Happy Christmas to you all! Happy 21st birthday tomorrow Alex!

Kia Ora! (That's a catch-all phrase for Welcome, Hello etc.) And I always thought it meant 'horrid bright orange squash with bits in'...
I am getting the lingo here - instead of 'OK' or 'cool', the kiwis say 'sweet' or 'sweet as'.. as in "I'm on your bus tomorrow" -response- 'ah, sweet!' or "I had a really good day" -response- 'sweet as!'. Also the letters Wh are pronounced like Ph i.e. the place I stayed on Wednesday night was spelt Whitianga, but pronounced Fitianga (soft g). I'm getting so fluent I'll be indistinguishable (?) from a real kiwi soon..
But back to Christmas, the first picture (if it gets sent, I'm having problems with them) is the flower on the kiwi Christmas tree - the Pohutakawa. I don't seem to have a picture of a whole tree, sorry, but they look gorgeous with the red flower and the white blossom. Perhaps you can google a better picture?
I'm back in Auckland today and Christmas is a bit more in evidence - a few inflatable santas scattered here and there in shops, and fliers about school and church carol services; The Messiah at the local concert hall; and I saw some Christmassy wrapping paper in a shop yesterday. Not much more than that, though, and there are no crowds in the shops at all. I haven't seen any houses decorated, but haven't seen many normal residential areas. Our hostel has a decorated tree. The locals are saying that it is getting more commercialised, but it has a long way to go to catch up with the UK - hope it doesn't, it's lovely, just festive enough so you know it's happening, but not OTT!
Anyway, hope you all have a really good Christmas with your nearest and dearest - I shall be a long way from mine, but they (you!) know I love and miss them, and we can have a get together on a different day when I'm home again...
I've been away on my travels since I last 'spoke' - to the appropriately named 'Northland'. I am travelling with the Magic Bus company. This is a backpackers' travel company, but hopefully with fewer of the 'Club 18-30 - lets get as drunk as we can and shout very loudly' brigade. Oh dear, what a party-pooper I sound. But so far I've met up with some nice people - mainly in their late twenties and thirties, and mostly women. Why don't men travel on their own I wonder? There are groups of women, women on their own and couples, but few male groups if any in the hostels, and few loners. I spent a couple of days with Thelma and Louise(!), nice girls, one from Rotterdam, other from Brighton. Louise and I went sea kayaking together - great fun, but scary at first. There was quite a strong breeze, we were soaked through and had to bale out our canoe; we struggled to make any headway at all, at one point blagging a tow from the group leader! Pretty fast coming back with the wind behind us, though. It was a bit cold and I suggested lighting a fire at the back of the boat, but the leader said it would burn and sink - after all, you can't have your kayak and heat it!!! Ouch, sorry, couldn't resist, but the old ones...! We went out and around an island, and back through a tunnel in the middle of it, and felt quite proud of ourselves. I have the bleeding knuckles and blisters to show for it now, though! I've also been sand dune boarding - the second picture - couldn't get snap of me actually doing it - too much sand for cameras! I was scared at the top - you lie face down on the board and hurl yourself down a steep dune towards a stream... but once I was a third of the way down I'd stopped screaming and was actually enjoying it!
The other exciting thing I did was in the Bay of Islands, where I went on a day's sailing on a catamaran. It was choppy, and I got pretty wet, but we saw lots of dolphins leaping really close to the boat. I have several photos... of the sea, curse the delay on digital cameras!
We went to the top of New Zealand, Cape Reinga, where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet - which was, I must say, truly awesome. Then we drove back down 90-mile beach. This is actually 90km - long story - but you really drive on the beach all the way, tide willing. The coaches are specially adapted buses made from trucks, and the drivers sit on a huge spring, and bounce up and down... sweet!
As an aside, why do I keep seeing signs that say 'Last cheese for x Km'? What's that all about?
I also did the famous 'footprints' dusk trail - you go into the forest with Maori guides, who sing traditional songs, tell you about the history of the area and the forest flora and fauna (well, trees, mainly!) and show you the biggest tree (biggest trunk area) in the world, a kauri (pronounced cody) tree called Tane Mahuta, about 2,000 years old (the oldest in the forest was about 4,000 years old, imagine that?). It is a very mystical, moving experience at twilight; the guides make it very special.
Changing topics, I have eaten the best fish ever here. Fish n chips will never be the same again... and the scallops are to die for. I have to stop eating out so much, though, it's getting too expensive - not like Asia! I am now carrying around an extra bag (thanks, Intrepid, for the freebie!) containing cereal, bread and tins of beans. I know how to live...
One of the things that I love here, among many, is that I feel so safe walking in the forests and mangroves - there are no nasty creatues lurking there. One guide scared me by saying there are 200 snakes in NZ - then added that they are all in parliament...
So, I've just about covered what I can of the territory north of Auckland, so I'm setting off south tomorrow to Rotorua, where I'm booked for Christmas. Then on to Taupo and Wellington, crossing over to the South Island to Picton for New Year's Eve. I had wanted to see the new year in at Gisborne on the East coast of the North Island, supposedly the place which sees the new year first (what about Fiji? They seem to have forgotten that!); but can't get a bed on the East coast for love nor money. But anyway, there's been a 6.8 earthquake over there overnight, so maybe I'm better off where I'm going. I've had to move south a bit faster than I wanted, because of booking hostels over the holiday period, but once in the south I can relax a bit. Maybe look for some work to allow more eating out!
Enough for now. Be sure that I'm thinking about you ALL - I have time to think on my travels, but an hour on the pc seems to go by very quickly, so I don't correspond individually as much as I would care to.
Have a great Christmas, and hopefully I'll be in touch before the New Year.
ALEX, best of sons, - have a great 21st birthday, will try and speak to you tomorrow, but will have to time it when we're both awake!!! Sorry I'm not there with you, but hey, I was there in 1986 on your real 'birth' day, wasn't I? I remember it well, even if you don't...!!! xxxxx

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