September16th, 2007
Hello there folks! Sorry about that long absence. You should come to expect those, though. If you're LUCKY, you may get something on the order of one update a week--although most will be rather small and short, I'd imagine. So, last Saturday, I took the train up from Wellington city to Paraparaumu, or Raumati. I stayed the night there with my Auntie Anne and Uncle Paul, and Cousin Lawrie. Anyways, I have to be brief, so here we go: I cycled up from Raumati on New Zealand's West Coast up to Palmerston North, and stayed with my Aunt and Uncle, and my cousins David and Nikla and Brendon. I stayed there for a couple of days, and then moved on, by way of the Paihatua Track (road). Boy, that was a hill. After taking most of the morning to get up and over that, I made it to a town called Dannevirke, which had a rather unsettling affinity for trolls. I ended up spending the night there, in a "Holiday Park" (a camp ground as they're called here sometimes). When I went up to the office at first to get a camp site, I was rather suprised to hear that I was the first tent-camper they've had all year long (keep in mind that this is in September, 9 MONTHS into a year.). That didn't exactly inspire a great deal of confidence in me... I went to the local supermarket, and found a big loaf of cheesy, baconey bread that they had just dropped the price down to NZ$2 on. I bought it in an instant, and that was very tasty. At the "Holiday Park", they had a complete kitchen, with stove, oven, pots and pans, cutlery, knives, plates, hot and cold running water, a fridge/freezer, and a table! Quite a change. So, I made some couscous for myself (which is actually stupidly easy, and very filling), and tore off half of the loaf of Bacon-and-cheese bread to eat. I slept the night out in my tent, and I woke up a few times from the cold. I just bundled up, and it was fine, though. I found out later that it was down to about 4 Degrees Celcius, and frosted. I made it through the night, though, and packed up in the morning. I then headed off (a little later than usual, at about 10AM) on my loaded bike. Several times on my journey so far, I've been attacked by Magpies. Apparrently, it's nesting time right now, so they're extra-protective. I was just biking along, and I saw another cyclist on the other side of the road. I waved and said "Hello!", and in response, they yelled: "WATCH OUT FOR THE MAGPIE!" and pointed somewhere over my head. Looking around, I saw this scoundrel come swoopoing in on me, divebombing my and only missing by a matter of inches. That happened several times. They're evil birds, and have been known to knock cyclists off their bikes. I've decided that the best defence is to either sit there yelling and cursing aat them, swinging your arms around, or to sprint as fast as you can,looking straight ahead, as your helmet'll protect you. I kept on hearing a bird flap somewhere over head, and cowering in fear until I realised it was just a simple pigeon. 100 Kilometres later and nearing dusk, I had finally made it to Havelock North, a smaller, slightly expensive town, in some ways akin to Highland Village. My Aunt and Uncle live here, and I had arranged to spend a little bit with them. Their house is amazingly full of plants--more than most conservatories or greenhouses, I'd think! The only thing that there may be more of than plants in this house is books. There's an entire room covered, floor to ceiling with all sorts of books, all the way around. And that's just a quarter of them. In every room, there's at least one bookshelf stretching up to to sky, chock full of books--covering every subject from cooking and baking to plants and their care. Quite amazing. They run a lab where they cultivate plants and trees by cuttingt hem up and then sticking them in dishes with some sort of rooting hormone in it, and then repeating the process once again, with the newly grown plant--quite interesting. The first day here, I started a book called: "Yackety Yak: Bombay to Beijing by Bicycle". I also finished it. It was entertaining, but at the same time, not exactly what you might call "quality literature". It followed a pretty typical Australian bloke on his adventures in India and China and Pakistan, and had some funny bits in it. Mostly it was just nice to relax for a day, and sit on something that WASN'T a bike seat. The Rugby World Cup is in full swing over in France, and the All Blacks (New Zealand's national rugby team) are the favourites to win it. Yesterday they demolished Portugal 108 to 13 or something. Which was actually a far lower score than most people thought the All Blacks would score (Portugal is ranked as the worst team in the tournament). That was fun to watch--although because of the time difference, it didn't start until 11:00pm here, so I was up late watching it for fun. By the way, the National New Zealand Basketball team is called the "Tall Blacks"! I laughed out loud when I heard that. If people hadn't heard of the All blacks, they'd probably think it was the most racist and stereotyped name possible for a basketball team. Okay, time for some lunch. That was enough of a rambling entry as I can currently sustain.Hope you're doing well, whoever it is that's reading this.-Ben