Postcard From New Zealand

hanbok, dobu, and cha

2010-10-18T09:52:00.004+01:00

On Friday I spent the evening with my co-teacher and two 5th grade homeroom teachers. This was our first outing together so I was pretty nervous I would do something stupid. Korea is all about customs and social practices, especially while eating and drinking together.

For example:
1. You can never pour your own drink so you must constantly watch one another's glasses so they never go empty. You must pay special attention to the glasses of your superiors. (probably explains why koreans get so drunk, it is impossible to refuse)
2. Young people (me) must wait to eat until elders have begun.
3. You must pass and receive everything with two hands (not just at dinner, everywhere) from your elders.
4. You may not blow your nose at the table.
5. Of course shoes are ALWAYS removed when entering someone's home or a restaurant with floor seating. Students and teachers wear slip on shoes or sandals at school.
6. Countless others I have not offended anyone with.

These customs are more than niceties, they are a way of life. In my fifth grade class we were playing a simple "pass the ball" game. When the student catches the ball, they must say an english phrase. When the game ended, a student passed the ball to the teacher with....gasp....ONE HAND. He got a scolding I'll remember for the rest of my life. You would think I would have learned from his mistake, but I went on to hand a Japanese souvenir I'd purchased to the vice principal with ONE HAND. wooops!

Dinner too, is quite the affair. At a traditional Korean restaurant everyone sits on the floor in private coves and they bring out at least 15 small dishes or more depending on how many people are dining - mostly pickled and spiced vegetables, always plain rice, and soup. There is usually a special dish as well, usually a small amount of meat, fish, or in our case, very spicy tofu (dobu). Everyone shares everything. anti-double dippers, BEWARE (dad). Conversation at dinner was a bit strained as the two fifth grade teachers are very shy about speaking English. Luckily one of them brought along her adorable children, aged 2 and 5, so that cut the tension a bit. When the plates were cleared, we brewed our own green tea (cha)- delicious!

After dinner we ventured to Hamji Park in Chilgok where another 5th grade teacher was conducting a middle school orchestra. There were about 10 other middle schools performing, all dressed in the traditional Hanbok costume, the Korean equivalent of the kimono. "Charles" orchestra played several traditional Korean instruments-huge drums or buk, gayageum, a long wooden instrument with 12 strings, and a flute looking thing whose name i forget. the best part were the three women up front made up like dolls who sang in strange but beautiful shrill voices.

All in all I think it was a fairly successful first outing. I'm hoping with time communication with the teachers will get easier- either they won't be so shy about speaking English to me or my Korean classes will start paying off!

Korea Ketchup

2010-10-18T09:27:00.006+01:00

Us at a Samsung Lions baseball game in Daegu

In honor of our two month anniversary of leaving the states, I thought I’d treat you all to a blog post. But where to begin? If you’re at all familiar with the brutal EPIK application process Jamie and I went through, you’ll be happy to know that we did not end up in the middle of no where. We live in a suburb of Daegu, the third largest city in South Korea, called Chilgok. It is about a 40 minute bus ride away from the city. It is quite a large suburb however, and has all the necessities and a substantial downtown full of restaurants, cafes, phone shops, even batting cages. It has been difficult to find other foreigners in Chilgok, though we do know they exist as every public school is now required to have at least one native English teacher in addition to hagwon, or private academy, teachers (bringing the grand total of native English teachers in Korea to over 43,000).

We have two studio apartments that are about 7 minutes walking from eachother and 2 minutes walking to our respective schools. Jamie’s apartment is in a newish building and is very clean and nice looking in a feminine kind of way (wallpaper with huge roses, pink detailing, etc), but quite small. My apartment is bigger, but was quite dirty when I moved in and there is a serious lack of natural light. Both are completely manageable and I’ve definitely lived in worse, but it’d be nice to have one place we could share.

Jamie's apartment

my apartment
Our rice cooker

Jamie and I both teach grades 3-6 and have three co-teachers, two female and one male. My co teachers are between the ages of 28 and 35 and speak really good English. Jamie’s are…older and speak varying levels of English. In fact two of them are currently in the hospital so he has had complete control of the 5th and 6th grade classes for the past few weeks. My classes are about 50/50 with my co-teachers. There are usually 3 sections to each class so we divide them accordingly. The system seems to be working well. The students are great and really excited to have us here. They love saying hi to us in the hallways and are delighted when they see us outside of school, which they often do since we live so close to school. That said, I find the job challenging. Yes the children are under control discipline wise and they are speaking the phrases we tell them to, but I wonder how effective my presence really is. Anyway Korea has decided we’re worth our weight, which is great, because we are making excellent money.

So far we have had one break which we spent in Japan with our friends Jackie and Zach, who are teaching in Ulsan. We flew from Busan to Fukoaka, took the train to Hiroshima, then Osaka, Kyoto, and finally Nygoya. I will post about this later on, maybe with pictures..

NZ Travels Part II

2010-05-19T10:33:00.000+01:00

Hello all!

I write to you tonight from the seaside town of Riverton in Southland, New Zealand. As Jamie and I have continuously said throughout the past four days, "this is the furthest south we've ever been (and probably will ever go)." The trip has been going smoothly thus far and we have been sticking to the itinerary I posted quite religiously. The only variation we've made is skipping the stay in Queenstown and continuing on to the charming lakeside town of Te Anau, allowing us to split up some of the drive from Milford Sound to Dunedin and to drive as far South as Bluff, which is on the route for tomorrow.

We left 67 Brougham Street before the sun came up to bus to the airport for our 8:20 flight to Christchurch. Its probably a good thing it was so early because I generally can't display emotion before about 9 am and my mind hadn't registered how very sad it was to say goodbye to Wellington. However We managed to tear ourselves from our mattress on the floor and make it to the airport with time to spare. In Christchurch we were introduced to our home and transport for the week and must admit we were a bit disappointed: let's just say the new model is no Leland (not even a Leland II!). The van has over 300,000 kms on it and is teeeeeny compared to Leland's ample interior. Also it handles like a turtle. We're getting on alright with her though considering she is the only home we have in New Zealand now.

From Christchurch we continued on with plans of sleeping in Twizel and bypassing Mt. Cook altogether. As we drove though I decided we probably had enough time to see the glaciers I'd heard so much about and we took the one way highway to Mt. Cook National Park. Before the sun went down we took a walk up a rocky hill completely surrounded by 22 of the 27 highest peaks in the country. We eventually came to a summit of sorts overlooking some very sad looking glaciers. Because of global warming the infamous glaciers have shrunk beyond repair. We realized the trip was worth the drive when after a yummy dinner we looked up to find one of the brightest night skies either of us had ever seen making visible hundreds more stars than we even knew existed.

We drove on bright and early eager to refuel both our stomachs and the campervan. After sorting ourselves out in Twizel, we drove the three hours to Wanaka, which we'd heard so much about. I was hoping to have enough time to walk one of the tracks the guidebook listed as "just outside town" but was sorely disappointed when the campsite attendant told us we'd be driving an hour before finding one. Nevermind, we spent some time by the beautiful lake in the center of town, checked the movie times at the unique theatre Jamie's brother, Ben, had told us about, and decided to walk the 90 minute loop to the summit of Mt. Iron, overlooking Lake Wanaka. Feeling revived and empowered we returned to our deluxe campsite complete with free wireless and sauna. We ventured back out to catch a screening of "Mao's Last Dancer" and were delighted to find the cinema as kitschy as Ben had described. The seats were an assortment of old airline rows, comfy armchairs, and even a bright yellow VW Bug convertible decked out with multicolored cushions. Wanaka certainly did not disappoint.

