Bell Binnies - we arent the first!

Here is a picture of Henry Bell Binnie of Falkirk! - so there we are Ian and I are not the first to enter into such a family union. I found this on a "Binnie" google search http://www.rhodesfamily.org.uk/binnie/index.html.... very interesting

A White Christmas!

Probably the most unusual Christmas I have experienced – but none-the-less very good!
Ian, Pete and I walked the Keplar track in the fjordland area of the south island for 4 days over Christmas. The walk started off in the sun along the lakeside and quickly turned into a vertical (well not totally), but steep climb up the mountain side. To our first hut which overlooked a big jagged mountain – promptly feel asleep on the deck outside and woke up with chicken wire molded into me. The following day we climbed more and ended up walking in a snow storm, which was all a bit of a surprise but very pretty once the snow settled on the mountain tops. That night we positively had a feast of beef, dehydrated potato and fried up veg followed by chocolate brownie and custard which did feel a bit decadent given some people had brought their pot noodle equivalents. Boxing day was nice and sunny and Ian had a swim in lake manipouri – I was chicken and didn’t!


Then it bucketed for the next 2 days.
We spent 2 weeks altogether in the south island which mostly consisted of more hill walking including the very pleasant Rob Roy walk under a glacier, a trip out to a hydro power station in the middle of a mountain and also lots of eating especially ice cream!

Heres the coldest loo on the planet - on a cliff edge:

Tramping in the Tauraruas

Excitement this weekend was an overnighter at Powell hut in the Taurarua Mountains just 1.5 hours north of Wellington. Ian and I headed up Saturday after lunch and although its only 3 and a half hours to the hut it feels pretty much up most of the way (1300m). Great hut though - perched on the side of the mountain with excellent views from the balcony - though the wind really did howl through the gaps at night time.
So after about 5 hours sleep we took the river route back and had a bit of a paddle in the swimming pool along with the other biting creatures, but it was gorgeous and sunny so it didnt matter. On returning to car, Karen fell promptly asleep zzzz....
but woke in time to play Munchkin with friends on Sunday night.

Karen x

Thailand and Laos photos

Being on the slow down to Christmas I have finally got round to uploading photos from the Thailand and Laos trip earlier this year. Just follow this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/13841202@N05/
(PS these are photos I was showing to my photos club - hence there arent any people ones - but hope you like them anyway as its such a pretty country.)

Karen

Flying Fish and DIY Christmas Trees

...long time no write. Well its all been relatively normal over the last few weeks. Been walking down the hill to work in the mornings., going to the office, walking along the harbour front at lunch times and if Im still feeling healthy walking back up again. Been trying to get fit for our big walk over Christmas - the Keplar track which is a ridge walk over 4 days. We will be in hut 2 for Christmas day - unfortunately that means carrying our dinner up the hill on day 1, but it will be well appreciated. We just bought new cooking pots for our gormet pasta and sauce or hopefully something a bit more festive! Also been going to pilates for those abs of steel so hopefully I wont crumple under the weight of the rucksack....and a wee bit something different which leads me to....

Ian and Karens most amazing day...

On the weekend just past it has to be admitted that we were having a bit of a social tumble weed moment and were missing friends and family.... Then Ian (being a total gem) suggested on Sunday we go for a kayak in Welly harbour. So we just hired the double kayak for an hour and paddled around oriental parade including through the big fountain in the sea. This was entirely Ians fault as he wouldnt stop paddling, though he did say he did slow down eventually - like when I was under the fountain getting soaked! So I soaked him with my paddle (ahh sweet revenge!).
So we were pottering around the harbour for an other while when we heard a scream and Ian shouted "karen. Dolphins. Lots of them. Paddle fast!) Wow there were loads of them - my guess is 100 or so. They were swimming really fast in a big circle
round the harbour hunting fish and ...playing! They were jumping and twisting and riding just below the front of the kayak. They were all around us and the other 10 or so kayakers who were out. One even came up and squirted Ian in the face - I really like seeing them race in and out of the water, jumping and flicking their tails in the air. So for an hour we paddled like mad to keep up with them. It was great!
Apparently about half a dozen times a year the dolphins corner shoals of fish in the harbour and go on a mad feeding frenzy. So we joined in and had fish and chips for dinner. I actually did dream about dolphins that night - I dont think I will
forget that experience.

