Played RPG over Skype this morning for the first time. GREAT!! I must admit to missing the RPG sessions, but having found an online dice roller, courtesy Wizards of the Coast, it proved fairly easy to join in. You miss out on the facial expressions sometimes, but you can’t have everything.

Still on the search for a watch, Louise had had a brainstorm and checked out Warehouse online where they proved to have a number of possibilities for a new watch. We decided to head for Palmerston North, both to look at motorbikes and to check out the Warehouse there which seemed bigger than Coastlands.

We’d phoned up the Suzuki dealer in Palmerston North before we left, they actually had two VSTROM DL1000s and four VSTROM DL650s!! Except………….the manager had taken three of the 650s out on a jolly with some of the staff – not back for a couple of days, and the only DL650 left was a brand new one. One of the DL1000s was also a new one.

I thought we’d fill up with petrol at PaknSave before we left, and everything went fine this time …….. nearly. I sort have had a senior moment and we were halfway to Palmerston North (about 45 mins away) when I realised that not only had I forgotten to close the petrol flap, but had also forgotten the petrol cap!! We carried on anyway, but I just knew I wasn’t going to live that one down for a while. I was right – “senior” jokes all day!

Excellent fun, not only did we test ride the secondhand DL1000 but also a Bandit (just for the experience obviously! The Bandit was FUN, but no matter how much fun it was on the main roads, it would be of limited use on some of the gravel roads we’ve travelled across in the past! The DL1000 was a heap of s**t! There were 1500kms on the clock, so must have been around the clock at least once, the engine was ropy, noisy and smelly and there seemed to be an inordinate number of rattles all over the place. We decided not to get this one!!

The Warehouse here was indeed HUGE!! We easily found a watch, and Louise put the bad memories of yesterday aside and spent a happy few hours looking around what seemed to be EVERYTHING! Ended up buying the odd bit of stuff over and above the watch – but to be fair, she got some excellent clothes bargains!

Checked the garage on the way back, but no luck. Looks like I’ll have to drop in to get a new one from Repco or something…………………

Unfortunately we had to have steak and salad again for tea when we got back.

Louise’s watch finally gave up the ghost last night, so we thought we MUST be able to find one in Wellington.

Before we parked up, we picked up a couple more $5 parking coupon vouchers. If you park in the middle of the city (not coupon parking), then it costs $4 per hour and most road parking places have a limit of 2 hours.

We called in to a sub-level shopping centre at 1 Willis St for a coffee and poached eggs on toast. It was going well, the coffee had arrived and was lovely, until the staff came out to say there was no brown bread left, tsk tsk LOL! We told them that white was fine and the breakfast turned up a couple of minutes later and was pretty good.

We picked up a cordless phone at JB Electronics for just $25 – might make life a little easier when chatting to people out on the deck. We also found a wargames shop in the arcade, not a bad stock range really and not too much of a price difference! Some really excellent scenery for RPG and wargames in general.

As we were “passing”, we had to go back to Kirkcaldy & Staines to check out the Christmas decorations – just in case new stock had come in or something, yeah right! Louise actually admitted to being fed up of shopping and window shopping! Hours later, feet aching, shopped out and no cheap watch anywhere!

On the way home we went for a quick shop at Pak n Save to pick up some more cheap rump steak – looks like steak and salad for the next few days!

Chatted to John and Margaret about 10pm – they told us how much snow they had in the UK. Even Torquay – must be bad!!

Late start for me this morning………..none too surprisingly! I got to bed about 6am after working through the night!! It certainly wasn’t dark anymore! Perhaps I should look at my timesheet and find out…………. thinking about it, I couldn’t reboot the server until after 5pm UK time, so it must have been somewhere between 6 and 7am here………..

Found some jobs on the New Zealand Defence Force website that look promising. However the cover letters look like they’ll be a right royal pain LOL!

We had a quiet afternoon, sorting out job applications, break for reading with NO alcohol this time!

We thought we’d go to the pictures tonight to watch either “Lovely Bones” or “Sherlock”, it being the Orange Wednesday that’s not – if you see what I mean. Rather than cook tea, we thought we’d try out one of the local restaurants – Cobb & Co at Coastlands.

Lovely meal, and on Tue nights they have a special menu where you get two main meals for $25 – bargain! Although, not so much of a bargain when you have a glass of fine wine each, and a dessert (that’ll be Banoffie Pie for Louise !!) and a cup of coffee…………… We didn’t get to the pictures. Louise’s watch had stopped, in fact gone to sing with the heavenly vestibule – in others words, dead as a doornail! However, by the time we realised it was too late to go to the pictures we could at least take our time over the coffee!

Well, what a busy day!

We started off the day with a Skype call with Louise’s Mum and Dad, Uncles Doug and Dave, Aunties Pauline and Barbara and family friends Jack and Shirley. After saying “Hello” and giving them an update of how we were getting on, Louise gave them all a tour around the house and garden. Alex, the landlord, was out in his garage and Louise introduced him to everyone. It was lovely to see everyone, and it was also good to hear that Margaret’s meal and evening was going well too! There had been a deep low weather trough passing up through the islands over the last 24 hours (a “little bit of rain” and winds gusting up to 140kph – about 80mph!), luckily it had just about cleared up by the time of the conversation and there was sunshine all round!

