Media - makes me laugh

Today I was listening to the radio and what I heard was the most stupid thing I have heard in quite a while. The radio station in between songs would have a quick ad stating that they are the only station that has no advertisements between 8 – 10 pm. But the weird thing is, are they not advertising that they don’t have advertisements. Surely that is an advertisement.

Yes Prime Minister

I flicked on the TV and saw the New Zealand Prime Minster talking live on TV. Not caring to much for her I turned to another channel only to find the New Zealand prime minister also talking live on that channel. How can it be that she is live on two channels? Please tell me that she doesn’t have a twin. It is scary having one of her.

Some Funnies

Deep In a Cave

The team ready to hit the cave

PK deep in the cave system

PK, Tania & Jenny

PK, Buzz, Reece & Muckle

PK exiting the cave

Some of the caves were quite a squeeze

PK & Buzz

Coming out of the cave

What is it called when a stalictite meets a stalicmite? What ever it is called this is the biggest one of it in New Zealand.

Reece & PK outside the cave. Funny thing is that it is around 4pm and it looks like it is night time. You have to walk quite a bit into the bush to get to the entrance and exit of the cave.

Lets Find Me a Possum

Reece & Pk

So apparantly Possums came from Australia. I am not really sure that they did or if it is another story that the New Zealand people have convinced themselves of to dislike Aussie people even more. Anyway Australia don't have a problem with them because Possums have their own predators that sort them out. Unfortunately Possums over here don't have predators so we have to be the predators. They are a pain in the butt. They distroy the trees and eat the fruit off the fruit trees that we have around camp, and they mulitiply like crazy.

So the other Sunday night we set off. Wrapped in warm clothes, we jumped on the back of a motorbike (quads to normal people but NZ folks call them bikes) attached a really powerful light to the battery Muckle driving, Reece on the back left armed with a 22 and myself back right with a shotgun. We drove all around our property shining the light all around us, into the bushes and up into the trees. That is the best way to find them cause they look into the light and you can see their eyes shine. Depending on the range was whether Reece or myself got the shot. If it needed a sight then Reece stepped forward with the 22 otherwise they let me have a go.

In total we got about 12 and you may think that is a lot (or too many) but I was walking around the property the next night and saw another 4 running around. So we did leave a few........ for another night.

Marthas Gold Mine @ Waihi

Martha's Gold Mine @ Waihi - they have finished looking for gold and silver here. They are going to fill it with water and make it into a lake. Guess what..... it will take 12 years to fill.

The mine was making over 1 million dollars a week worth of gold and silver

The Muckles standing beside one of the small truck things they use to bring the gold / silver or crappy rock up in.

Rotorura Pics

Traditional Maori Dance

No this wasn't modeled on my brother

Stinky Mud Pool (steam = hot)

Rotorura Pics cont...

38Degree Hot Pool

Gondola Ride up to the Luge

Sam & Rachael coming up from the Luge

When you get on the Gondola they take a pic and when you come down they charge you $30 to buy the pic. No way.... We just took a pic of the pic. Looks good to me

One of the hot pools in the Maori Village

Tourist not a Terrorist

Accents are a funny thing. With traveling a lot I don’t notice accents that much any more but according to NZ people my accent is pretty strong (ask my family and they will disagree) When I told someone that we were going to Rotorua to be a Tourist for the day they looked really shocked because they thought that I said I was going to be a terrorist.

Anyway. Off we headed to a place called Rotorua for the day. Myself, Rachael, Roy and Sam.

We had 3 things that we wanted to accomplish during our trip away and they were a trip to a Thermal Village, go up the Gondola and do the Luge and finally make a trip to the Polynesian Spa.

