07 What a year already

Well its back to work and glad of it. but Christmas was great fun.. heres the recap

Dec 15- Dec 28

back to Melbourne for Christmas.. what struck me when i was flying in was how dry it all looks. After the lush green of NZ it was a shock. But i had a week visting friends and family. Though next time I'll be just having a 'come all ye' at a pub and yum cha.. it was good to see everyone but i was exhausted..

Dec 28 - Jan 10th. well i have had holidays in Auckland and new years which was nice.. friends came up from wellington, stayed a few days and i have had a few house parties with friends taking advantage of the warm nights.. looking at Melbourne's weather I am glad to be here in the humid 20's where i live is on a rise so the house stays relatively cool.

I went to Roturua 2 weeks ago again so heres some pictures (can't be bothered with flickr or picasa yet, too time consuming).. it's all sitting on a big Volcanic rock shield keeping the land from the Volcanic activity underneath. So steam vents, thermal pools, hot mud etc filter up from deep below... it smells sulfurous but hey you get used to it.

Scroll down for pictures sorry. Not being a code monkey i can't seem to join this table up to this paragraph even though it looks fine when I preview it..

	Volcanic pool at Wai-o-tapa the colours, pools are incredible. to see Rotorua in a small amount of time I think this and Te Puia would be great places to cover. As well as Whakarewarewa...these pools have a surface temperature of 75-78 degrees centigrade, are often poisonous so don't fall in. Often they are 150 degrees centigrade at the bottom.
	The 'Wero' challenge by one of the Maori 'Warriors' at Te Puia. Every time I have visited Rotorua in the last four years, this performer has appeared in one cultural performance or another at differerent venues, funny sychronicity....
	Geyser at Te Puia an amazing Maori arts college as well as thermal park.
	Geyser shot two at Te Puia an amazing Maori arts college as well as thermal park.
	Waterlily outside the Polynesian spa.. a great place to go relax, day or night the pools next to the lake are cooled to 36, 38, 40 degrees centigrade..I just liked this photo when I took it ..

so i am a slack blogger . I treat it more as a catchup page or event log , as I hope I'll be talking about my experiences one to one, in real time maintaining my social relationships, not at 'one remove' from people. I subscribe to the theory the internet is a 'creative destroyer'; as in it creates amazing possibilities at the expense of the real world equivalent/analogue it is based on...I'm not one to put my thoughts and whinges on here. That's what friends are for, and putting it all out there sometimes lacks intimacy and i think sometimes is a form of emotional exhibitionism, depending on who your audience is (are for keeping in touch with remote friends, or is it for all and sundry to look into your life details) as long as you are not neglecting your real, geographic and temporally close friends and family who are in proximity it's ok by me..Just think - would you be spending more time with friends and family, having experiences in the real world instead of blogging about them? Enough of a rant, back to work..