happy medium

How about this for some scenery, my flight from Auckland:

link to larger image

Touched down in Wellington about 4 hours ago or so. The weather here is even more changeable than Auckland. It’s very windy here as right on the sea front. All the houses are perched on the steep hills/cliffs rolling down to the sea.

I think the population is around 300,000 or so. You’d be forgiven for thinking you were in some English pedestrianised City Centre in some parts, way more British in feel than Auckland. Met Gary and Carlos at the store/building site. Alongside Adam and James they are the main team behind Catalytic Attack. Gary’s from Manchester infact, and has been here about six months with his family.

It’s about 11:30pm here, and I’m about to hit the sack. Only been in Auckland 4 days and already I’m leaving! Only temporarily though as I fly out to Wellington tomorrow morning (New Zealand’s capital, South tip of the North Island). Cost of the flight is pretty cheap, most people fly to other cities here if not driving, the trains are pretty poor. 12 hours to travel to Wellington from Auckland! It’s the same distance as Leicester to London! Kind of shows the landscape your dealing with here in New Zealand, and although I would have liked to see more of the country (not to mention I’m sick of air travel) I can’t face 12 hours on a train…

I’m heading out to Wellington for a few days as the guys who run the store in Auckland are opening another out there. Wellington sounds cool, more European than Auckland, and lots of small cafes and bars. Saying that I love everything I’ve seen and exprienced in Auckland so far, I know you would all love it here.

I’ve not had a chance to do the touristy thing yet, but I have that planned. I stayed at Jame’s flat for the first few days, and have checked into a hotel for just a couple of days until Wellington. I’ll be staying at Adam’s place after that (or until I sort out my own place), only reason I’m not now as he’s in the middle of moving.

First full day, and there was a Graffiti show on K-Road, which is one of the more popular roads with Artists and creative types.

(James & Adam)

Can’t get away from Football! Have been to two matches since getting here. Adam used to play for the Middlesbrough Youth team in the UK, and James his brother for the New Zealand national youth team. Both Goalkeepers! Went to see a game in Mission Bay, which is a beautiful area just east of Auckland. Low and behold one of the teams managers was a tiny bald Scots-Man. Can’t get away from them. Two red cards in the game, these NZ’ers play rough.

Now that I’m off to Wellington for a few days I might not be able to update the site for a little while (or at least photos) I’ll be emailing everyone though. I’m planning a big photo session of all the different areas and sites in Auckland (and now Wellington) so get ready for that.

Oh, and you won’t believe the sun-sets here….

… to say everything is ok. Sorry I’ve not been in contact earlier but as you can imagine everything is pretty hectic here. Only found out about the earthquake in Jakarta in an email from Mum. I flew out from Singapore on the Friday so missed any trouble on the Saturday (although I learn Singapore remains fairly unaffected). You can see how close the City is to Jakata on our flight path:

After the walk around I headed back to the hotel to get another shower and check-out. On my to do list was to check out a few street-wear shops over on Orchard Street. The Singapore Government has pushed the country as a major destination for shopping, so as Orchard Street is the heart of the shopping district, you can imagine it’s pretty packed! Took a Taxi to a shopping mall in particular named Far East Plaza, where a lot of the street-wear brands are based.

Chatted for a while to a lad named John who’s a local. They have the national service and he was telling me he had to spend a year and a half in the army. Can you imagine if they did this in the UK!? He pointed me out a few other stores to check out, and I we went for a bite to eat on his lunch break. Nice to have someone to chat to! Football is pretty big in Singapore, especially the English Premiership, but everyone I spoke to supported Liverpool…

Lost track of time in the end and ran out of time to take the river cruise. Glad I got out and about in the morning to take those photos. On the bus trip to the Airport I was stuck with a load of New Zealanders.

I highly recommend Singapore, if you can stand the heat. Everything is air-conditioned though, even the Taxis! You won’t believe how green and clean this place is (even though I did manage to find some Graffiti). Yes, chewing gum is illegal to buy here, but it never felt like a strict, unfriendly city. The opposite infact.

Probably one of the best factors of Singapore is the Airport. Remember how easy it was for me to land and get through customs? Pretty much the same for leaving. The Airport is really well laid out, staff quick and courteous. Free internet. Everything runs on time. Can’t ask for more. If any of you head out to me in New Zealand, this is the way to fly.

