Bhav and I went on another fishing trip (I don’t actually eat fish), this being our third sea fishing adventure. We were in the capable hands of Allan Anderson owner of Karitane Charters and had a mostly great time, although we both felt ill on the way back when Allan’s gutting and cutting up the fish.
This time we were catching groper, probably the largest fish we’ve seen and about 15kg in weight. We were only able to catch one or two each so as to not over fish them but considering we’ve still got fish in the deep freeze from the last trip and that we gave over half of our catch to friends we’re still doing well for a supply of food!
Queenstown is the adventure capital of the world and one of the premier tourist destinations in New Zealand. Over the Easter Weekend we, together with a school friend of Bhav’s, drove from Dunedin and had a great time there.
The drive in itself was fun. We took the scenic route that locals apparently take stopping off to visit a cheese factory, drive through vineyards (and stop off for a free wine tasting) before watching people jump off an old bridge at the site where the “sport” of bungy jumping was invented.
We spent a day and a night in Queenstown, enjoying the spectacular scenery. Easter Weekend as might be expected is a busy time and the streets were packed with people. The queue at the cable car up one of the hills seemed long but moved quickly and we were soon at the top enjoying the views. We could have been up and down in the time it would have taken Bhav to climb up if she had stuck to her plan.
On the drive back towards Dunedin we took a detour to Arrowtown, a historic ex-gold mining town and then to another beautiful setting in Wanaka (which just so happened to be hosting the 4th largest Air Show in the world). After enjoying the view, which was occasionally punctuated with low flying aircraft, we set off on the long ride home.
Before I arrived back in the UK I had the pleasure of going to the Dunedin Scottish Festival, a week long series of events celebrating Scottish culture and local peoples’ roots. New Zealand is good like that. When the French were in town for the rugby they still made an effort to welcome their guests and make them feel at home, even with them being their competitors at the national game. One of the first things people will say about Dunedin when describing it to visitors is about it’s Scottish heritage and I’ve met a lot of people that talk fondly of some relative that came over.
Dunedin, Gaelic for Edinburgh has the rough road layout and all the familiar street names of its name sake, it has its own bagpiper that can often be found outside the Scottish Shop on George Street, Irn Bru, haggis and a variety of Scottish things can even be bought in the local supermarket, the tourists often taking pictures of the statue of Robert Burns in the centre of town. It all makes me feel very welcome and proud of my culture.
Bhav, my partner had enjoyed a ceilidh last year held during the festival and while we missed that this year we at least attended the opening ceremony, highland games and the St Andrews Day lunch.
Being on the opposite side of the world never felt more like home.
Me with the Mayor, Peter Chin at the Dunedin Highland Games
Recently I’ve been starting up a business with a group of guys here in Dunedin who already own a clothing company and want to diversify their business. We’ve been working together on the new venture for a while, entering competitions, writing business plans, the usual things and with the launch of our website threadjungle.com, I thought it was high time I mentioned it on my blog.
So what is threadjungle? It’s an ecommerce platform where users can set up their own store to sell customised items without having to worry about inventory, order fulfilment, customer service, paying for an ecommerce website, etc; we’ll take care of all of that for them. Oh, and the best bit is to open up and run a store is free and always will be.
We’re (or should I say I’m) still in the process of writing the code but we already recruiting testers to open stores, our first being RetroKiwi. So unlike Twitter, we should actually have some money coming in!
I don’t know why almost everyone outside of Auckland hates the city so much, I guess it’s the townie/country rivalry, but I really liked Auckland. It probably helped that the weather was so nice and consistently sunny. We were very lucky to be able to use Bhavs Mums apartment in the city centre and have her take us around and out for meals. It was great to finally meet all of Bhavs Auckland based family and friends too.
The first morning we went out to Mission Bay for brunch, a beautiful drive to a really nice part of town. I also visited the Sky Tower (you can’t visit Auckland and not see the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, apparently), the War Memorial Museum, Devonport, Mount Victoria, New Market, my first kiwi bbq and One Tree Hill.
From Auckland it was on to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia via Brunei.
When I met Bhav all those years ago (OK, it was only 2007) she was studying for her Masters in Entrepreneurship. After missing a few graduation deadlines for previous ceremonies Bhav finally graduated on Saturday with distinction and I’m so proud of her. I felt really lucky to be there to see her graduate and it brought back memories of my own graduation last year. I know she’d probably rather I stopped going on about it but I think she’s amazing.
Bhav and me in front of the Clock Tower, University of Otago, Dunedin
I must be a very lucky man to have my girlfriend not only put up with me but find out exactly what I’d always like to try and then book it for my birthday present. So on Friday morning, without any idea where we were going or what we were to do when we arrived, we drove along the water up to a beautiful place near Port Chalmers. Arriving at Hare Hill it was obvious why we were there, the horses gave that away. Oliver, the owner, is a really lucky man to live where he does and be able to go riding on the beach like we did. Definitely as good as I thought, even with the saddle sores and cold weather.
Saturday (25th April) was Anzac day, the main remembrance day for Australia and New Zealand. Whilst they still remember the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and of civilians on the 11th November in common with the UK, Anzac day has a special meaning. On that day in 1915 Australian and New Zealand troops formed the majority of the Allied offensive to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula in modern day Turkey. The operation, planed by one Winston Churchill resulted in an 8 month stale mate with appalling losses. Over 8,000 Australian and 2,700 New Zealand soldiers died. News of the landing at Gallipoli made a profound impact on Australians and New Zealanders at home and 25 April quickly became the day on which they remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in war.
Bhav and I joined the remembrance event in Dunedin. After a parade (which we missed) an estimated 9000 people gathered at the memorial in Queens Gardens at 6:30 am for a dawn service.
When I think about New Zealand I don’t think about cities, I think about spectacular mountains and wide open countryside. Last weekend we visited Te Anau and Milford Sound (both in the Fiordland National Park) and there was certainly no shortage of vistas. Milford Sound is the classic postcard image of New Zealand with its dramatic fjords, but due to the weather everything was covered in mist (it is in a rainforest after all). We had driven all the way from Te Anau intending to do one of the cruises but it wouldn’t have been worth it. The drive in itself was still worth it.
Yesterday Bhav, Pierre-Em and Idrove to Christchurch and back (722km/449 miles or Perth to London!) so that they could go to a couple of meetings. Not being involved in their business, I used the opportunity to see more of the countryside and visit Christchurch. It was a long day with us leaving at 6 and getting back around 8 but was well worth it.
While they were off doing important things I saw the sights of Christchurch including; the Cathedral, the trams, botanical gardens, river Avon, old university college and museum. If Dunedin is Scotland, Christchurch is England. It’s difficult to say why but you can’t help but feel it. It seems that a lot of people hate Christchurch but I quite like it. Unfortunetely it does seem to be where a lot of IT happens, so it might have been better to move there but I’m happy in Dunedin.
We might have only had a short visit but I can now tick Christchurch off my list of places to see.
