David Beckham visits Wellington

Very excited about this weekend because all-star footballer David Bechham is playing against our local Wellington Phoenix. He probably could beat Phoenix on his own but he also has the rest of the LA Galaxy with him. Its a friendly match on the Saturday. David has signed up that he must play at least 55 minutes of the match (the local council who are subsidising the game stipulated this!).

What he won't realise is that although the Wellington Phoenix are near the bottom of the Australian league (the A-league) and hence a bit rubbish.. the fans are totally bananas, and known to be the loudest in the A-league! The fan club (the Yellow Fever) organise a different song for the terraces each week. They are organised by a highly loyal bunch of ex-pats from the UK - but in total around 10,000 yellow-and-black Phoenix fans turn up each week and are known to have a lot more energy than the rugby fans. It is very funny to hear all the British accents and the chants that come straight from the Premier League, e.g. when Adelaide came to play in their red and white strips, they were politely told that 'they're red, they're white, they're full of f***in sh**e' as they came on to the field. The players were a bit stunned because soccer is a completely family sport in Australia - not the case here!

Already some songs have been prepared by the Yellow Fever:
Loos, Loos, Rebecca Loos, Loos, Loose, Rebecca Loos.

Beckham's come to Welly, his knees have turned to jelly, Come on Phoenix, come on Phoenix!

Oh dear!

Tramping in the Tararuas!

Hi Blog

sorry its been so long!


Some folk at my office decided to become more 'manly' by going on a tramping trip. This is what they call 'walking' in New Zealand. We decided to head up to around 4,000 ft and stay in a mountain hut overnight. This meant carrying our food and clothes on our backs up a steep climb from a place called Otaki Forks.

We climbed up through podocarp forests with Punga trees (Fern Trees) everywhere. It was a very typical Kiwi scene, totally green with thick vegetation until you got to around 2,500 ft. high. Quite a few vines hanging down to practice my Tarzan swing on. Karen was very tough and managed to the top without me having to carry any of her stuff, I'm impressed.

We got to the top and the scenery opened up to reveal more of a 'Scottish' type of vista. Continual hill peaks that stretched to the horizon in the north and east. The blue Tasman Sea lay on the West, with Kapiti Island appearing to float in the sky as clouds gathered around its base. in the distance to the South we could just about make out Wellington with the Inter-Island ferry making its way into port.

Stayed overnight in the oldest mountain hut in the mountain range, made in the 1920s - it had old photos of when mountain-walking first became a hobby and the hut and tracks were built in pretty inhospitable conditions, very interesting link here:

http://www.doc.govt.nz/templates/page.aspx?id=34146

It had an old fashioned wood burner to keep us warm at night - which was a challenge given there was light snow falling around us. We had to collect firewood and chop it with an axe - there was something wonderfully primal about that - Karen seemed particularly adept with the axe as you can see above!