We woke up the next morning disappointed to see grey skies and rain for miles around, but the weather didn't deter our excitement for the day's activity: Bungy Jumping the 43 meters off the historic Kawarau Bridge! We rolled into the Bungy Center about 20 km outside of Queenstown a couple hours early to prepare ourselves for the voluntary insanity. After watching both my brothers successfully complete their Bungies in Taupo, I thought I'd get the best of my nerves, but that familiar feeling crept upon me and I found myself insatiably thirsty and a bit shaky. Jamie on the other hand, seemed to keep his cool and was nothing but smiles upon viewing the drop. For the next couple of hours we checked out the shops and lake in Queenstown hoping the weather would clear and amazingly, it did! Feeling better about the fact that I wouldn't be jumping into freezing rain, we prepared for our jump. It's hard to say exactly what happened in the moments before we stepped off the platform, but I'm sure they told us a certain way to jump or what to do when we reach the bottom. Whatever they may have said, I didn't hear any of it and with a hurried countdown, we took the dive (me first, then Jamie). Jamie had opted for a "water touch" but unfortunately the chord came a few inches short of the surface and he came back to land dry. All in all it was an exhilarating experience and though expensive, definitely worth it.

After some additional souvenir shopping in Queenstown we decided to drive on to our next stop, Te Anau. There we found another charming lakeside town and after setting up camp we took a stroll down to the water. Again, the night sky was incredible and after some serious stargazing we returned "home" to watch a movie and sleep. We were up bright and early the next morning eager to start our jorurney on the Te Anau-Milford Highway. We booked our Milford Sound Cruise which promised astounding views of waterfalls, mountains, and seals and thanks to our Campervan rental company's 2 for 1 voucher, one of us rode free. The drive up was as lovely as promised even in the rain. Just a short walk from the highway we saw reflective lakes, waterfalls, and rare birds such as the kea.The most amazing thing about Southern New Zealand is the absence of people (except tourists of course). Much of the region is protected by the Department of Conservation which means people can't build, log, or farm on the land. We often drove an hour without seeing another car or human which makes for a refreshing sort of isolation. Our cruise was pleasant, made better by the fact that the sun came out just as we departed land and made for some very photogenic rainbows. We did see waterfall after waterfall, the biggest of which prompted a crew warning to either stay inside or be prepared to get sprayed.

Hopeful to see some sort of civilization before dusk we continued South from Te Anau with plans to stay at a campsite outside the large town of Invercargill. We found lovely little Riverton and had a pleasant pub meal by the water. I believe that pretty much brings you up to speed of course by the time you read this we may even be home as internet access is far less common down here. Anywho, enjoy it when you can!

South Island Adventure Plans!

2010-05-03T23:26:00.002+01:00

Hey All,

Our time in Wellington is dwindling and leaving is starting to feel very real, especially after our farewell party on Sunday night. It was a fun time with a good turnout of friends from Kirks and Bristol who certainly made us feel like we will be missed. So Although it is undeniably sad we will be leaving the wonderful city of Wellington, we do have our trip to the South Island to look forward to. We fly to Christchurch on Tuesday May 11th and will spend a week in a rented campervan exploring the great outdoors and hopefully forking out some cash to do a couple of the overpriced but "must-do" adventure activities Queenstown and Milford Sound boast (ie bungy jumping and a cruise through the Sound). I thought you all might enjoy a rough itinerary of our trip and certainly if you have anything to add, feel free to comment!

Tuesday 11th May
Fly Wellington à Christchurch 8:20 - 9:10am (Pacific Blue)

Pick up Campervan at Christchurch Airport (Jucy
Drive Christchurchà Omarama/Mt. Cook (~5 hours)

Wednesday 12th May
Drive Omaramaà Wanaka (~2 hours)
Sleep at Wanaka Lakeview Holiday Park
Wanaka Beerworks (open till 4)
Walk in Mt. Aspiring National Park (Rob Roy Valley Track) or rent Mountain Bikes or Jetboat
Cinema Paradiso

Thursday 13th May
Drive Wanakaà Queenstown (~2 hours)
Stop at Chinese Settlement to gold pan
Sleep at Queenstown Lakeview Holiday Park
Book Bungy
Shopping! (Arts & Crafts Market on Saturday)
Kayak from Queenstown Bike Hire

Friday 14th May
Drive Queenstownà Te Anau (~2.5 hours)
Sleep at Te Anau Top 10 Holiday Park

Saturday 15th May
Drive Te Anau à Milford Sound (~2.5 hours)
Sound Cruise
Drive Milford Sound à Gore (~4.5 hours)
Sleep at Gore Motor Camp or Dolamore Park Camp

Sunday 16th May
Drive Goreà Oamaru(~4 hours)
Oamaru Penguin Colony
Sleep at Oamaru Top 10 Holiday Park

Monday 17th May
OamaruàChristchurch (~3 hours)

Tuesday 18th May
Fly Christchurch à Auckland (9:40 - 11am Pacific Blue)
Fly Aucklandà London

The Final Update..?

2010-04-27T04:57:00.002+01:00

Yep, we're still here! Somewhere along the line, this blog got buried underneath a mountain of other priorities, so apologies if you've been waiting for an update that just hasn't come until now. But here it is at last! And it may well be the very last from New Zealand :(

As of today, we have exactly two weeks left in Wellington, and only three weeks left in the country, before we fly back to the Northern Hemisphere. I'll just explain a little about what we've been up to and what the plan for the next months will be.

Firstly, I'm down to working weekends only since the Kirks Easter Shop closed, and I'm over in the Wine & Cheese department. So if you ever need to be told the difference between a Gewürztraminer and a Viognier, I can pretend to know it. It's been a nice way to slowly wind down from working full-time all year, and having heaps of time off has given me a decent chance to tie up all the loose ends in Wellington, as well as enjoying the last of the summer weather in the city. Last week was also my final time as the sound man at Bristol (or, as I learned sound men used to be known, the 'Balance Engineer'), and I oversaw the board for an album release party for a singer called Carol Bean. It went well, and I've really enjoyed doing it since October. It's sad to think I won't be back.

Emily is still on full-time at Bristol, but her schedule has been a little kinder to her recently, with plenty of 9-5 days. So in the evenings we've been looking into possibilities for next year, the most prominent of which has been joining a program to teach English in South Korea, and discussing the idea with some friends who are already there. Last week we sent in our application forms and letters of recommendation from work, and next we're expecting a Skype interview, after which we'll have to chase up other official documents like duplicate degree certificates and apostilled police checks. It's all complicated drastically by our temporary residence on the other side of the world, and if we leave it too late (for instance, when we get back home) we'll miss the deadline. It adds a nice 'race against time' element to things, as if we weren't under enough stress.

Our plan for the next few weeks involves finding someone to replace us in our house, and trimming the fat from our luggage to be brought home. This morning we dropped off a LOT of clothes at a second hand op-shop, but it's still all up in the air whether or not we'll be able to get everything back! Other than that we have all the other issues like closing bank accounts, packing, and saying goodbye to friends and the city.

After we leave Wgtn, we fly to Christchurch where we'll pick up another campervan, and attempt to resume the trip around the South Island we didn't have time to finish at the beginning of the year. We haven't yet finalised an itinerary, but we'll definitely head down to Queenstown, and time depending explore some of the other regions at the far south of the country. We might get a chance to see Dunedin and Otago, and maybe even head back up to Kairkoura and Hamner Springs. Hopefully, if we have similar campsites as before, we'll use the internet facilities to update on where we are and what we're doing.

Then, after our camper-trip, part deux, we're due to fly back from Christchurch to Auckland, and then on to London via Hong Kong. It'll be a long day! Emily will be staying in Harold Wood for a week, and if we're not too jet-lagged or tired, we'll head down to Canterbury to catch up with some friends, before Emily flies on to Boston. At that point, we'll just be waiting on the word from Korea...

