Tim's Spain & Morocco travels

G'Day again,

My last email left with me at school, the Spanish course in Granada.
This was a great change from holidaying for me, I actually enjoyed the
routine factor in getting up, going to school for 4 hrs then having a
siesta (sleeping during the day still makes me feel guilty but when
nothing is open in Spain then there is not much else to do), studying,
partying AND then sleeping in the same bed! 14 nights in the same bed
was a real change.http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3629825395699996381

Granada may not have been the best choice as a location to learn
Spanish as they have a thicker accent, but then my goals were quite
unreasonable anyway...learn and speak fluent Spanish in several
weeks...laughable! The course was great but I´m afraid I probably
didn't do much to impress the other nationalities as to Australians
learning abilities. The others in the course already spoke an average
of 2.5 languages hence they had no problems learning another. My first
day I had to learn what a verb, adjective, noun...etc was in English
let alone in Spanish so started a long way behind!



After 2 weeks of Spanish school I went walking in the Serra Nevada
mountains, the highest point in Europe outside the alps. Whether the
altitude had anything to do with it or I am really unfit I don't know
but it was hard work getting to 3400m. Sleeping in a tent on a
mountain that high was a nice change from living in cities although
when it started sleeting/snowing the next morning it made me
reconsider the sensibility behind Australians wearing shorts in all
hiking conditions.

The common sense way to get to Morocco from Granada is a short 150km
dash down to the ports but rather I decided a more inventive way to
get there...via Madrid and the north of Spain. A quick couple of days
in the nation's capital and I was off for a fiesta in Logroño (where
they stomp on grapes in a half barrel to make wine and celebrate the
new harvest). The other event at any good Spanish fiesta is a Bull
Fight.

Bull fighting...controversial, is it animal cruelty? I had seen the
bull fighting museum in Valencia and was shocked at the way the bulls
death was prolonged so anticipated that I wouldn't enjoy it at all,
but why would thousands of Spanish attend bull fights and thousands of
bulls be killed in this way each year if it didn't have something else
to it? Needless to say I decided the only way to know was to go to a
Bull Fight. MY personal conclusion...I´d go again, cruelty = not
really, brutality = definitely. Done correctly the Bull does not
appear to suffer, the sheer anger and rage the bull is feeling, and
desire to gore the matador takes over any emotion. The bull will
literately die mid-charge. When done poorly (yes the odds weren't good
as this was 2 of the 6 bulls killed) then it is the hardest thing to
watch, when the matador missed the mark with the sword the bull did
suffer and giving credit to the Spanish crowd they gave it to the
matador and were not happy about the suffering. Tradition is also
amazing to see at a bull fight. MY RECOMMENDATION...go, make your own
mind up but be prepared for blood and to spend the next 2 weeks trying
to make sense of what you saw and why humans are the way humans are!

It was around this stage that I found out about the Camino de Santiago
which was to become a big part of my Spanish travels. The Camino de
Santiago is a collection of pilgrimage routes across Europe to get to
Santiago de Compostella. The pilgrim routes in Spain are really well
marked and set up and thousands of pilgrims trek across northern Spain
each summer to get to the west side. This sounded like my cuppa tea!

Hence I went to Pamplona, walked the route were the running of the
bulls occurs and dumped some luggage...ongoing theme here...I have too
much luggage...for a round the world tip PACK LIGHT. From Pamplona I
did several camino routes across the Pyrenees Mountains. Beautiful
mountains and full of history and culture (aka foods and old
buildings), the walking takes you past villages, small farms (slightly
biased opinion growing up in Aust), herd animals wearing bells (huge
novelty) and you see more of the true Spain than you get from several
days in a city.

How´d my Spanish go...hmmm, disgraceful but the Spanish were very
patient with my attempts to recall the correct word and the horrific
pronunciation. So many people tried to help teach me the language,
sadly I usually ended up acting (universal language) again or telling
them I was going to 'swim' my way to Pamplona...I also had a few
creative teachers who tried to convince me to pick up a Spanish lady I
should say XXXXX...later, fortunately I got out the dictionary to find
I wasn't commenting on her eyes at all but lower down!

After the Pyrenees I headed to San Sebastian surprised to find beaches
without rocks! The north coast of Spain is a surfers pilgrimage, the
city is really well built to take advantage of the great beach but I
prefer the mountains so picked another section of mountainous Camino
to walk through, the Picos de Europa. These mountains are amazing,
hard to explain so I´ve attached a pic!



Sadly I then made the mistake of reading the Moroccan guidebook whilst
waiting for a bus...I was having time of my life in Spain but all I
want to do was to get to Morocco. Hence I sped up my travels to get
there ASAP while seeing as much as possible.

Santiago de Compostella was the end of the Camino de Santiago so I
called in to get a stamp in my Camino passport. I probably should
explain more about the Camino. The walk traditionally has a high
religious importance to pilgrims as the routes follow several
centuries of Christians walking to see the burial site of one of the
guys from the table with Jesus at his last dinner. Now it is so famous
it attracts people from all faiths and backgrounds. The pilgrimage is
meant to be a way to discover yourself through hard work this being
walking 20-30km per day for 4-6 weeks. Due to its popularity over the
centuries businesses, accommodation and towns have been built to cater
for the pilgrims needs. Apart from offering some great walking I did
it because the opportunity to meet loads of different people and for
the cheap accommodation that is provided to pilgrims. You get a
pilgrims passport that you collect stamps in and proves you are
walking the Camino. Smile nicely, offer them some basic Spanish and
most importantly tell them your Australian and they will not mind that
you aren't following the typical pilgrim route and doing the whole
walk! I recommend the Camino de Santiago to everyone, as great way to
see Spain and get to meet people (from both Spain and every other
country in the world), I don't think I gave it enough opportunity to
´discover myself´ as I only walked for 4 days at a time...4-6 weeks
might lead to self discovery or you could book a holiday to NZ and go
solo walking in the mountains to achieve it much quicker and with a
lot more effort. The walk is reasonably challenging to your average
adult 20-50yrs old but is well marked, well set out and you won't
regret it at all!

After standing at the northern most point of Spain and then eastern
point I headed to Portugal. Here I had plans to go walking again but
the weather dampened my plans so I went tasting Port in Porto (city in
Portugal) instead. I should also mention that I stayed a night for
free in the Fire Station, realising every boys dream by sleeping in
the rooms where the firemen sleep/wait for the fires to start. Sadly
there was no sirens or bells, or pole to slide down (this is opening
myself to many jokes) but it a memory I won't soon forget either.

I also was able to discover Couch Surfing in the best way possible and
used the website to stay at a Portuguese blokes place in the sea side
suburbs of Lisborne (capital of Portugal) and see the city, the
amazing castles in the hills next to Lisborne and attend a Portuguese
birthday party without paying 20euro a night for a hostel. PLEASE if
you have a spare room, couch or floor space register to
couchsurfing.com and spread free accommodation!

Following Portugal I quickly called into see Sevilla, watched a
backyard flamenco show in a pub and then to Cadiz (smaller Spanish
city with some fantastic old castles right on the waterfront), then to
Tarifa to do some washing (using a machine) and eat ham before
catching the ferry to morocco.

