Antipody: Archive

Teddy & Toria, what a pair of cuties! on Twitpic →

Dec 18th

Lost in Translation

Before I came to New Zealand, I never really thought the accent was all that strong - only with some weird little things that sound funny when said by the Flight of the Conchords guys. But over the months there have been several times where I’ve had to ask someone to repeat something again and again because it just does not make sense! I’ve also (only just) started to understand the...

Mar 24th

1 note

Jan 30th

2 notes

5 tags

Karamea, Yeah Yeah (Part 1)

I remember watching a younger, unwashed version of Michael Palin shlepping down the Nile on a shabby looking riverboat for the BBC a decade or so ago. He said with an authority he had unquestionably earnt that this place he was travelling through had something inexplicable, something special, the words for which had and were continuing to escape even his most expressive of minds. Karamea might be...

Dec 7th

Oct 7th

Oct 3rd

Oct 1st

Sep 30th

5 notes

Sep 22nd

1 note

Sep 16th

2 notes

So Frisby and I have been swimming and body-boarding in the sea for the past few days. Today we decided to give it a rest but take the dog for an epic walk along the beach. It was glorious and lovely and in the end we decided we’d come back and swim after all, because the day was just so beautiful. We both turned to look back at the ocean before heading back to the house to drop off the dog,...

Sep 9th

Swim in

We’ve had a few lovely, sunny days in the Eastern Bay, and have made the most of them by trotting down to the beach daily and having a swim. Victoria was really quite amazingly scared of the whole endeavour a few days ago, but with a bit of perseverance and the addition of bodyboards, that all seems to be a thing of the past. I couldn’t drag her out today, and to make matters worse she...

Sep 9th

Rongo - hippy volunteering on an organic farm →

Where we hope to go next…all fingers and toes crossed!

Sep 2nd

We went kayaking in a volcanic lake - Tarawera... →

We drove through lots of forest to get to the lake (like, LOTS of forest. Miles and miles) and A MAN FLAGGED US DOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FOREST. He said he’d been out possum hunting all night and his car battery had died or something. We didn’t have any tools or cable thingies anyway so we couldn’t help him but he was Freaky. As. Hell. He had long grey lank hair and looked...

Aug 31st

Differences between the UK and NZ

In the UK, your weekly pummeling-politicians programme is Question Time, hosted by the dignified David Dimbleby, with half embarrassed audience members calmly asking MPs and people like Shami Chakrabarti from Liberty questions. In New Zealand, the equivalent is Back Benchers. This is held in a pub, hosted by a young shouting man that yells things like “people are pissed off at your sense of...

Aug 7th

Aug 6th

“Dear Mr Frisby, even though the job that has been offered to you was advertised for 8 months with no applicants coming forward, and even though the job eventually had three other people interviewed that turned out to be useless, and even though the job specifies the fact you need to have qualifications in business and Japanese and at least 5 years Web Design experience, and even though you...

Aug 5th

Watch

Victoria and Clay.

Aug 3rd

UPDATE

We went to the harbour, we went fishing, I didn’t catch a massive fish. Instead, a massive fish buggered off with my bait, hook and line-weight. Will try again tomorrow perhaps. Stuart.

Aug 2nd

Dear New Zealand,

We (my girlfriend and I) are exactly the sort of people you’re supposed to want to come live and work in your beautiful country. We both have degrees in fields where you need more people, one of us has a solid job offer, contract signed, terms agreed etc. Yet still you want to make it as difficult as possible for us to be here. Just give me a fucking visa and let me start living. Yours...

Jul 28th

Jul 20th

Jul 11th

Beaten to it...

But I was going to post about today too! Well fine, here’s my version of events: Woke up, got bought breakfast, came back and played with baby goats, went and started learning to play tennis (being taught by my beautifully patient lovely boyfriend) in a court that could see the ocean from, went for paddle in said ocean, walked along the beach, got back and knitted with a cat on my lap,...

Jul 10th

Friday.

Today has been an excellent day. We woke up early and drove into Whakatane with my sister, and stopped at a cafe to grab breakfast. The sun has been shining for a couple of days. There is still a wintery chill in the air, but nothing required the scarves and hats I’ve seen some of the locals sporting. Anyway, breakfast was good, and it was nice to have a little outing with my sister and...

Jul 9th

Photos →

Photos of our first week in New Zealand. I will post properly on here at some point, honest! Victoria.

Jul 8th

Tauranga

Just got back to the ranch after a quick 24 hours in Tauranga, the city we’re hoping we are going to be able to live in for a while if I land the job I’m going after. It’s a small city, but I remembered from my previous visit there in 2007 that it has a youthful feel - no doubt added to by the many summer backpackers, and the plentiful watersports and other such activities split...

Jul 2nd

Jet lag

We thought that after arriving in Auckland at 9am, we’d battle on until a reasonable hour, and skip that horrible jet lag experience all together. How wrong we were. Despite getting on New Zealand time very quickly, we’re still falling asleep at 8pm, and waking around 6 every morning. We’re getting closer to being on a proper schedule, but that first lie-in still eludes us. The...

Jun 29th

“Fuck Mugabe - Having to go to work with a hangover is the worst thing in the...”

– Victoria

Jun 21st

Jun 20th

Leaving.

We finally managed to get our flights booked and are leaving on Wednesday morning from Heathrow. It was beginning to seem like we’d never leave, so it is a great relief to know that this time next week we’ll be waking up in the Bay of Plenty at the start of our travelling adventures.

Jun 19th

The Plan.

Life has a habit of making a mockery of your best laid plans. I was going back to Japan to teach for a year or two, my lovely girlfriend was probably going to wind up in an amazing university here in England doing a masters on her way to becoming a political firebrand. Instead - we met, we fell in love and now we’re about to embark on a journey to the other end of the world together....

Jun 3rd