So that was Wellington for us! I know I keep saying this, but at some point I'll upload the recent pictures onto Flickr from the whole experience. And I'll get Emily to round things off from her perspective when she's not too busy. Thanks for reading!

Photos

2010-03-28T20:11:00.000+01:00

Here's a link to some photos my brother Richard took while the family was in NZ: http://picasaweb.google.com/rich.besen/NewZealand2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCLO8zoC-5oTdfw#

Enjoy!

New Beginnings

2010-02-15T21:41:00.005Z

Hello Everyone. I write to you tonight from our breezy back garden on Brougham st, Mt. Victoria. The move was a very overwhelming ordeal involving a lot of frustration and for a while we were convinced we needed to settle on another tiny apartment or a spacious place way out of the city. With time and help from our new kiwi flatmate, we managed to find a gorgeous, spacious, self-contained house not far from the city at all. The place has three bedrooms, the biggest of which Jamie and I have claimed (there are two of us after all), a separate kitchen and combined living/dining room. The best part of the house is undoubtedly the back garden where I am sitting now. Nick (flatmate #1) purchased a lovely outdoor dining setup which we've put on the deck that opens up into a small yard complete with shed and large clothesline (I've never hung clothes on a clothesline before, I have to admit I felt quite the domestic goddess). We are sandwiched snugly between two houses which from the sound of things have families complete with crying babies, but the house is its own unit, which is nice.

Since our Terrace lease doesn't actually run out until tomorrow, we've been shuttling things over all week- but today was the last of it. I kicked up quite the fuss on a bus ride cross-town where I almost missed my stop and probably took out a few eyes with the fake christmas tree and ornaments I was carrying. Tomorrow Jamie and I will hand in our keys to the property managers and hopefully get our bond back in full.

I'm still hard at work at the Bristol which is about the same distance from here as was the Terrace. The morning commute is a bit longer for Jamie, who has been working a few days at Kirckaldie's. Today he and a friend from the Christmas shop were hard at work painting shelves and he's done a few days at the wine and cheese shop. They don't seem to want to let him go and have tentatively offered him a permanent weekend position in the shop.

March brings the long-awaited visit of my family and I can't wait. We're planning a roadtrip starting from Auckland where they arrive, but I've tried to make our route a bit different from Jamie and I's so I can see more of NZ. We'll finish in Wellington where hopefully they'll treat us at the nicer restaurants our budget doesn't quite allow. Melbourne did afterall, pull at the old pursestrings.

Speaking of, the trip was fantastic. Hopefully we'll get some pictures up soon, but you can expect some snaps of the Australian Open, an Australia Day picnic, and various other city sights. We'd heard Melbourne was a lot like Wellington, only bigger, and I did definitely see the similarities- same cafe/coffee culture, centered around a harbour, totally walkable, and very safe. We were lucky to meet up with some friends of Jamie's from Amsterdam who took us to the best shops and rooftop bars the city and our budget had to offer. Melbourne was definitely abuzz with the Australian Open and we spent a few evenings watching the matches on a bigscreen in Federation Square along with other (mostly foreign) tennis enthusiasts. The match we ended up seeing inside the arena from waaaay high up was Tsonga and Djokovic, a well-played 3 hour+ affair. We also saw the Williams sisters in action and Jamie's favorite Brit, Laura Robson. It was a very fun week.

It getting quite chilly out here and the baby next door has been screaming for a while now, so I think I'll go inside. Hope this update finds you all well. Oh and here's our new address:

67 Brougham st
Mt. Victoria
Wellington, 6011
New Zealand
The other side of the world.

End of Work

2010-01-09T04:58:00.000Z

Now is the beginning of an uneasy time for us, or at least an incredibly hectic time. Perhaps most importantly, my job at the Kirks Christmas Shop is coming to an end. (Today was my last day in the shop, and next week will be spent packing everything away...) To add to the tension of beginning the jobhunting process once again will be the stress of finding a new place to live in the next few weeks, not to mention actually closing the deal and getting successfully transferred.

On the plus side, our Australian holiday is coming up, although the timing of it pushes it right into the thick of everything else we have to worry about, and besides the distraction it provides there's also the damage the trip will do to our bank accounts. However, we've been looking forward to it too much to let that bother us.

Also coming up is a visit from Emily's grandmother, who has arrived in NZ and should be in our fair city on Monday afternoon. Emily has also been incredibly excited about this, and I'm sure will update on what occurs during her stay.

Holiday in the Sun

2009-12-26T06:30:00.003Z

SO now that Christmas is over and done with (at least in this hemisphere), we figured we should fill you all in on our exciting and warm(ish) holiday festivities. Since the weather felt very unchristmas-like, Jamie set up a lovely little Christmas tree with gold and red baubles-to get us in the spirit. After he had bought the decorations he commented that he was upset he couldn't find a Star of David for the tip of the tree; I pointed out that Jewish themed Christmas tree decorations don't exist... You may have seen from the photos that I also decorated stockings in hopes that the quality of $2 shop goods is high enough that we are able to take them with us to NY next year. Speaking of which, Jamie has sent in his application for the Sound Engineering School in midtown NYC! He was toying with the idea of applying to a less estabilished and cheaper program, but SAE definitely seems like the best option with a huge career network due to the school's locations throughout the world. NY also seems to work with my plans to work as a student advisor for study abroad programs at high schools or universities, not to mention it is currently the epicenter of our social network- most of our friends either live in or have plans to move to the city.

Anyway, back to our Christmas day goings-on: We started the morning as good son and daughter and skyped our parents in hopes of prolonging the christmas morning anticipation (and to catch up with our families of course). After bragging about the warm weather a bit, we exchanged gifts. Highlights included perfume and a new book for me and headphones and a photo album complete with printed NZ photos and commentary for Jamie. We realized we had a total of three Christmas evening invitations, but since the dinner we commited to was due to begin at 5, we sent our regrets to our respective co-workers. We were responsible for bringing dessert to our Chrismas dinner at the home of Jamie's co-worker's boyfriend, so I got to work on baking a cake. After a few hiccups (I don't bake much), I managed to produce a yummy, if a bit lopsided, chocolate strawberry cake and some Christmas cookies. We brought our goodies across town where we finally met the boyfriend, who is from Scotland, as well as his kiwi roommate who joined us for dinner and Jamie's canadian co-worker and her roommate. It was a truly international Chistmas. Rich cooked us quite the feast which we promptly worked off with hours of Wii tennis, bowling, boxing, and golf and an intense game of Cranium. We waddled home stuffed and full of Chrismas cheer just after midnight.

January is going to be a big month for us. Somehow I managed to get New Years Eve off work, so we'll have another holiday night to celebrate together. Bristol's staff holiday party is on January 2nd where tradition dictates a costume theme. Last year it was "rockstars," and this year its any getup beginning with the letter "R." I'm still undecided, but will let you all know. Jamie's stint at the Christmas shop ends in the next three weeks after the "Big Sale," which is apparently the Kirk's event of the year, after which he'll need to find a new job. Hopefully the tourist season won't make that too difficult. We'll also need to start looking for a new apartment, as our landlords have informed us of the $10 raise in rent. We're hoping to find a place a bit cheaper and not too far out of town since we've become so accustomed to the conveniences of living close by. January also brings my grandmother's visit (yay!) and of course our big Aussie adventure.

We hope you all had a very merry Christmas and/or a Happy Hanukkah and send our best wishes for the new year!

Photo Update! At Last!

2009-12-24T23:44:00.003Z

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and to say that your present is the last few months' worth of photos from Wellington. Check the flickr page for the set.

Emily has promised to write a proper post tomorrow, so look out for that.

Our Summer Holidays Have Been Planned...

