| About New Zealand | New Zealand is an independent nation and a member of the Commonwealth. It has a population of approx four million people, the majority of whom are of British descent. Fourteen percent of the population are Maori. The Maori were New Zealand's first settlers. They made an epic journey from the legendary Hawaiki, probably in Polynesia to the north of New Zealand, about 1000 years ago. The great explorer Kupe, who legend says first discovered New Zealand, named the new land Aotearoa - Land of the Long White Cloud. The first documented European to discover New Zealand was Dutch navigator Abel Tasman, in 1642. Over a 125 years later, Captain James Cook claimed it for Britain in 1769 and produced a map of the country. New Zealand is one of the first places in the world to see the new day, 12 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). The highest temperature ever recorded in New Zealand was 42°C, in Marlborough, Christchurch, and Rangiora (in Canterbury). The lowest temperature ever recorded in New Zealand was —22°C at Ophir, Central Otago. |
How would you prepare for a 36 hour, around the world trip? Lie in for a couple of mornings? Set your watch a few hours forward each day? Start eating breakfast at 7pm each evening? Try and sleep solid for two days at least? The one thing you probably wouldn't think of doing is adding an additional 700 miles to your journey…..but that's what we did. She called in to Newcastle to visit a school friend from her home city of Wellington and fell in love with the city, the people and Leon.
We were visiting New Zealand to attend my nephew, Leon Green's wedding. He was marrying a Kiwi girl, Kiri Cook, who he met in Newcastle upon Tyne several years ago, and who is three quarters Maori. | "She called in to Newcastle to visit a school friend from her home city of Wellington and fell in love with the city, the people and Leon." | |
Kiri had been doing the traditional New Zealand 'O.E' (Overseas Experience), working her way around Europe. She had just finished a stint in London working at the Tate Modern and was on her way up to Edinburgh. She called in to Newcastle to visit a school friend from her home city of Wellington, and fell in love with the city, the people and Leon. Something to look forward to, but ... We had been looking forward to the wedding for some months - the chance to buy a new dress, visit New Zealand, tour the north and south islands, and see what a wedding with a Maori influence looked and sounded like. First though we had to get there, so my husband and I travelled down to Heathrow, where my passport, money, driving license and best travelling slippers, were stolen by someone with a cruel heart and no sense of fair play. Reality check I was within minutes of checking in when I realised that the backpack I had slung over my trolley five minutes earlier, had disappeared. ... the timetable for replacing a lost passport was seven days. Great - just in time to miss my nephew's wedding. I roamed the airport, feeling foolish, imagining I had dropped my bag, but finally realised that bags lying unclaimed are quickly recovered and sent to lost property. This was not the fate of my backpack however; it really was gone for good. I couldn't believe that this was happening, imagining it was all a joke and would be OK in the end. Reality kicked in when the ground staff at the airport told me that I couldn't fly without a passport. The British embassy said there were no vacant appointments in London and the best thing I could do was travel back home to Durham and see if the passport office could do anything to help; bearing in mind that the timetable for replacing a lost passport was seven days. Great - just in time to miss my nephew's wedding. We travelled north, ran around getting a new passport photo, raced to the Durham office who came up trumps and got us sorted out within the day. Then off we went - again - New Zealand, new passport, new marriage, new dress, and new suit. |
