News from the frontline of my worldwide mullet mission
Alright, own up – who sent me a copy of “Fishing – The Mythical Mullet With Mike Ladle And Steve Pitts“? It arrived in the post while I was away, with no note in the envelope and nothing on the outside other than a London postmark and handwriting I don’t recognise. Whoever it is, though,…
I know have two more mullets to add to the list. An American named Jonathan emailed me a few weeks ago saying he lives on Mullet Creek, in the Indian River Lagoon in east central Florida. In trying to track it down on Google Maps, I inadvertently discovered another Mullet Creek in Florida, this time…
Grayza has pointed me towards this rather alarming post by Tall Skinny Kiwi – an examination of whether or not the Three Wise Men had mullets or not. Deep stuff. I’d suggest TSK needs to get out more, but I can hardly talk when it comes to mullets and study thereof. Others have been sending…
I’m back! I write this in Aberdeen, where I am crashing at Justin‘s for the night, and am fresh out of the shower and into new clothes. That doesn’t wash away the fact I’ve barely slept in the last thirty or so hours and four flights. Seattle to Los Angeles to Chicago to London to…
Work finished, rucksack full, and camera battery getting a last minute charge. I am just about ready to go, I think. I may have forgotten something, but I’ve got my PMT (passport, money, tickets) and that’s all that really matters. Even with just a few hours until tomorrow morning’s flight from Aberdeen, I am still…
I’ve not done a proper update on the mullet mission for a while, and so after having done various bits and pieces on the mission, here you are. Firstly, I’ve revised the list of mullets – removing mullets that are translations of the word “mullet” in other lanaguages. There was one in Mexico, and several…
I’m not long back from Aberdeen, where among other things I was doing some planning with Justin for September’s mullet adventure to the west coast of the USA. We’ve pin-pointed the mullets, and have a vague route lined up, taking us from southern California almost to the Canadian border. It will be a packed fortnight.…
Albania is a beautiful country. I’ve been there three times and read countless books on it. However, its beauty – best seen in the dramatic mountains and hardy people – is rugged, unkept and wild, rather than asthetic or conventional. In great contrast to this beauty, however, was the urban architecture. From my first visit,…
There’s a pub in Palmerston North, a town on New Zealand’s North Island, called the Stunned Mullet. I heard about it while on my travels last month, although because it’s not an actual place and thus not on the list, I didn’t make time to visit it. All I managed in my hectic schedule was…
The TVNZ piece from Farewell Spit was broadcast on Wednesday night’s Close Up show, and you can also watch it on the web. It’s quite surreal to see myself on telly, but it’s a really good piece and a nice memento of a fun day’s mullet-hunting. And while we’re at it, I’ve also tracked down…
Last night, I uploaded a pile of photos to my Flickr page, completing my New Zealand set. It was a frustrating process – firstly because they were all sitting on my personal laptop (which of course is missing its wireless card), and so needed to be transferred to my work laptop and uploaded from there.…
The street names are Scottish and it’s rained more today than the rest of the trip put together – it could almost be back home. I’m in Invercargill, where I arrived at only 4pm, yet have managed to fit in a drink with a star of NZ telly and radio, a visit to the beautiful…
Um Bongo Kia Ora from the village of Haast, on the west coast of New Zealand’s south island. It’s a curious place. I picked it for an overnight stop mainly because it looked on the map to be about nine hours’ drive or so from where I started out this morning. Which (including breaks) it…
Yesterday’s adventure to Mullet Channel (not Mullet Creek, as I understood it to be) was excellent. More about it later. This is just a quick blog before I head off on my two-day road trip to the south of the island, to bag Mullet Bay. I’ve got a pile of CDs, half a tank of…
A very quick hello from Napier, where Napier’s rods were invented. It’s a nice town, but it’s currently raining so I am enjoying the excuse to stay indoors and take it easy. And do a few media-related things… Tomorrow (Wednesday) at around 7.50am NZ time, you can hear me on RadioLIVE. After that I’ll be…
I have just had a quite amazing day on Motutapu Island, which is a short ferry ride from Auckland. Not only was the island – and Mullet Bay particularly – a very, very special place, but it was made easier by the lovely people at the Motutapu Restoration Trust. The Trust does volunteer work parties…
I can’t really believe I have only been in New Zealand for 48 hours. So much has happened. For a start, I am now two Kiwi mullets down and another one thrown into the mix. Since yesterday, after my Radio NZ interview, I’ve been north of Auckland, bagging a couple of mullets (including this one…
Except “G’day” is Australian, isn’t it? “Kia Ora”, I suppose they’d say here. Anyway. I’m here, and I’ve already managed to pack heaps into my few hours so far in Auckland, seeing quite a bit of the bustling city centre and beautiful coastline. It’s a compelling and beautiful place, and the weather is outstanding. I’ve…
It’s my first full day in Australia and thanks to a mammoth sleep last night I am over the jetlag. It’s great weather – normally it should be over 30 degrees and humid here in Brisbane at this time of year, but it’s unseasonally mild right now with forecasts of a cyclone, so unlike the…
Hello from Heathrow Airport, where I am killing time. Four hours until check-in opens… Did you read the Nelson Mail this morning? Probably not. I’m told I am front page news: http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelsonmail/4337954a6007.html More soon.