New Zealand -Aoteaora- Wellington & ‘Surviving Richie’
Kia Ora (Welcome in Maori) to the land of the Long White Cloud, Aoteaora (Maori for New Zealand).
Español: Kia Ora ( Bienvenido en Maori) , la tierra de la larga nube blanca o Aotearoa ( Nueva Zelanda en Maori).
Wellington, Capital of New Zealand lies at the Southern Tip of the North Island, overlooking the windy Cook Strait, separating the North and South Islands. So as you can imagine it’s very windy! Here’s a view over the city from the botanic gardens were apparently is very easy to get lost:
Esp: Wellington, la capital de Nueva Zelanda esta situado al sur de la isla Norte, mirando el estrecho que separa la isla norte y sur ..el viento sopla a toda vela por aqui.. Vistas de la ciudad desde el Jardin Botanico donde es muy facil perderse de lo grande que es.
The Maori Jesus plaque we saw kinda seemed strange, but interesting!
Esp: Esta es la traduccion de la placa en un lago: Vi al Jesus Maori caminando por la bahia de Wellington, llevaba unas bermudas azules, su pelo y barba eran largos , su aliento olia a paroa y mejillones, cuando el sonrio, se parecio al amanecer.
Richie, our mate who lives in Wellington pointing out to Quene where exactly we are!Esp: Habia una exposicion de Yann Arthur-Bertrand , aparte de sus fotos habia un mapa gigante del mundo. Richie nos esta enseñando donde esta Wellington exactamente.
2nd night in Wellington and we ended up at a fancy dress party, the 3 of us went along dressed up as Mexicanos!!!! Left to right: Ricardo Montoya , Ines Maria de La Fe Mendoza Zapata and Santiago Antonio Montoya !It was a great party, we met lots of people, some guy started breaking up garden furniture and set it on fire, we later learned that apparently that’s a Wellington house party ‘tradition’, mmmmm….. And finally los mexicanos after the party, ambushed by a gang of cowboys!!! So do you think we’d make good extras in a spaghetti western?
Esp: Segunda noche en Wellington y nos invitaron a una fiesta de disfraces, se nos ocurrio vestirnos de mejicanos..! De Izquierda a derecha: Ricardo Montoya , Ines Maria de La Fe Mendoza Zapata and Santiago Antonio Montoya .. Nos reimos un monton y conocimos a mucha gente, aparentemente es ‘tradicion’ quemar muebles en el jardin …??!! asi que aprovechamos los efectos especiales para la tercera foto. .. Hasta el fuegoooooo!!
Dragon Boat races are big things here, Maories arrive in Aoteaora in 7 canoes, we were lucky to catch a photo down at the harbour:
Esp: En la bahia vimos una carrera de canoas, son muy famosas aqui, dicen que los maories llegaron a Aoteaora en 7 canoas.
Inside the Te Papa ‘Our place’ (National Museum of New Zealand), James inside a ‘Marae’ an official Maori Meeting house.
Esp: Esto es en Te Papa ‘Nuestro lugar’ ( El museo Nacional de Nueva Zelanda) , James dentro de un Marae, el lugar donde los maoris se celebraban reuniones tribales.
Traditional Maori wood carving, beautiful! Hopefully we’ll get to visit and see some Maori traditional culture close up…. here is more accesible than in Australia with the Aborigens.
Esp: La cultura Maori es muy rica , esto es uno de los esculturas de madera, echar un vistazo a los detalles… pronto tendremos la oportunidad de conocer la cultura maori desde cerca,
Read the plaque, really sums up the reason why we were put on this earth, ‘do’ and not just ‘be’!
Esp: Otra placa por la calle lee: Es verdad que no puedes vivir aqui por casualidad , tienes que hacer y ser , no simplemente mirar o describir. Esta es la ciudad de la accion , la sede mundial del verbo…. Toma yaaaa…!!! 😉
More views of Wellington, The Floating Sphere at Civic Square, the cultural centre of the city, and the view from Richie’s place, nice, oh yea, Wellington apart from being a very windy city is also a very hilly city too, being built on a fault line.
Esp: Mas vistas de Wellington, Civic Square y la esfera flotante, y el centro cultural de la ciudad , Wellington esta construida sobre una falla , Nueva Zelanda esta cubierta de fallas y volcanes.. vista desde lla casa de Richie.
We’re running a bit behind on getting up posts, due to partying hard and Paddy’s day, etc… so as soon as we can we’ll put up a post on Auckland and Paddy’s Day New Zealand style!