Christmas...

We got a tree up last week yippee! - and its really cool as Ive never had one before (Ian had a Christmas weed once with some flatmates). Ive included a few photos of what is quite possibly the ugliest tree in the southern hemisphere - though we did cut off a random branch and tied it to the big gap on the trunk of the tree. I think northern hemisphere trees are definately a better shape for hanging the baubles on. Saying that there arent going to be too many trees in the southern hemisphere
with a knitted santa claus! (I actually knit these first in primary school - Jen actually still had the pattern - must be a museum piece by now).

So its 7 working days to go and counting - cant wait!

Karen x

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!

New video clip of Oz

Look at the old posting (a few pages back) on 'Ian off to Oz' to find a short video clip of Mark, Stefan and Ian at the pub in Melbourne. Ian is introduced to Australian culture, their liking of VB beer (no other will do), and the way they say 'cheers' in Australia (avoiding all eye contact). As well as this the boys get violent on a leaf.

Click here to go to the video

Out to Red Rocks to see the Seals

For some time now we have been meaning to walk beyond the city outskirts and along the rocky south-coast. Wellington's last bay before wilderness sets in, is Ohiro Bay. A few eccentrics live out here and they don’t seem to mind the constant wild winds and salt water which eats away at their funny looking houses. One guy has built his house in the shape of a light-house, another has an up-turned boat as his balcony.

The Red Rocks Coastal walk takes you from Ohiro Bay car park along the rocky shore line where the edge of Wellington meets the Cook Strait. On a good day you can clearly see the Kaikoura mountain ranges of the South Island. Today was not a good day! We pushed ourselves against the wind and cold, plus occasional icy shower. The destination was the seal colony, about 1.5 hours walk.

We thought we had missed it entirely, until we noticed one seal fast asleep only metres from us – its oily grey and brown skin was the colour of the rocks. In fact it was using a spiky rock as a pillow. Looking around, we suddenly realised there were dozens of seals everywhere – they were all lying on rocks, all well hidden because they were motionless and the same colour as rock. Each seal looked like it had just finished a hard night on the drink and wanted nothing else to do apart from recline on a nice wet rock! Luckily, some of them started to wake up and move around a bit shortly after we arrived. I captured a few lazing around and a couple even made a vague attempt at fighting! Have a look below.

R2D2 bird

Hello all

my first attempted vid clip on the blog! I have just filmed a Tui bird that always wakes us up each morning with its crazy bird song. It is a New Zealand native, and has a bizzare looking pair of fluffy ping pong balls attached to its throat!

It is the only bird that can continually talk to itself all day, whats more it does it in an R2 D2 crazy-talk manner. See the clip!

Ian

TURN UP THE VOLUME ON YOUR COMPUTER TO HEAR IT PROPERLY!

New Megalithic car

Dear all

With tidings of great joy, and a little bit of materialistic glee, I can tell you we are now the proud owners of a Nissan Cefiro grey station wagon (ok don’t all jump and down with excitement!). This is actually the first car I have ever bought and so I am totally excited, and currently giggling like a little boy!

The car was bought from Turner's car auctions (everyone from our taxi driver, to our church elder had recommended this as the place to get great discounts).

So with great trepidation I ventured to Turners. I was overwhelmed with the large number of cars, mainly all Japanese imports. With Karen staying at home and praying for me, I did my ‘Binnie basics’ mechanical inspection and test drive. You can only test drive it around the car park, so that meant getting up to around 35-40 mph in a space of about 60 metres. Just as well the brakes worked!

I then started bidding with a racing heart, I managed to hold off against an evil car dealer guy who went up to around 1800 quid. He couldn’t reach my bid and the car was mine!


Becuase it was a Japanese import, we found some weird Japanese videos and a pair of chopsticks in the car.

Only thing is I realise that I have bought a megalithic car. It’s a huge – between 2.5-3 metres long – a massive American style size wagon. Driving this huge chunk of metal will be a real challenge around the tiny streets of Wellington. I’ve worked out it will take around a nine point turn to get the thing into our garage!

Still it will be great for getting out and seeing some of the NZ countryside (we've used it for a trip to the Rimutuka forest park already!)

Here are a couple of pictures – one shows you the size of an adult male in comparison with the car.

Photos around our town

Hi all - want to see some photos of where we live? READ BELOW!