2009-11-26T20:46:00.002Z

After much deliberation, we've finally got around to planning and booking our first sojourn out of NZ since arriving in July. We'll be heading over to Melbourne for a week at the end of July, and while we're there will be catching an evening session and a day session of the Australian Open. Very exciting!

The holiday starts with a free car rental - Emily found out that car rental companies let people hire vehicles at no cost if they only go one way; a simple method of returning all the cars back to the airport for their next rental arrangement. So we'll be collecting our free ride from Wellington airport on the afternoon of Sunday 24th January and driving overnight up to Auckland airport to arrive for an early flight over to Oz on Monday morning.

Once there, we'll have a day to recuperate before heading to the evening session of the quarter finals in the Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday, as well as general entrance to the ground for the following day session. It's sure to be scorching hot, so we feel a night session is best for watching the tennis, and hopefully on the next day we can find a nice stretch of shade from which to watch the action on one of the big screens.

Once the tennis is over and done with, we will have until the following Monday to explore one of Australia's primary cities, and we'll update you with more news once we work out an itinerary.

We have talked about what's happening afterwards as well: my contract at work will have expired, and Emily will attempt to get a month off from her job so we'll have time to head down to Queenstown in the height of summer - something we didn't get a chance to do when we were travelling around in Leland / Leland II. We may even do something similar with a campervan, although we have no solid plans at this stage.

All Whites, Pizza, Santa, and Fire Sky-Shows!

2009-11-18T22:03:00.003Z

While Emily is falling asleep leaning on me, I have some time to write a blog, because I'm not allowed to move away just yet.

So plenty has happened since last we posted; we celebrated Fireworks Night kiwi-stylee; Wellington hosted its annual Santa (that's Father Christmas, Dad) parade on the streets of Lambton Quay; I went to perhaps the most significant international football match of New Zealand's competitive history; and we hosted a successful pizza party in The Terrace. That was the month of November for us.

Firstly, the fireworks was an impressive show for New Zealand's capital, but was hardly of the callibre Emily has come to expect from the U S of A. But we had a very enjoyable evening on the waterfront, sandwiched between me helping to set up and tear down respectively the weekly live music stage at the Hotel Bristol. What seemed like all of the city seemed to be watching from somewhere along the bay, stretching from where we were near the business district, down to Oriental Bay and beyond. The fireworks lasted a good 25 minutes, accompanied by what seemed to be a Michael Jackson megamix, and the evening was nicely mild for the event.

The Santa Parade, held a few weeks later, saw Lambton Quay and surrounding roads closed off to traffic for the day, while an array of oddly-themed floats meandered south. Among them were marching bands, The Simpsons, Spongebob Squarepants, various New Zealand foodstuffs, and some mysterious yellow dog neither of us recognised (but whose name the children around us seemed to be incomprehensibly screaming), and bringing up the rear, good old F.C. himself. The parade officially marked the start of the busy season in my Christmas shop, as scores of revellers attempted to squeeze into the tiny Mezzazine once the parade had passed. Although it was my day off, I later heard that the shop got so packed that someone had to hit the emergency stop button on the escalator, for safety reaons.

On the same weekend, the national football (that's the soccer type of football) team the All-Whites took on the mighty nation of Bahrain in the second leg of their World Cup '10 qualifier. A few weeks previous a friend of mine from work had acquired a ticket for me, and in the period between him getting the tickets and the match itself, the hype spiralled to ridiculous proportions. Billed as the biggest match in some three decades, a win would qualify New Zealand for entry in the World Cup for only the second time ever. All of a sudden the kiwis around town abandoned their precious rugby and shifted to football fever. But the hype helped to make my first experience within the hallowed Westpac Stadium in the north of the city an incredibly memorable one. The almost uniformly white-shirted crowd in the match was fantastically eager to support their guys, and both the single goal for New Zealand just before halftime and its denial of a Bahrainian penalty in the second half were met with roaring applause and singalongs. The singalongs and chants were pretty straightforward for me, as they were the same ones from home, but instead of singing 'Eng-land', I simply had to shout 'All-Whites'. In our section, the spectators didn't take their seats once throughout the whole match, and New Zealand's victory spurred a celebratory atmosphere in the city (and country) which lasts to this day.

In other news for this month, my new iPod had the desired effect of reducing our electicity bill by keeping me from going on my computer so much, and I invited some people from work to our apartment for what I hope will be the first of many pizza parties. The evening took a week of hard-graft and intricate planning, as it entailed getting 10 pizzas from 5 pizza places around town and getting them back to mine (while still hot) for a 7pm gorging, but as I sit here in a room which stinks of cheese and tomato, and with pizza boxes wherever the eye turns, I can only say it was a total success.

It's our day off together today, so later we'll head down to the tennis courts for a match, and we'll get to try out both mine and Emily's new racquets. I'll try and put some photos on Flickr from this action-packed month this afternoon. Ciao for now.

if we should meet on cuba street...

2009-11-02T03:32:00.002Z

Oh hello there, have you been waiting long? Yes I guess you have, but hopefully this post will temporarily satiate any blog post withdrawal you may have experienced.

Wellington is still treating us very well and our social calender seems to be filling up by the day. The majority of Jamie's co-workers are in very similar situations (working visas, international partners, and coincidentally most of them are also 22) so they've all become fast friends and readily include me when Hotel Bristol doesn't claim my nights. We've been to some pub quizzes in town and there's bowling to come- its nice to have some new company though somehow we're not remotely tired of one another (at least I can say so for myself...). Sunday night Jamie and I went to a Ladyhawke concert- one of my favorite kiwi musicians whose album I listened to every day before leaving home. She put on a good show though seemed very nervous, which makes sense after reading that she suffers from asperger's syndrome. Strangely enough, she came into Hotel Bristol the previous week for drinks with her family. I was by far the most starstruck staff member. It seems that celebrity spottings are quite common in Wellington- I learned that during the filming of Lord of the Rings, the hobbits came into Bristol quite regularly and Elijah Wood, star of the trilogy, decided to pee in the bucket fountain - Wellington's iconic water sculpture. The highlight of my kiwi celeb sightings occurred yesterday when Ladyhawke came into Bristol again with her band and friends and *I* got to pour her beer. Of course the keg ran out while refilling her second pitcher but she was really lovely as I congratulated her on a good show the previous night and seemed genuinely happy to be back in Wellington.

Since we haven't left the city yet since moving in, I've proposed to Jamie the idea of taking a short jaunt to a scenic North Island town. I visited STA yesterday to find out about cheap rental cars and destination suggestions (and to see if they had any jobs going...). Looks like we'll be able to rent a car for under $40 a day and there are some nice drives up the East coast that we could do in 2-3 days time. The woman suggester Cape Palliser which has lovely lighthouses, a seal colony, and some nice walks along the coast. I don't think asking for a few days off will be a problem at Bristol, but it may prove more difficult at the Christmas shop, as they are understaffed and may lose another employee soon. Hopefully it works out.

There is no shortage of fresh air here, though it is the island's second largest city. I spent yesterday wandering around the waterfront, stopping to read in the patches of sunlight I found. I thought I had the whole day off and was happy to take advantage of the time off by doing nothing at all, but a call came at 5 pm- apparently the schedule had been changed so I hurried to work, leaving Jamie to cook lonely jumbalaya :( I do have a nice midweek break though, with wednesday and thursday off- hopefully some time to try out my new tennis raquet.

Looks like we will have some more familiar faces coming round in a few months, which I am thrilled about. My Nana has just finalized her plans to visit in January and will be doing quite the thorough tour with a three day stop in Wellington! Also in January, a friend of a friend who performed and stayed with us at Muhlenberg, will be touring NZ with his band.

