Blog Updates

Dear Readers
Thanks for visiting my blog! Apologies for not updating it more frequently, but these have been very busy times. I've just 'survived' the beginning of another academic year. I am now trying to catch up. I have finished posting my 'Going East' journey (III- New Zealand; IV The Cook Islands) and will in the next few days post about other topics, including the Cancer Research UK 10k Run and the beginning of the new academic year. I've also got two sets of good news, but I will not spoil the surprise. You'l have to wait a few more days! Ok, one involves travelling East again :-)!
Cheers
M

Going East IV - The Cook Islands

Two years ago, after attending the Event Research Conference in Melbourne, I travelled to Fiji for a holiday. The Pacific Islands are beautiful and an excellent location to relax as well as to have some fun. This time I wanted to change location and after much consideration I decided to go to the Cook Islands (the initial plan was Tonga). I’ll never know if Tonga would have been better, but the CI choice was certainly a good one! I loved my week there J.

First, I travelled through the time line. That means departing from AKL on a Wednesday and arriving in Rarotonga on Tuesday! Confused? I was too...

I decided to stay in basic accommodation – as I was travelling alone the last thing I wanted was to end up in a luxury hotel full of honeymooners! (with me holding the candle J). So I joined the backpackers lot and stayed at Vara’s Beach Resort after reading good reviews on tripadvisor. The accommodation is very basic, but the crowd was fantastic! Sharing a room might be unimaginable for some, but if you want to meet people and socialise it is the best thing. In Fiji I had stayed in a dorm with 114 beds at Beachcomber Island!! This one was much smaller – 5 beds only and thus more private. While I was there, I had four girls as roomies (lucky me!): One Scottish, one Irish and two English (so long for me having a few days away from ‘Britishness’). They were good fun and we laughed a lot.

Arriving in Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

View of Muri Lagoon

View of Muri Lagoon from Vara's Resort Deck

Roomies Jenn, Mandy and Hannah, plus Stephen (in black)

The hostel was right in from of Muri Lagoon, in the most beautiful part of the Island. To wake up to this view for 7 days is an amazing experience. Nor surprisingly there was a lot of partying going on. There were two organised parties, one was a fancy dress party and the other a ‘pub crawl’. Mind that there are only 3 or 4 bars/nightclubs in Rarotonga, so you know where you’ve to go... The first party was the fancy dress party. Matt is an Australian who runs Vara’s Shack. He organises deep sea fishing trips (he’s also the skipper of a boat) as well as many other types of entertainment (including the organised parties). There’s a theme for every week – a letter of the alphabet. The week I was there the letter was G (some people were lucky enought to be there for the E, F, G and H parties!!!). The rule is that you need to produce your own costume – you cannot buy one (but you can buy some ‘ingredients’ to design yours). I dressed up as Global Warming (and the proof that it exists). There was a geek, a gladiator, two gipsies, guns & roses, just to name a few. The interesting thing is that the experience of the event starts much earlier, the day before the event Matt and others (including me) sat down and brainstormed ‘things’ starting with G. Needless to say that some people were very ‘inspired’... The other party was a pub crawl (on the Friday). Both parties were very good I (alcohol is not expensive there, which helped!), though I’ll refrain from making comments about the next day...

Fancy Dress Party

The crowd was so entertaining and sociable that I spent most days around Muri Beach. On Sunday I attended a religious service (mass), which is something unique and recommended to anyone who visits the island. The natives sing (both in English and Maori) and the whole experience is quite interesting. They even offer you biscuits and coffee at the end! Hannah (Irish) and Jenn (Scottish), two of my roomies, were my fellow churchgoers.

Before I left, I had the chance to dedicate one day to water activities. In the morning I went deep sea fishing and in the afternoon scuba diving. The deep sea fishing was very good. We caught to yellow fin tuna (part of one tuna was my dinner that day! Had half a kilo of tuna sashimi...)! But the best part was that the fishing trip turned in to a whale watching trip. Humpback whales hang around the island during the winter in south pole, and we were lucky to see 7 or 8 of them, a couple of which were very close to the boat!

The two yellow fin tunas that we caught (I pulled one... hard work and these are small fish, around 5/6kg each)

Humpback Whale, very close to the boat (no zoom used!)

Needless to say, the Scuba diving was also amazing. Lots of colourful fish! It is so peaceful down there! I am becoming a big fan of scuba diving and am looking forward to get PADI accreditation soon so that I can dive up to 20/30 meters.

I spent an amazing week in the Cook Islands, and when I look back what made it, most of all, was the people I met! The island is beautiful, the locals friendly, but it was the group of people who were at Vara’s Resort that made is an amazing week. I shall go back one day!

