Maori than Meets the Eye

I know, I know: I haven't updated this in a while, but I've been having far too much fun touring around New Zealand's North Island. In the past two weeks I've seen caves lit up like a night sky with little glow worm stars, walked through Mordor, used lakes as my own personal washing machine - in one case this was performed under the watchful eye of the local boat club setting up for the day's races - and lived the sober version of the Jack Kerouac lifestyle out of a van.

The last item on that list was all thanks to Couch Surfing, through which I met a chronically burping Dutch girl with no sense of smell and the oddest repertoire of sneezes known to man. I swear there's at least one sound per key on a synthesiser. Might be the next musical phenomenon. We met on the 1st of December and set off the next day around the isle, which looks a lot like the greener parts of Devon and Cornwall. And that even goes for the roads as their "highways" are only the size of a single-lane A Road.

To be fair the condition of the roads concerned Joke (yes, that is her real name) more than me because I haven't got my licence with me. I didn't think I'd need it, and for the most part that's turning out to be true (there's no way I was joining the carmageddon that constitues Delhi rush hour), however it might have been prudent to bring it along just in case. LA and San Diego will be a tad more challenging to traverse without a car, but I'll manage.

New Zealand really does appeal to me, even more so than Oz (Sorry Naomi). The scenery is great, the climate is far cooler and I'm fascinated by the accent. Everyone's called Bro, and they really do say 'chup' instead of 'chip'. Comedy gold!

My only regret is that I didn't plan to stay longer. But hey, there's always next time... :)

Tony would like to ask Naomi and Matthew to do him a favour. If you see a guy selling batteries for $1.99 in the Surry Hills shopping complex, give him a clip round the ear. Those bargain basement 'Super Heavy Duty' batteries he sold me hold hardly any charge.

If it looks too good to be true...