The First Week of Travel as Carny's in a Caravan.

There wasn't much to talk about the Wales Fiji match since it was raining most the game and Fiji basically gave up and already had their bags packed. We left and tried to find a bar for the Irish Italy match and ended up sitting in a chineese backery@! The Bars were too full with drunk Welch...we could still see over most of them and watch the tv's!!! But opted for some less crowed atmosphere, so the chineese bakery provided a seat and table, and nice big tv. The Irish didn't dissabpoint, and we were excited to have them in our Quarter Final tickets in Auckland. Wales and Ireland would be one of the best match ups to date with the way both sides were playing. NZ and Argentina wouldn't be any less of a drop off either. Argentina was the bronze third place team 4 years ago and they were playing strong again this go around. All in all weather aside, we were really exited about the road ahead and the weekend matches.

We got up the next morning and had some breakfast and got out on the road with the purpose of heading to the coast and the hotsprings of Hot Water Beach and Hahei. Oh yea did i mention we camped in a parking lot of the local grocery store across from the bar....yea sweet huh? Feels even better when people are going to work shuffling in and out of their cars and there are three retards rolling out of a van...and i have such fun making slight of dirty hiipies on the states...oh they would be so proud right now. No one looks at us but mostly because we have the space lord with us and he looks altogether like a russian hit man during his best hours of the day much less at 7 in the morning! ehhhh

Raining again

Barely dry from last nights deluge its on us again but its early and our adventue has just begun. Hanky and Roffe had some ideas on travel and sites to see so i let them conduct as i lay on the back and ejoyed the views and the ride.

Fortunately this country is as beautiful rainy and wet as it is sunny...the rolling hilsides from town to town still havent gotten old well into this trip. I know I have said Ireland before but it really is so comparable especially when its raining and overcast!

speaking of which we were happy to watch the Irish beat Italy to move on for the first time in RWC history without loosing a pool play match. They are starting to round out.

We left Hamilton and decided to head to the east coast and the coramandel peninsula. our main foccus would be hotwater beach and the cathedral bluffs of hahei beach. It rained for most of the day and drive however, the a scenery was lush and spectacular. It's at first strange when you get to the coastal areas in NZ and there's nothing but farmland with sheep and cattle. Expecting the usual build up of condos, beach houses and rentals along with useless shopping stores pushing tourist junk doesn't happen here and definitely has grown on me....i hope it never changes here.  Most locals here feel the same way and their is a concerted effort by the government to not sell off these areas to foreign investors like the chinease. But you know how that can change....especially when politics are involved.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coromandel_Peninsula

We arrive and find our carny park to hull up for the evening. Thankfully the rain had subsided for the moment.  We got the camper hooked and set up with electricity for the evening....so we could head to the beach and not have to worry about anything when we got back.  

The holiday park had shovels for us to borrow so we headed off to catch low tide.  The geologic feature that allows the low water table and sand to boil is a vien that comes from the mountain near bye...this vein only runs through a portion of the beach  by an out croping of rocks....so you can't just dig a hole anywhere...this is evident by everyone sitting and digging in one are....so find a spot... dig a hole in the sand and piping hot water perculates up to provide a natural jaccuzi of sorts.  since the level of water crashing in with the tides is kind of unpredictable you try and build up a mote wall of sand .... bu on this day it was a high low tide meaning there wasn't a lot of drop off or difference between tides that change from high to low twice in a 24 hr period. So many of the pools got wiped out and flooded with cold water coming in from the ocean.  The sand in spots was super hot but mostly you had to have a spot far enough back to enjoy it.  

Since we had spent a lot of time digging and only enjoyed a little time of hot water before the water destroyed the tub we had created....then the wind and rain started in....it just got to cold for us to justify staying...we decided to head back and cook some food. 

I didnt take many pics because of the rain and not wanting to take my phone to the beach...so the next day provided a much better day of warm weather and sunshine so we headed just a few kilometers up the road to do some hiking... hahei beach was one of the most ridiculous spots i've seen yet...so lots of pics to speak for me....

So after a Great morning of hiking, we got back on the road and headed towards the town of Coramandel. Hanky really wanted to travel along this "unsealed" mountain road which is nothing more than a narrow gravel road. THe Unsealed road wasn't that bad until the very end when a dude driving a "yoot" or what they call a work truck decided to cut a couple S turns right down the middle as we were coming around one of them...we slid to a stop against the side of the hilside as close as we could be to the rocks...while the other truck didn't budge kept flying by and nearly took our sideview mirror off... pretty tense moment, and needless to say we were glad to be on to pavement and normal roads again.

There were some thing along that route to see...some water falls and some Huge old trees that were all but cut down for their timber earlier in the previous century. There were only six of them left but they were pretty impressive. Howver, I was more taken by these strange fern trees that have a palm tree like trunk or base...but have Fern like leaves and form an umbrella shape at the top. Don't know if the pic does it justice but they are really really cool looking.

After that diversion we headed around the massive bay that has Auckland to its west. There was a small town called Thames, so we stopped for some late lunch and to find a spot up the way to camp. WE decided to head to Orrewa and camp there...it was just north of Auckland and getting dark it would be easy to get in and get bedded down for the evening. As Hanky and Rolf had decided we should head north to cheack out things that direction and then head back to Auckland of Friday.

So after an uneventful evening at Orrewa Beach campround, it was nice waking up to the sounds of the waves and a decent looking beach which was just minutes north of the crowded streets of Auckland. We got up early and continued exploring a little as we went up the coast. Rolf had brought along a Lonely Planet book so we would just kind of read and hit some interesting places along the way.