Estamos un poco retrasados poniendo posts.. es debido a tanta fiesta especialmente San Patricio, no hubo concierto pero nos lo pasamos muy bien… Asi que fiestas terminadas …volvemos a la dura vida del mochilero… para enseñaros lo mejor de Aoteaora.
Adios muchachos!
J & Q
James & Quene
Hey Guys,
Made it back to Wellington in one piece, bit weird met a load of people from work in Auckland and Wellington airports, kinda like a strange reunion or something. The clouds are so heavy with rain down here that its 10am and almost dark, bucketing down. Anyways I’m gonna “Focus” on my work now and c yis in a couple of weeks for round 3 :). Maybe you guys could try and come through Welly again at the weekend and the Mexicanos can “Ride” again!!
Hasta el fuego,
Ricardo Olivier Fallon Montoya
Good you made it safe.. eh!
We are still in Auckland ..trying to get a campervan .. and the cheaper ones are not available until friday ..eh!
So I guess we will continue focusing on the cinema, museums and all sort of places..eh!
and you continue focusing in your job.. eh!
Everytime we pass the room 107 ..we go aahhhh…we miss Richie.. (yeah roih)
We will try to do ‘something’ useful until friday.. eh!
By they way
Larry .. did you heard about the cyclone Larry in North Queensland .. it has destroy a whole town called Innisfall south of Cairns, sugar cane and banana crops …we were there… scary !!
And there is another one coming .. I hope the Great Barrier Reef is ok…
Agus,
Happy Birthday…!! how many??.. I just posted your BD card today..
Feliz Cumpleaños desde las antipodas!!
Also today The Spring officially starts in Spain.. good! Here is sunny but not for long.
See yas later!
Lads if you have a couple of days to burn I’d suggest heading up to the coromandle…. “eh”!
http://www.thecoromandel.com/
Besides the beautiful beeches and forests around that area also has where the treaty between the Maroi and the Pakeha “Brits” was signed….. “eh”! You can visit traditional Maori meeting grounds (Marae) and all that Jazz…. “eh”!
http://www.waitangi.net.nz/about/
http://www.treatyofwaitangi.govt.nz/
oh yeah… “eh”! the plural of Maori is Maroi not Moaries 🙂 got laugh outta than …….. “eh”! “ow” ;).
doh, sorry Waitangi is actually north of Auckland and Coromandel is south…. eh!
We will head to Paihia tomorrow Eh!
In Maori : Good here. It is a word of mixed origin, pai (good), hia (may be here).
So hopefully we will be good there…(laughs)
we will rent a car tomorrow and back to Auckland for friday to get the campervan and start rock& roll the north island.
We are uploading the pics of Auckland .. so in a few days we will post it.
By the way ,we saw Aeonflux.. is kinda funny (but it is not mean to be)
See you guys in a few days.
Hola chicos!
He intentado mandaros el otro día un correo pero me fue imposible. Este será muy corto por si me sigue dando problemas.
Sólo decir que el viaje tiene una pinta alucinante.
Besitos
PD: Si funciona os escribiré más a menudo
Funciona!!
jejejeje, es que no había añadido el código en el antispam.
Bueno, bueno, cuánto tiempo, guys!. Me alegró mucho ver vuestra Web y saber que cuando terminéis el viaje os vendréis a Madrid. Ni que decir tiene que os espero ver que yo estaré por aquí un rato largo :0)
Un abrazo y nos leemos!
Testing
Now I got it! (I hope)
Alrite ladz!
I hadn’t heard of Cyclone Larry untiul you mentioned it! Bit of a strange name for a cyclone (Larry being a nickname!). They are comparing it to Katrina; at least nobody died this time, though more out of chance than anything else!
A friend told me that they have a list of names for coming cyclones (in America anyway), that is you can check the list and know the name of the next cyclone (and the next, and the next…)…..
So maybe there’s a Cyclone James (or Jimmy) on its way; unlikely the next will be Cristina as he close friend (in terms of the letters in her name) Katrina has done enough damage already!?
All from me for now…..
Except to say enjoy NZ – and that I’ll post that Harold Pinter article to my sister’s address; you can pick it up there if you are going through Nelson. It’s still sitting on my desk right now! Or maybe I’ll have it scanned and send it on to you by e-mail!?
B’Bye 🙂
Hey,
Sounds like all is going well for you. How long are you planning to travel the North Island?
