to try out some flies ever since Bertus sparked my imagination about monstrous trout swimming in crystalline streams. So I did…

Like a few other stories in this blog it all starts with renting a car… hehe… I organised a fresh water fishing license from a local sports store in Wellington (thanks to the guys at Sterling sports on Willis st. The service is always great!). With the paperwork done and my kit packed I set out on a meticulously planned mission. (whatever! I read in a brochure about this stream with name I still can’t pronounce and decided it would be a good place to start hehe) Luckily the plan worked out great, and grew considerably as the day progressed.

My rented Nissan Sentra found it’s path through Wellington CBD like an old rental, hey wait, it is an old rental! Hehehe One minute you’re in a 1^st world city, the next you’re driving along a motorway (elsewhere known as highways, freeways etc) with a pristine harbour to your right and hills covered in lush bush to your left. This literally starts 5 km from the heart of Wellington CBD. This road took me through the suburbs of lower and upper Hutt at which point I took moonshine rd. into the hilly country. In a few short minutes this deserted road changed it’s colour and became incredibly twisty as it writhed it’s way around hills. Some turns were more than hairpins, hugging the hillside for dear life. The pace got so slow in these parts that I might as well have gotten out of the car and pushed it around the bend! (Lekker vertaal ek daai ene ne! giggel my “a dubbel s” af)

This tiny onelane, 2 way path meandered it’s way through the moonshine hills, drenched in a cloak of sirene rainforest… Taking in all of this while consentrating on driving got me into a few hairy close encounters of the vehicular kind! In good keeping with my track record I didn’t drive straight to the access point of this mountain stream but took the scenic route… NO, I did NOT get lost hehe, focus people, scenic route hehehe

After a momentary detour and photo moments with the local Lama population I found the dead end that provided access to the stream I was looking for. A few tips for fly-fishing in New Zealand… Small streams are invariably crystal clean, fish will see you before you see them. You don’t fish blind, you hunt what you see. Kiwi trout, quite like any other fish live in water, if you find this water in mountainous regions it is bound to be really, really cold so make sure you have a wader or you will loose something to the liquid form of frost-byte – no jokes! Hehe I learnt these little pearls of wisdom the hard way and almost lost use of my lower limbs hehe. I waded through this stream for a few hours and drank in my surroundings. (note to self – wading barefoot through a mountain stream in winter can and will freeze any adrenaline you have…) around lunch time I made my way upstream and mounted my Nissan Sentra steed to head to friendlier, more crowded waters. Even though this little sport deserves a place on some “most beautiful place” ranking it will not be known for it’s trout population… yet… a change of season might be all it needs…

Soon I wound my way back down the moonshine hills and out onto the motorway, over the Rimutaka hills (some more mountain passes) and toward the Ruamahanga river… This river is slightly broader than mountain streams and apparently holds good trout and salmon year round… I probably picked the most picturesque part for the river to wet the lines… There is also a big chance that I chose the perfect lure and cast in precisely the right locations… I didn’t catch anything though. Maybe I just suck at fishing but it’s great fun anyway…

Eventually I got back to my ride, dried myself off and set off for home. After a day surrounded by a thousand hills, misty cliffs and rain-forest ravines I returned home with empty arms but a full heart!

If anyone reading this post loves the art of fly-fishing or would like to try their hand at it, come to New Zealand. The fish really are plentiful, especially in the Taupo region (which is where my next fly-fishing trip will be headed). What a day, what a place!

Till next time!

Superfly… or not so superfly… hehe

Here’s a few pics to help your imagination on the path of the silver fern...

The only remotely straight section on Moonlight rd

The Lama's looked on in amusement ... silly human, trying to fish in the middle of winter...

At the unpronouncable stream... Told you the water was clear as air...

I didn't catch anything but I made it look gooood.... (and the crowd goes... YEA RIGHT!!!)

These little feathery friends mate for life... no really!

The Rimutaka range (somewhere out there a few trout are laughing it up...)

The Ruamahanga

Wellington - an overview of our new home!

2007-04-06T13:55:00.000+12:00

23 July 2006

Hiya!

So after a short absence I’m back and ready to do some more story telling! At this point in time we’ve seen most of
Wellington’s inner city, a few beaches, and had a few glimpses of the upper and lower Hutt, Karori and Johnsonville suburbs. For our first 10 days in
Wellington we stayed on the Terrace. (No, not terrace as in huge lawn, Terrace as in THE Terrace… Where all the ministers used to stay… but you knew that of course!

