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Showing posts from April, 2017

Exploring Whangarei Heads for Easter

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Easter was looking like a bit of a washout with Cyclone Cook threatening to destroy all of our plans.  Deemed “the worst weather event in 68 years” and with the Met Service berating Kiwis for not taking weather warnings seriously enough, we were determined to go away for Easter so we played it safe and booked a cabin rather than a camp spot in case the cyclone came to fruition.  We had the tail end of Cyclone Debbie the week previously with pretty bad flooding and slips causing havoc, so we waited with baited breath for Cook to wreak his wrath.  And waited. And waited…. Clouds but no cyclone cloud I got sent home early from work as a precautionary measure and took the opportunity to do some grocery shopping , tidy my room and head over to Birkenhead to climb with Morry – a journey that would normally take 40 minutes at 5.30pm took 19 due to everyone escaping earlier on in the day.  Score! The cyclone came and went in the blink of an eye – there was a little smatter o

Things the UK does better than New Zealand

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Supermarkets .  I actually MISS Lidl, Sainsbury's and Waitrose and sometimes Tesco.  (maybe I miss their familiarity). Eitherway Countdown is OK I spose, Pak N Save is too yellow and hard to find stuff, New World is too pricey and I don't even step foot in the other ones that are more expensive. Cereal .  Weetabix taste different. So do Cheerios.  I don't want Uncle Toby Cheerios I want Nestle Cheerios with the added sweetness.  NZ has a piss poor selection if you don't want muesli or porridge. and on that note. Sweets . WTF is a Moro bar?  And a Cherry Ripe? Where is my Lion bar and my Drifter and my Fruit Pastilles! Road signs .  Adam pointed this out to me - the lights on a zebra crossing aren't lights, they're little bright orange discs not the big flashing bulbs we have in the UK. No wonder I nearly run people over all the time.   Look! A stupid disc!!  Road markings.  The words on the road are written backwards!  A year later and it