Thermal Village www.whakarewarewa.com

This was incredible to visit. It is a little community of Maori people who bring people into their town for tours and show you a little of the history of Maori people. They started off with a traditional dance, sang songs, performed the Haka and then took us on a tour of the natural thermal pools. These pools are almost hard to believe that they are natural. They are pools that are fed straight from the ground at crazy hot temperatures. The first pool they showed us was where they cooked their food. At the top of this pool it was between 85 and 93 degrees and at the bottom of the pool it can get up to 145 degrees. I was rather impressed with this until they took us to the next pool. This pool was smaller than the first yet it had bubbles coming to the surface of it. The top of this pool was 178 degrees (now that is warm). This village was a great trip, it smelt really bad because of the thermal pools. Almost like a nasty egg fart with a hint of gross. We had our traditional Hangi lunch (Hangi is a special way of cooking food under the ground using red hot rocks and steam.)

Gondola & Luge www.skylineskyrides.co.nz/rotorua/ssr_luge

Off to the Gondola we went. Up into the mountain side where we got our luges and shot down the track to the bottom where we got on another gondola and repeated the luge process another 4 times. The luge is kind of like a bobsleigh, without the ice and you don’t have to wear spandex (which I was a little disappointed in)

This was fun and a great way to bang into really slow people on the track. We discovered quite a violent streak in Rachael as she tried many times to push us over the edge.

From here we decided that we wanted to relax so we headed to the Polynesian Spa. Was this nice or what!! ! (No need to answer because it was)

Polynesian Spa www.polynesianspa.co.nz
We decided that we would pay the extra dollars to get the pools that the kids were not allowed in and what a great decision this was. These pools are outdoors and the air temperature was a little chilly so when we jumped in the first natural hot pool it was 38 degrees and very warm. You might not know (or even care) but I love baths so for me this was heaven, apart from the fact that I couldn’t properly lie back and that I was sharing it with 20 others, and i had shorts on… but the heat was nice. The pool got a little crowded so we decided to head to the pools that overlooked the sea. There were 3 different pools you could choose from but we went to the hottest one (of course). The pools were 39 degrees, 41degrees and 42 degrees and I found it fascinating that these were naturally hot pools. The water was sooo warm. The best thing to do was to get into a position that was comfortable and stay there. Do not move, do not breath to heavily as it could move the water around you and that water around you was hot. Occasionally we would jump out and go to the shower that they had. This was fun because it was a cold shower. The not so fun thing was that it was unclear the first time as to where the water jets would come out. You push the button and the shower hits you from all angles. There is no whimping out and only getting an arm wet. It is all or nothing. Then you jump back in the pool and feel your skin sizzle.

We stayed in there for ages but we decided to leave for two reasons, 1 being that we were getting a little light headed from the heat and second a bus load of Koreans arrived and they must have been tricked into thinking that it was cool to wear the tightest black spandex short shorts they could find and most of them decided that our pool was the best. We left.

We jumped back in to the 38 degree pool to finish off with and it was a little disappointing. The first time we jumped in it was very warm, now it wasn’t as warm, so I sat out and let my body cool down and then jumped back in.

It was a great day and I was very tired when I got home (wow I sound like my mum). I think you wouldn’t want to be a terrorist in Rotorura cause being a Tourist was way more fun.

Long Time No Blog

So what have I been up to you are probably wondering? I have been rather busy. Jamie (who i replaced) left a few months ago and I knew I had to take on a lot but I have ended up doing more than realised. I will give you a brief rundown of the past few months

I haven’t been on too many holidays. We are just near the end of winter over here and it is pretty cold and rainy so that limits the amount of times that I can bless this country with my Speedo. But worry not… summer is coming fast.

We had a huge camp at the start of June called HM Rage. This is the celebration of the queen’s birthday and for some reason it is a holiday time in NZ. They get a week off. Crazy stuff. I would say she is more my queen than their queen and I don’t get a holiday when I am home. Anyway… The camp was fun and I didn’t realize that my role was as big as it was for this camp. It turned out that I was the main mc guy running the week. Stress aside it was a great time. We had some amazing bands play and on the final night in front of probably 500 people during our banquet live on stage I tried to phone the queen to sing happy birthday to her. I had her on speaker phone (can I call her ‘her’ – will I get in trouble for that) well I didn’t actually have her on speaker phone. It was the receptionist from Buckingham Palace that answered. When I asked if I could talk to the queen she was very polite and hung up the phone. So I decided to try again... same thing happened. Final time… she didn’t even answer. Good job that I was using Jeremy Bennets Cell phone. So I gave it to my NZ friend who went outside and rang and explained what we were doing, we came back on stage and over speaker phone we all (500 of us) sang happy birthday to the queen. Fun times. (Thinking about it, she probably heard my accent and thought that it was a threat)