I have created photo albumns on Flikr (thanks for your suggestion Simon!). The first photos set are from around Wellington.

Karen took some of these to show:
her walk to work
the Botanic Gardens
the Harbour front of Wellington
our house and around it.



The second set of photos are of our trip to Napier - sun, sea, sand and lots of 1930s art deco buildings!! (described in our previous post).


Happy Flikering. Please see the link (either on the side bar to the right, or right below this).

Wellington photos

Trip to Napier

We recently took a trip up the East Coast to a town called Napier. The town was completely destroyed in an earthquake in 1930 and so they had to rebuild it quickly. Because the trend at the time, all the architecture is art-deco = lots of pastel colour, sun-bursts, and go-faster stripes!

Although it was quite cold, we headed to the beach. The beaches on the East Coast are beautiful - miles and miles of yellow sand, very wild looking becuase there is not much civilisation. ALso wild because it faces the Southern Ocean so the winds get quite fierce and its sometimes dangerous to go swimming. So I headed down the beach with my full artic gear on!

You can see photos but you have to sign up to Bebo (dont worry Bebo is not a dodgey web page, its a really useful way of keeping in touch with folk! I have lots of Bebo friends!)

http://www.bebo.com/invite/2056647a8607986b229

Skype set up!

Dear all

We have great news! We are connected with broadband and ready to Skype with anyone with gossip worthy news...

Our Skype user name is ian.binnie

Look forward to hearing and seeing you

K and I

Karen moving day = New House!

Although I hardly slept a wink the night before, moving house day went really well. I got help from people at church moving things, the shipment came on time with only 2 breakages – though I was annoyed to find out that the bike had no pedals and there were no screws to hold the table together. The pedals they eventually found in the rubbish the next day! Getting all our things was like Christmas and made our new place really feel like home, especially now we have the matching his n hers knitted water bottles, lots of nice art and pots and plates. About lunch time I was happily unpacking in the sunshine when a rainbow appeared on the wall next to me which made me feel very blessed to have such a nice place to live – so I took a photo of it:






Been in the new job a week or so now and am really enjoying it. Been on six sigma training (which is kind of a wow wee technique to making businesses efficient. Im also swotting up big time on NZ electricity where my first job will be. I thought it was interesting that 60% of NZ power is from hydro dams (which is great so long as it rains), there is no nuclear power and the whole thing works on a giant cable which runs from the south island (where all the hydro dams are) to the north island (where all the people live).
And despite my first impressions – its not a late hours place. I guess you’ve got to give everything a 2nd and 3rd chance.

Got the bike pieced together and its was looking brilliant so I took it out for a spin on Sunday which turned out to be the windiest day for ages (Ian was working in the office and wondered if the office was going to collapse when a mug fell of someones desk!) So needless to say I whizzed at super speed out past the lovely rugged scenery, not that different to the west coast of Scotland or Ireland but by the time I turned to come back I felt like a flea flying into a gale force 10 – I even had to push a bit of it. Even so this was in contrast to the blue skies and sun of the rest of the week so cant complain!


Wellington has been buzzing lately with the annual comedy festival. We went to the San Francisco Bathhouse to see Brendon Lovegrove who had funny insights such as NZ having a camped up Hakka to really scare off the opposition. At the other end of the intellectual scale we went to see Uncle Vanya a play by Checkov – very stimulating oh yah darling!



K

Ian off to Oz

I looked forward to my first proper trip to Australia ever! Till now the most Id seen was the inside of an airport hotel in Melbourne. But I felt terrible about leaving Karen behind to move house, but the modern woman has to feel able to take on traditionally male tasks like moving house and lifting beds and tables! (Karen: Ian did actually have the choice to edit this out or take the punch in the arm). Arrived in Melbourne at 8am, couldn’t wait to see Mark and Stephan as its been 6yrs since I saw him last.

The two Aussies that I had hung out with London all those years ago hadn’t changed a bit – still Bogans with dodgy mullet hair dos. They call everyone ‘mongrels’ and randomly break into philosophical rantings, before returning to their normal Bogan selves. We downed a few VBs and went to the Aussie rules football game to see the biggest live rumble I’ve ever seen (apparently this happens in most games!). We had a great weekend, Melbourne is a lovely city (nice and warm) with a mixture of old and bold new architecture – and a great night life. I hope to post a video of Mark and Stefan doing their ‘full on treat’ moves soon.