Morocco

My first 2 weeks in Morocco I spent traveling around the rural areas
of the country. The first stop was the famous blue walled city of
Chefchauoen. This city is painted in shades of blue, a stunning effect
but try to navigate a Medina (lots of really close buildings and
narrow laneways within a walled fortress) where everything looks the
same and is in blue…it confused me as much as the bees. (one rumour is
that the city is painted blue to keep out the bees who think its
water)

This blue town sits in the Rif Mountains, famous for the amount of
hashish that they produce. I put on the walking shoes and spent
several days exploring the farming terraces cut into the mountains and
quaint mountain villages. I was a month late for the Hashish plant
harvest, so all I saw was the dry stalks remaining, yep disappointed,
BUT then I got curious as to the drumming noises coming from the
villages so went to find out. It turned out to be the sound made as
they beat the hashish plant to extract the pollen…fascinating to watch
and wonder how many years in jail you would spent if caught with the
equivalent of 6 round bales full of hashish leaf and flower!



From northern morocco I headed East to the Sahara desert where it
started to rain…just my luck. I spent the next day sitting beside
raging rivers as the bus waited for each river to go down, the one
bonus was that the rain kept out some the tour buses and things were
quieter once I arrived. Sand dunes are always spectacular but after
the Egypt oasis's and Namibian monster dunes I didn't need to ride
another stinking bloody dromerder (camel with 1 hump).

Eastern Morocco also has some fantastic gorges were the water runs
from the Atlas Mountains out to the desert. I got homesick looking at
the scenery here as the colours and rocks are very similar to central
Australia. However I couldn't confuse myself with being at home as the
palmeries (date palm groves) were fascinating to walk through as they
feed the overpopulation from these groves using ancient watering
systems and tools (donkey/mule ploughs).

The highest mountain in Morocco was always going to be a draw card for
me. The only problem was that the recent snow meant that its 4167m was
covered in snow and I was to chicken to learn how to use crampons and
ice picks by myself. The walking around is bottom was spectacular
though with the autumn colours and snow..



After the rural areas I spent the final 2 weeks traveling the cities
with Deborah, my cousin who the Moroccans insisted that as she was a
maternal cousin I could marry! We basically went city hoping to eat…
her first lunch in Morocco was a BBQ/Boiled sheep-head. The experience
will be well remembered, particularly playing with it while pretending
to enjoy it! Other foods included home made cous cous with a family we
met in the streets, sugary & oily pastries, targine's, bread, bread
and more bread. Moroccan food is nice but the array is limited and
surprisingly for the amounts of spice they have on offer at markets it
is not particularly spicy. The best way to enjoy good food I guess
like anywhere is to have it in someone's home…easy to do, just drop
the right hints to a family in the markets and they'll get you to buy
the food for that nights meal for the family and invite you. One last
memorable food moment was eating sheep testicle…the experience of
buying single 'nut' you've chosen off the carcass hanging in the
street and then taking it to be grilled in front of you is not to be
forgotten and the taste…I'd eat it again before a sheep-head anyway!

The cities of Morocco are chaos as with any 3rd world city, but the
Medina's provide hours of fun walking around, getting lost or more
correctly realising at different times that you actually know where
you are! The shops owners use aggressive sale tactics and bargaining
is essential for everything, make them drop their price to a 3rd of
the starting price and you are probably then only paying double what
it's really worth to a local. Mint tea is offered to all potential
customers and then the unfolding of every carpet in the shop will
begin, if you want to 'think' about it and not buy now! then watch out
for the language and screaming.

I have just finished a week in London, doing touristy stuff,
organising myself and watch repeats of TopGear episodes on Dave...also
trying English ales and get educating my liver with pint's (not
drinking for several months made London much cheaper).

Currently I am in Stockholm (waiting for my sisters flight) looking
forward to seeing Scandinavia and spending time with Mum & Dad.
Currently -4 C and fresh snow...any tips on how to deal with -30 C
further north would also be appreciated…

Best wishes back home and across the world and I look forward to
getting some Christmas 'what the year entailed' type emails.

Tim

PS: where to next...Scandinavia for 3 weeks (Finland, Sweden, Norway),
1 week in the UK early dec, Swizterland for Xmas, New year in the UK
and THEN fly to South America Jan next year...5 months to go!

Middle East and Europe

After traveling through Africa to Cape Town here is what I have been up to:

Egypt

After 12hrs watching movies overnight instead of sleeping and then an uncomfortable 12hr stop over in Heathrow airport I needed to sleep, but I love flying...hence more movies and British Airways great red wine selection on my flight to Cairo took precedence. Cario at 1am was just as lively as 10am or 10pm I found out, I immediately loved the city...it is polluted, overcrowded, stinks and really hot but then that is what makes is so much fun...the CHAOS. I fell into bed an passed out not giving John much more than a G'day nice to see you chat. I traveled Egypt with John, a scout buddy and his first time outside Australia, hence I think more a shock to him as I had experiences Africa to soften the impact of poverty and chaos!

The pyramids were great, as the museum but what I really liked about Cario are the taxi's! The taxis are crappy old cars that somehow make it through each day being driven by men who don't understand how to use the clutch or have any knowledge of road rules. Road and driving license is acquired by showing competent use of the horn! (aka overuse)

From Cario we did the typical route that a Contiki tour would take (far cheaper solo, but harder work) upstream along the Nile (downward on map of Africa) to the largest and grandest collections of Egyptian stone work/carvings and also the tombs. Seeing is believing...they are impressive in photos but to stand underneath the Abel Simbel or Luxor temples you really begin to appreciate the dedication and effort that went into making each monument.

We floated/sailed down the Nile on a traditional boat (faluca); enjoyed the Valley of the Kings (lotsa tombs) and the temples around Luxor are in most postcards of egypt when the pyramids dont figure! We then caught an 18hr bus across the country to the Red Sea where the most amazing coral grows just off the beach (the beaches havent yet compared to Australian ones) but the water is beautifully warm.We climbed Mt. Sini (with every other person and his ... camel!) where a guy out of a book heard something (go back to being PC Tim!) and then more snorkeling. From here I decided to go to Jordan while John went to Cario ->London (thanks for the company John, great to have someone to vent frustrations with rather than at).

What is it like to travel Egypt not on a tour? exhausting, but so many more memories and you also feel the culture of the country rather than simply take photos of it going by your bus window. It was Egypt in summer which made thing easier as less tourists around but it was hot...as hot as Alice Springs in the summer and to walk around without shade in the desert is hard work. I thought I might have caught 'Pharaohs Revenge' (gastro) after walking the pyramids but it was simply I was used to the weather in Cape Town, not Cario and had heat stroke. Without tourists we could bargain hotel prices down further, e.g 12.5 Egyptian pounds per night = less than $3 (normal was $5-10), we however were the amongst the few tourists to hound/beg/annoy therefore more of a target??? I cant say but you have to love attention when traveling Egypt! Enjoy the culture shock, see the positive in the 4.30am Muslim call to prayer, the city comes alive and a mixture of sound and mosque lighting (who sleeps then anyway!, sleep in the heat of the afternoon). Muslim women have very attractive faces...you cant see anything else! Egyptians will bend over backwards for you...just expect to be "back-sheesh'd" Pita bread at home is expensive...not in Egypt...10cents for x5, breakfast for <$1...BARGAIN!