Jamie's just purchased an ipod touch and its become the apartment puppy- its always doing something new and I think Jamie talks to it more than to me. It is pretty amazing, I have to admit and we're hoping the purchase will reduce our electricity bills since he hasn't been plugging in his laptop. My favorite application is "Google Earth," it starts off as a globe and you can zoom into basically anywhere in the world and see exactly what it looks like since google has taken millions of photos- we were able to see our Wellington apartment as well as the backyard of my house in North Andover. Technology is weird.

Okay, that's all you get for now, folks. Hope all is well!

A Few Exciting Things

2009-10-16T20:37:00.002+01:00

This week has gone more or less routinely, which usually means that Emily's and my work schedules barely cross over at all, and as such we've got to make use of the time that actually coordinates. The last few days would be a good example; Emily's two days off for this week were Wednesday and Thursday, so after I finished work on Wednesday we took another trip down to our local Reading Cinema (we thought about how many films we've been to see together, and the number is surprisingly high) to see 500 Days of Summer. We both really enjoyed it, and although I won't try to review it, I'll mention that Emily said she 'didn't want it to end'.

The following day was my day off for the week as well, and so we took advantage of the slightly improved weather to play tennis for the first time in a while. Playing on outside courts in what is known as the second windiest city in the world has its downsides, but we've been adjusting to it. Then we rested up for seeing The Ataris that night, who were on their NZ Tour. We both really enjoyed the gig, and it was nice for me to see some live music that wasn't blues at the Hotel Bristol for once.

We got our electricity bill for September-October, and were shocked to find that it's no more reasonable than last month's, which was only our 'estimated power usage'. This news is particularly unwelcome as we've been doing our very best to turn things off and keep it down to a minimum, on top of which we were hardly at the apartment very much. Yet we barely managed to shave anything off the bill. Oh well, we can keep trying.

I'm off to work soon, and for the next meanwhile I'm working a 6 day week. Work at Kirkcaldie's is going well, and I'm getting on well with everyone who works there. The HR department have managed to pick a team this year of mostly 22-year-olds, and so we all have plenty in common. We went to the Bristol (I seem to be there more than home, and the same can definitely be said for Emily) for the weekly pub quiz on Tuesday, and it was a great night out. Looking forward to doing the same again.

Apologies for not updating the photos just yet, but it's on my to-do list...

A Promise of Things to Come

2009-10-08T13:04:00.003+01:00

I'll really try hard to give a more thorough update on my next day off, as this blog thing really took a nose dive throughout the entire month of September. We'll try to correct this soon, promise! In the meantime, I've uploaded a few more photos of us settling in to Wellington on Flickr, with captions to follow soon. There are plenty more photos to come, which I'll also upload when I get an evening by myself (Emily is working late tomorrow, so outlook is good for then.)

Sweet As !

2009-10-04T22:41:00.006+01:00

Well folks, we did promise you a New Zealand blog, so I'm terribly sorry about our recent lack of posts (plus Jamie said I had to apologize). There is some exciting news though which involves two sets of visitors from the outside world. This Saturday Caroline's brother and sister-in-law, David and Janet, are due to drop into Wellington en route to the South Island in their campervan. Hopefully they can regale us with tales from the road, though it will be hard to match Leland's wild night of being pulled over by NZ police. If I am able to get the night off work, we're planning to take our visitors to Southern Cross-a bar/restaurant with an amazing outdoor garden where they cook on open grilles. Our other visitors come a bit later- my parents and brothers were planning to arrive in December during the Christmas holiday but because of astronomical airline costs, NZ can expect the Besens in early March. By then, hopefully, we'll either have renewed our contract at 3A/163 The Terrace, have found a new, less expensive place in Wellington, or have fled the big city for greener pastures (or kiwi farms?) Jamie's job at the Christmas shop ends in January after "The Big Sale" and I've committed to 6 months at Bristol, though I have yet to sign a formal contract. In other words, we'll be free as Tui birds come February.

Speaking of work, all seems to be running smoothly. Jamie's shop has opened as of last thursday-apparently it was quite the event. Hundreds of tickets were sold so the christmas fanatics of Wellington could get their fix one night before the public. The ten shop workers had only one day of training on the till in completely random departments of Kirkcaldie & Staines. Jamie worked in the linen department after which he only wanted to talk about Egyptian cotton. Now that the shop is officially open, Jamie has 2 random days off a week, like me. This week we both have tuesday off and next week its thursday. Also I haven't been working many late nights which means we get home at the same time in the evening. I think I speak for both of us when I say we have been learing a lot about the country by working with New Zealanders. Unlike many Americans, they seem to be well informed about current affairs and posess a strong pride for Wellington and their country.

We got tickets to see a few concerts here in Wellington. Next week Jamie chose the Ataris and on Nov 1st we'll see my choice, Ladyhawke, return to her NZ roots after a long stint abroad. Jamie is also planning to catch an All Whites (NZ national soccer team) game with some friends from work. The stadium will likely be pretty empty- firstly because NZ is playing Bahrain- a teeny country in the middle east and secondly because New Zealanders don't seem to like soccer much. They do however, love boxing. At work on Saturday all anyone seemed to be talking about was the boxing match scheduled for that night. It was the legendary David Tua, who has never lost a match and came out of retirement specifically to fight Shane Cameron in the "fight of the century." I figured we better witness history in the making so Jamie and I returned to a packed to the rafters Hotel Bristol to catch the three-minute, two-round fight in which the retiree took down the new kid quite easily.

This past week I wandered down to the Botanic gardens again hoping to see the flowers in bloom and was thrilled to find an entire garden of tulips, next time I'll bring my camera. But for now you can feast your eyes on pictures of Jamie and I on our various rentals -roller blades and bike respectively- against the backdrop of the Wellington Harbour.

My Job

2009-09-09T09:05:00.002+01:00

There's a perfect opportunity while my kitchen-wizardry is simmering and while Emily is slogging it out at work to deliver some good news. At last I have found employment! Today I worked my first day at Kirkcaldie and Staines, one of Wellington's premier shopping 'experiences' and something of a dying - although some would say dead - breed of department stores in New Zealand.

After a month of applying to various retail positions all over the city, and Emily's eerily accurate prediction on Monday that 'this would be my lucky week', I got a call on Tuesday afternoon inviting me in to a meeting with the HR Manager of the store, who I had emailed several weeks previous to enquire about any available work. As it turned out, there was an opening on a team of ten required to staff the Christmas shop, a seasonal department within the main shop, and I was told I could start the following day.

My initial reaction is positive; the work is something I'm familiar with, and the people, wage, and role are all fine. I'll be working very close to home as well, on the upmarket shopping street of Lambton Quay, just five minutes' walk from here, and I'll have regular 9-5 hours for the time being at least.

Since it's seasonal work, it also gives us the chance to re-evaluate what will happen around February, and if we decide to go fruit-picking as we've been planning, it'll be one fewer commitment to worry about. Besides which, several of my co-workers have tried out fruit-picking in various regions around NZ, so there'll doubtless be some contact information to grasp at some stage...

Update from Wellington

2009-09-07T03:12:00.002+01:00

Hello to anyone still reading! We congratulate you for making it this far...

There's just time to say what we've been up to in the last few weeks, now we've been in NZ for our first month. We've settled into a routine which usually involves Emily heading out to work while I stay home or look for a job - still unemployed for now - but on her days off, we've been finding things to do. Every Sunday, we head to one of two farmers' markets to get the next week's worth of cheap fruit and veg. We discovered them both very soon after arriving, and now rely on the supermarket only for milk, meat, cheese, bread and cereal when we can help it. Hopefully this'll help us to save a few pennies.

