The Commercial Hotel Accommodation Hamilton

I have finally arrived in New Zealand after 26 hours, 1 stop over, and 2 flights and not soon enough. The first flight from London on the A380 was very cold and no matter how hard I tried to warm up I was battling with hypothermia. I looked like some kind of invalid wrapping myself in a blanket and I hobbled up and down the aisles in an attempt to keep warm. The flight from Singapore was slightly more eventful and I did succeed in sleeping, however when I woke up I saw this large packet of ...

The car makes for a not horrible but also not amazing place to sleep.  We decided that if we could avoid it again, we would. We got ready in the beach washrooms and then headed to the Pakiri Beach Horseback Riding stables.  We were suited up about an hour after we were supposed to, but I was given the best horse that I possibly could have.  Benson was a gluttonous beast, brown and beautiful.  He was really very interested in eating, and like me, he would later regret his gobbling.   We ...

... continuing down the windy road to Coromandel Town and then down the west coast of the Coromandel to Thames, where Chopa and Irene used to live. A very scenic drive! We then headed back to their home in Hamilton where we again had a great meal with Joanne and shared pictures of all of our travels and families. We called it an early night - we were exhausted! Monday morning we said a tearful goodbye to our adopted parents - it was such a great weekend ...

... s stay, however, so we kept on until we reached Hamilton. The scenery in New Zealand is mindboggling. You find yourself in a valley of rolling hills and then you cross a ridge and you are assaulted by rocky fields. Next, mounds appear, next bubbling streams, then a waterfall, then a cliff, then a mountain. Amazing. This country experienced a violent birth, that's for sure. The formations of land could only have resulted from unimaginable upheavals. Livestock-sheep ...

... the hillside with a view of the sea and surrounded by native bush - it's lovely, but a little limited if you were to stay here more than one night. Raglan is a world reknowned surf spot, but with the weather being showers to storms, today was not the day to learn! Instead I walked down to the coast, to Whale Bay (where Jack Johnson and Ben Harper have holiday houses) and the sea was ...

I mentioned that I have gone to some pretty desperate measures to find friends here in Hamilton; I have done basically everything short of standing on a street corner stealing all the attention from the legally-allowed-to-be-there prostitutes by waving around a sign that says "HEY! I'M COOL! CALL ME AND WE'LL DO LUNCH!" But I have done something completely out of character. (Don't worry Dad, I didn't get paid to do it.) ....I went to Church! For those of you who know me really well ...

... wine here is unbelievable, as you can imagine.) It's winter and yet last week there was a day so nice out that I had my bathingsuit on and was lounging around in the backyard. Rough life! Mostly, the weather here is like a sunny Autumn day - perfection - with the occasional and yes sometimes daily, clouds/rain. From the moment I landed I have been driving (on the wrong side) and today I drove myself all the way out to a completely different town for an interview ...

On Sunday morning I left Raglan, sad to go. I would have loved to stay longer and improve my surfing, but I had no money and needed to get back to work in Auckland on Monday. Auckland has a couple of surf beaches not too far away though, so I'll try and get out to them. Sunday also happened to be the day when Raglan held a rock n' roll and classic car festival, so I spent about an hour ...

... because they go catch it every day. I plan to take advantage of the opportunity while I have it! I've finished reading a book I picked up here (this crazy thing about going behind enemy lines in the Serb-Croat civil war to investigate the death of a British girl and finding a war crime - not like me at all but a good book) and started another one (a play by Christopher Marlowe about a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in return for infinite knowledge - much ...

... the cheese. Apparently NZ cheese is plastic. I said don't worry I'm from the US I can relate. I never thought I'd be sharing so much culture over pizza. I will say one thing - maybe it's just because I really like Hawaiian pizza and that's what I always order, but Dominos in NZ has much more interesting, daring pizza than Dominos in the US. There was this great barbeque thing, and one called Funky Chicken that I swear had "kickers" - remember those? - on it. It was really good. And ...