Finally, a proper update!

Well, I guess I should apologise to all you avid readers of this blog. The apology is, of course, for leaving you in suspense for so long regarding where I am and what I've been up to! Other than my very brief update last week (posted merely to placate an angry reader) it's been pretty much a month since I wrote. So... here goes!

I've been in New Zealand for just over 4 weeks now, after leaving the rather pleasant Rancho Urbano in Buenos Aires on the 28th of February and touching down in Auckland just before midnight on the 1st of March. The flight was so, so uncomfortable that it made me feel nostalgic for those awesome Argentine buses. Still, it passed reasonably quickly and before I knew it I was back in New Zealand. Unfortunately, my backpack didn't make it. Well, not straight away, anyway. It arrived a couple of days later after enjoying a brief stay in Sydney.

I was in Auckland for a little under a week, and I did very, very little indeed. Mornings were spent sat in Albert Park reading, drinking coffee and eating muffins. In the afternoons, I initially spent some time trying to find a nice guitar to buy, then, once purchased, sat and played it in the park.

Whilst walking around the city centre trying to find a music shop, I happened across a large Glengarry off-license sporting a "massive selection of single malt whiskies". Intrigued about the possibility of a delightful NZ dram, I went in to investigate. Alas, it seems there was only one single malt distilled over here, and they don't make it any more. Plenty of bottles are still available to buy, but I haven't tried it yet... Curse being on a budget!

Anyways, whilst in the store, I found out there was a tasting that very evening. A rep from Bruichladdich was in the country for Dramfest (a whisky festival down in Christchurch that finished, predictably, just as I arrived in the country) and was coming to the store to do a tasting of 6 different whiskies from their distillery. Being a huge whisky fan and having been to a few tastings in the UK*, I was pretty stoked to come across one in New Zealand. The whiskies were all provided by Glengarry, whilst the rep from Bruichladdich told us all about the distillery - its whiskies, processes, history and future. The highlight for me was getting a taste of their Octomore - the most heavily peated whisky ever made, and a pretty limited release. There were only 6000 bottles in this batch, only 40 of which were exported to New Zealand! I've always been into the peaty Islays, so tasting this was a real treat - and it really is damn good. Surprisingly drinkable for a whisky something like 3 times more peated than Laphroaig!

The following Sunday I met up with my friends from home, Mark and Nicole, and with them drove north for 4 hours to Paihia. During my 3 weeks there, I went canoeing in Maori waka around the bay, went sailing, took a bus trip up to Cape Reinga, went to see Tane Mahuta (the largest Kaori tree in New Zealand) and visited the sleepy town (and oldest European settlement in the country), Russell. I'm trying to make it sound like I did loads, but the truth is that those 5 activities were almost lost in amongst all the sunbathing and general bumming around :)

The trip to the Cape on the AwesomeNZ bus was definitely a highlight. Spike, the driver (and Mark's sister's boyfriend), has seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm and provides an entertaining and genuinely interesting commentary at appropriate points throughout the journey. Along the way, we took in a walk through native bush (complete with towering kauri trees), driving up 90 Mile Beach and stopping for fresh shellfish en route (not for me, though), driving up a river (in a bus, for God's sake!), sandboarding down the 150m Te Paki sand dunes, swimming at a beach the name of which I can't remember (but which was utterly beautiful... white sands, crystal clear water, etc. etc.), plenty of time at Cape Reinga itself, a stop at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom (incredibly expensive, but where else can you get furniture made from 45,000 year-old wood?) and finally, good old fish n'chips. Bloody brilliant day out!

Ok, my brain has just stopped working. Going to stop writing and start sleeping instead :)

* With Eddie from the Whisky Lounge - highly recommended too! He does 'em all over England, so have a lookie :)

Mini-update!

Hello folks,

For those of you wondering what the hell has happened to my bloggage, I'd like to reassure you that I ain't dead. I'm in Paihia (New Zealand) taking it very easy indeed, working on the tan and not doing a reet lot else. In light of this, I didn't really think it was worth writing a new post! In addition to the relative lack of activity, I've been mostly without an internet connection - another reason why blogging isn't so easy...

Ok, that's all for now. I'll write something more interesting when I can get off the beach for long enough to do so ;)