Click here to see the video of Stefan and Mark introducing Ian to Australian culture:

Home sweet home (and stuff)!

Dear blog,

I write to you sitting outside the “Satay Kingdom” – a cheap asian eatery in the Cuba St (West endy) side of town. Im off to photography club tonight and Ian is working on a presentation for tomorrow.

Im trying to psyche myself up for the mad end of the week when Ian will be visiting friends in Melbourne (4hrs away) and I will be starting a new job on Thursday and moving house/ receiving shipment on Saturday. All of which have felt a long time coming and although Saturday will probably be slightly traumatic with so much to do (hopefully I will have some helpers with a car to move our stuff) it will be fabulous fun to open all the boxes we packed mid-Dec. Ians most missed item is the ipod and for me Im really looking forward to the big comfy purple sofa, and the nice plates (gone will be the day i.e. Sunday when I did a dinner party with two tinny pots), oh and the games, nice bed linen and the blue pictures….

We are moving to an area called Northland which has a little row of shops including a bike shop and 3 Pizzerias – so it’s a good job we can still walk to the city centre.
As for the job – not sure about it especially as I was at the monthly team meeting on Friday where the guy who during the interview said he always leaves at 5.30pm each day was working to 2am the night before mmmm….

Ian has been playing for the Karori Swifts football team – scored the only goal on his first game too! However, the average age of the team is 40yrs and the team they were playing against consisted of University professors.

Voluntary work reviewing the YWCA charity shop is going well – have developed surveys and a work plan for the next month and are trying to get marketing students from the uni to do the leg work. I am also helping set up for a funeral tomorrow – its for an older man that a lot of people knew in the church so as a newbie its good I can help out.

Cultural whinge of the week:
You pay for EVERYTHING here! – they charge for taking new released books out of the library, for credit cards (if you can find a bank that will give a non-resident one), to get internet banking, for basic health checks…..on the other hand the Seafood Laksa dinner was less than ₤3 and yummy!


PS Ian says he has nothing else to add as hes being boring these days (but he will be living it up at the weekend!)

Jaunts and jobs...22 April 2007

Ian has been working hard this week....and so have I, though in the house and job hunting kind of way. The update on which is after 5 hours of interviews I now have a job offer! Though Im kind of mulling it over and have Weds to decide whether to take it or not..... In the meantime I have another interview to keep me occupied....

Been quite cultured this week, Ian and I went to see Snowcake last night which was just great – Alan Rickman was brilliant – its pretty thought provoking, though there are bits that make you laugh and cry and jump. Its a recommended go see if you are into the GFT or the QFT for that matter. On Thurs when Ian was working late I took myself to the eccentric Wellington Poetry Society – I was probably the youngest by about 20 years and with my red glasses and fuzzy hair probably blended reasonably well with the characteurs who were also there – most were aging hippies. The guest speaker was a poet from Belfast which was really nice as he stirred up images of the area my granny lived in and of the Belfast city centre. The best poem I heard all night though was by a school teacher type who had struggles with the pleasure and pain of chocolate and her poem ended with the brilliant lines: “inside, outside, in my bed. I'll eat chocolate till Im dead!”


Im constantly impressed by what a pretty city Wellington is. I walked the skyline which is a ridge walk along to hilltops which surrounds the city, it starts just down the road from our house and takes about 5 hours to walk. The best part is being able to see the sea on both sides of you (the picture above is of our neighbourhood from the ridge) and the way the sunsets over the long grass in ripples. From the other perspective Ian and I took a boat out to Sommes Island yesterday which is about 30mins boat ride from Wellington city. The island was used to quarantine the new settlers in the early 1900s, and then as an internment camp during WW2. You can still see the old buildings there today but it is mostly known as being a wildlife sanctuary. It takes about an hour to walk around but we spend most of the afternoon with our sushi lunch watching the yacht race in the sunshine from the top of the hill (ohh ya!). Sat on the top deck of the boat as a kind of endurance chill test in order to enjoy the view coming back into Wellington.