Choose Singapore Airlines, like the flight to Singapore, the flight to Auckland was superb. Get this, 3 seats just to myself again! Even manged to get some sleep on the plane. Landed 10:30am local time in NZ. Customs very smooth, although they are strict on bringing food and plant-life to the country. Even immigration was a breeze, she asked how much I had, but didn’t even check. All that saving and they didn’t even check! Took all of 30 minutes to pass through into Auckland.

Adam and his brother James were waiting to pick me up from the Airport. Although I had previously produced graphics work for him, we didn’t really know too well what each other looked like. How to recognise each other? Easy. Just look at people’s feet. Some rare quick-strike Nike’s and we soon bumped into each other…

After the big sleep, I woke up about 9:30pm. Aross from the hotel there’s building works, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. Pretty interesting to see Singapore life go on around you. They tend to work into the night (till around 11pm) as it’s much cooler. Saying that, they even work through the day with full gear on including hard hats. I swear I had heat exhaustion from just walking around in shorts and a tee.

Got up nice and early on the thursday morning, and took a walk around the area. I like doing this on holiday as it gives you a bit of an insight into local life, and found some great photos such as the alfa and graff below and the huge buddhist temple down a back road:

The heat is pretty unbearable, so only lasted for about 30 mintues before collapsing back to the hotel and grabbing another shower before checking out. (more singapore and new zealand photos to come!)

OK I have to be quick on this post as I check-out of the Hotel in about 1 hour and have to pack everything and have my 2nd shower of the day.

The rest of the flight was great. We hit a fair amount of turbulence around Poland and Russia, and especially over India, but nothing out of the ordinary. The landing was ultra smooth. Just as we began to descent towards Changi Airport the sun started to rise over Singapore. An absolutely amazing site, but sods-law my camera had decided to run out of juice about an hour before hand. 80 degrees fahrenheit and 80% humidty at 7am in the morning. I was expecting heat but nothing like this….

Now for Changi Airport. It took me all of 15 minutes to leave the 747, pass through immigration and customs, and into Singapore. I was even offered a sweet while the lady checked my passport with a “Welcome to Singapore Sir” and a nice smile. If you ever have to spend time in an Airport this is the one. Will let you know how leaving goes.

Got to the Hotel around 9am. Too early to check in so decided to walk around the area. BIG MISTAKE. Still had my jeans on and within 30mins felt like I had taken a sweat shower. It’s almost too hot…

So headed back to the Hotel dripping with sweat and headed up to the 5th floor swimming pool before getting my room. This is no ordinary pool, with glass sides and hanging over the edge of the building, complete with 360 view of Singapore and the river:

Loads of photos of Sinagpore to come, just need a bit more time! Drop me a comment by clicking on comments below, love to know who of you are reading this!

Right, first real post and not a bad place to do it. I’m about 32,000 feet above Germany, travelling at 620mph. Feels like I’ve only just got on the plane.

My seat is just above SV-SP0

Take-off was good, broke the rules and got you this covert footage:

If you’ve ever heard about Singapore air stewardesses being stunning, I’m happy to say it’s all true.

They are known as the “Singapore Girl” and wear the traditional sarong kebaya dress.

Now I’m listening to Barry White, while sipping on a Shiraz and browsing the web on my laptop. Oh and I’ve an entire row to myself:

Time to kick back and enjoy dinner – 10,000 ks to Singapore…

Here’s what moving Country for 2 years looks like. That’s not including travellers cheques….

Ok, here’s my first post. Basic I know. I’ve not had a chance to play around with the look of happymedium, but I’ll get it all sorted when I’ve got a bit more time in NZ. I’m flying out Tuesday 23rd May, 12pm GMT. Going to be taking plenty of photos and video, all of which will find it’s way onto happy medium. This is a record of my working holiday / new life to New Zealand, but first a stop over in Singapore.

If you want to know about updates just add a comment adding your email.

Just a quick thank-you to my bro’s Matthew and Vish. Had a great few days with them, an extended leaving do, and going to really miss them. Looking forward to hooking up with them in New Zealand no doubt!

Rob