We've been back to the Te Papa National Museum on the waterfront, since we both enjoy museums, and especially free museums. We think they change some of the exhibits each month, so it'll be something we can go back to whenever we don't feel like spending money. Aside from anything else, the quality of the exhibits is excellent; fascinating and thought-provoking, and mostly about New Zealand's ecology and social history. I was particularly intrigued by the section about the Earth's core (which warmed me up).

Speaking of natural history, we endured our first earthquake recently, although we managed to sleep through it. Measuring a 5 on the Richter scale - strong but not particularly harmful - it hit in the wee hours of a Friday morning, but we remained unaware of it until Emily's workmates told her about it later that day. My friend then told us that these 'little' earthquakes help to stave off 'The Big One', predicted for sometime in the next thousand years. Apparently, this upcoming earthquake is set to completely obliterate Wellington, and our apartment on The Terrace is but a stone's throw from the guilty faultline.

But, always one to remain optimistic and calm in the face of potential destruction, we visited Wellington's annual Book Fair in the TSB Arena this weekend. Emily picked up a few bargains after coming close to the end of the Ayn Rand book she bought in Nelson, while I purchased a Reader's Digest Book of Facts for $2. Since then I've been starting most of my sentences to Emily with the phrase 'did you know that...?'.

After that, we wandered along the harbour area and discovered a boardwalk full of neat eateries and bars. While most of them are well out of our budget for now, we split a pizza, and were inspired to return the following day to explore more of the beautiful waterfront. So we made the most of the fantastic weather on Sunday by reading in a park, before observing a great deal of cyclists and roller bladers scooting past. Not wanting to be left out, we headed to the rental shop; I grabbed some blades to show off some of the skills I've learned while playing hockey, while Emily chose a bike to remind her of cycling around Amsterdam again. From just outside the TSB Arena, we went all the way up the coast, past Oriental Bay and almost to the tip of the peninsula in Roseneath before heading back. (Feel free to plot our journey on Google Maps.)

This morning we went to play tennis again, having discovered some decent courts last week, just south of the town in Brooklyn. I currently stand at 0-2 against Emily in our two bouts here, but my excuse is that I was hurrying the game alone so we could get back to watch the US Open... Nonetheless it's something we could see ourselves doing sometimes, but sparingly, again because of the expense.

I'll upload some of the photos of our first month onto Flickr when I get the chance.

oh blah-dee oh blah-dah life goes on..

2009-08-27T09:42:00.003+01:00

Hullo loyal readers. Sorry for the delayed post but compared to life on the road, being settled is far less exciting: but great just the same, I'm liking Wellington more every day. Today I explored more of the Botanic Gardens which are about a ten minute walk from here and form a longer loop through the suburb of Kelburn. I walked along a winding path down a hill completely covered with rose bushes of various colo(u)rs. Another turn brought me to a grassy hill covered with daffodils. A sign warning me that thieves would be prosecuted stopped my greedy flower picking hands. It was refreshing to get out of the bustle of the city for a bit and great to have the garden so close by.

I've worked three shifts at Hotel Bristol so far, and it's going pretty well. There's a lot to learn on the register and I have yet to work a truly busy night, but its nothing my college educated mind can't handle. Half the staff looks like they just stepped off the rugby field, but everyone is really friendly and eager to welcome me to the "Bristol Family." I work my first day shift tomorrow which will be interesting considering I don't really know how to make coffee BUT i finally found out the difference between a flat white and a latte (a latte has more milk). I think a day shift will feel more familiar to this American waitress.

Jamie is the one at Hotel Bristol tonight- he's sitting in with the sound technician for the live music they host Thursday nights. If all goes well he will work as his substitute and potentially help him get in contact with some people in the sound engineering circuit.

Now it is time for a little taste of home-The Sex and the City movie!

A Video of the Terrace

2009-08-19T06:58:00.004+01:00

Two pieces of big news today: firstly, Emily is now an employed Wellington resident! After a successful interview this morning, she attained a position behind the bar of the Hotel Bristol, a neat bar and restaurant on the central Cuba St. The first shift is Saturday evening, so I'm sure Emily will update afterwards. In the meantime, it seems to be a nice spot; we stopped in on the bar by accident last Thursday when we overheard some music spilling out onto Cuba St., a fantastic big swing band. They have performances like that every Thursday, while the rest of the week is spent showing rugby on TV - something Emily will have to get used to (and learn the rules of).

Secondly, we've filmed and uploaded the first nugget of insight into our kiwi lives, the inside of 163 The Terrace. We've waited until the apartment is of a decent level of presentability before documenting it, and this has only been achieved after we acquired a new coffee table today. (Much of the rest of the day was spent hauling the heavy, heavy table from Ghuznee St. up the hill to our place...) But as a result, we feel truly settled in.

Settling in is just swell

2009-08-18T08:17:00.004+01:00

Good news folks, we have a home! We are all moved into our cozy third floor apartment on the Terrace. The noise from the traffic below (something we were quite concerned about) is virtually non-existent after 10 AM (though as I'm typing a bus just roared by...) and the couch and TV rearrangement made the living room feel much more open and left plenty of space for a dining table. After an overwhelming and pricey day spent buying dishes, cooking utensils, pots and pans, and other "stuff" a new apartment requires, we were relieved to come home to a couch and TV ( with free SKY!) and not be responsible for finding and transporting furniture to Aro Valley. Despite our cold feet about the decision, we're in agreement that we chose well.

Today was spent watching the Broadband man install our wireless router and step on our couch with his shoes (rude). Then (don't worry mom) we went hunting, not for rabbits, for JOBS. After walking around for way too long in search of an internet cafe with printing available, I managed to print my resume and bring it to several trendy restaurants and hotels along Cuba street. Most of them seemed interested and I wrangled an interview for tomorrow morning (eek!) and a "trial" serving shift at a really upscale restaurant called Logan Brown's later in the week.

Jamie had a similar day, dropping his CV in at several music shops, clothing stores, and concert venues. Despite Wellington's thriving live music scene, it seems sound technicians are not in high demand, but should something pop up, chances are the venue has Jamie's contact information.

Hopefully we'll have some successful interviews soon: wish us luck in defying all odds and finding a job in this economy.

Where To Send Stuff To...

2009-08-15T23:29:00.002+01:00

We can divulge our postal address now, since everything is set to go ahead tomorrow morning:

3a 163 The Terrace
Wellington 6011
New Zealand
Earth.

Photos to follow...

Transitionary Period

2009-08-15T03:07:00.004+01:00

Nothing of any great significance has happened to us since our last post, apart from exploring more and more of our new home city. We don't sign contracts and move into our new apartment in the CBD until Monday, so in the meantime we're still at our hostel in the centre of town.

Although we've resolved to save money, we're still in limbo without a kitchen we can call our own and so we've fallen into the trap of either eating out a little too much or foregoing meals entirely. But at the same time we're happily learning the ins and outs of Wellington, and how alive it is both at night and during the day. We've been going to gigs and pub quizzes, wandering up and down Cuba St. and Courtenay Place (many times over), climbing mountains, exploring Botanic Gardens, and generally doing a great deal of walking all around.

Perhaps the most potentially-significant moment occurred yesterday, when we woke up with a sudden change of heart about whether we wanted to live in our chosen apartment or not. Most people would simply dismiss this as nerves about rushing into signing a long-term contract - after all, it has been an extraordinarily fast-paced week in terms of househunting - but this didn't stop us from questioning our original instincts and starting to backpeddle on our decision, despite having already paid the bond and the first two weeks' rent. By the afternoon we had been in contact with our second-choice seller asking if the property in Aro Valley was still available, as well as the housing firm we were already dealing with. In the end, we were satisfied with the choice we'd made, due to the apartment's location, size, furnishings, and general straightforwardness.

