VirtualTourist Member allikat
| Page Views: 29,616 | Allisons Wonderland... by allikat - last update: Aug 4, 2008 |
Tales from a relocated pommy chick....
Aoraki Mount Cook reflected in the glacial waters of Lake Pukaki, New Zealand
2007 was a good year. In April I visted Perth, Australia for the first time where Aussirose and her hubby hosted the Big Meet (and in typical VT style that meant the catch up with old friends and new lasted the whole week I was there - in fact Tina-Perth not only collected me from the airport but delivered me back there, Champagne-filled, a week later). In May we spent a weekend trekking to the Pinnacles in NZ's beautiful Coromandel, where I got to sleep with 80 complete strangers in a Department of Conservation hut in the middle of the bush, and wimp out of the summit climb! I managed to wangle the entire month of August off work and took my Kiwi partner home for his first visit to the UK (which he loved, warm beer notwithstanding). We explored London, Essex, Suffolk, the Lakes, the Dales, York, and even stayed with a friend who now roams the canalways aboard his cosy narrowboat just up the water from Warwick. The latter part of the year saw us taking advantage of some of Air New Zealand's cheap domestic deals, and we enjoyed long weekends in New Zealand's South island, taking in Dunedin, Balclutha, Timaru, Queenstown, Alexandra and more. In December I discovered that very small planes are not after all as scary as I thought, and for the bargain price of $6 a ticket we flew in a 19-seat Beechcraft to Gisborne for a few days. I can say categorically that Gisborne rocks - to a magnitude of 6.8 to be precise, as we experienced one of the larger quakes to hit New Zealand while we were there. Quite some experience! Wondering what 2008 will bring....?
Well, so far, 2008 is shaping up to be a big year, full of changes and possibilities - and I love change.
In February I completed the Tongariro Crossing in New Zealand's volcanic central plateau for the second time, striking good weather again, but finding I was less fit than I used to be. A few weeks later I enjoyed a weekend by a Coromandel beach with VTer Kiwi - we were totally rained in, but had a fun time nonetheless. Easter weekend was spent in a tent by the beach at a tiny campsite near New Zealand's East Cape, relaxing with good wine and eating fish fresh from the ocean.
Now we have finally sold our Auckland home and have returned to New Zealand's spectacular South island and the second half of 2008 promises to be exciting! |
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My name is Allison, and I was born in a grimy part of East London, within the sound of Bow Bells if you got everyone to be quiet and you listened very hard. In 2002 I travelled across the world to New Zealand to spend 2 weeks with an old school friend. I had every intention of going back home and carrying on where I left off, but while I was there I met this great Kiwi guy and decided that life was short and I didn't want to find myself a wrinkly old lady wondering 'what if'. 5 weeks after landing at Heathrow airport I was back here and settling into my new life.
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| Strange Epitaphs.... One thing I have always been fascinated by is old churches and churchyards. England is littered with so many wonderful old churches, with amazing history, and churchyards filled with stone angels, doves, crosses and slabs, some of which have some thought provoking or even humorous inscriptions.
In a typical English churchyard, the earliest tombstones you will see will date from the early 17th century, with a few exceptions (such as the 12th century crusaders stone at Greenstead Juxta Ongar), with the older graves found on the South side of the church. The Devil was supposed to lurk in the shadows of the North side, so that side was only used once the South side could take no more.
Which leads us to an interesting fact:
A parish church, in use for about 800 years, with an average of 6 burials per year, will have some 4,800 bodies stacked around it ~ this is what accounts for the 'moated' effect you see around many old churches.
This is a picture of St Andrews in Greenstead-juxta-Ongar in England, where I used to attend. Reputedly the oldest timber church in Europe, the walls are of split oak trunks that still bear the marks of the Saxon adze that cut them.
I also love the ruined abbeys you find in many parts of England and Wales, crumbling remnants of Henry the Eighths Reformation, in particular Fountains Abbey, Rievaulx, (both Yorkshire) and the lesser known Egglestone Abbey in County Durham and Netley Abbey near Southampton. | | |
| From Storrs Hall, Lake Windermere, UK |
| | By Alfred Lord Tennyson
If I were loved, as I desire to be,
what is there in the great sphere of the earth,
and range of evil between death and birth
that I should fear ~ if I were loved by thee?
All the inner, all the outer world of pain
clear love would peirce and cleave if thou wert mine,
as I have heard that, somewhere in the main,
fresh~water springs come up through bitter brine.
'Twere joy, not fear, claspt hand in hand with thee,
to wait for death ~ mute ~ careless of all ills,
apart on a mountain, tho' the surge
of some new deluge from a thousand hills
flung leagues of roaring foam into the gorge
below us, as far as eye could see |
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 Comments for allikat | | | | |
Darby2 Sat Oct 4, 2008 01:31 UTC
I bet you're looking forward to your new property acquisition...hope it's your dream home! | kiwi Fri Sep 26, 2008 09:01 UTC
Grabaseat here I come!!! | adelaidean Wed Sep 24, 2008 07:47 UTC
havent heard from you for ages..is all ok? | nashjlr Sun Sep 14, 2008 09:45 UTC
thank you for saying hello. you have a beautiful HP and your other pages are fantastic. anyone who knows "edge of the deep green sea" is pretty cool in my opinion. thanks again. I mean that truly. Joey |
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