Tomato Soup

I'm not feeling good, a combination of feeling very tired (though why are you not allowed to feel tired if you don't have children), lots of insect bites and being angry at myself for not being more organised.

Infestation of fleas at work - say what you want about the NHS, that never happened there, so lots of bits and now they are getting worse. has something uninvited found a place to live in my house, if so I'm allergic. An expensive trip to the doctor (think overall I'm in favour of paying to see your GP but it was Saturday so rather expensive). They may not all be bites, but rather an allergic reaction to the first bunch. Oh and maybe not fleas, maybe mozzies, who knows, either way, I'm reacting big time. Steroids....I ask you...but the reaction is quite severe and annoying. Plus some amazing anti-histamines that have knocked me out and generally add to crappy knackered feeling going on.

Panic over visa and anger at not getting on top of this earlier....flash back to feelings before getting out here...hopefully all with work out as it did last time. In the laps of timing and fate I guess.

So the pictures are to cheer me up and distract any possible readers from the whining, self loathing going on here. There are from a recent camping trip with some mates, and all round happy, good feelings time. I love camping.

I'm supposed to be packing for our trip away to the south island, I can hardly keep my eyes open, and am resorting to comfort food. So Tomato soup it will be. You see I'm feeling so bad that it's time to open the emergency Heinz tomato soup tin. You're suppossed to buy Watties here - sorry gues, I can do the bean, but the rest just dosen't come close. You can get Heinz here, but you have to know where to find it. So in organised moments I try and keep an emergency tin in the cupboard. It is the comfort food I always need. Once in Egypt when plagued with the essential dodgy stomach, I needed food (rarely am I so ill I can't actually eat), we hunted high and low. We were staying in a 4* hotel so examined all the menus at the numerous restaurants to no avail. Until a mind blowing discovery. Room service. So wonderful, even if this tomato soup wasn't Heinz, it was still damn close. The next day I was all recovered and ready to hit the city. So I know from experience that tomato soup is what I need, why then did I stuff a crisp sandwich prior to writing this post - who knows.

Maybe I'll report tomorrow on my state of mind following the soup intervention.

11/365

11/365, originally uploaded by KTandCoffee.

Well despite trying, it's just not happening, so I feel a small note is better than nothing. My flickr addiction has led my to find a group/project - 365 mug shots, so I'm tackling it with a fair amount of gusto.

Mind you still trying to keep up with number 30, which is going OK (most of the time).

Why is it though, that all my ideas and loads of them at that, come to me when tucked up in bed and should be falling off to sleep. Yes a notebook might help, but I tucked up, I'm cosy and generally very lazy. But at night, in my mind, I'm eloquent, clever, funny and I can spell. Heh ho.

Getting there.....Coromandel catch up

So all the way back in February, we headed off for a week in one of our fave places. Now the lead up to this trip was quite an event. We wanted to take the van, but the van needed new breaks, said breaks ordered from the UK and imported (strange but true - tis cheaper to do it this way than buy here!) Breaks fitted and all good..the day we are due to leave, Adam has to fit a panel underneath the van (I'm lost at this point) anyhoo he notices leakage - oh my - the break hose from the reservoir, this becomes a major thingy and even I try to help and get covered in break fluid. Thankfully a new bit of this hose can be obtained here so the next day Adam has it all sorted (secretly I think he likes it when things go wrong, as he loves to fix them). Off we go.

The Coromandel Peninsular is where we head, we spend our first night in Thames, one of the largest towns there. A small but just fine campsite slightly out of town - with the best recycling facilities I've come across yet. We have our bikes, so a trip round the town it is. To be honest this stop is all because there is a shop here we both love, we spend money, we have coffee we cycle back and relax. The next day before heading onto Coromandel Township we tour the goldmine and have a bash at gold panning as well as being generally fascinated by the whole tour.

Coromandel town is a fave spot. We again camp out of the town, at an end of the road campsite, which is quite full. The Kiwis love to camp. We're right by the water and can watch the comings and goings of the boats. We read, we eat, we relax. Adam tries to teach me to fish!!! Again we cycle into the town and onto the Driving Creek Railway. All quite busy, summer tourists everywhere. We take a repeat spot photo and spend more time at the cafe of joy just down the road.

The van gives us more challenge and several garages our visited and a call to the AA. In the end Adam fixes the problem - at least to make driving on these roads safe - with a bit of plastic pen. I'm not really sure what was happening, something to do with idle spend. Heh ho, we're safe and off we go. Over the mountains, round the bends......

Arrive at Hahei campsite, pick a spot (ooh quite busy here too) get changed jump in the sea. I love a campsite by the beach and a great beach to boot. We snorkel at gemstone bay, walk with the crowds to Cathedral Cove (must come back again out of season). Eat lots, drink lots, read lots.....heaven

This trip marked us sleeping in van for the first time in years. Our VW is an ever ongoing project and has been curtainless for some time. Curiously I forgot some of the curtains but we made do and all was good. I had some initial 'oh boy I'm in a coffin' moment but actually it was all fine, we slept well. The trick being no sleeping bags, just sheets, so you do have more room to move.

Sadly we head home after a week of sun, sea, wonderful beach, reading, eating. All the joy that a holiday should bring. As in the UK, we usually travel out of season and although the school holidays were over it was still summer and still 'busy'. This gave us a different feel and we chatted to loads of people - everyone wants to talk about the van. I sent loads of postcards and as ever wished I could share it with friends and family, this little post will have to do......

Catching Up, Round One

Yes, I'm a wee bit behind time with all this blogging marlacky, but with busy times and dodgy computers what can I do.This happened this time last year if I remember rightly. Summer you see, and time just flies.

So Auckland celebrates the chinese new year in great style. The Lantern festival blew us away last year, so we were keen to go back for more. All good again. We went later in the night so the crowds were huge, but we left late so traffic clamer on leaving (boy that makes me sound old and sad). Food was fascinating as ever and a good time had by all. Yet again I manged to refrain from buying any lanterns or other chinese items!!