Then we have had camps, more camps and more camps again since that. In the middle of July we had our Winter Kids Camp. This is the first camp that I have actually done since Jamie left and I was a little worried at first. But what a fun week it was. A few people have said that it is the best camp that they have ever been at. So I was quite pleased with the job that myself and Rachel (who I work with) had done. It was a carnival theme and the highlight for me was the last night. We changed the gym from being a gym into a circus. WE moved all the bleachers into a circle, put up edging around them, strung streamers and about 350 balloons to the ceiling. The kids earlier in the week had to put together a performance and the winning teams (or the ones that didn’t suck) got to perform during the circus. No one knew who was up next so all teams came prepared to act. We had a VIP section for the best cabin during the week and they had a sweet seating area, with comfy chairs and we had a waitress who served them drinks. We finished off with a huge dance, let the balloons down and then did a conga from the gym back to the dining room.

We have amazing leaders here at the camp and I love getting to know them. Their passion and energy for the work that they do almost scares me.

I don’t have any pics to add at the minute cause they are all on my ipod. And funny enough my ipod has frozen and it won’t let me get any of my files off it and it wants me to reformat it. It just adds to my frustration and makes me hate Apple even more. They really are the devil.

I shall go for now. I will definitely try and update it more frequently. I kept wanting to but the longer I leave it the more I have to write. Later Peeps….

U2 - Auckland

I was saddened by the news that the U2 concert that I have ticket for was postponed due to illness of one of the family members of the band. Although I was sad, I am not angry because for me this makes me like U2 even more. It shows that family comes first. We can look at a band like that and all we see is their success and we think that that is their priority. It is good to see that the band has not let the music, limelight and success overtake what should be number one priority– family.

Looks like I will have to think of something else to do for St Patricks night. Shouldn't be too hard..

I think i will go fishing again for the weekend. Check back for more pics

Robbing a Bank at Church

The blogs have been a little dry as of late because I haven't really done anything out of the ordinary that you would be interested in hearing about. I am getting excited though for St. Patrick's Day because I get to see U2 again. After the concert we are going to head to a friends house and do some more fishing. Hopefully the luck of the Irish will continue on the fishing trip.

I have been attending a church out here called Soul Vineyard. It is a small church with maybe only 20 regulars. It is a very new church and it has been held in someone's house but now we have a new meeting place. We are meeting in a restaurant. It is such a cool venue. They don't close down the restaurant which is slightly weird yet cool. Last week was the first of it and there was a dinner party of 8 in while we had church. They chatted and they kept the background music going the whole time. We just did our thing, sang our songs and chilled out.

There are a few things I really like about the new venue. The best being that I was able to order a cup of tea during the service last week. The restaurant does a special menu for the church and after it everyone hangs around for ages drinking coffee, hot chocolates or whatever. The restaurant used to be an old bank. WE were having a little nosey last week and got inside the safe. Boy that was a heavy door. I think it put me off ever considering robbing a bank. I think that if I was going to rob a bank I would have to plan it so the safe was already open. So it would be during work hours. But then that causes more problems because then you have to take people as hostages Ind i don't knowIif i like the thought of having stockings over my face. I don't believe I just went from Church to robbing a bank.

More U2 Pics

What a stage

Epileptic Seizure City

What a stage setup!

I spy with my little eye something beginning with PK

Bono walking into the crowd!

Praying Mantis

This is my new little friend. It is a Praying Mantis. It is called a Praying Mantis because of the way its front lets are positioned and it makes it look like it is praying. People thought that it would be funny to put it on my face. I thought that it would be great for a photo opportunity. I think it is a cool photo.

Luck of the Irish

Once again I was back up to Coromandel for another weekend of fishing. Someone asked me the other day if I get bored doing it. And the answer to that is NO. I love it. It is so relaxing. We eat tones, sleep, chat and catch loads of fish.

