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27 November – Castlepoint, NZ

I went with Deidre and Rani, a friend of ours, to a place called Castlepoint, which is about a 2 hour drive northeast of Wellington. Today was a great day for photos… We went to Martinborough first. This was a … Read more …

The ‘horse whip’ case

There's been an interesting case I've discovered here in NZ that involved a boy being disciplined by his mother with a riding crop (which was turned into a horse whip by media). As a result of the discipline, the child's … Read more …

The law overrules media freedom

Yesterday a court ruling was made that forced a NZ TV station to have two political party leaders on a televised debate. The 6 highest-polling party leaders were invited onto a political debate for the upcoming election, and two political … Read more …

Policies of NZ Political Parties

An excellent site showing summaries of the different policies with the major political parties in NZ can be found here: http://www.policy.net.nz/ If you're in NZ, I recommend you have a look at it to see which of the parties you … Read more …

Happy anniversary to me!

Today is the day that I've been here in New Zealand exactly 4 years. I arrived here on June 14 2000, and it's now June 14 2004. Happy Anniversary to me! Happy Anniversary to me! Happy Anniversary dear Alan… Happy … Read more …

I’m back!

Well, I got back from the road trip on the 24th March, and I hung out with Mel until the 30th, when she caught her flight to Vancouver in Canada (via Auckland – Los Angeles – Vancouver). I've been spending … Read more …

Day Eleven

I'm back home. YAY! The holiday was fantastic, but damn, it's good to be home. Ok, yesterday we travelled from Taupo to Napier in Hawkes Bay. Before we left Taupo we went to a place called Huka Falls, where we … Read more …

Day Nine

5:46pm We're at Lake Taupo now. What a day… We woke up, had breakfast (I didn't bother with the spa, deciding I wasn't interested in carting around wet shorts), and then went for a walk through a nearby park. Amazing. … Read more …

Day Eight

4:30pm We arrived in Rotorua today, where active volcanoes provide the tourist attraction. Isn't it funny that a city is built around an industry that takes advantage of volcanoes about to blow. Or maybe that's just my overactive imagination… There … Read more …

Day Seven

I'm knackered. As usual, I'll start at the beginning. Went on the boat trip this morning, which was awesome. We followed the coastline around for a bit and saw heaps of amazing cliff faces and beaches and stuff – took … Read more …

Day Six

We went to an underwater world attraction for the morning, where I got pissed off 'cause I discovered the camera batteries had gotten loose and caused all the settings I'd fine tuned to revert back to default. So most of … Read more …

Day Five

11:36pm Just got in from having some drinks. Ok, I had 2 butterscotch and bailleys, 2 bourbon and cokes, 1 beer, 2 glasses of water. And that was after 2 beers and 2 cocktails before dinner. I'm surprised I'm still … Read more …

Day Four

My mistake – it's not a seaside town, but it's a riverside town that's close to the sea. Anyway, today was a relaxing day, with us deciding not to go to the Bay of Islands and instead just chill out … Read more …