Few things to make life easier are, learn the Arabic numbers (written) and choose want you want off the menu. You are guessing at what you will be eating but at least you know the price...some fun meals were had when we kept ordering liver for John...I was full and he hadn't even eaten! If you are a female don't travel the middle east alone, take a "husband"/bloke to keep the touch to a minimum. Have your passport at hand... so many check points! Dont take winter clothes for an Egyptian summer...(maybe a jumper for climbing Mt Sini) as I carried 5kg of parka, beanie, gloves, thermals, jumpers and pants through Egypt...that was stupid!

Crossing border an Egyptian border into Israel was an experience...lotsa "ladies in uniform" and more to the point I had my passport checked 20+ times across a single border! I spent 2hrs in Israel before crossing into Jordan so cant say much for the country expect it was full of..."ladies in uniform" and young guys (17yrs) carryiong guns.

Jordan was a huge contrast to Egypt (new fact Tim...just like all English speaking countries are not the same, not all Arab countries are the same). Here my/the Australian dollar was actually worse (first county on this trip) and there was organisation (less poverty also). I visited Petra for 2 days, Petra is the place out of Indiana Jones movie 'the Temple of Doom' where he rides through the narrow canyons to a temple carved into the rock face...yeah its amazing to see in the physical form! The other top moment from Jordan was swimming/floating in the dead sea.

Crossed through Israel again..."ladies in uniform"

Back in Egypt I went downstream (North) from Cairo. I visited the Port where the Suez canal connecting Mediterranean Sea to Red Sea was dug 100+ yrs ago. Then I caught a series of buses to get way over in the west of Egypt (the Siwa desert oasis). This is your typical oasis from cartoons, the Sahara desert dunes almost touch the water except for a ring of Date Palms and houses. Yes I swam in the Shara desert! Driving through the desert was also an experience...flat knacker in a beat-up old Toyota with it tires down was enough to make me fear for my safety as he jumped the 4WD off 30m high sand dunes and I couldn't help but egg him on!

I had one last night in Cairo where I saw the Pyramids Light'n'sound show (very touristy) and then walked around the city trying to find Stuffed Pigeon to eat/try...I dont speak arabic so it was 1+hrs of coo-ing like a dove/pigeon...maybe I should admit myself to a pshyic ward!

London, I stayed in Sheperds Bush...aka Australiana! Drank with Aussies, partied, stayed and everything with Aussies...nice for 3 days but next time in London I want to meet a British person! It was also sunny...go figure that one!

France
LOVED the food...cheese...mmmm Did the Paris thingy after meeting up with Anthony & Stephen from CSU Pharmacy. I went to France a pesimist thinking it was going to be a crapy tourist/photo moment (I did this) and it will actually blow you away. Catacombs are a must for anyone going Paris but also enjoy the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame and the Louvre (if "Mr. walk past a painting without looking twice" aka me can enjoy the Mona Lisa then maybe the artist did get something right...or was I looking at the crowds. Another point...the egyptian collection in the Paris's Louvre is beter than in Cario's Museum!
I then went wine tasting in Bordeux and St. Emilion. Felt slightly posh eating french cheese and drinking french wine then realised I was in short-shorts and hiking boots!

Would have liked to see more of France, but it really was a way to get to Spain, for the Tomato Festival. As was Barcelona! BUT I arrived in time for a festival!...The spainish know how to party, the fireworks were amazing and then they proceded then to do a parade with huge figurines and spainish dancing. What I will tick off as the most spainish experience I have/will have is that at the tail end of this parade they were lighting fireworks and waving them at the crowd. The crazy spainards would then try to dance around them without getting burnt or bursting there ear drums! The party went on til 7.30am for me...what a way to start Spain.
Next was the tomato festival in Valencia
This experience is not to be forgotten, the mass of people, lots of tomatos and permison for all out war...see the photos is all I can say or better still...go! Suprisingly out of 30,000+ people I managed to find my cousin...

Granada is currently where I am based and have been here for 2 weeks...thats 2 whole weeks of the same bed...WOW.
I am doing a spanish course...difficult, but hopefully it will make it easier to speak/communicate aka "to get what I want" when I get to South America and for travelling around Spain.

Plan for next 3 months is Spain, Portugal and Morocco (more chaos!)

Hasta luego

Tim

African Epilogue - Where's Tim been...

Now that I have no excuse about the quality or African internet services and
time constraints (do banking, download photos off camera, back on the truck
in 1 hour) I will elaborate on the fun I have had in Eastern and
Southern Africa.

10 weeks on an overland truck go by really, really fast...but then it seems
like so long ago getting on that truck in Nairobi.

*Joburg (South Africa) - Nairobi (Kenya) - Jinja (Uganda)*

Joburg has a reputation and it certainly is a rough town, security is a term
taken to new level in South Africa, electric wire topped fences,
savage dogs, shards of glass sprinkled liberally on wall tops, and
lots of security men.
Fortunately Joburg and the Soweto tour (township where uprising against
apartheid happened) went smoothly, the flight out however was a timely
reminder about the necessity of checking your flight details as I only just
made it on-board (<30min to get through check-in, customs and to the
boarding gate must be a world record for Joburg airport on Saturday
morning).

Nairobi was when I first mee Africa nastiness face to face...this
happened 10meters from the departure terminal when my waiting taxi
driver tried to hustle me
out of the airport without trying to confirm that he knew my destination or
what his name was supposed to be...fortunately whilst he tried to take my pack
off for me the real taxi driver arranged caught my attention the would be
'mugger' vanished.

Life on an overland truck: keep in mind that I choose the budget of budget
options...not everyones cuppa tea
The driver and his Mrs had the cab whilst the tourists were in the back of a
regular heavy rigid truck such as one would cart cattle, x30 seats
sideways facing each other, tarp windows, tarp for the roof that could
be rolled back for game
drives and cruising in fine weather, camping every night, cooking our own
food purchased that day at local market (bartering), charcol fires, more
cold showers than hot, GOOD FUN, not good "clean" fun, as it was
rather dusty but really good fun!
Early starts figured regularly due to the quality of roads in Africa
(potholes/traffic) and long distances needed to travel to next
destination. We only ever had max of 11 people on the truck, but most
of the trip was with 5-6 people so we had plenty of seats to chose
from and slept on the truck on those 5am starts. Other overland
companies we came across had completely full trucks x30 ppl, windows
to keep out dust, a cook with truck so they didn't do their own
cooking and
everyone had one particular duty for entire trip....BORING.
Food: Breakfast and Dinners were included in the package and like most good
camping trips we spent ages thinking, purchasing, preparing and cooking our
evening delicacies. We ate really well, much to the credit of a young
British lad who tantalised our taste buds whilst boosting blood
presure as we had to watch his every move almost spill that nights
dinner.
Lunch when I ate it (a huge breakfast and 3 helpings in the evening meant I
was rarely hungry during the day) was local cusine. Toasted maize,
road-side kebabs, goat stew/beans/casava/rice, grasshoppers, sardine
sized BBQ
fish, tripe...I tasted everything and went back for more.

