The resurrection

So this time of year seems a suitable point at which to start blogging again. Although to be honest it's less about Easter and more because in less than a week I'll be winging my way across the globe again to touch down in London town!

I guess you could say it's OE part II but this time the intent is to give living in the UK a proper go. As such, I shall endeavour to see and do things that are blog worthy, something I'm not sure I've done over the last year I've been back home. In hindsight, I realise there might have been some readers out there who would have found posts about NZ quite interesting so apologies for not being a more faithful blogger during this period.

I promise I won't be so slack in coming months (years?) but in the meantime I've got some pics from my time in NZ. Slim pickings though, as being so slack I'd fallen out of the 'take my camera everywhere' frame of mind and dont have any photos from the 5+ weddings I attended! Shocking eh? ;-)

New baby, JJ

Miss Lucy, not so new, but just as cute :)

Wine weekend in Napier with Bree. Yum!

David Beckham in the flesh *Sigh*

The warriors in the office, like you do ;) Funnily enough, almost 3 years to the day from the last time I'd seen them. Yes it was in the office last time too.

Louis Vuitton Pacific Series


Sailors from Team New Zealand. Well I hope they were from TNZ, otherwise some skullduggery is afoot!

Wicked Winter Weekend Day 2 - Whitianga

So... the reason I couldn't stay at the mountain longer was because I had a ticket to the Scallop Festival in the Coromandel on Sat 30 Aug! Yum seafood and tasty wine. It's a tough life but someone's got to do it eh? An awesome day and wonderful weekend overall. There aren't many places where you can go from snow to sea in a couple of hours. I'm glad to call NZ home! :D

The cutest and perhaps smallest library I've ever seen.

Macadamia scallops

Happy Alison. Notice how all the glasses are empty!

Bronze, me & Ali! :)

The gang. L-R Sarita, Simon, Bron, Suzette, Matt, Shar, me & Al

Some misty, mystical bay :)

This was such a stereotypical shot of NZ I couldn't resist. And a view many kiwis are prob used to: the queue at Kopu Bridge!

Wicked Winter Weekend Day 1 - Whakapapa

Much of what I was looking forward to about being home was being surrounded by friends. So when I was presented with the option of doing a day mission to Mt Ruapehu for some snowboarding on what was being touted as perhaps the best day of the season I couldn't really turn down the option.

PS for those that don't know what I mean by day mission it means leaving Auckland on Friday in the morning and coming back home after the lifts close. A bit 'hardcore' considering the drive is 4-5hrs one way!

The approach to Mt Ruapehu. Not a cloud in the sky!

And the biggest snow base they've had for ages! Whakapapa is on 3.5m and Turoa is on 4.5m!

Lunch with the posse. Pretty good turnout considering it was a Friday!

Sigh. I love NZ!

Dusk over Lake Taupo on the drive home.

The day was pretty fabulous, but you'll have to read my next post to find out why I didn't spend longer than a day on the mountain...

A town fit for a Queen!

and no, I'm not referring to myself when I say that...

When European settlers came upon an area with a gorgeous lake and beautiful snow capped mountains, they proclaimed it a town fit for a queen, which is apparently how Queenstown in the South Island of NZ got its name. It's now the adventure capital of the NZ and the place to go for a fun-filled adventure, which is exactly what I did!

A scenic lookout on the Crown Range road (way to get to Cardrona, a ski field)

Me at Cardrona :)

Perhaps the most quaint pub in NZ and an obligatory stop after a day on the slopes!

The perils of leaving your water bottle in the car overnight in chilly QT.

The view from the deck of the house we hired.

The gang! (And see, I was being honest about the house - check the background is the same as the pic above :)

Lake Wakatipu
The lake is 400m deep (its floor is 100m below sea level) and there's a cool Maori legend which explains why the water level rises and falls 12cm every 5minutes!

And last but not least, Kawarau Bridge, the site of the first commercial bungy jump (and where I did my first jump a couple of years back :)

a REALLY long time between posts...

Since I started my blog way back in March 2006, I've made at least one post every month, but not in July 2008. Which is a bit lame for those of you who have been following my blog (sorry all, especially you bexy!) but I guess it's because I've been settling back into life in NZ and I haven't been taking many photos - it is a bit strange to be snapping pictures when you're a local...

But that didn't stop me the other day... We've had some serious storm action in New Zealand recently so I couldn't resist taking this picture of a gloriously sunny morning from the bus on the way into work yesterday (yes I did get strange looks).

Auckland city from the Northern Busway

Oh almost forgot to say - watch this space! I'm off to Queenstown, one of the most beautiful places in the world tomorrow so I should hopefully return with some good pics!

The All Blacks vs England, Eden Park

We had a couple of drinks and did some facepainting before heading out to Eden Park... We were lucky we got there at all considering our bus driver had NO idea where she was going! But some Wendy's, fine weather and a All Black team out to prove their worth resulted in a great night overall!

a long time between posts...

Sorry about that... I've been a little distracted with being back in Godzone! To you non-kiwis out there, Godzone is an abbreviation for God's Own Country - a term New Zealanders use to describe NZ.

I've been back in the country for just over 2 weeks - I had a week of recuperating from jetlag and being fussed over by my lovely parents, which I perhaps milked a little more than I needed to ;-) but then started work the following week.

I'm slowly settling back into the routine I had before I embarked on my OE - I'm back in pretty much the same job and in fact sit a mere 4 seats along from where I used to sit (now instead of views of the Auckland Harbour Bridge, I have view of Mt Victoria & Rangitoto Island).

Life outside of work is great too, as much as I love meeting new people there's something very right about being with people you've known for years and years...

I confess I was a little worried about coming home to NZ after being in a city the size of London but I'm not having too many difficulties adjusting. The weather has been near phenomenal so far (altho I'm sure that won't last) and I'm finding true pleasure in the simple things like gatecrashing an old friend's family dinner (and being welcomed with open arms, cheers Rach!), planning trips around NZ and buying tickets for the AB's game 2moro!

The walk to work my first morning...

...and the sunny walk back from lunch. My phone camera did it no justice, but the water is amazingly blue! (Just one of the reason's it's called Godzone eh?)