Now that my chest is just about all-healed-up, we had started looking for a motorbike. I’d seen a few online and we thought we’d go to do some window shopping………it has to be window shopping today, as New Zealand don’t just have a Bank Holiday for New Year’s Day, they also have one for the Day After New Year’s Day. That has just got to be something instigated by the early Scots settlers – not that I’m complaining!!

We stopped off on the way through Paraparam to take some pictures of the New Zealand Christmas tree (pohutukawa) to show you. They look gorgeous at this time of year:

We had decided to go up the coast to Levin (one motorcycle shop), over to Wanganui (two motorcycle shops) and then back home via Palmerston North (four motorcycle shops).

We headed up the coast chasing the weather that had left us early this morning. Passing up through Levin, we stopped to have a look for motorcycles – very disappointing collection – and stopping off at a cafe we’d visited on our first visit to NZ for coffee latte and crepes. This time we both had a dessert crepe – mine was strawberries, cream and ice cream with a white chocolate sauce, and Louise had banana, cream, ice cream and marshmallows with a white chocolate sauce. GORGEOUS!! And only $7 (about £3.20) each, although that didn’t include the bowl of latte………

We journeyed on via Bulls, which is a strange town who have taken their town name to heart. You see signs advertising Rent-a-Bull properties, Afford-a-Bull clothing, and schools promising to be Knowledge-a-Bull and Educate-a-Bull. To see more, feel free to visit their Bulls website, strange and unforgett-a-Bull…… In a word, Unbeliev-a-Bull……!

We arrived in Wanganui about 2 1/2 hours after setting out. Lovely looking place, once you get past the industrial site! There’s an oldy-worldly Steamboat running trips up the Whangaui river – unfortunately, the lunchtime trip left about 20 mins before we got there, so better luck next time. The picture below was one I pinched off the Internet, as we didn’t stop in town long enough to take a photo. Although we did manage to find the bike shops!!

One thing we did notice about the Wanganui township, more than any other town we’ve visited, on the way through was the plethora (good word, and I didn’t even have to look it up!) of family/wife hostels and signs indicating that family violence was NOT a good thing. Louise did start having a rant about my treatment of her (with a smile on her face I add quickly) until I pointed out that the odd smack on the backside which resulted in a laughing fit on both sides is not really tantamount to a regular beating!

After leaving town we headed to the coastal “resort” of Castlecliff – advertising itself as some sort of Surfers Paradise. If you think of a cross between Splott (Cardiff), Hele village (Torquay) and London dockside – all before any tidying up and fresh building took place – add windswept dunes, disused and broken piersides and a river mouth open to the tides (with what looked a completely deathly undertow) and you’ll have some idea of what we thought about the “Surfer’s paradise!!

We did park up here for a short while, having caught up with the windy conditions of the morning. I had to take off my sunglasses and tie everything else into place to go for a little walk – more like a slog at a 60 degree angle so that Louise could take a picture from the car. She very sensibly decided to stay with the car, even though it was rocking about quite haphazardly!

We didn’t stay too long after that. I’m fairly sure my hair was twice as thick as it was before I got out of the car and I badly needed a shower to remove the salt and sea foam from everywhere else! Though we did see a pair of complete and utter idiots with a death wish, sorry body boarders, park up, get changed into wetsuits and head across the beach to die, sorry surf!

We headed back over to Palmerston North, a place we had previously skirted a number of times, but which actually turned out to be quite a lovely place to shop, providing you weren’t too bothered about finding your way out again! The bike shops here were pretty good, although lots of chrome everywhere from the glinting Harley Davidsons which seem to almost outnumber the citizens!

We stopped at the local Four Square (a bit like the local Spar shop) in Raumati Beach to pick up some tuna and rabbit food for some very healthy sandwiches for when we got home. This healthy eating was going really well until we added crisps and a little bit of chocolate for a follow-up!

I had a pretty late night today as well, logging in to a company back in the UK to do some troubleshooting during the UK daytime hours. Didn’t finish it, but need to do a little bit of homework and planning before getting back in touch………….

Finally got to bed about 5.50am NZ time. As I said at the beginning, a VERY busy day!

We both had a lovely sleep again last night. Louise is still sleeping on top of the quilt though, to keep her feet and sandfly bites cool. The mozzie net is working well though, and kept any infiltrators at bay!

Fujitsu posted ten jobs today, and there were about six I could apply for, so busy writing cover letters.