Right now we've begun looking for jobs despite not being in our apartment just yet, and so once we're in and unpacked by Monday evening, we can really concentrate on the tasks at hand. Besides gaining employment, we also have to populate our empty kitchen with utensils and cooking things - not to mention food - and then try and make our new apartment feel like home.

A place to call HOME

2009-08-11T23:54:00.005+01:00

Exciting news, all: looks like we have a brand new Wellington apartment! It's exactly what we were after, with a separate living/kitchen area, bedroom and lovely bathroom. Plus its about 5 minutes walk from Lambton Quay which is right in the heart of the city. We went on a viewing yesterday morning at 9 sharp (as Deborah the agency lady insisted) and knew right away that we loved it. Its a corner unit so there is plenty of light from the large windows, its furnished except for dishes and things, and comes with a vaccuum cleaner (so there's no excuse).

This was only the fourth viewing we went on since being here. A large and much cheaper though unfurnished flat in Aro Valley was a close second but ultimately location and furnishings won us over. Without a car, picking up an entire home's worth of furniture might have been difficult on top of all the job hunting and city navigating. Still, New Zealand continues to prove far easier to live in than America.

Today we have to arrange payment to the agency but it all seems fairly straight forward. The bond (deposit) required is a hefty chunk of change but as long as we don't wreak havoc, we will get it back when we move out.

Next up, JOBS. As the short-shorts wearing Aro Valley flat owner Finley so kindly pointed out as he looked at us like we had 7 heads each, we are in a recession, but we believe we can job hunt with the best of 'em.

Where to Find the Photos

2009-08-11T02:48:00.002+01:00

Just a quick post to say that I'm starting to upload the bulk of photos to Flickr, where you can view them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/29259433@N03/sets/72157622005206998/. This is the first album, 'Arriving and Campervanning', which isn't quite finished yet.

There's also a little set of thumbnails on the right of this page (above the playlist) which shows the latest few pictures we've added. Enjoy!

A Succession of Littler Decisions

2009-08-10T00:20:00.002+01:00

It's probably a good idea to take advantage of the free internet here at the Wellywood hostel - our home indefinitely until we can move into an apartment permanently.

Our flat-viewing yesterday went according to plan, but we ultimately decided that the place was far too small and a little too expensive for what we were after, despite a near perfect location right next to the city centre. However, it set us off on a positive note; no sooner were we off the ferry than we were proactively house-hunting. Given this encouraging start, we're now spending every spare minute looking around the internet, newspapers and building-side advertisements for suitable places. We have another two viewings this afternoon and with a little more work we can have several more over the course of the week, until we finally settle on somewhere.

We're facing all the standard hurdles as house-hunters in a city but with the added complications that we're not only foreigners in a strange country, but also not-quite-proper-adults-yet type people, for whom this is all a completely new challenge. I remain optomistic, though, and as long as we're calling people up to query properties or walking across town to different viewings, it feels like we're getting the job done.

Big Decision!

2009-08-09T05:55:00.000+01:00

Upon arrival in Akaroa we checked into yet another Holiday Park where we had the good fortune of viewing a strange duck mating ritual which evoked very clearly 2nd grade recess--the original boys chase girls site. We found a short and dimly lit path down to the pier so we headed down in hopes of catching a glimpse of the extremely rare Hector’s dolphins who happen to be the smallest marine animals in the world. Sadly we didn’t see any dolphins that night but we did stumble upon the short strip of shops and cafes that make up the small town. In an attempt to preserve the cultural heritage of the French settlers who lived briefly in Akaroa before succumbing to those greedy Brits (kidding!), the town was very obviously trying for French provincial. French and New Zealand flags hung proudly from the decorative cottages, street names were exclusively in French, and “Le Mini-Golf” seemed like the attraction of choice. Given the strong English influence we had encountered elsewhere in the country, being surrounded suddenly by all things French seemed wonderfully eccentric.

No time to dawdle though, we had a big decision facing us. We did compensate for our short visit to Akaroa by taking the very scenic Summit Road route back to Christchurch. I braced myself for a ride spent squeezing my eyes shut and pressing my foot to the imaginary brakes since the book called Summit Road “narrow” and “difficult for large vehicles.“ But the beautiful scenery led me to deter my usual and often unnecessary pleas for Jamie to slow down. The book was right--there was no road shoulder and we were literally driving on the edge of a mountain, with very steep drop-offs beneath us. As the road curved through endless herds of sheep and lush greenery ultimately leading us to the summit, an astounding view of the Pacific unfolded before us, its beauty enhanced by the faint glow of the Southern Alps in the distance. We had been skirting an in depth exploration of Christchurch for several days but the accessibility to such natural gems as Kaikoura and the Bank’s Peninsula that living in the Garden City would allow was impossible to ignore. That being said, Wellington was gorgeous in its own right, and it has the cultural element to boot--the city is full of free museums and is home to some of the best theatre and live music in the nation. There was no use making the decision without actually visiting Christchurch, so we spent Friday seeing what the city centre had to offer.

As it turns out, Christchurch was disappointing., especially since I had been rooting for it from the beginning. Our initial drive through the centre looked promising, but parking was impossible so we checked into our campsite and bused back into town--I could have been in New Jersey for all the strip malls and fast food chains we passed. I kept looking for the blooming gardens and picturesque Cathedral Square all my research had promised, but there just seemed to be construction and unkempt streets as far as we could see. There was one pocket of the city that led me to question our disinterest. The botanic gardens were enormous and clean and downright lovely. Boats meandered down the Avon River running through the park and throughout the city and joggers decorated the flat paths alongside the water. The Arts Centre which used to make up a large part of the University of Canterbury campus but now houses shops and cafes framed the park and we stopped into the famed Dux de Lux brewery for a much needed discussion. The unyielding sunshine of Christchurch was not helping Wellington’s case either, but as we broke down the pros and cons of each city, Windy Welly was the ultimate victor. Clearly Christchurch had its nice bits, but it was no match for the craggy rocks of Wellington Harbour and the unique vintage shops of Cuba Street. Of course it would be difficult to return to Wellington, especially without Leland 2 (we had to turn him in the following day) but we decided it was worth it.

Making the arrangements to get to Wellington proved easier than expected. Twenty minutes in the Christchurch tourist center later, we were North Island bound. Our trip would involve a bus to Picton where we would stay in a hostel for the night, then a second ride on the Interislander in the morning. We spent the remainder of daylight taking advantage of free internet in the Christchurch library by looking for apartments in Wellington--the prospects seemed promising.

The following morning we visited “the other University of Canterbury” to fulfill Jamie’s one wish in Christchurch. His dreams were dashed when the University shop selling UC apparel was closed, but he managed to buy a mug and took plenty of photos to commemorate the event. We then ventured to the airport to return Leland 2, whose leaky bladder would no longer be our concern. A shuttle brought us back to town where we whiled away the hour enjoying the last bit of South Island sun we would see for some time. At 4 pm we departed the city we would not call home.
We are now sitting on the Interislander with the hills of the North Island before us, a hostel booked for tonight, and a scheduled apartment viewing for 3 pm this afternoon. Its okay, you can be proud of us (and a little nervous too).

Kaikoura to Akaroa and More Pictures

2009-08-06T09:37:00.006+01:00

Let me just finish explaining what happened since Kaikoura, with another batch of photos, while Emily prepares dinner.

After all the excitement of seals and cows, not to mention the stress of a broken Leland and the ordeal of replacing him, we were anxious to get to Hanmer Springs, known in the area for its soothing, hot outdoor thermal pools. When we arrived, after over an hour's drive through the mountains where we saw literally NO other cars on a New Zealand State Highway - we're quickly learning that it doesn't take much for even the humblest country road to get upgraded to the national level here - we saw that the tiny mountain town has very little else aside from a complementary infrastructure of hotels, motels, campsites and tourist information centres.

