NZ: it’s sweet as

There he is

It’s more than a month since we arrived in New Zealand, now, and things have changed quite a lot (!) so it’s probably time for a few catch-up blogs.

We arrived in Auckland from Fiji back on April 21 and spent a wicked week with the mystery man that is Tom/Will Malcolm, just north of the city in a tiny town with hot springs: Waiwera. Tom and the other lovely people working with him at the YMCA (Carl, Zohar and Becky) quickly put us on a steep Kiwi life learning curve:

• Tramping = hiking. We spent an exhausting but very fun day clambering up, round and through ice cold rivers in Waitekera (?)
• J-walking. It’s illegal here!
• Moldi = Mauri. At least that’s the closest spelling approximation to the actual pronunciation of the word. Who knew?
• Fangeray = Whangerei. Another Mauri pronunciation one.
• NZ loves our Royals. Bloody loves ‘em. As in, Kate Middleton is on the front page of three out of five magazines, and ol’ Queenie is on another. We also get a day off for the Queen’s birthday!!
• No more YouTube… Internet costs an absolute fortune.
• Dairy = corner shop. See the nek minnit vid for further information (we met this YouTube hero on aforementioned tramp).
• You egg is an insult here…
• It really is like Lord Of The Rings. As in, ridiculously beautiful scenery. Not as in full of elves and angry men on horseback.
• And lastly… everything is sweet as, bro.

More soon.

SARAH