Child of the Planet

Years ago, I was on the way home from a Tai Chi session, and was thinking of giving it up. I started the lessons cause I thought it would help calm my mind, but I ended up being more manic from concentrating on trying to do the movements right. The concentration needed to empty my mind, made the exercise a bit pointless. I stopped at a bottle shop to pick up a bottle of wine. At the time I was living with four flatmates and we would regularly have a group dinner on a Friday night. One of the housemates cooked, and everyone else bought along a bottle. I scanned the shelves through the glass refrigerator doors, and saw a bottle of Italian white. The glass was shaped like a fish. We were having fish that night. '˜Kismit!' thinks I. That night, when dinner was served, all were impressed when I banged the bottle on the table. We split the seal and shared it around. Everyone took a sip, and then looked at me. I cracked up. The wine tasted like fish, or chemicals, or somet...

This is a story extracted from notes of my trip through Turkey I had been staying for a week or so in Olympos, which is right down the bottom of Turkey on the coast. Olympos is known for being the home of the Olympic €˜eternal flame ™ which the visitor can go and see (and try and put out by standing on, if one wants to be a silly bugger and has been drinking.) the flames come licking up out of the rocks. These days the fire is a bit feeble, but in the old days, the flames used to be intense enough that ships used them to navigate at night. It's also known for a community of travellers living in tree houses. It was time to find a new horizon, so a group of us decided to head off to see the people who lived in caves out in Goreme. Antalya was a stop off point on our way to Goreme. We had arrived in a minibus from the camping site, and the next bus didn't €™t leave until the evening, so we decided to spend the day seeing sites of interest outsi...

I'€™m not a fan of flying. This is not the same as being afraid of flying. Flying is one of the most unnatural activities a human can be subject to. It'€™s wrong, and I don't understand why the religious nuts haven'€™t condemned this abomination of god universe. I'€™ll willingly board a plane, let them bolt the doors closed, and allow two turkeys in the cockpit to chauffeur me to my destination. But! I'€™m not happy with the situation. Especially if the plane performs a hard banked turn just after take off, and I'€™m 'lucky' enough to have a window seat on the inside of the turn. The view is straight down. Exactly the same view that I would have if the plane disintegrated, and I was tipped out into the air. Propeller driven planes are the worst. When a jet fires up, the whine from the turbines sounds hi-tech. When a prop starts its engines, it sounds like the dodgy V8 that the local white trash cruise around town in.

Napier The final day of the festaval and kids are out racing soup box carts. The grown ups are putting up marques and furnishing them in the art deco style. Pretty damn amazing!

Parade today All the beautiful old cars are driven down the main street, escorted by Army, Navy, and Police. More then once I've found my self part in the minority, surrounded by folk in period coustume.

Drove down to beach  have breakfast. Parked next to several vans similar to mine. All seemed to be owned by young Europeans. Sat eating pancakes and watching a parade of campers empty their toilets at a dump station up near the road side. There was an amenities block with toilets an an outdoor shower, next to the dump station. A girl in a bikini walked up to the block and had a wash at the shower head poking out from the concrete wall. She started washing her hair, which I thought was usual. Then she started to shave her pits and I thought, ahhhh backpacker. The Filter Room Visited the Filter Room , which is just outside the Napier CBD with my relatives and a couple of their mates. This business makes their own ciders and beer, and provide a great sampler rack where you can select any six drinks from their range. I've been here several times and always had a great time, sitting outside next to the orchard, working my way through the taste sensations. http://www.th...

Drove the Gentle Annie today. Was a bit surprised how quickly I did it. Pretty much a single days drive. Amazing view from rest stop What a drive though. Great scenery, and I'd heard that the road was a bit dodgy. Turns out the whole stretch is now sealed. I think they were finishing it off as I drove through there (ha ha) There is a video to come . View The Gentle Annie in a larger map Napier I started looking for some sort of accommodation as soon as I left the mountains. I was heading to Napier for the Art Deco fest there. I'd been camping for several days and I wanted to clean myself up before meeting up with my Uncle and Aunt. This festival has turned into a bit of a pilgrimage for them. They spend the year combing Op-shops, then get dressed up in period costume, and live out of a hotel room for the weekend.