Ongoing annoyance is not being able to get moved out of the house and into another as the property management is rubbish. On the other hand our stuff finally arrived! So I took a trip out to the warehouse and filled a taxi with as many suitcases as I could, as we want to have the main delivery of our stuff to the new house. So beaming happy as I opened the cases to find lots of my nice warm clothes, skirts and shoes, it then dawned on me to my horror that hardly any of Ians things were in the suitcases! So I had to suppress my delight somewhat though I did find a suit and a jumper and a few pairs of socks for Ian!



Here is a wee picture of the back of our house.

Karen x

The gathering of friends...

We have met up with lots of friends from the UK this week – its very strange to see people out of context, and on the other side of the world!

We met Joel and Marie on a beach at Castlepoint on the East Coast – a wild and windy headland with a lighthouse – seemed like the kind of place people meet on Hitchcock movies. We had an excellent weekend, staying in Greytown in the Wairarapa region (New Zealand's answer to France's Provence). Joel and Marie had to leave for the South Island ferry on the Sunday, it was sad to say goodbye but I knew they would have fun on their tour.

We were excited to see Jo from our church in Glasgow – who was on holiday and staying with her friend Jo, who emigrated from the UK last year. Not to be confused with 'researcher' Jo (see below)!!! Karen had a fun girls night out with the two Jo's and some others. I came along for the beginning of the evening because I was intrigued to find out what girls talk about – however I soon felt out of place when I tried to strike up a conversation about beer. So I left them to it, they had a nice meal and probably talked about the various inefficiencies of men.

Happy to see Alice from Northern Ireland again (she moved here three years ago). Alice was en-route to the Queen Charlotte Track and the Nelson Lakes. We had a great dinner and a general catch up on life in New Zealand.

Attended a NZ social research conference this week. I was impressed to hear Helen Clarke (the NZ prime minister) talk – she seems like a very determined and successful woman. A bit like Tony Blair - she has led Labour to three successive election victories. The conference had several Maori speakers, including a 1 hour opening ceremony involving the haka, tribal welcomes, singing and a 'hongi' - where everyone presses their noses against each other as a greeting. I did the hongi with a short lady beside me, so I had to bend over almost to 90 degrees! At one point I looked across and saw a researcher from Scotland that I recognised (called Jo). As far as I knew she was still working for the Scottish Executive – but as it turns out she and her husband moved here last year. We agreed to meet up for dinner, and the coincidences continued when I found out she lives round the corner from us in Karori.

Alongside the fun of meeting friends, its been a bit stressful looking for a new place to stay (our place is unsuitable because it has cat hairs embedded everywhere and Karen is allergic to them). We also need to find a tenant to move into our place so we can escape our existing contract. Karen has had three job interviews this week – and she has others lined up for next week. So all in all its been a bit of a AAAHH! week.

To relax we visited the Karori wildlife sanctuary today. It is a large sanctuary area surrounded by a predator proof fence – so that no possums or rats can get in and kill the protected birds such as Weka and Kiwi. These native birds evolved on their own in New Zealand over millennia and are hence rubbish at defending themselves against the rodents that humans brought with them. We also saw Tuatara - an ancient lizard that has lived on in NZ since dinosaur times – and cave Weta (a species of insect that is so repulsive it made me want to throw up!).

I think things should be a bit more settled next week..

IAN

Monday 9th April - Easter!

Karen: Considering we are really into Autumn here the weather has been lovely for the easter break. Ian and I hired a "cottage" in a place called Greytown where we stayed with a couple of Ians friends who were on the New Zealand leg of their round the world trip. Greytown is certainly not grey - its more like a village in the south of France with its wineries, delis, fancy shops and even a french baker. It is on the edge of the Tararua mountain range which provided a nice walk across the gorge on a rope bridge and up into the forested mountains. Im happy that such a nice area is only an hour or so away from Wellington. We also went to the beach at Castlepoint on Friday which has an imposing lighthouse and surfer beach where Ian went for a run along the beach then splashed around in the sea while Karen was really lazy and read her book. Walked the Martinborough wineries too and were completely amateur tasters though did enjoy sitting in the sun with a nice lunch. To top the weekend off Ian and I had a picnic at Rivendell on the way back (no gollum!) which is really a pretty bend in a river in a forest park. (must go back there for some proper walking someday....).
Other than our Easter weekend adventure Ian is looking for a football team to join and Karen is looking for work (got a second interview this week). Meeting up with friend Jo from church in Scotland tomorrow as she is on a New Zealand holiday - so that will be fun!