Both days I was reasonably lucky when it came to fishing. In fact I got the biggest fish both days that we were out.

The first day (Saturday) fishing was going reasonably slow. We had tried a new way of doing it after getting some advice from the guy who runs the shop near us. You are only allowed to keep a certain size of Snapper (which is what you usually catch) and the days end was approaching rapidly and I had yet to put something of value into the keep bucket. Then the luck comes in. The line jerks and bang I got him. I reeled him in and the boys were standing ready with a net. In comes the big one for the day. The Trevally. Nice one.

Sunday was pretty much a repeat of Saturday with the exception that we changed location and went to the edge of a beautiful island. Same again with the catching crap fish. They were even so crap that I went and sat at the front of the boat and fished as I didn’t want to take up the room for the proper fishermen. After a while I came back and started casting out further. A couple of times I got my line snagged on the bottom and it took a while to get it off. The third time that this happened I thought that it was the same old deal but I was surprised as to how quickly I got it off. I started to wind in the line to make sure I had bait on it and just before it reached the surface I noticed I had a beauty. Net out and in the boat she came. We didn’t know what it was so I took it to the shop back at the site and he said that it was a Silver Drummer. Very rare and hard to catch and reel in. There you go. That was the story of the fishing weekend.

18, 19th Feb Pics

This fish is called a Silver Drummer. Apparantly they are very rare to catch and they put up a fight. To be honest i didn't even realise that i had hooked him until i could see him in the water. I mean i fought for at least 25 mins to reel him up.

Trevally

this one was fun to catch. He put up a little fight but not enough win.

Trevally

Toughing moment before we wrenched his guts out

Caught me a Beauty ! !

What fun we had catching and eating him

The two biggest fish of the day. What a beauty!!

Caught me a Beauty ! !

From the majority of my pics it does look like all i have been doing is fishing. This isn't the case. But i thought that i would put up some more pics from my last fishing trip.

Jeremey and I headed back up the coast for some amazing fishing. Throughout the day we probably caught over 30 fish but most of them were really small and had to be thrown back. In the distance we could see gannets flying round in circles. That is a good sign because it means that it is dinner time and that is where you want to be to catch fish. We zip over in the boat and i witnessed one of the most incredible sights i have seen. There must have been 0ver 500 of these birds flying around. What they do is they dive bomb from about 20 - 30 feet into the water when they see fish. I wanted to get the camera out but i had Jeremy shouting at me to get my line in the water for some fish, and i was in awe at the number of birds hitting the water all around the boat.

While we were there even there were so many dophins swimming around us. I do have some videos of it if anyone would like to see it. We saw two whales swimming around us. I was excited and wanted Jeremy to take the boat closer to see them. He is the smart one and kindly reminded me of the dangers of being near whales in the water. He was in charge so we didn't go.

I put my line in the water again pretty soon i started to feel a bite (no it wasn't Jeremy) I waited patiently for him to bite again and he did. Snap the rod went back and i started to reel in my fish. (Tangent) I have fished the odd time but i wouldn't call myself a fisherman at any rate. I have never caught a big fish of any value or one that gave me a fight. This one did, but guess who won. Please enjoy the pics below. I enjoyed eating him.

Jeremey also caught a big one, but i won. Sorry Jeremy must be luck of the Irish.

Crash Bang

Last night i headed to the local Speedway track for some Stock Car Racing. This was a lot of fun. I have watched some of these races on tv before but never appreciated until last night as to how fast they go. I thought that the stupid looking wings on top of the car were just for advertising. Oh wasn't i wrong. If they don't have these wings the cars literally take off. There were so many different type of races and it finished off with a 70 car demolition derby.

I have only ever been to one demolition derby before and that was in ass freezing weather in Canada. The cars they drive have to be super modified. NOT HERE, these were just regular cars that people didn't mind beating the crap out of. I think all you had to have to race was a car with no window in it and a helmet to wear. Crazy.

i don't have any of my own pics as of yet. i will get them soon. these are some pics off the website