Quite a nice day, though there were blustery winds gusting to about 50kmh. However, there’s a big low over South Island and it’s heading our way tonight. Loads of rain and winds gusting up to 130kmh! It’s now about 11.30pm and it’s here! Wild n wet, but still warm enough to be outside for a looksee in shorts…………

Louise and I both slept like logs last night! For the first time in 3 nights, at the same time and in the same location! Bliss! Slept through until about 11am, got up and had some tea and orange juice and decided we really ought to get out now that Louise’s feet (well, the sandfly bites on her feet) were slightly better under control…………

We had put off a trip to Carterton over towards the East in the Wairapa valley, and so we decided thats where we were going!

To add a little “spice” to the trip, we thought we’d try a bit of a more direct route over to the Rimatuka Ranges by taking the Akatawara road from Waikanae. We’d taken this on a bike 2 years ago, and apart from needing to go slow, take deep breaths and maybe think about taking up religion once or twice, it was a lovely road. The drawback this time around was that last time it had been sunny, this time we had high winds and low clouds courtesy a weather front parked over the South Island and Tasman Sea. It wasn’t raining as we left, but it certainly did once we entered the clouds going over the Tararua mountains!! Needless to say, it was a “slow” journey over the mountains, but also therefore a safe one.

We popped up over the Rimatuka Pass, through the clouds again, down into Featherston and all of a sudden the clouds cleared and it was gorgeous for the rest of the trip up to Carterton. The reason we went to Carterton was to go to the Paua World shop/factory again. We thoroughly enjoyed the visit last time and did so again this time around! I’d forgotten about the free tea/coffee on offer while you sat down and watched a little “Discovery Channel” type video about the Paua, its habitat, history and how the shells are produced into jewellery etc. Even I managed 2 circuits around the shop looking at all the different ways you could present the paua shell into your home – amazing!

We stayed until it closed at 5pm and thought it would be a good idea to go have a looksee at the Manawatu Gorge that we missed on a trip last month by heading North out of Carterton instead of backtracking the roads already travelled today. Apart from the fact that we ran into some lousy weather at the head of the Wairapa around Woodville, it was well worth it!! We’re definitely going back when the weather there is better with a camera – we had the camera this time, but the rain didn’t really make for good picture weather.

We stopped off at a “New World” supermarket on our way back home down the SH57 – first time for this store, as the nearest store is in Waikanae and we hadn’t visited there yet. Not bad, pleasantly laid out and the prices not as bad as we’d been led to believe, if you’re a little careful about what you’re buying of course!

As we headed back for Levin, Otaki and home, we realised that the beef stroganof planned for tonight would have to be made by the night shift when we got back. So, we picked up a KFC in Paraparam and look forward to the stroganof tomorrow!!

We did have help staying up last night. We were pretty sure that other humans, or quite possibly othe NZ life-forms with an axe to grind against “Cat” were trying to kill it last night. There were all sorts of bangs, whistles and flashes breaking through the darkness around us. We let it stay with us until the gun-toting, explosions and noise-making had died down a bit…………….and the danger had passed…………..

Much more sleep had all round last night, although not quite a “proper night’s sleep” if you know what I mean.

The NZ life-form “Cat” obviously empathises with humans, it now looks in through the door at us, looks at the door handle and looks back at us…………. or perhaps it was because we may have saved it from an all-out assassination attempt last night! When let in, it nows jumps up on us and accepts a bit of a smoothing. We thought it was also trying to contact other members of its species when it started this really strange harmonious rattling sound, but having looked it up on Google, I’m fairly sure its what is called “purring”.

We had a really nice quiet day today, feet up, reading, watching TV, drinking and catching up with people as the New Year worked it’s way around the rest of the world. We did pop out for a short while, but only to get some pizza from Dominoes. There’s lazy we are!

The Blog has developed a little problem, and I’m rebuilding it as I write!

Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Rik & Louise

xx

Well, that was fun………… NOT! Although I had backed a lot of stuff up, as you should of course, I hadn’t checked to see what environment the advertised update for the blog required. By the time it had done it, I realised that it had all gone haywire!

Here we are on the 2 Jan 2010 all back up to where I was when I wrote the note above………..

Apart from a mad rush to sort the blog out, we had a fairly quiet day, except that the sandfly bites still hadn’t gone down! I’d sorted out some cold water in a tray, with a cold wet flannel to help keep the heat down and the itching as little as possible, but it wasn’t enough. Louise was awake until about 5am trying to find something else that could help. She did! Cellotape…………..

We think it has to do with the cellotape cutting off air supply to the bite, and also stopping the bite from expanding and therefore causing the itch. But, it works a treat!

We thought it was better to keep Louise off her feet and trying to catch up on the sleep she’d been missing out on, so we had a quiet day in – me rebuilding the blog, and Louise sleeping. She woke up for tea and then we sat and watched films together until the New Year turned up. We had a couple of phone calls and Skype chats to wish people the best for the new year taking full advantage of the fact that we were in a totally different decade to the rest of the world for a short while! I stayed up with Louise until about 4am making sure that her feet were kept cool and that she could get some more sleep, and sprayed every inch of the house with fly spray so that no interlopers were set to munch some more on her! I then fought my way through the mozzie netting around the bed to settle down for a few hours myself too.