A Country Affair Palmerston North

... Due to a recent snowfall (and perhaps more so my fitness worries!), I didn't attempt the crossing, but I did manage to get some nice pictures of the snow-capped Mount Ruapehu. Ruapehu is the largest mountain on the North Island and is New Zealand's largest and most active volcano (last erupting in 2007). The mountain is also famous for featuring in the Lord of the Rings’ films. I passed through a number of towns that were essentially closed for the skiing ...

... to wait for Auckland before buying anything major (it cost $180!). Sarah also spotted some more shiny jewellery but decided against any more purchases. So there aint a huge amount left to say about Palmerston other than it suffers from the plague of New Zealand's larger towns - the boy-racers that drive about in their unneccesarily noisy cars. Admittedly they do use a large variety of cars - old Fords in particular - but they also use more modern stuff like ...

... and who, irrespective of their legal status, retain some of all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions' (Nuttall). Although different in origin of their nation, these cultures have much in common. The people of the circumpolar north have suffered not only because their territory has been regarded as a wilderness or wasteland, but they have also been victims of resource ...

... took our choice of couches in a large lounge area reserved for folks who are willing to pay $40 over the $52 passage. We did. We were the only ones who did. Wine flows, there are mini-mince pies and a toaster along with various fruit, dessert canopes and the like. And, wireless internet is included. We Skype Megan and then Cianan and Debi tries the McLaughlin sisters who are in Chicago with their friend Oprah. Nobody is answering in the Windy City, however. We assume they're ...

... a visiter le Te Papa museum, le plus beau musee de NZ d'apres les locaux, tres varie et tres instructif : les maoris, les colons (pahekas), la faune, la meteorologie, l'art, les relation inter-culturelles, la tectonique, tout y passe !! Le lendemain, musee du cable car, jardin botanique, visite du parlement (the beehive - la ruche), visite des archives nationales pour voir le traite de Waitangi, document fondateur tres ...

... Organic River festival the following week so first tried to contact the guy who runs this as he takes on wwoofers at his winery in the local area. Phoned a couple of times but he decided that he was too busy to have us stay there at the moment, so we contacted Fay and she said yes within about 2 seconds of talking to her! So glad that she did because we loved her place and she was brilliant too. She owned a smallholding in ...

On Friday, after checking out of the hostel, we caught a taxi to the train station, where the intercity buses depart from. At 10am we left Wellington and 2hrs 5mins later we arrived in a sunny Palmerston North. Paul picked us up and we spent the afternoon chilling in his flat before Jill came home from work. At this point, she dragged me out for a run, but as it was a beautiful day I didn't mind too much! I was in a ...

... Palmy'. Sandra read this in the Lonely Planet on the drive there, and we didn't quite believe it. But sure enough, the radio newsreader called it 'Palmy'. Restaurant menus declared their food 'best in Palmy'. The hostel was described as 'being in a great location in Palmy'. Now, I fully understand that 'Palmerston North' is a pretty big mouthful. But 'Palmy'? Seriously? Apparently the people are called 'Palmies' too! As in 'Palmies ...

... hike across to Mt.Tongariro). We were planning to go to a much more active volcano later in our trip (White Island) so opted to do neither of these. Instead we progressed northwards towards Taupo, a town situated on the edge of New Zealand's largest lake, funnily enough called Lake Taupo! After checking into our accommodation we found that we were just in time to get to the Aratiatia Dam and Rapids for the opening of the dam. The dam is part of a chain of Hydroelectric ...

... like the sign I saw in this library: "Save time, save stress...ask a librarian." I'm sure they wouldn't mind if we used this in our own libraries. Palmerston North Central Library is "housed in a skillfully refurbished heritage building" that used to be a department store. Strikingly modern, the architect won a national award for its design. It calls itself the "Living Room of the City." The director, Anthony Lewis, traveled to the USA and Scandinavia to ...