John’s new employers were kind enough to set John and Annelize up with a self catering appartment for the first 2 weeks of their stay. John and Annelize on their part were kind enough to allow me to stay there as well (thanks guys!) So our time in the colourful town of Wellington started in luxury!
Wellington is best known as the windy city… One wellington-dweller remarked jokingly that “Welli” has a hill or two and it’s known to be a little breezy now and then… This was the euphemism of the century though! The problem with describing a place like
Wellington is choosing a place to start… Well then, let’s begin… at the beginning! Our short stay on the terrace started off in brilliant weather! Even though the most of the
South Island was gripped by the claws of winter during that period “Welli” was really quite moderate. On sunny days (and contrary to popular opinion there are many of those) it seemed like the entire populace would spill onto the streets. Some sitting outside coffee shops, reading or hanging out with friends, others jogging along the harbor beachfront or enjoying a day of sailing in the harbour itself. Even on the dreariest of days Welli is a beehive of activity. The city’s energy really is intoxicating, in a good way hehe. Everywhere in public areas and all along the huge harbour waterfront you’ll find huge blocks of concrete inscribed with poetry and prose laying praise on Welli’s hills and people. There are more theatre’s, coffeshops, restaurants and pubs in the Wellington CBD than can be explored in a year. And should one embark on a silly mission like experienceing all of these puddles of entertainment you’d end up grossly overweight and develop some yet unkown entertainment overload disorder! A boring day in Wellington – Unheard of! One of the concrete inscriptions that describeWellington the best is found in the town square opposite the library. It states: “It’s true you can’t live here by chance, you have to do and be, not simply watch or even describe, this is the city of action. The world headquarters of the verb.” Another found at the harbour reads: “I love this city, the hills, the harbour, the wind that blasts through it. I love the life and pulse and activity and the warm decrepitude. There is always an edge here that one must walk that is sharp and precarious, that requires vigilance…” We had the most intense views from our Terrace appartment. On clear days we could see far across the harbour all the way to snow capped peaks of the Rimutaka range. A pretty and inspiring sight for sure. Some mornings the harbour would be whipped into a raging torrent by winds gusting across the Cook Straight and on others it would be the most serene pond you’ve ever seen. A city of extremities. One day you’ll find comfort in a coffee shop’s embrace – the abundance of java sheltering you from the cold and wet. The very next day, however, you could find youself in paradise. Skies the blue of an enchantress’ eyes and a bay so calm you’ll attempt to walk it’s waters. I might just have fallen in love with this place. We soon moved to our own rented appartment, this time a wee bit closer to the cbd. Words fail to express the pleasure of WALKING to work! I leave home at 8:25 and reach the office at 8:30, exactly on time for work… To make things even more rediculous - I’m home before 6 pm every night. Crazy hey!? Gym’s around the corner, works’ just there… lovely! Here are some pics to back my words up with some substance…

A tribute to some Maori chieftains. This, ladies and gentleman, is what blue skies should look like!

A stormy day on the bay (Windsufers ahoy)

Town Square at night - enchanting isn’t it!

Allow me to state the obvious, yet again… The picture above was taken at 9 pm on a sunday evening. It is in the city centre. People were still out and about, jogging for fun. No sirens, no gunshots, no hijackings… Now that that has been said, I’ll leave it at that.

Our first place on the Terrace

At the doorway to our new place on Boulcott st

Rainbow’s the order of the day

City and Harbour longshot

City view, a mix of old and new… hey, that rhymes!

Till later, Superfly!

Road Trip # 2 Part 2 - Mt Ruapehu, Palmerston Nth, Wellington!

2007-04-06T13:40:00.000+12:00

5 July 2006

Whoa, I’ve been absent from the site for quite a while, sorry guys and gals… Today I’ll continue with the tale of our trip from Auckland to Wellington and hopefully get around to showing you some pics of Wellington and my flyfishing trip soon… hang in there, they’re on the way… promise! We set off from Waitomo’s rolling hills and small mountains and immediately found ourselves on another set of winding roads set in steep hills covered in sheep with crazy mountain climbing skills.

Our destination today was the National Park Village at the foot of Mt Ruapehu, the ski hub for New Zealand’s north island. The closer we got to the ACTIVE volcano the colder and cloudier it got. Unfortunately our timing for good weather was off by a few days… Weather forecast predicted heavy rain and gale force mountain winds for the area L We checked into our backpackers hostel and got the low-down on local attractions. Imagine my surprise when we found that the hostel had its own indoor climbing wall with 42 different courses… awesome…

I’m sure that you’ve seen by this time that we don’t like to waste too much time on a trip like this. We set off as soon as possible to explore the accessible slopes of Mt Ruapehu. Fist we had a look around the museum and learned some interesting facts of the seismic monitoring grid that covers the area and constantly monitors for earthquakes and seismic activity. Hereafter we headed up the mountain and stood mesmerized as scenes from the film “Lord of the Rings” unfolded right before us! Fist we visited the highest point accessible by car. (Ski season only started a week after we were there boohoo) We spent some time here to muck around in the snow on the only accesible slope and prove our prowess as snowboarders… only problem being that we did not have snowboards… None the less, looking like absolute idiots has never before been more fun! Liza enjoyed her first snow experience and hey lets face it… given a sled and the opportunity to slide down a snow covered hill, anyone would hop on and start yelling. We were all 6 years old and eventually found ourselves spent of energy and trudging back to the car park diner for a hamburger and the best coffee ever! Snow? COLD... Blue Snow Sled king and queen... :) We headed back down the mountain and passed the museum without stopping. Apparently there were many mesmerizing waterfalls in the area so we I meticulously researched the area and found the most popular trails. Ok, we didn’t plan it exactly that well… (sheepish grin) I saw the hiking trail on a map in the museum and wondered if it was any good (duhhh, one would think that by now I knew the answer to that question.) so when we passed the trails’ name board on our way down the mountain I casually stopped as if I’d been planning it all along. (another sheepish grin) Waterfalls rarely fail to inspire me and this one was no exception at all. It seemed vaguely familiar, as does most of the surrounding landscape. Then again, so many movies have been made in New Zealand that we’re bound to have seen it sometime or another. I’ll have to tell you though, any scene on the big screen, no matter how large, cinematic or impressive is totally obliterated by reality! Anyway’s I gave my camera some work and nearly fell of a rock into the FREEZING river while doing so… hehe all I got for it was a cold left foot and many excellent foto’s. While we were scouting around the mountain, playing in the snow and looking at waterfalls there was an excellent indoor climbing wall awaiting us at National Park Backpackers… and climb we did! (Over and over again until my hands were too tired to lift a glass) Tawai Falls