Nai-robbery shanty towns are amongst the most crowded that I was able to
observe. The lean-to's offered all services in ordinary towns cinema (TV in
the back of a hut), butchers (a cooking fire keeps the flys away and buy the
meat "still warm" in the morning to avoid afternoon warm meat bescause
it had been sit out in the sun rather than just killed)

Nairobi elephant orphanage was my first wildlife experience but I
would still do it again as touching and the attitude of the adolescent
elephants ignoring tape fences and needing blankets to keep the warm
was pretty cool.

Jinja is the source of the Nile river in Uganda. We went rafting on grade 5
rapids here. Flipping the boat, falling out upstream of a 2m drop
waterfall and getting held under trying to swim up but going no where
was a the first real highlight of travelling Africa.

*Gorrila's (Uganda) - **Kenya*

Uganda was my favorite country due to the people (really friendly and
overpopulation meant they were on all roadsides every single km of the
trip), the country side was lush green, rolling valleys and a
patchwork or crops and best of all was Uganda Beer.

Beer in Africa has been cheap, ranging from 75cents for 500mL to max of $3
for a 330mL stubby. The quality has been no worse than Australian beers and
they can be brought anywhere...just never expect them to be cold. Mazie beer
was also available and it took me 3 attempts on 3 different nights to drink
the 1 litre paper carton of sour porridge slugde...yuck! Other spirits are as
expected but I tended towards those in plastic tear off strips...tacky but
better than carrying a hip flask into a pub.

The Gorrilas were the entire reason to visit Uganda, the mountains they live
in took lots of driving to get us there but the scenery was beautiful.
Standing next to a family of gorillas was an awesome experience. They were
so relaxed and not the slightest worried that we were spying on them, the
size of a juvinile male mountian gorrila 3m away did have me worried that I
might make the wrong move but he/they were more content to scratch, pick
their noses, fart and occasionally grunt. We also caught a glimpse of the
silverback and the rest of the females and babies playing are memories I'll
remember for life (I'd better anyway considering the cost!)

We also visited a Pygmi village...legally the only people to be able to grow
marijunana they proceded to get themselves stoned at 8:30am and dance for
us...worth every cent for the laughter and weeks of ongoing jokes.

Game drives started in Nakuru, Lake Naivasha and Masi Mara, we saw plenty of
rhino's on the first drive and stopped photographing them...only to never
see another rhino for 8 weeks! The effrct of seeing zebra, impala,
giraffe and the rest of africas standard game animals slowly wore off
over the 10 weeks of Africa but those first game drives seeing a
giraffe even in the distance was I guess like
see your first kangaroo. To WALK amongst them was something else!

Climbed my first mountain, to a crater ontop were the views took second place
to doing CooooooWeeeeeee into the crater and having it echo around
several times.

We missed the game migration as they were in between Tanazia and Kenya in an
area hard to reach but I was plenty satisfied with watching the hippos and
the baboons THE best creature in Africa! Monkeys and baboons spend minimal
time feeding unlike other animals, they'd rather "hang out with their wang's
out" or cause mischeif and non-stop comedy for the observer.

*Kenya - Arusha (Tanziania)*

Several of the crew who had done game drives the previous week and myself
decided no to do the Serengetti NP as we needed some rest days, to spend less
$$$ and had seen most of the African game animals...as expected those who
went saw plenty of lions but I had my sightings later on so the rest days
were a good idea.

*Zanzibar Island*

The fish market in Dar Es Salam was a highlight and a full size tuna was
only $3 USD or $9/kg for prawns. However Tanzanians have a reputation and they
lived up to it by stealling the charcol bag from the back of the truck
whilst we were in a traffic jam.

Zanzibar spice tour was right up my alley...what is it?, where does it
come from?, what does it taste like?... this tour also inlcuded a
visit to sights where the slave trade occured and insights into the
past horrors of Zanizbar. The remainder of Zanzibar was spent at a
resort were we partied hard and filled in the days by laying on the
beach, seeing green turtles, deep see fishing african style (I caught
the biggest at 13cm), and the best fun was on my birthday which we
spent snorkeling.

*Malawi*
Is a small African country based around a mammoth lake...Lake Malawi. Here
we spent a night sleeping in the open ontop of a mountain over looking the lake
and then several days relaxing beside that lake. Malawi had some amazing wood
work, particularly the Malawi chairs but like every other Curio shop
(tourist souvenirs) I admired the work and got the poor store owners hopes
up for a sale, before leaving empty handed. Why I woulf want to carry around a
pack full of nic-naks for another 10months?. I did however buy myself
a set of tyre shoes (African injinuity at its best) and regretted it
the next day as the cushioning in Dunlop Tread is not the same as
Crocs.

*Zambia*
Unable to enter Zimbabwee due to Uncle Rob, we went through Zambia which in
light of the Zimbabwee situation has decide to increase VISA's
150%...mongrels. However the country made up for it with the best National
Park in Africa (South Luangwa). Here we did 2 game drives Morning = pack of
lions eating a Zebra and then drinking out of the river (walking within 2m
of the Land Cruiser) and we also saw a Leopard at <5m distance (Leopards are
hardest african animal to see) Night = Buffalo charged the Landcrusier
shaking us about before fleeing into the bush with the lion pack still
chasing it :)....wow! The campsite for this NP was itself worth it as we had
monkeys attack another trucks campsite (lifted the lid of a camp oven to eat
the contents), a giraffe stroll through and Hippo's walk between the tents
at night.
Victoria Falls was amazing to see, it is HUGE. I did a microlight flight
over it an still the sheer size was hard to comprihend. I also jumped off
the bridge rather than cross it into Zimbabwee (with a bungee cord and
also did the
gorge swing) and I DONT need to do either again...terrifing! Rafting the
Zambezi was at high water level so the rapids averaged grade 4 but still had
a few grade 5 rapids to flip the boat and get the adrenaline going.

*Botswanna*
The biggest change between this stage of the trip and East Africa
(Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania) is that the number of ppl on the roadside.
Botswanna was the first country where you could travel for 10km
without seeing a roadside stall or ppl carrying a load to their
nearest village. I kept hoping that this is due to the size of the
country but fear the HIV might have something to do with it also.
Okavango Delta is a massive water catchment that several major rivers
drain into...think of Lake Eyre back home but where the rivers are
always running. Hence it is a massive soggy wetland. Channels through
papyrus are formed thanks to the Elephants & Hippos that waid through
out the area to-and-from islands. We caught the local canoes (hollowed
out trees with long poles to push along the channels) and had guides
that polled us out to an island where we camped and spent 2 relaxing
days walking around the island looking for animals and teaching
ourselves to use a canoe/pole.

*Namibia*
The border crossing marked Namibia as a totally different type of
Africa. Gone was the organised chaos of Africa that had trucks backed
up for hours/days and the necessary 'encouragement' to the officals to
ensure that we werent held in those long ques. Gone were the street
kids asking you to buy a boiled egg, samosa or other luke warm food
item. Namibia was many peoples favorite country due to its beauty but
I also feel because civialisation had returned. The Etosha Pan is a
massive clay pan and we spent the game drive wishing a springbok would
'pronk' and trying to count the number of elephants in a herd gathered
around a watering hole (>50 adults). Giraffe drinking (gangly legs)
and warthogs also provided amusement.