Going East III – New Zealand

My next stop was New Zealand. I flew to Auckland (the biggest city) before travelling down to Wellington (the capital city) where I met my friend Eli. I took an early flight, the day was bright and luckily I also got a window seat. To my surprise, we flew over mount Taranaki (whichI had never heard of) and the view from the plane was just amazing. The above picture is not mine, but it give an idea of what I am talking about! Not bad for a first sight of New Zealand! Mt Taranaki is a 2518-metre-high mountain and one of the most symmetrical volcanic cones in the world. There is a secondary cone, Fanthams Peak, on the south side.

Mount Taranaki

Arrived in Wellignton, I met Eli. I know Eli from Bournemouth since she did her PhD here (back in 2003) and then got a job at Massey University in Palmerston North (2 hours north of Wellington). Meanwhile she got married to Shane (a Kiwi) and they have now got to beautiful daughters: Viana and Alexia.

Alexia (left) and Viana (right). This picture was taken at 7.30am... hence our faces!

We spent the night in Wellington and the next day they showed me the main tourist spots. Wellington is a nice city, though I would not want to land there when it’s windy! The airport runaway is surrounded by mountains! We were lucky with the weather (at least I was told so!) as the morning was quite sunny (albeit very cold!). The day started with a very nice English type breakfast at Smith the Grocer a café located in a boutique shopping centre – The Old Bank Arcade. The place is really well done, the food and coffee were great, I thoroughly enjoyed my breakfast.

Next, we visited some of the key tourist areas, including the top entrance of Wellington Botanic Garden and the Museum of New Zealand. You access the Botanic Garden by Cable Car, which takes from the lower area near the waterfront to the top of one of the Mountains that made up Wellington. From the top you can appreciate part of the city, including the bay. After a short walk through the beautiful Botanic Garden, we returned to lower grounds and visited the national museum. This is a very interesting museum and we were lucky because there was a performance of traditional Maori singing inside.

Cable car

View from the Botanic Gardens

Canoe - Museum of New Zealand

Because they had to pick up the kids from Shane’s parents (half way through Wellington and Palmertson North), we left Wellington mid afternoon. The next day was dedicated to visiting Palmerston North and surrounding areas. The city itself has little to see, but the landscape around the city is quite interesting. We visited a giant wind farm, and had lunch at a local farm where we enjoyed local food. I left Palmertson North the next day, travelling to Auckland with a short stop in Rotorua. It was great to see Eli again and meet her family.

The journey to Rotorua was quite interesting, albeit a bit long (nearly 5 hours). We travelled through Lake Taupo. Unfortunately, it was raining with low clouds and we could not see much of the volcanos around the Lake. The 24 hours spent in Rotorua were intense. The city is known for its geothermal activity, with a number of geysers and hot mud pools located in the city. Rotorua city is renowned for its unique "rotten eggs" aroma, which is caused by the geothermal activity releasing sulphur coumponds into the atmosphere. These can be seen throughout the city. I attended a Maori show which included dinner. It was not a very pleasant experience at the beginning because I had the worst head ache! Fortunately I sat next to a doctor (from England) and as a good doctor she had paracetamol with her! The show itself was interesting and the food was cooked according to the Maori Tradition (Called Hangi).

Maori Show

The next day I just walked around town and before taking the bus to Auckland I paid a visit to the Polynesian Spa for an hour of pure relaxation! This spa has been considered one of the best 10 Spas in the world. The setting is really amazing! There are four pools at different temperatures. Not surprisingly without knowing this I entered the hottest one first which was a little unpleasant... It was cold outside (10ºC), but it felt great to be in warm water just chilling out. I think the picture talks for itself :-)

Polynesian Spa

I was time continue my journey towards Auckland and after a night there, it was time to fly to warmer waters – the Cook Islands!!! After a week in the CI (see next post for a report), I returned to Auckland, where I spent two nights before returning to the UK. I did this stop to talk at the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute and meet colleagues from Auckland University of Technology. This was possible because Professor Nigel Hemmington, who was the Dean of the School of Services Management @ BU for nearly 10 years (that is, my boss!) is now the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at AUT (the school of tourism and hospitality and the NZTRI are part of this faculty). On Thursday I caught up with Nigel, who showed me a bit of Auckland downtown before our lunch in the university’s practice restaurant (where hospitality students practice). I was impressed with the food and services. I was given really different things to try: a starter in a shot glass with a mussel inside! as well as an ice cream made of a stinky (and I mean STINKY) Asian fruit. The next day I talked to a NZTRI audience about the gastronomic experience of European tourists in Portugal. During my visit I also had the chance to meet some of their staff, including Simon Milne (Director of the NZTRI) and Jane Legget. The presentation was very well received by the audience made up of around 25 PhD students, practitioners and academics.

With Simon Milne and Jane Legget from the NZTRI

New Zealand is a very beautiful country and I am looking forward to go back and spend more time travelling around. Though I’ve learned the lesson! Visit the Country in the summer, because winters are very cold (and we’ve got enough cold in the UK)