Liza "DAREDEVIL" Davidson

John "ARM OF STEEL" Davidson

Louis "SUPERFLY" van Zyl

I bought a book by Wilbur Smith (Warlock, the sequel to the Seventh Scroll) while waiting for the rental car at
Auckland airport and got caught in it’s intricate egyptian tale before leaving for this trip. On this night at the foot of mount
Ruapehu I listened to the wind howl and read… and read… and read… until 3AM… Mr Smith really is an excellent story teller. Anywhays, about the trip yea… We departed from National Park Village with rain in our faces, wind at our backs, and the mountain still shrouded in a mantle of grey… Our route stayed as picturesque as it had been so far. After many mountain passes, hairpin turns, bridges, rivers and awesome valleys dressed in autumn colors, we reached Palmerston Noth. We only stayed over for the night so didn’t see too much. Most of the area is known for Rugby, Sheep farming (Mostly wool) and well, sheep! The town is beautifull and feels strangely like home. To be honest, the further South we traveled the more “right” everything felt. We stayed at another BBH network affilliated backpackers lodge (discounts baby yea!) “Grandma’s place” is a former old age home restored for backpackers. It really feels like my grandma’s house. To tell you the truth I became very nostalgic when seeing the old wooden Sony television set like the one my Gran had and the furniture, carpets, everything really… I missed my Granma that night, and enjoyed fond memories of her kindess, untireable smile, love for God and her warmth. She was legendary for her good food (tamatiebredie uit die hemel uit, al julle plaasjapies wat dit kan wardeer!) and for the way she could tease my dad. Hehe, I believe I’ll see Granma Babsie again, but not yet, not yet. We had coffee in a Starbucks (Lekker koffie ouens, glo my vry! En chocolate muffins J ) and walked through a memorial square looking at statues of Maori chieftains that played pivotal roles in the healthy relationship with England and the crown. Like in many first world countries there was a huge momorial for the various wars that involved New Zealand. In all of those, New Zealand was lending a helping hand to some or other alliance. (It is so small and out of the way that having NZ involved in a war of it’s own volition is practically inconceivable, except of course if their rugby rivalry with Australia got out of hand hehe) I’ve seen similar memorials in many other places (Holland, UK, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, USA) and all of them testify to generations of hurt families, heroes fallen in defence of the innocent and freedom. For the record, war, however necessary due to circumstances, stinks. We shared Grandma’s place with 2 girls from Wales traveling through NZ on holiday and a Indian dude who was in Palmerston to visit his university for a correpondence course thing. We left them behind to travel onwards towards Wellington. Our room at "Grandma's Place" - no school like the old school! In this leg of the trip we made a beeline for the west coast. Yet again I passed an interresting looking sign board promising lakes in the forest… BAH! Think again tourist freaks hehe. We did take the turnoff and found a “pond amongst the trees”! Imagine my surprise… So I tried to make a u turn with a few horses staring on, anxiously awaiting the inevitable. I carefully reversed, making sure to keep the front wheels on the tarmac (surely the purple beast was front wheel drive) while the rear wheels went onto the slippery stuff. (This mud seriously resembles baby dog poop) And so it happened… The car was REAR wheel drive!!! Hahahahaha And so I managed to get myself covered in mud for the second time this trip, ahh bliss. Result of a stuck in the mud... The horses are still laughing at me... Eventually we managed to get our car free of the slimy clutches of immobility and shot down the coast yet again. After a quick look around the beaches close to Kapiti Island (Beautiful surf, awesome surroundings and massive beach) we headed on towards Wellington. The closer we got to our destination the more the surroundings became reminiscent of the southern parts of South Africa’s Cape peninsula. Not only was our car buffeted my the wind but the scrubs, hills and coastline reminded me of the road from Somerset west to Koegel bay. Beach and Sea! Kapiti Island in the background Finally we reached wellington. A breathtakingly beautifull city. It is large and yet feels remarkably small. Soon I’ll write about it’s people, malls, theatres and restaurants. Wellington is like a mixture between Capetown’s city and harbour, and Stellenbosch’s vibe surrounded by mountains, hills, awesome bays etc… Here are some pics of Wellington to give you a warm-up for the next post. These pics were all taken from our first appartment's living room window. We've moved to another appartment in meantime but sure enjoyed the view in the old one! :) Wellington Harbour on a windy day... When in blows... it BLOWS Another Rainbow! Weve seen more rainbows in the last week than in ten normal SA lifetimes Wellinton Harbour has this huge fountain that works when it's not blowing... In other words, if the fountain doesn't work - go windsurfing! Part of Wellington City Skyline... Checks the harbour and mountains in the background... (Yes you astute observer you... I am in fact trying to make you jealous... hehe)

Until next time then… Cheers,

The Superfly

Road Trip #2 Part 1 - Waitomo Caves

2007-04-06T13:35:00.000+12:00

19 June 2006

We set off from Auckland for our second road trip. This time however our last stop would not be back in Auckland but in Wellington on the southernmost tip of New Zealand’s north island. We were faced with the age old question – how do we get there!? By this time we had experienced enough to know how to get most from a road trip. We started by hiring another car which had to be slightly larger than the sunny since we are taking our copious amounts of luggage along with us. (We have so many bags you could swear we were immigrating… well, yes, hehe we are!)