Swakomund was a German stronghold and retains that German feel whilst
offering SANDboarding and Quadbiking on the sand-dunes. Sandboarding
was just like snowboarding but I had to hike up a sand dunes and then
use floor wax to polish the board so it slid faster. As a farmboy I
was dubious that the quad biking was another tourist scam. However the
bikes were not speed restricted and the crazy SAFA's only advice was
to "stay in my tracks and keep up if you can..." Whizzing up one sand
dune to hoot down it to the next was a great way to spend 2 hours
before sunset across the dunes.
Nambia's sand-dunes are world renowned and I was particularly looking
forward to them as soon as I booked the overland trip. 300m high and
rust red coloured sand they didn't let me down, nether did running
down them...just like a scree slopes on the mountains in NZ.
Fish River canyon is second only to the Grand canyon, but was plenty
big enough to make it difficult to photograph and it was best just to
'soak it in' and enjoy an immense hole.

*South Africa*
Stellenbosh wine tour was a great day followed by almighty Christmas
in July party, polystyrene snow, $2 jagerbombs and the unfortunate
hangover that slipped away as soon as we hit cape town and saw Table
Mountain.
Cape town is a beautiful city, climbing the mountain on a clear day
provides some amazing views and a realisation that I had lost any
trace of fitness that I had before starting travelling. We also hired
a car to visit the Cape of Good hope and the most southern point in
Africa. Finally I topped Cape Town off with a shark cage dive, coming
face to face with a 3-4m shark chewing on a tuna head less than a foot
from you was surprisingly not scary but what a moment to remember.

Now I am in Egypt and then onto Europe. Thankfully I have been writing
a diary of sorts as the last 2.5 months have gone by really fast and
the diary will help trigger the memories in future years.

I hope this finds everyone well at home and abroad, if you have been
travelling with me/run into me on the road then pat yourself on the
back, the company has been fantastic!

Till next time

Tim

PS: photos still wont up load...I guess Egypt is on the African continent!

PPS: pls see http://web.mac.com/summer.wilmshttp://web.mac.com/summer.wilms/Summer/Welcome.html
or
http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=305161216226975162/l=407267447/g=53644697/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
or
http://www.truprint.co.uk/share/p=754101215745136329/l=389313815/g=26556054/cobrandOid=1006/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

for other ppls pics on Africa

Tim's Christmas & New Years best wishes

Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year!

As you may have guessed I have ceased the 3 monthly "where's Tim now?" emails...I am no longer an Internet/email junkie, and have decided that I have better things to do, particularly when on holidays. Facebook seems the way of the future to keep in touch so if your wanting to know what I am up to you know where to go.

My last email left with me working in "Good Health" Wanganui (hospital), I enjoyed the 2.5 month stint there by myself and got to know the town and people there better. 'Jenny mums' cooking, playing with safa's, running with the Harriers, even working at the hospital was all great but I was ready for more holidaying.

I spent a week with Anneliese (sister) in the South Island doing the "adventure stuff" like Gliding (like in the movie "Thomas Cown Affair") and then skydiving...this will be the highlight of 2007, I still get a rush thinking about it now!

Then there was 3 weeks with the folks seeing the whole south Island, pity about the constant rain but they enjoyed the chauffeuring in Shazza and the difficult decision on which beer we would be drinking that night. Apart from the local cuisine M&D enjoyed living in youth hostels and the novelty of green grass and even the rain.

Reebs (Rebekah), my school captain timed her own family trip to finish as my folks flew home, hence a perfect excuse to go bushwalking and see the north of the South Island yet again. Thanks for breaking in my parka Reebs...believe it or not it took until October (8 months in NZ) to use my parka in a decent rain/snow/sleet (4 days straight) apart from the occasional shower and skiing trip.

After running out of holiday companions I headed for the deep south to do some serious bushwalking. A few days of walking around the Wanaka and Routeburn regions were done in perfect clear sky sunny NZ weather. I slept under a rock bivi/overhang and showered (occasionally) under waterfalls...idyllic except that the outside temperature was more suited to hot chocolates and open fires not icey showers.

I tested my community pharmacy skills in Te Anau (gateway to Milford Sound) and learnt the ins and outs of dealing with Americans and other more serious tourists (by the bus load) and selling sandfly repellents. Good fun but I only stayed 5 days for a reason...I had to go tramping! The Dusky track was some of the best walking I have ever done. "Track" is a vague description of mudpools, slippery slimy tree trunks, snow covered slopes and a few orange triangles indicating that I had to actually go through/over/climb/slide towards it. Want to challenge yourself then go do the Dusky, but don't forget to take your camera, EPIRB (satellite rescue thingy) and enjoy the fact that you wont see anybody for days. I then went and did Stewart Island...it has the notorious reputation as the muddiest walking track in NZ (maybe world). After doing the Dusky though it was simply a track that I had to tick off my list, the beaches were amazing, mud was never ending fun and I saw a Kiwi whilst walking, but I love walking in the mountains and the NZ beech forests over a coastal walk. Solo bushwalking for 20 days was a great way to explore your capabilities physically and mentally, gives you heaps of time to think and is fantastic for the "soul" lugging 30kg pack 1km vertical uphill only go down the other side.

I am current based in Alice Springs....yep from NZ to central Australia. I am working as a community pharmacist in a shopping centre...6 days a week and loving it! Crazy, but then having worked as little as I have in the last year going to work is an enjoyable experience and the air-con is much better than the 40 degree temp outside. As usual I am running but this requires early early starts in Alice or it hits mid 30s before you get home at 7am. The only downer of being in Alice has been catching up on 10months of Australian Ns Vs Ds and Cough & colds in a single weekend...what fun that was!

Where to next? Yep Alice Springs is not only a random, enjoyable change but it allows me to make some cash fast to do something else...UK is the most likely destination, maybe a Christmas off shore or in snow next year...anyway I'd better get Christmas '07 and New Year in Victoria over before I plan next years.

Thanks for the fun to everybody I have traveled, tramped, ate, drunk and slept (in Shazza of course) with this year. Here's to wishing that the New Year brings everybody as much or more fun as I have had this year. Best wishes and please keep in contact...I might need to stay on your floor some day!

Hooroo

Tim

2007 favorites:
Favourite food...toss up between Dates and Peanut butter sandwiches
Weirdest thing eaten... Sea urchin (Kina) If you like oysters then don't ever pass the opportunity to try this.
Favourite beer..."Renaissance Porter" unfortunately not avaliable in Aussie yet.
Favourite transport...Shazza, sad day leaving her at the sale yards in Christchurch, she was a travelling companion, bed & breakfast, bus to many and bloody good buy for the year. We did over 50,000km with each other and you are now someone-elses problem...lol.
Favorite place visited....impossible to answer, but sitting on a mountain somewhere in NZ will no doubt rank bloody close
Most valuable equipment/clothing...poor old hiking boots, these unfortuately were worn out within the year...left still wet at Christchurch airport...saved my ankles many times and the Gortex helped...to keep my feet warm if not dry!
Favorite soak...washing was done less frequent this year but it is closely tied b/n the thermal pools North Island and the ball retracting glacial streams/waterfalls of Fiordland NZ.

