Friendster - Lenny's Photos - ganda background 'no?

Friendster - Lenny's Photos - ganda background 'no?: "Waiheke Island, ANZAC Day, 25.04"

White Water Rafting in Rotorua, April 08

White Water Rafting in Rotorua, April 08

Stinging hot

I spent much of the pre-Valentine weekend travelling. Saturday morning we went for a long drive to sunny, art-deco town Napier in Hawke's Bay to catch Sting's Symphonicity tour. Was a good day for a drive, the first long, out-of-town drive for Tess' new Toyota ist. We reached the town center past 1 pm, quickly booked in the backpackers, met up with Cathy who took the bus from Wellington, drove to where the buses which will take us to the venue - the Mission Estate vineyard.

We reached the location at 3 pm and typical Filipinos that we are - were were armed for battle - in this case, we had 4 picnic mats completely spread out, and all the supplies we need - juices, sodas, rice and adobo, sliced bread and tuna in cans, snacks (we Filipinos are afraid to go hungry). We got a good, strategic location - close to the stage and yet a short walk from the loos. However, being a vineyard and an outdoor concert, naturally we were unsheltered from the scorching heat of the sun - at a time when there's serious La Nina phenomenon going on in NZ - and did I mention that the ozone layer holes are located down under, hence heat can be really, unbearably penetrating to the skin?

Several NZ acts sang in the afternoon to the early evening and from the time we sat down all the way to just before Sting appeared I slowly watched as people continue to fill-up the venue - apparently there were 25,000 in total. Kiwis love their outdoor music events, and they always come in prepared with their picnic mats, outdoor chairs and chilly bins filled with drinks. The lines to buy wine and alcohol was unbelievably long. Seriously, I do not understand the purpose of keeping people from bringing in their ownalcohol except to earn money. They inspect bags so that you can't bring alcohol inside the venue - I would've thought this is for security reasons as inebriated people tend to do stupid things - but obviously, because they sell alcohol inside then that's really not their concern. It's more like "I don't care if you become drunk as long as you drink the alcohol we sell".

Sting appeared at half past 7. He started singing, and all my dizziness, my heat-induced boredom, the 6 hour travel that my poor bottom endured were all forgotten. At 56, he is still an amazing performer, telling the audience bits about how he got the idea for some songs he sang, and entertaining us with his beautiful voice.

The art of pottery

31.12.14

I have not written anything years, both professionally and personally. I blame it on lack of motivation and pure laziness. No valid excuses, really.  I had, however, promised myself I will document this journey to serve both as a record I can look back to and to assuage the fear that I have – that I am not just rusty or lacking in practice, but have actually forgotten how to write.

I started this trip with a plan to take half the year off and see most of Europe. In particular, I was hoping to cross off "witness the Aurora borealis" and see most, if not the whole of Spain. I didn't have a concrete plan - just a rough idea and a framework on the first month - while I still had travel mates. After that, when I am on my own, I was going to just wing it. 

In roughly less than three months, I sifted, packed, put away, threw, gave out about 8 years worth of my life in NZ in preparation for the trip.  In my mind, I had everything sorted out - but perhaps my subconscious was not so sure.  When it was barely a month to go, I started having panic attacks. It sounds like an exaggeration now, but at that time, it felt like I was either going to explode internally or my heart was going to stop pumping midway.  Occasionally,  it would palpitate, hard and fast..if I try not to think about it, it goes away, like it never happened. Until the next time it resurfaces.

The only other time I felt this was when I was so beyond stressed when I started a new job. I knew then, I was getting stressed from all the things that I needed to do, things I thought I should accomplish before I go. It didn't help that I was going through something deeply personal. I had doubts, fears, hesitations - I ran them all in my head - and I also have sensible answers for everything that came up - but physically, the stress was making itself felt.  I was going to halt my everyday, normal work-home-play life for 6 months of travel, adventure, fear, uncertainty, new places, strangers, no salary and the unknown. I knew though that I cannot back away from this - the one thing I don't ever regret in my life is travelling - and I would never forgive myself if I don't do this. So I shoved down the mixture of anxiousness and fear that kept trying to surface and resolved to enjoy the journey. 

More Matakana pics

Some more Matakana pics - quaint and charming

A Saturday morning flea market


A resto/pub



The famous public toilets - with aunty and uncle. Apparently, these toilets cost $400,000 - which is more than 3x the cost of the normal toilets. Designed by Steffan de Haan, it is considered by locals as both a "public artwork and a usable sculpture". Not bad - can you find a more usable sculpture than this?


We sat in one of the benches near the river, were ducks were quietly paddling their way. They saw us, and quickly assumed we have food and that we will feed them. This particular duck was so nosy that he kept poking his beak in Armi's bag. I reckon if he had hands he would have grabbed it himself, the way monkeys would back in Palawan whenever they see a plastic bag (they think plastic bags = 'there's definitely food inside'). It never ceases to amaze me how birds of all types aren't afraid of people here - they don't scare off easily, unlike birds back home - probably because they know they won't end up in the dinner table.


River view - forgot to take a photo of the small waterfalls.


Interior of the local cinema lobby -


I like the snake-like design of the lights

Matakana Farmers Market

On Saturday, we went to Matakana Farmers Market - a 45 minute drive North of Auckland. This is where local farmers converge to sell their produce, mostly organically grown, free range, homemade - a bit pricey than the usual weekend markets, but very varied and interesting. Although we did not buy anything, it was good to soak up in the atmosphere and we had a good breakfast, sampling food we thought were interesting. Too bad I was not able to take photos of the actual food - too hungry that I forgot!

We bought thin eggplants stuffed with homemade ricotta cheese from this lady - she made the dish herself. The ricotta cheese was really delicious - hindi nakakaumay and you know it was not made commercially.

We bought belgian waffles from this stall - topped with banana, bacon and drizzled with maple syrup. Seriously packed waffles - the heavy type, and kinda reminded us of the hotcakes we had growing up, except this one tastes natural. At $7.50 it fed four people - it was good value for money. Next time I am going to try their mussels.

We sat directly in front of this band - just to their left where the lady is sitting down is the river - it was green and a bit murky because the area was flooded just a week ago.