Mount Eden Crater (Extinct Volcano Remember...)
The small specs are people... this thing is like a wok for the gods hehe Mount Eden View - Nice even if I do say so myself... Auckland in night time from mount Eden. Yes, I was cold... :) We have been in New Zealand for over 3 weeks at this point and almost 2 of those weeks were spent in the
mount Eden area of Auckland. Here we lived in the “Oakland Lodge” at the foot of mount Eden (One of the multitude of extinct volcanoes that shaped the Auckland region) Awesome days were mingling with other travelers. Some were warm hearted and others stuck to “nod and smile” communication since they couldn’t speak English all that well. We shared a room for the first 3 days, then had to move since that room was pre-booked before we arrived. For 3 nights I shared a room with a Japanese nod and smile dude (Komichua ek sê!) while John and Liza shared their room with a sweet American girl who worked at a local Belgian tavern. Later that week Chayenne moved to a single room an I moved in with John and Liza again. We had some good times playing guitar and singing until 2 am, watching movies, chatting with other foreigners about places they’ve been and sharing ideas on God. Some cool friends were made. To all the guys and gals we met, thanks for a good time! Especially Peter, we’ll look you up in Czechoslovakia when we’re in the area. Also our new Israeli, German and British friends – Cheers! And so after saying our goodbyes we were off to destination Wellington in a rented 7seater-people-mover-van-thing. (purple, ugly thing but at least the radio worked… now and then) We considered making a one day dash for Wellington but that would bore us to death and back so consensus was reached to take a 4 day detour! First we headed south on the main southern motorway and turned west toward Raglan beach one click north of Hamilton. On the way to Raglan I spotted sign stating that the Bridal Veil Falls were 14 km to my left… But I know for a fact that the Bridal Veil falls is this beautiful little waterfall just outside of Sabie in Mpumelanga, South Africa. Without a second thought I turned from our planned route to go have a little look-see. First you have to understand that the long sweeping yet never-ending hills that fill the countryside south of Auckland give way to steeper ravines and finally mountain passes as you near the west coast. And so we were traveling along this myriad of passes through incredible pastures of emerald green fields, patches of massive oak trees and meandering streams with no idea where we would find this waterfall. I saw in my minds eye this “waterfall” turning out to me an overstated river rapid… small unimpressive and weak but oh was I wrong. As unpredictable as only the
New Zealand landscape can be the peaceful farmland gave way to a monstrous hill covered in rainforest. We went up and over the near side and still no waterfall… I almost lost it but around the next hairpin bend we found the end of the rainbow. We parked the car and set off on a short 10 minute walk to find the Bridal Veil falls. The hike follows the western bank of the waterfalls source… ugghhhh stream… really it is probably the most relaxed stream ever, which poses a serious problem if you want an impressive waterfall… Anyhow we were following this stream staring at the forest canopy, leagues above, and gaping at natural orchids growing where fables of faeries begin. We finally left the music of a million falling droplets behind and found ourselves engulfed in the roar of a waterfall. What an impressive sight this 55 meter waterfall made in the backdrop of rainforest and blue sky! On one of my infamous three stooges photo sessions John and I were posing on the wrong side of the safety railing only a few slippery meters away from falling to oblivion. On the way back I slipped while jumping over the safety railing in youthful defiance and ended up in a slimy pool of mud. Great stuff… Check the pics included and laugh it up! Next we found raglan in our sights.Bridal Veil Falls (A few seconds before I fell face down into the dirt - funny funny) Scenic Falls

Raglan is a surfers’ paradise with waves getting more aggressive as you move south along the beach. No really, it’s like this one single beach has 3 separate sections of breaks. At the northernmost part you have a sluggish but long left hander that keeps you well clear of any rocky parts and ends in a loooong piece of whitewater – perfect for novices like me. Then, 200 meters up the beach you near the rocky parts and the waves are bigger and stronger showing a bit more face. Finally when you pass a tiny peninsula of rocks and whoa the surf takes your breath away…

Raglan Beach - Lekker waves hey

First sleepover pit stop – Waitomo. This is a Maori name (duhhh) meaning “place where the water disappears into the ground. (Wai – Water, Tomo – hole) It seriously is a place were normal streams disappear into caves and reappear the other side like a magician…The entire area is laid out on one of the worlds largest limestone cave systems. Sure the natural surroundings are brilliant. The hills are evergreen, mountains are breath taking and the rivers are crystal clear but the moment you enter Waitomo’s subterranean wonder world you get introduced to whole new levels of speechlessness. This speechless effect was rendered useless on the rest of our tour group which largely consisted of Korean students. They do not understand silence or quiet please. ;) One of the many wonders of the word only found in the south pacific is glowworms. These little creatures are found close to water and resemble the south African firefly version with a few exceptions. They spin sticky webs to catch food and are carnivorous eating other insects or other glowworms – cannibalistic glow in the dark freaks... hehehe They can also regulate the brightness of their glow-thing from soft sexy mood glow to literal “sun shining from rear end” hehe. This is of course how they attract their food … and … tourists! Glowworms inhabit the Waitomo caves by their millions and paint intricate pictures of the universe (in blue fluorescent tail light!) while your boat glides silently below (with a tour guide trying every tactful effort in the book to keep the Koreans that way too) Sure people feel inspired when they look up at the milky way on a clear night but replace the milky way with millions of glowworms and put yourself in a utterly dark cave and awe gets spelt A – W – E – S – O – M – E. Cathedral Cavern Glow Worms Waitomo Cave Exit

We spent the night in a farmhouse backpacker lodge complete with mist, full moon, and a indoor fireplace. What a picture! In the next post I’ll share some thoughts about the next leg of this journey as we head out to mount Ruapehu, the north island’s ski paradise.