New Zealand - Where's Tum Now?

Some of you had started to question me as to whether I had left every ones email inbox in peace since it has been such a long time between emails.

The 2 month whirlwind tour of NZ came to an end a fortnight ago and I am now adjusting to life without a shadow. Brad flew back to Aussie and left me to face the Kiwi's on my own. I promptly left the car at the airport and scored my old job back within the hour he left, as realised I needed something to do apart from having a shower, a monstrous load of washing and should start paying off the credit card.

What did we see? What did we do? Where did we go?...Not really sure but the 5gig of photos might jog some memories.
I guess I start by breaking the trip in two and going over the highlights and noteworthy memories.

North of the North Island (~3 weeks)
Highlights: Trout Fishing (by fly casting), First of many suspension bridges, Reverse Waterfall (the wind was so strong that no water ever made it to the bottom...most was blown back over the top), Hobbiton (location for the township in movie, danced on the party field, crawled around in their houses), Auckland - Home of the JAFA (Just Another F'n Aucklander) Skytower / The "I once did have" One Tree Hill, Lion Red Brewery, Climbing up a Volcanic plug with great views and drops straight down to sea, Jet Boating (2x850 Hp Engines, so, so fast and got plenty of airtime off swells), Kauri Trees (old trees that have a base diameter of >10 metres, Cape Regina (northernmost point of NZ and the meeting point of Tasman/Pacific Oceans where the swells break on each other), Coromandel Peninsula (the views, JAFA backdoor-step so huge x80 bed hiking hut and a hot water beach where you soaked at low tide while burning your bum on the sand), Lake Why-carry-marijuana (Maori name comes out something like this involved walking over soaring bluffs next to pristine freshwater lakes), Cape Palliser Lighthouse and caught ourselves fresh Paua (Abalone) to go with our mushroom risotto.



South Island..."Mainland" New Zealand (~5 weeks)
Highlights: Wine Tasting in Marlborough, the Queen-Charlotte Sounds on hired mountain bikes (we were glad they weren't our bikes and that we didn't get hurt going down massive hills over large rocks...very very fast/or in dark), Abel Tasman via sea-kayaks (this area has golden beaches) and the "little" tidal estuary that turned out to be waist -> neck -> swimming depth (whilst carrying a pack), Nelson Lakes (EXTREME HIGHLIGHT OF SOUTH ISLAND) straight after first snow of the year and 5 days of sunshine immediately after it to walk the national park...you''ll understand why this was the highlight when you see the photos, the Heaphy Track is classified as one of the a great walks in NZ (we'll remember it as the "massive walk" - 64kms in 1 day), the West Coast and the Southland is Glacier country and hence has the magical water colour (cloudy blue), Glaciers (ignoring warning signs to see them up close), Lake Matheson (renowned reflection lake...work well as everything was in cloud/rain), Haast Pass and driving in 10cm fresh snow whilst it was snowing, Wanaka & Queenstown (sking and jetboating), Milford Sound...anytime they plug NZ tourism they use photos of this area...a MAGIC drive into there let alone the Sound itself, Invercargill & Bluff (southern most point of NZ), the Catlins (after 25+mm rain it was simply too muddy for crocs/boots, went barefoot like the hobbits and waterfalls were pumping), Dunedin (combined brewery/cadbury's tours, beautiful town/city of old buildings), Donating blood and then tried to go bushwalking uphill without passing out, Cave Stream (wickedly cold creek that entails a waist deep 500m walk through cave...apparently the water does warm up in summer (maybe we should have came back) and I can sing like Justin Timberlake...so cold!), Hanmer Thermal Springs (sat in thermal pools with snow falling around us), crisp cold days around Christchurch (-2 C at mid afternoon), Mount Hutt Sking (-9 C), Arranging job in 1.5hrs and flying across the country back to NZ mums cooking/carrot cake (maybe they were taken by the insults thrown at me from a disgruntled Maori psych out-patient..."Big Cock...you are a Big Cock...You have a Big Cock"...non-stop laughs now but at the time wasn't sure if the cage would stop her (>100kgs) from chasing me around the pharmacy and finding out!).

Best places to freedom camp/"sleep in car" keep an eye out for dirt tracks off the main road, lookouts, lighthouses, monuments, schools, cemetery's and DOC campsites if all the above fail. Freedom camping is illegal/not allowed apparently...if you get caught I guess!



The South Island in particular takes FOOD and BEER to a full time holiday! Each town prides it self on some other noteworthy delicacy/liquid. Beer...so many varieties of black beers, the Kiwi's sell 2 litre plastic soft drink bottles as Riggers or you "fill your own" from the tap at the Brewery ~$7 for 2 L of beer!, Brewery tours with all important tastings (normally 15min to drink your fill), Cheese...blue...mmmm, Salami, Pies (a Shazza specialty, wrapped in foil and cooked on the engine block), Fudge (Maple and Walnut was best, the best name = Aucklander Fudge (orange/choc)), Cask wine as bottles are to heavy to carry, sadly most "chateau de cardboard" tasted like cordial...a great mixer with duty free Rum to warm you up, Possum Pies (avoid the ones with 1080 apparently), All-you-can-eat (learnt that I can still eat enough to feel ill still), Camping stove delicacies...gourmet is possible!, Peanut Butter sandwiches, Tuna Pasta, BRUSSEL SPROUTS...dirt cheap and were the basis for every meal over the last 2 months...mmmm.

Kiwi Tales: Morgue-leys or Morgitions (tried as often as possible to convince people that we worked in the hospital morgue, two blokes travelling together...they must be Gay, Twins/Brothers (poor Brad if he looks anything like me but most people seemed to think otherwise), Crazy tourists (dangerous driving, scared of getting car jacked), Hippy/Gypsy buses, Donations as entry fee...every ones out to make a buck off the tourist.

Limited washes or simply our faces at public toilets (record 14 days), sleeping bag stench, washing in Minus conditions or near frozen water

Shazza (Nissan Terrano): Rattles, bumps, 4wd gear shift falling through floor, ice on inside of window/snow outside when sleeping in her, didn't need chains...bring your own grader (driving behind grader for 20km), South Island roads are straighter...they build through the hills rather than around them see the tunnels at Milford, Christchurch, East Coast H'wy, No fridge but nothing ever went off (Milk, Pork/Chicken) and even froze over on most nights, Beer was easy to keep cold, Red Wine had to be held near your body to warm up enough to drink at room temperature!

So where am I now and headed?

New Zealand (obviously), would you believe Wanganui yet again...so much for locuming around the South Island...cant knock back a good deal or familiar company though.

Looking forward to holidaying again when family come across (October-ish) and testing out the metal work of mums hip!

Hooroo for now,

Tum

PS: I finally have started using Facebook, might get around to uploading photos

PPS: After the results of this weekends tri-nations game and the netball things will be fun tomorrow at work, particularly if I wear my Wallabies jumper.