Well we both LOVE Hong Kong!!! Time is going so quickly though which is a pain but were cramming tons in.Everything about this place is fantastic, the people, the food, the sights and of course the shopping. Id say we’l come back again the first opportunity. We bought a cool digital camera, recommended by Ken so we’l mail you some pics.
Anyways, continue having a ball and we’l post again soon.
Love Pete and Mon.
Hola presiosa, veo que nos vamos preparando para cruzar el pacífico weyyy…
andale andale, ya podría haber caido por aquí un chupito de tequila… : )
Estoy un poco cansada por la traducción y por la vida, te escribo que el otro día te eché mogollones de menos y me puse a llorar y todo !
Qué genial !
Os veo estupendos, a ver si tengo ojitos y me pongo a leer sobre la cultura maorí.
Quereres,
I think they might be running out of names for the cyclones, was a on cruise in Airlee beach a couple of years ago and we had to head to shore on account of tropical cyclone Benny, shades of crossroads.
Hi Larry,
yea funny name for the Cyclone, I’m sure there’s been a Jimmy or James, not sure when though…Hope you’re taking care of Pete and Mon in HK!!!
Pete and Mon hope you’re having a ball, Mon go easy in the shops, there are lots, don’t forget the night markets, they’re cool, and remember, haggle, it’s fun!!!! We’ll spend another week or so in the north Island, probably hit the South Island the 1st week of April, will drop a mail to Sandra soon!
Cris,
Que sorpresa!! Pues por aqui estamos , al norte de Nueva Zelanda , esto es precioso, pronto empezaremos a poner mas fotillos, es una pena que no vieramos a U2 en St Paddys.
Todavia nos queda un monton de cosas por ver .. 6 meses dando vueltas..
Asi que ya nos vamos leyendo.
Por cierto… The Rainbow Warrior I , esta aqui cerca de Paihia, hundido, se puede bucear , no hemos llegado a verlo porque esta a 25 m de profundidad y nosotros solo podemos bucear hasta 18 de momento.
En los proximos posts explicaremos porque esta bajo el mar y no surcando los mares…
Calenco,
Al venir a Paihia pasamos por Kawakawa, donde vivio y murio (2000) Hundertwasser, asi que paramos y echamos un vistazo a unos servivios publicos que construyo (1999) .. nos hizo mucha ilusion.
Sobre la cultura maori , ya iremos explicando poco a poco tambien, a primera vista parece que son mucho mas respetados que los aborigenes en Australia, lo cual nos alivia ya que la situacion de los aborigenes en Australia te deja un mal sabor de boca que no veas… espero que si volvemos a Australia , visitarlos sea mas barato asi que se les puede ayudar economicamente y salgan del aislamiento.
Besos pa todos
Richie,
It is a pity you are leaving NZ in a month without visiting this part of the North..
James is telling me that you were here??!! OR NOT.. eh!
See ya soon
testing, dont think the blog likes my comments!!
Hi Mairead,
Sorry about the comments, try again, the administrators did that not us .. and not sure if everybody notice it ,the pics are smaller as well , and they changed the way to upload them ( it is easier now) .. I hope they don’t change things around very often (as it takes time to figure the new way out )…
Tomorrow we will finally do the post for Auckland (they close soon tonight it is Sunday) the internet cafe in the middle of nowhere.. lot of suprises coming up in the nexts posts … ! (we will say nothing until you see it)
See yas!
hope it has nothing to do with the tropical cyclone of the coast of NZ eh. This ones called Watty… or not… a bit weird cause bachelors beans are called wattys beans here… ow!
Hi Bakchos,
Thanks for your comments, just for curiosity, what subject are you studying…??, maybe we can help you… well at the moment we are in Buenos Aires (Argentina)
http://blogs.bootsnall.com/JamesM/
…….. but if you need some other info let us know.
Thanks again..! 🙂
Q&J
Here is a link to some cool New Zealand video and we are looking at doing Wellington next. Does anyone have off the beaten track information about the city?
http://www.larrythetravelguy.com
Hi Larry, here’s a few pointers from a friend who spent some time living in Wellington (namely Richie from the title of the post!!!)
Just a couple of pointers on Wellington.
Check out the reverse bungi of Cuba street.
Breakfast in Fidels on Cuba street.
Theres a seal colony about an hour outta town.
Theres a dive on the ship from the King Kong movie.
Go to the snow and ski Mt Ruapehu about 3hrs from town.
Check out the havana and vespa night clubs
Go to the film studio all things lord of the rings
Check out the Te Papa museum
Enjoy Wellington!