Till later then, cheers!

Our First Road Trip - Rotorua and Taupo

2007-04-06T13:31:00.000+12:00

2 June 2006

Hi y'all!

This is a long post so get some coffee and make sure the heater is turned on (Heard it's chilly in RSA) It's road trip time! We've waited, we’ve saved and finally we were on the road! Our little road trip would begin by hiring a car for $29 a day. For this we afforded a Nissan Sunny and so “Sunny” helped us along a 1200km adventure lasting a little over 3 days. The plan was to depart from Auckland and drive south via Hamilton to Rotorua, spend a few days there and drive right back to Auckland.

Well, who wants to stick to plans anyway. This is a road trip remember! Sannie the invincible! Backpakers in Rotorua We arrived at the “spa-lodge backpackers in the town of Rotorua (otherwise known as “Rotton-rua” and “Rotovegas”) by 15:00 Saturday afternoon after an incredibly scenic drive through the Waikato province. Our car sounded like a broken record with a multitude of “wow”, “jis ouens, check dit uit”, “incredible”, and “I wish so and so could see this” filling the air! Every bend in the road paints a new picture of awe and wonder as the diversity of New Zealand’s luminescent green hills and forests surprise you over and over again. Yet again I’ve been dumbfounded by God’s creativity. Rotorua is situated in the centre of New Zealand’s north island on the national highways referred to as “Thermal or volcanic explorer highways” It plays home to many natural wonders and world class tourist attractions including, skiing on
mt. Ruapehu (a dormant volcano), the world’s largest drop-zone for sky diving, white water rafting, sailing, cave adventures, underground rafting (black water rafting), hiking in natural forests, natural volcanic activity, spa and relaxation therapy lodges, trout fishing, scuba diving etc etc etc… Shortly after our arrival we took a stroll through the thermal gardens in the town centre. This is a myriad of natural bubbling thermal baths, mud pools, geysers and steamy water puddles. Imagine a place that smells like the “stink bombs” you used to terrorize teachers with at school and you have an idea what a “Thermal wonderland” smells like. If Alice had jumped through the rabbit hole and entered this wonderland she would have worn a gas mask! J I’ve included some pictures so you have an idea what I’m blabbing on about. Believe me when I say that the pictures really do not do the area justice.We had a fill of Pizza hut and gaped at the size of a few of the local maori boys. The lads playing rugby in the All Black team might seem huge and muscular but these guys were in a league of their own! The one dude’s lower arms were as large as my upper legs… No I did not get a photo hehe… Later that night we watched the disappointing Super 14 final at a pub and made friends with some of the locals who were kind enough to show us around the local pubs. We enjoyed some local beer, good conversation (lots of Rugby talk) and an excellent local cover-band. The Kiwi’s really dig rock and roll! We set off early Sunday morning in our beloved “Sunny” to the infamous Whakarewarewa (pronounced faka-rewa-rewa) forest. Redwood translates to “HUGE TREE” in normal English. We first had a look around the information centre where Liza had a fabulous blonde moment. They had cross section cuts of 3 trees on display to show the “age rings” and size difference between a 30 year old pine tree and a 90 year old redwood tree. As John and I was staring at this massive piece of wood Annelize piped up, so is it going to get some more rings? We lost it! Hehe …

While walking in this place of loud silence, with redwoods towering close to a hundred meters above, one is filled with a foreboding sense of treading on holy ground. Never before have I seen so many shades of green and brown, mingling and merging, as shadows play games on the forest floor. We left the shadows to their games and headed further south to Blue and Green lake, two extinct volcano craters filled with fresh water. They’re not named blue and green for jokes, they really are, blue and green. There is a very convenient car park and camping ground on the shores of Blue lake but as Green Lake is sacred to the Maori people no such luxuries are allowed there! We enjoyed a steep, muddy downhill hike to Green Lake and battled to get to waters edge. Where blue lake has a beach and boat launch area, Green Lake has tree ferns and scrubs growing right to the waters edge. The area is covered in Rainforest and both lakes’ water is crystal clean. After another photo session and good measure of “wow!” and “awesome!” we huffed and puffed our way back up the slippery hill. Next we drove north to the Agrodome, home of the ZORB. To ZORB you have to allow yourself to experience the innards of a washing machine up close and personal. First you change into some clothes you want to be cleaned, then you drive up a very steep hill over a very bumpy road, pondering your fate… Then you join some warm water in a massive plastic ball , one, two or three people at a time and get hurled down the hill. You start laughing uncontrollably as soon as you get the move on and don’t stop until you’re redressed and heading home… What an experience! We rounded of this fun packed day with another scenic drive, this time through “ Paradise Valley”. Fly fisherman beware, the guys at Paradise Valley are situated in the breeding area of Rainbow and Brown trout moving upstream from Lake Rotorua. The stream is known to wield trout well over 5 Kg’s in weight but that is not all. These buggars actually show you the breeding ground full of monstrous fish and do not allow you to catch there! The hills in this area resembles the Scottish highlands and as such I might just trade my fondness of the Dullstroom area for a new love.