Wanganui New Zealand (Part 2)

Wanganui New Zealand (Part 2)

Another update on what I've been up to in NZ.

MT. TARANAKI this is shown in the photo attached and as you can see is one impressive Mountain/Old Volcano. We took everyone's advice and left at approx 2am to make sure we got to the top by sunset and found ourselves at the top by 4:30am. It was good conditioning for the south island as it was bloody cold sitting waiting huddled behind rocks. The view was awesome looking over other mountains in the distance but most spectacular of all was the shadow of the mountain as it was a perfectly shaped pyramid. We found several other walks in the national park to amuse us for another day along with a brewery lighthouse and surf beach where the waves broke over rocks submerged (only if the wave was big enough…did get cut up to bad).

A must do tourist activity in NZ is caving. We went to cave central in the WAITOMO district and completed the Haggis Honking Hole cave tour. This involved abseiling down waterfalls (underground) and squeezing through tight passages of the cave network. Heaps of fun and very memorable but rated a distant second the spot of caving we did weeks prior to it. On that occasion we spotted a cave off the beaten track and self guided ourselves through a cave and even managed to get lost for some time. In Waitomo we also went through the glow worm cavern and the most commercial but well worth it Ruakuri cave that has had millions spent opening the largest cave in the country to allow you to see the cave formations. After our caving experience we saw our first kiwi (endangered so I can't even let you know if they taste like chicken). The weekend was well planned considering the lack of planning as it rained all weekend and we spent most of it underground. The rain also triggered the front page news story for the next week. The mountain we first climbed (Mt. Ruapehu) had a crater lake that has been filling for the last decade or so. The dam at the weakest end was only formed out of volcanic ash. Hence with the rain over that weekend it burst sending million of litres of sulphuric acid and volcanic mud down the mountain in what is known as a LAHAR. With a fluke of fortunate timing managed to be driving along side the river when the Lahar came roaring down. Boulders and entire trees were caught in the torrent, the noise was awesome. I didn't know which way to point the camera or just stop in awe. The next week people marvelled at the pictures in the news papers whilst we had been right there amongst the vulcanologists and TV reporters.

Canoeing the WANGANUI RIVER is classified as one of the Great NZ walks (it gets into all the tramping guide books anyway even if it is actually a paddle). We spent a leisurely 3 days floating, paddling and grinning from ear to ear through many sets of rapids over the 80+km trip. We passed another NZ icon, "the Bridge to Nowhere" which is a magnificent old bridge that the NZ pioneers built in 1935 in attempt to open up a farming community in terrain that most people would look at and never consider growing a crop or grazing sheep. The farming venture failed and now this bridge stands in the middle of a national park of forest…"no-where".

We couldn't help but to visit the premier wine region in NZ to see how the kiwi's wine stacks up against the Australian drop. HAWKES BAY has at least 25-30 wineries so we tried a handful and were probably more impressed with the brewery most of all (18 different glasses of beer and cider to taste for $18 bucks…we went back the next week when passing through just to make sure the initial tasting was correct!). Around the drinking we walked out to a Ganet (seabird) colony on a cliff lined headland and then walked into a hot spring for a fantastic soak.

Over the Easter long weekend we travelled around the EAST CAPE of the North Island. This is about as rural as it gets in NZ and will be remember for the views as well as the change in social demographics/economics. Every second building was a Marae (Maori gathering house) that are covered in wood carvings and always busy. The secluded little beaches just around each headland were quite pretty but most memorable would be MT. HIKURUNGI that is the first part of NZ (therefore the world) to see the start of the new day. Yet another early morning head torch walk put us on top for Easter Sunday sunrise after a climb that is much more strenuous/dangerous than Mt. Warning. We also completed a boat cruise/tour to WHITE ISLAND which is the only active volcanic vent in NZ and saw the sulphur deposits and steam being released.

These past 2 weekends have been spent in Wanganui as we unfortunately made it into the on call roster. We occupied time by going a maze cut into corn ( Corn Evil) with actors in it that do their best to scare you. I let my guard down just before the end and was the talk of the pharmacy over the next week as the re-called me sprinting the opposite way, screaming and stumbling through the corn as an actor suddenly appeared beside me. That night I also ran into a friend from the time I spent in Murwillumbah…still freaky that turned around in a pub in a town of maybe 250ppl and Andrea was standing ready to order. We also experimented with some Maori cooking during the on-call weekends. The lack of large mammals meat that the Maori's diet was largely based around aquatic animals and waterbirds. A delicacy is Mutton Bird…yes the same birds as found in Coffs Harbour on Mutton Bird Island, what it tastes like…I'll let you find out for yourself.

Other notable Kiwi nonsense has been their roads. We came up with a theory that the make them windy to slow people down and reduce accidents…does this work? They don't believe in giving you much notice before changes in the road i.e. a road work sign will be next to the pot hole rather than before it or a speed change will occur on bend rather than before it. If you are going to build a bridge then it seems compulsory to have it on a corner or even better is to make the bridge the corner! Witches Hats (orange cones) can not be more than 2 meters apart and there must be never fewer than 50 or so around a road work area . Best still is to put the witches hats in the centre of the road so trucks blow them over and provide additional obstacles. Road work signs means you drop your speed to 30km/hr even if it is a minor pot hole or unsealed gravel section that we'd drive on in Australia at 80+km/hr. Never ending amusement to pass the kilometres along with my singing, poor Brad!

PHARMACY in New Zealand is much like Australia…has its good points and its bad. It takes an Australian registered pharmacist 4 weeks of "supervised" training and a casual interview to determine that you can actually speak English to become registered. Wages aren't as flash as Australia but then cost of living is slightly less and I am not over here to make my millions. The NZ govt has cracked down on the pharmaceutical industry and has been operating a system similar to that for NSW hospitals where by they put up for tender a particular drug e.g. diclofenac. This mean the companies then bid to supply that drug and whoever can supply it the cheapest gets exclusive rights for that drug in NZ. This means the brand name drug "voltaren" has to be competitive with the generic "APO Diclofenac" to be used anywhere within the country. The govt enforces this by only paying the pharmacies when that brand name of the drug is given. This means that there is only a single brand of a particular drug allowed to be used. The NZ also avoids costly brand name medicines by restricting the use to those in the same therapeutic group that have already gone off patient…no "Coversyl" dispensed since leaving Australia. Sadly this comes with the cost that I no longer get free drug company stuff and lunches…bummer! The other big difference is the pack sizes…most tablets and caps come in massive 500 bottle tablets and the pharmacists-techs have to count out the required number into a pill bottle. Meaning not only do I have to stick my label straight I have to count out the correct number of tablets! The pharmacies have also been hit by the NZ govt cost cutting measures by reducing the number of dispensing payments. They do this by having most medicines on a "stat list". The patient will hence present with a 3 month script for Diltiazem and will be given 90 capsules rather than 30 and 2 repeats ( i.e. 1 dispensing fee V's 3 dispensing fees) this also explains the large pack sizes to some degree.