THe night before provided some humor with a stop a chineese restaurant, so we had plenty of left overs to eat another night....but we also hit up a grocery store to load the fridge with some essentials. Apparently Hanky likes "Joe-Gurt" or as we like to call yogurt...for breakfast. This kid eats a tube that is the size of an ice cream container... I think it's 500 ml... but it might as well be a gallon! Regardless his pronunciation of such things makes me laugh and like much he rambles on about or does is endless and mostly useless banter!

The Return of the Space Lord.....

I don't think I can go any further without telling a story about Dr. Henrik Viberg. Hanky as he is so passionately called has always loved his heavy metal. By heavy metal I don't mean Iron Maiden or anything else that tame.  The music he enjoys is so unrecognizable to most as music that its hard to imagine the actual lyrics.  One of his favorite bands is Monster Magnet and apparently they had an ablum called Space Lord Mother F'er.... yea again not out of the realm of reality for this type of music. Normally this would be enough, but Hanky in all his fashion sense of course had to buy a concert T shirt. For those of you who don't know Hanky his wardrobe consists of Rugby jerseys, concert shirts and mostly shorts..for us this is how we know him and all together how we expect him to be...making us laugh. What's not believable, is that he awakes one morning and puts on his new concert tee before going to school.....to teach!

Yes his first section/class the new year was begun with him writing a long explanation of sorts on the blackboard... name, section, course material etc. Either way....nothing much crossed his mind through out the lecture. However, at the end of the class one of his students came up and asked him what the back of his shirt meant. He recalls thinking the kid was playing a joke on him, because he thought there was nothing on the back...maybe someone had put a handwritten sign as a prank? He replied that there is nothing what do YOU mean....The kid says... uhhh no it says "Space Lord Mother Fucker" as he tried to do the translation of the words in Swedish to explain...not all together easy as not all words mean the same thing...thus the kid was confused. Well of course that's the name of the monster magnets new ablum. Then he just walked away...like any good teacher would... I mean come on, you are a stupid student...you should know this!!! Seriously...how could you make this up!!! It is so much the reason this guy charms every one he meets....to the point they will never forget him....he undoubtedly never forgets how to laugh at himself...and is obviously why I am writing about him now and always first to travel to see him. Hilariaty if a word wouldn't come close to explaining his nature or actions of thought. The same as not knowing that Space Lord Mother Fucker was written on the back of the shirt you were buying and later wearing to school...can only be compared to the comedic genius of a brilliant stand up... just roll with it and do what you do. Anyway...picutres are worth a thousand words especially as poorly written as I can make them after 5 or so weeks on the road...

Yes Suddenly this trip has gotten even more interesting.....

Saturday was huge...I was glad to be back in NZ and Really looking forward to seeing more of the country and seeing some great rugby.  The eagerness was felt by all...as Chris was happy to see us and just as ready to head downtown for the Scotland vs England match and once again show off his city and country.

We once again had some pints and lunch down at the harbor by Chris' house at the jolly roger...then hopped a ferry across the bay to downtown.  We would watch the Tonga vs France game first....and oh what a start to the weekend it would be with one of if not the biggest upset of all time.

New Zealand is home to the biggest population of "islanders" than anywhere.  This includes Samoans, Fijians and most of all... Tongans.  There are more Tongans in NZ than even their own Island Nation.  Plus the Entire National Rugby Team of Tonga is made up entirely of NZ born Tongans.   So it was a festive atmosphere and everyone is always primed to cheer against the French (as well as the English when playing) and this setting was no different.

The Cloud is a massive harbourside structure built to house massive big screen TV's and serve beer....since the weather was super windy and mostly cold we decided to hull up there and take things on.

 Of course Hanky has no problem breaking lines and making friends with strangers...these two look like some nightmare version of the Adams Family...wish I had a lightbulb to stick in this guys ear, just to make sure!!

We had a massive drink up and Hanky got a few people introduced to his Red Wine and Coke mixture, which only added to the hangover the next day.

The next day was hard but a good breakfast and some rugby highlights before a full slate of games makes for a good Sunday. We decided to get out of the house and give Jo and Chris a break from ....well us. Since Hamilton was only an hour or so away from Auckland we made the plan to scalp some tickets and start our next weeks journey from there.....Wales and Fiji would undoubtedly provide some good rugby as both like to run and its the last game of the day for all the pool play. We were able to contact the broker that one of our friends used and he put us into contact with a welsh dude that had tickets for well under face valuse. So we hoped on them and got out of town south to Hamilton. The weather was already starting to degrade but we were one big happy family in a small camper van! We needed to stop and take care of some internet capabilities, so we found a mall of sorts we could purchase a broadband mobile card that would allow us some freedom of use and not worry about phone usage or connectivity. But just getting through the parking lot and getting parked was already becoming a challenge with Two Sweedes in the front seats and me trying to follow directions fromthe plus valour couch directly behind them. Roffe is a sixty something year old man who has been around Hanky's rugby club for many years as a fix it all do it all kind of type...but loves rugby all the same as we do and the reason he came along....well initially Hanky thought he would make a good driver since he doesn't drink...and thus aloowing us to consume for more hours of the day without the worry of driving. Well apparently that plan went out the window an hour into their first landing in Auckland. Hanky having a short fuse for stupidity or in this case bad driving / directional skills had gotten tired of Roffe's inabiltiy to follow his direction. So now Hanky the Space Lord was driving. He apparenty has no directional apptitude with his Ph.d So that leaves me and my Iphone Google Maps to bark out turns and hopeful directions. Yay!

So after the comedy of errors in a parking lot deserving a go cart race...we found our telecom store, ATM and some food...then were off to meet our ticket guy...then of to the game...raining steady now...the carny adventure continues.