ZORB Baby YEA! (just for the record, what you are looking at is a girl in a ball, rolling down a hill in the countryside. I know it looks like some rich old mans lawn but it is natural wild growing kiwi countryside...)

Big Tree (Yes I'm wearing this springbok jacket everywhere)

Big Trees... and Good Boys...

Easy to see why this is called a Giant Tree Fern. The midget in the right corner is John...

Blue Lake

The next morning we headed to Waimangu Valley for a surreal walk through one of the worlds finest heritage sites. The valley was formed in 1886 when mt Waimangu erupted in one of the greatest volcanic eruptions of written history. The eruption split mt Waimangu in two, creating the valley, blasting lake
Rotomahana to 20 times its original size and destroyed all animal, bird and plant life in the entire area. This eruption was followed by the worlds largest natural geyser eruption when echo crater erupted for 4 years in in the period 1900-1904 blasting water, rock and mud up to 400 meters into the air! The last eruption occurred in 1917 when the frying pan flat erupted creating frying pan crater. The entire area is geothermically active providing bubbling mud pools, boiling lakes and extreme ground coloration. After the 1917 eruption the Master Gardner got to work on recreating the landscape and natural reforestation repopulated the entire area with an abundance of natural forest. As such this is one of the worlds most pristine examples of how nature recovers after such a devastating volcanic eruption. The walk takes you from a panoramic view of the valley all the way to the valley floor, past echo crated, frying pan lake and the mysterious turquoise colored inferno crater. This crater is a tidal pool which fills to overflowing and then mysteriously empties itself just to fill up again. When inferno crater overflows it’s water averages a temperature of 90 degrees centigrade…

At inferno crater we tackled the steep climb up mt Hazard. This brings you to your knees in wonder as you have an elevated look at Rift valley and Lake Rotomahana. Down the other side of the mountain you go ever following a warm stream through a cool forest until you pass warbrick terrace and end at Lake
Rotomahana itself. Normally it would take 2 hours and 45 minutes to cover the 5 kilometer trail but with Louis the monster photographer looking for a Pulitzer prize winning snap of the three musketeers it took much, much longer! Except for the moans and groans of steep uphill climbs and sulphuric thermal stench in the air, John and Annelize made excellent photographic subjects. No really, if you ever feel the need for a really entertaining hike, join the 3 of us, we will make sure your laugh fitness is challenged as much as your walking fitness is!

Waimangu Valley - The Smokey stuff is steam and gas as result of thermal volcanic activity.

Inferno Crater... The Blue stuff is super hot water and the white stuff is salpeter deposits

In the Valley

Too much hiking will do this to ya!

Huka Falls, can like to have some blue water please...

Lake Taupo at Night

Lake Taupo (The big rock in the foreground is a huge Island in the lake)

On our way to Taupo we were gaping at all the sheep covering a thousand hills while Annelize was eating some jelly sweets. One of these sweeties was shaped like a cat… She deftly shoved the cat in my face going meeee like a sheep! I laughed my but off.

Our first road trip in new Zealand had a well rounded finish as we drove south from Rotorua, past the minute town of golden springs (careful not to flinch or you’ll drive right through it without knowing it’s there), via Taupo and around Lake Taupo, New Zealands largest natural lake. I have never ever seen such clean water. Even though a lake it reminds you of being on a Mediterranean Island. And to this lake and its trout streams the awesome Huka falls and you have paradise. After more than a 1000 km’s drive, many laughs and a gazillion moments of awe and wonder we reached
Auckland again.

Remember we have told you all a million times that this place is G-R-E-E-N and hilly... Well here's some proof, unfortunately the pics don't do the scenery any justice even when you view them at full resolution...

Green Hills

More Green Hills

There you have it! Our first road trip was an enormous success. Just hang tight there will be many more to follow.

Just a little footnote! We actually did jump off the infamous sky tower - TWICE! To have a look at the story and pics please visit the following link to John's site:

http://pebs.wordpress.com/2006/06/02/sky-tower/

Auckland and Fishing!

2007-04-06T13:26:00.000+12:00

20 May 2006

Hey hey!

In true South African spirit we had barely landed before we hit the road to do some exploring. Auckland is an incredible city. Apart from the fact of it's streets being cleaner than most people's dining room tables, it is also host to an awesome skyline, huge private docks, a myriad of coffee shops (heaven :)) and a beautiful marina. Sure, it doesn't have Table Mountain as Cape Town has, but it does have an extinct volcano and Islands... Many many Islands.

In due time we'll explore some of these and send you the highlights!