Good points of the industry are that you can find out through a national number what a patients discount card (concession/pension) number is and immediately if the card has been renewed even if the patient only has the expired one on them. More good points: The industry is full of females. Contraception is much cheaper and easier for people to get, $3 for 144 condoms or $3 for 6 months supply of the oral contraceptive. MSRA is almost non-existent and all staff require testing before they are allowed to work, ongoing swabs are taken during each year of employment. The use of community nurses to give stable patients the remainder of their IV antibiotic course at home rather than wasting time and money in a hospital bed. Massive co-ordinated approach to tackling TB in the Maori communities when an outbreak occurs.

Memorable moments have been:
- Dispensing quinine tablets out of a massive 500tab packet at least 1-2 per day.
- Sticking that bloody grapefruit label on med's for in-patients…have you ever seen grapefruit given out in hospital…or been sold in NZ for that matter.
- Methadone pt. returning with leaked takeaways…methadone is not coloured/flavoured/scented in NZ so it might as well have been water on the paper bag.
- Asking the same methadone patient about the fist tattooed on his forehead…"Black Power" gang insignia apparently…oopps.
- Nurse trying to give an incorrectly charted 10mg of Metoprolol out of a 100mg tablet!

We have 14 working days left in Wanganui and then taking some time to see the remainder of the North Island and get across to the south island. The weather has become somewhat colder in the last 2 weeks, particularly that Antarctic wind. Looking forward to see decent snow and the time off from counting pills.

Take care where ever you are and send me an email some time.

Cheers

Tum

Wanganui New Zealand (Part 1)

Wanganui New Zealand


G'day from across the Tasman.


I talked about it long enough and probably bored you to tears but I
have finally made it across to New Zealand. I arrived in NZ on the 8th
Feb and the fun began immediately. Finding a place to sleep at 12pm;
losing a bag out the back of a trailer in the streets of Wellington;
and then the fun of buying a car in half a day. All worked out and we
(Brad and myself) are the proud parents of a baby blue run-about. We
selected a 4WD Nissan Terrano and due to the fact it sounds like a
small tractor whilst as wide as a bulldozer we christened her …..
SHAZZA. She (Shazza) has turned out to have more balls than we gave
her credit for and apart from the squealing tyres around corners (even
when we are going slow for the mums out there) and some strange auto
transmission noises she hasn't missed a tick. In a fit a of lunchtime
boredom we decided to customise her with some famous Australian terms
the kiwi's have no idea about…Bogans, DILLIGAF, and of course a
stubbie sticker from every beer we try…real cop bait!


Opps, I missed January….this I spent in Coffs Harbour working as a
pharmacist. It was great fun going back as it made the job so much
more interesting when I realised that I couldn't just "slap on a label
and let a pharmacist check it". After doing that myself for a year it
was easy to spot when someone else was doing it. Australia day on the
beach, the BBQs and drinking home-brew will be well remembered while
the other weekends involved 4WDing, bushwalking, waterfalls and good
times.


New Zealanders…what can you say about them other than they currently
are better than us at cricket…you can't possibly imagine the crap we
got after the Aussie's poor form (most kiwi's seemed very surprised
actually and expected a trashing). The kiwi accent is never ending
amusement…as you could guess the cant say their 'i' and 'e' properly
and it comes out 'u' and 'i' respectively. Apart from counting "sex,
and sivin" other favourites are "Tum", "Lun" and "Kivun". Another
quant NZ thing is to always refer to Australia as "Aussie"…'you just
arrived from Aussie' 'was it hot in Aussie?' For the trivia buffs out
there in NZ Bingo is known as "housie".


Wanganui is in the North Island of NZ and pretty central to most
things (compared to the distances in Australia anyway) needless to say
we wont spend much time at 'home'. We have found a substitute mum who
is letting use board with her (across the road from the hospital) for
the 3 months (includes most food…what was she thinking!) for a more
than reasonable price (we turn on the charm and keep her smiling when
at home). Wanganui itself has a major river running through it,
several towers and is on the coast. However it was quite a shock to go
to the beach without being told that they had black sand…I have been
spoilt for being in Coffs I guess.


TRAMPING…we headed bush from our 3rd day in NZ and have seen some sights since.

Mt. Ruapehu= an active volcano which require an easy 20min chairlift
ride followed by a 1km vertical climb over not much more than 1.5km
(very steep). The views were stunning and the Crater Lake up the top
was a sight to see. Coming downhill was much easier and more fun as we
slid on the ice/snow in the gullies (probably more than the entire Mt
Buller dump last year!)

Whakapapa = Pronounced Fuk-a-papa is at the base of Mt Ruapehu and has
walks to several waterfalls (from the melting snow) that were coolish
to swim in. The 'Silica Rapids' were also visited where minerals in
the water have deposited on the rocks of the rapids making the stream
glow white.

Huka Falls = 50-100meters wide and 4m deep crystal clear water gets
condensed into a 15m and 10m deep…MONSTER waterfall and rapids.

Tongariro Crossing = Think of the scenes from Mordor in the 3rd Lord
of the Rings movie as this is the area we hiked through. A really
impressive walk, with lakes, volcanoes, sulphur, steam and really
steep hills to climb. Sadly it was a bushwalking highway and we passed
around 200-300+ people over the day which made for non stop Aussie
humour when talking to and around the other tourists e.g. 'Is the pub
at the top still open', 'G'day, Hows it goin' mate?' and my personal
favourite 'Giddy up skip we'll be late for happy hour'. The centre of
the North Island is pretty much volcanic leftovers. Old craters,
sulphur lakes, vents and impressive mountains and the forests growing
around them. Danger signs have become obstacles and fantastic photo
opportunities whilst we wait for the bubbling and hissing steam to
turn into some real excitement.

Lake Taupo = it looks big on any NZ map but I am sure somewhere back
home a recycle dam has been built bigger. BUT this lake is crystal
clear cold water with really scenic mountains as a backdrop. We found
an 'el-cheapo' way to see the Maori carvings around the lake by hiking
and swimming into them rather than joining a sight seeing tour. It
made the journey much more memorable (and bloody cold) but the only
photographs were those we have stored in our memories.


BEER…NZ has many more black beers which are perfect to Brads and my
taste. So far the beers are somewhat sweeter than those of Australia
(VB in particular) which might have to do with the lack of hot weather
than anything. Amusingly the first beer in NZ was at pub in Wanganui
with tea on the first night. We asked the waitress what NZ beer she
recommended since we hadn't had any; boy were we shocked when Toohey
was the recommendation. Perhaps the comment I made would have been
"Tooheys New is a s**t Australian beer I not drinking that crap over
here"…much to my approval however I was very very wrong and the beer
she was referring to was Tui…named after some little bird living in
kiwi land… (PS it was much better than Tooheys New and yet still gives
you a hangover)


Pharmacy geeks…I'll send an email summarising the oddities of NZ at
some stage in the future. Work is going well although the trip has
become a "holiday working" rather a "working holiday"…was their ever a
chance I would put work ahead of holidaying?


I hope all in Australia is well and the media is giving those
cricketers hell before the world cup. I have got my fingers crossed
for rain and that the uni term has started with fewer hangovers than
previous years (for those still studying).


Let me know what's happening in your life and if you want me to stop
sending you these time-consuming emails.


Tum