As I mentioned in my previous post we had an appointment with our employment agent on Wednesday and subsequently both John and I have interviews to attend this week. God is good, all the time... Watch this space ;)

For most people a few good days' weather means putting on some cooler clothes. For the good people here at Brownsbay it means taking the boat and fising tackle out for a walk... a 17 Km walk all the way to Tiritiri Island where schools of "Snapper" come out to play. Believe it or not, Annelize, John and I were packed and ready to go by first light... ughhh well... ok so we slept until 9:00 (blame it on jet-lag!) and hit the cold water of brownsbay by 11:00. By the end of play John had caught an undersize Kingfish (that put up a massive fight), 2 sizeable Snapper and many undersized ones. I caught a small mountain of baitfish (Kinda resembling sardines) :) and a few undersized Snapper but Annelize litterally blew us all out of the water. Not only did she catch the most Snappers but also handled her own bait and caught a large dory... What a day! (I've a pic below to prove our keep hehe)

Yesterday we did some exploring of Aucklands Suburbia. Most of it's houses are built with wood but are beautiful none the less. I would love to say that it resembles Cape Town for use of familiarity but in honest truth, Cape Town has been weighed, measured and found slightly lacking. Point is, bar Table mountian, Auckland has everything Cape town has except smog, squatter camps, violent crime, and totally overcharged telecomms rates. Here's a few highlights... Auckland has an indoor Ski / Snowboarding facility that generates it's own REAL snow and operates 12 months a year. Local landline calls are free. SMS messages withing New Zealand are free on weekends. You can actually buy a Pajero v6 for $3000 (R12 000). ;) There are patches of natural forest all over the area and Parks everywhere. It's awesome to see kids walking to school safely and families playing in parks. Auckland sits nestled between the Tasman sea and Pacific ocean underneath azure blue skies (Not just a use of creative expression - below are Pics to prove it hehehe) Can you believe it, I have not had a single moment of hayfever since arriving here... Heaven :D

Anyways... Will be writing again soon, gotta look for some lodging in the city today. Hope you all have a blessed Sunday.

Later,

da Supafly

Chalk Street Painting

Fising - Yea, they didn't get away this time!

Auckland - City Of Sails

Americas Cup Yacht and the Davidsons

The 3 Stooges

Auckland Ahoy!

2007-04-06T13:18:00.000+12:00

17 May 2006

And so this little big adventure has finally gotten off the ground. After three weeks of saying my goodbyes, visiting with friends until the cool of morning and sorting the final administrative stuff we got to the airport, packed and ready to go. Truth be told, I had to repack like 3 times to get everything in! Almost all our loved ones made it to the airport, so to all 60 of you, thanks a million! The final goodbyes were as hectic as expected and luckily passport control let me pass with red bleary eyes and all…

As I sat in a comfy plane seat, memories flew around me like Jozi’s lights far below. Ok I admit it, for the umpteenth time I got totally overwhelmed as the image of family and friends passed from reality to memory. Their mouths said go, be happy, we love you, good luck but their eyes whispered ‘please stay’… All of a sudden a familiar voice pulled me back to the present. John yelled at me, wide eyed: “Dude, check that plane, it’s coming right at us! Dude, check it out!” You should have seen his jaw hit the ground when I told him “No bru, that’s OUR plane’s wingtip light!” With this little piece of stand-up comedy 3 days of hilarious travel kicked into high gear. We arrived at the wonderful Dubai airport at 05:45 with a mere temperature of 29 degrees centigrade which rose to 39 by 08:45. Dubai really is an awe inspiring place. I kid you not. Man made islands (which is the only green thing for miles), huge hotels and massive skyscrapers. The glass covered airport terminal resembles a creature out of a Stephen Spielberg film and from nowhere this man made oasis of steel jumps out of the desert like a mechanical zit, spurting gold imported from all over the world and sold and record low prices. No really people, of all the breath taking places in the world, why the hell would you want to come to fake islands and shopping malls in the desert. I never really understood how the super rich would fly halfway across the world only to shop in the desert… Then again it could be that their super expensive fake body-parts have a natural affinity for the man-made experience. One day I will visit this city again, meet it’s people and see all it has to offer… outside the shopping malls and fake stuff :o) We had some really funny moments on Dubai Airport though. There was some problem when Annelize went through the metal detector upon which she asked the Arab in perfect Afrikaans “Moet ek nou regtig my bangles afhaal?” I also tripped an alarm in the metal detector and was asked to remove my belt… I got about 2 inches from a body cavity search… Thank goodness the detector shut up after that! Our next stop was in Singapore which is breathtaking from the air with multicolored lights dotting the landscape like precious gems. The third leg of our flight was from Singapore to Brisbane. For the first time in my life I had 4 seats to myself and slept like a king!

John was slightly constipated by all the airline food and completed his mission by taking a huge dump the moment we reached Australia. :o) Seeing New Zealand for the first time really blew me away. All the travel books in the world could not have prepared me for what I saw. Huge beaches of the North west coast, emerald green hills and the Islands of Auckland all greet you as you approach Auckland airport. Every single person I spoke to in the airport was friendly and helpful and everything was clean, extremely clean. Did I mention how clean everything was? :o) I woke up today to a beautiful blue, cloudless sky. Seagulls welcomed the sun and a gentle breeze invited me outside. I was relaxed, a scarce experience for me indeed. Driving to Auckland city was a weird experience yet again. No matter how many 1^st world countries you’ve been to, it’s always amusing when you stop at a traffic light and feel something’s missing only to find there’s no people selling junk or demanding your change. People actually drive with their laptop bags on the passenger seat having the window down! I have not seen a single car guard since landing in New Zealand, O WAIT, there are NO car guards in New Zealand! I’ve also not seen single burglar bar or safety door. For the first week we are living with a lovely South-African expat family who live in a lovely wood home which, defying South African ways of thinking lacks a burglar alarm system… O wait, you don’t need a burglar alarm in New Zealand. Awesome! Imagine seeing an Audi S4 parked and unattended with open windows… weird… We saw our employment agent today and went over some potential offers. Obviously this gave us an opportunity to explore downtown Auckland. Firstly, the place is CLEAN, really clean. I didn’t see a single paper on street and the train station is spotless. I mean really, what is a train station without some junk lying around, a few beggars demanding your clothes and distasteful graffiti painted on dilapidated train coaches… :o) It seems that I am proven wrong, it really is possible to keep a public place clean. Come visit Auckland and see for yourself! Auckland is known as the city of sails for a reason! Boats, boats everywhere! It’s fascinating how they have hundreds of private yachts and sailboats moored all over Auckland’s bays and harbors. Tomorrow we’ll organize our bank accounts, meet some more South African expats and see about job interviews. I’ll write again soon… O yes. One last thing, you know the massive tower in downtown Auckland? Yea, the 320 meter tall one with a glass observation deck. Tomorrow we are going to bungee-jump off it. 192 Meter free fall… Awesome … Please don’t tell my mom :o) Here are some pics to share the experience! Jhb Intl. Too little sleep? No! This is what happens when ET goes home… Brisbane New Zealand : West Coast

Parting with the Superfly

2007-04-06T13:07:00.000+12:00

11 April 2006

I'm rather sure most ladies would agree that seeing men in a overly sensitive, emotional and slightly confused state is both hillarious and scarce. Now if you would, lend me your imagination for a minute, and I'll paint you a picture part comical, part rediculous…

First allow me to introduce da Superfly… At first sight, even those with no aptitude for vehicles, would agree she is sleek and elegant, emanates danger while being incredibly inviting and has power to spare… Ahhh what the heck, I won't bore you any further with these nouns. Truth be told a picture is worth a thousand words.

So this is what it is all about. It's Friday. You spill out of bed and drag yourself over to the bathroom hoping a shower will break the hold of your Friday lethargy… You look at your watch - 07:00. The thought of the painfull, nerveracking commute (90 minutes' drive from Pretoria to Johannesburg) threatens to drive your fist through a door. Then again you might aswell collapse back into bed and call in sick… Then, a lonesome ray of sunlight finds it's solace on your helmet and mercyfully cathches your eye… mmm suddenly the commute morphs from painfull irritation to exhiliration and joy. Pure bliss. With a spring in your step and a urgency to get going you scrample though the meagre tasks of getting yourself presentable. It only takes 10 minutes but feels like eternity… Finally you are sitting on your honey, her engine happily warming up.

Gloves … check,

jacket … check,

helmet … check,

andrenaline… ready. In a moment you find yourself cruising through rush-hour traffic, pitying the "cage-drivers" waiting in queue, a looong queue. In 30 minutes flat you pull into your Johannesburg office's parking lot. Refreshed and exhiliarated, wishing you had time for more, but wait! It's Friday, which implies that soon it will be Saturday… Yea baby! On Saturday morning you and some mates will be heading to the awesome roads of the South-African Lowveld. You'll be up before sparrow fart (very early), bike clean and ready, backpack packed with a spare tshirt and your toothbrush, ready to experience heaven on earth! Twisty roads, high speed corners, huge plantations of bluegum trees and the smell of spring in the air… Yes these times were fun and if you don't ride, you should know that even the greatest expression of glamorous words can't give you the slightest idea of this experience.

Last week I had my last parting ride. The emptyness of my garage is rivalled only by that of my heart. Men are strange creatures for sure. Please do not expect of me to explain the bond between man and machine, rider and bike. If you don't ride you might think all this emotional blabber is slightly over the top, however - only a rider knows the feeling!

And so this post is an ode,

to the Superfly.

I cherished every minute on every road and so this Fireblade will be the CBR Superfly forever…

The Superfly:

The SuperFly and I:

My close riding friends - You made the times great!

So it starts

2007-04-03T21:29:00.000+12:00

20 March 2006

And so this little adventure begins!

I suppose that some history regarding this adventure thing is in order! I will, however, cut down on the details a bit and keep some narrative splendour for the day of tomorrow.

In 2004 I enjoyed a pretty supernatural trip to the USA after which I had a liittle premonition that I would not be living in South Africa all my life. So in November 2005, when a good friend of mine told me he wanted to move to New Zealand and instantly, this journey began!

Now my friend, John Davidson, his wife Annelize and I are carried to the "land of the white cloud" on wings of grace... There are a million things to organise before we go, things to sell, people to tell and paperwork to complete. Agghhh the paperwork... TONS of the stuff.

We plan to arrive in New Zealand with no more than our 20kg's of luggage and stay for at least 3 months. With the help of a South-African expat at a New Zealand based employment agency we will be attending some interviews in the first few weeks after our arrival and trust that God will provide work for us as he has before! After this little job hunting excapade we have to organise work permits (which is a walk in the park if you have a job offer) and then navigate the gauntlet of Immigration's residency application. :-)

Seasons like this always have more implications than is immediately visible... Some of the sacrifices we make now in the hunt of a few dreams are really challenging but how do you put a price tag on the reward of living ones dream? One of the hardest things I have faced is seeing the unbelief and sadness flood a friends eyes after you tell them you have to leave. I have known some real lonely times so I treasure every single friend I have... O Lord of the Heavens, bless them and comfort them even now...

Sooo before I get way emotional I'll stop this little post with a quote (Pardon the plagiarism y'all)...

"Ends are new beginnings,
as one day soon you'll see,
the best is never over,
the best is yet to be!"

And sooo it begins.

This is what you look like when you have just purchased your plane tickets to brave the unknown… What a feeling!

John and I being, well, silly I guess…