We raced to get ourselves settled into one of the campsites before heading to the pools, eager to squeeze as much relaxation time in before it closed. The brisk night was superbly clear, with a bright full moon shining over the 40 degree waters (I don't yet know how that translates into fahrenheit, sorry Americans), after which we came back to the campsite to attempt to forge a meal out of the only remaining scraps of food we had. The result was sweet potato on toast.

Unfortunately, that night we also discovered that Leland 2 had sprung a leak - just another of his problems. Whenever we tried to fill the onboard tank of water from which the tap and shower operate, he simply spurt the water out all over the floor. Considering that we'd been thinking of his predecessor as a pet we had to feed, clean and take to the toilet, it seems Leland 2 has serious bladder problems. In fact, the tank was leaving a trail of steadily dripping water all along the route from Hanmer Springs to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula east of Christchurch, some 200km away, which finally ran out just in time for us to get to a mechanic in our penultimate stop. As a result, there was nothing he could do, so we're just going to have to put up with it until we return Leland 2 on Saturday.

Currently we're at a campsite on a hill overlooking Akaroa, and tomorrow we'll see what the town has to offer before heading back inland to Christchurch for our final day.

The downpours which greeted us upon our arrival in the South Island.

Emily in Nelson, set amongst the hills.

Our first glimpse of the Southern Alps.

Leland (left) passing the baton over to Leland 2 (right).

A seal doing what seals do on the tip of the Kaikoura peninsula.

Emily and the Kaikoura Mountain Range.

An offshore seal colony visible from the peninsula.

Emily pointing to the colony and the Pacific.

Me in a field of cows overlooking the Kaikoura Range.

Emily cycling towards Hanmer Springs.

The End of Leland

2009-08-06T00:10:00.001+01:00

It is on a note of sadness that I must begin today’s post, with the distressing news that Leland is no longer with us… Our trusty campervan, with whom we undertook an amazing journey around the North Island (and a good portion of the South), suffered something of a fatal blow yesterday, leaving him - to make a cruelly ironic pun at his expense - in a state of shock.

To clarify the last post’s ending, it is true that whilst Emily was writing on her laptop and I was driving through the sleepy town of Rangiora on Tuesday evening, rushing to Hanmer Springs to get at least an hour’s swim in before the hot thermal baths closed, we were ushered to the side of the road by a police car. When I nervously rolled down my window to enquire what was wrong, the policewoman said someone had noted that the vehicle with our registration number was dragging a part along the floor, and invited me to take a look at something hanging down from the van‘s underside, which had been grating against the road. Consultation from roadside assistance after a brief and nerve-wracking wait (from Emily who stayed with Leland; I’d wondered off to get a Subway) confirmed that the shock absorbers on the bottom of the van had cracked at some point during our drive though the mountains, and that it certainly wasn’t advisable for us to head up to Hanmer Springs without a more thorough inspection / repair.

Miserably resigned to the fact that we wouldn’t get to swim that day after all, we booked into a campsite in Christchurch - arriving in New Zealand’s second largest city a full two days earlier than expected (four if you go by our original South Island plan). After laboriously planning and replanning our South Island itinerary, it seemed we would once again have to adjust, delaying our next few stops by yet another day, and consequently putting even more pressure on things we still wanted to do. Regardless of planning, it also seemed that all our plans were up in the air anyway until we had either got Leland fixed at the nearby Maui rental place, or replaced altogether.

(At this point I should say that although the mechanic remarked that we must have been in some discomfort, driving for quite some time without suspension, it was not a particularly dangerous breakage, and of course Emily and I are unharmed. If it weren’t for someone ringing up to say that our vehicle looked unsafe, we wouldn’t have even noticed.)

So the next day we woke up early to pack all our things away into suitcases and bags, just in case we were told there was nothing that could be done for Leland, and would have to quickly shift into an alternate campervan. This turned out to be exactly what happened, as after some confusion at the Christchurch Airport rental place (there is a queue for returns and a queue for pick-ups, but premature returns doesn’t have the same well-worn codified procedure attached to it) we were introduced to Leland 2.

Initially, Leland 2 looked to be a considerable improvement, with shiny new interiors, new sheets and blankets, and upgraded toaster and microwave facilities, whilst still being the exact same make of vehicle we had grown used to driving. Upon eventually leaving the rental place, however, some of Leland the Second’s myriad differences from its predecessor started to become apparent; the most annoying of which was a worryingly high-pitched, kettle-like whistling whenever we reached a certain speed - what turned out to be one of the rear window’s inability to close all the way, letting in air.

Nonetheless, with our new vehicle we quickly headed for Kaikoura. The little coastal town was spectacularly photogenic, perched between the Pacific Ocean on one side, the Kaikoura Mountain Range on the other, and (as the town’s tourist information told us) shielded from the rest of the South Island’s inclement weather by cliffs, thus making it wonderfully sunny. After fush & chups on the seafront, we headed up the coast to the tip of the Kaikoura peninsula - which Emily mentioned in her last post is famous in Maori legend for steadying Maui’s foot as he pulled the North Island up from the waves.

Over the course of our time in Kaikoura, we got up close to seals from the nearby seal colony, wandered through a field full of cows on a cliff overlooking the Pacific, and admired the stunning mountains as we worked our way up one of the walking trails. Finally we found one spot on the corner of a cliff to perch ourselves on, looking out over the ocean, where we stayed until the evening. At which point, we realised that the day was not yet over as a result of our delay in Rangiora, and so headed back to Leland 2 to continue.

We’ll update on the rest of the day later on…

Nelson to Hokitika

2009-08-06T00:08:00.002+01:00

Upon waking in Nelson, we explored Tahuna Beach, which our campsite was named for. But after deciding we’d been terribly spoiled by the gorgeous soft-sand turquoise water beaches of the North Island, we turned our backs to Tahuna and wandered into town to see what Nelson had to offer in hopes of finding a more lively city center than the previous evening (apparently no one leaves home on a Sunday in Nelson). True to its reputation, Nelson was lovely-chock full of cozy cafes and one-of-a-kind shops, such as the kitschy second-hand bookshop, Litter Arty, whose vast collection I spent nearly our entire allotted parking time browsing.

Having drastically modified our South Island driving route the previous evening, we were eager to get back on the open road. Ultimately we decided we had bitten off more than Leland could chew. The South Island is simply too big for a week’s time, given the lack of roads and long distances through mountainous terrain between destinations. So our new plan had us driving to Hokitika on the West Coast via Greymouth (which was very grey indeed). The following evening would have us back in Hot Springs country Hanmer Springs, just North of Christchurch via Arthur’s Pass, the winding mountainous trek through the Southern Alps, followed by a stay in the Marine mammal (dolphins, seals, crayfish oh my!) capital Kaikoura, and finally down to the Francophile Akaroa on the picturesque Banks Peninsula. Of course it was disappointing to forgo the scenic Southern half of the South Island, but lucky us, we’ve got a year left to skydive and bungee jump and climb glaciers.

This morning we ventured into Hokitika city center which is dominated by its jade and bone carving shops. In the back of the shops we could see the carvers at work, which was reassuring given the warning we received about jade imported from Cambodia. Somehow I managed to escape the lure of the greenstone, but Jamie was not so lucky. He settled on one of the “hook” carvings to symbolize how the ancient Maori demigod pulled the North Island from the ocean while stabilizing himself on Kaikoura’s coast.

Oops gotta go! Seems we’re being pulled over by the Rangiora police…

More From Wellington

2009-08-02T08:34:00.008+01:00

Guten tag. There's just time for me to write a blog entry while Emily steers Leland safely through the winding roads between Picton and Nelson, at the northernmost tip of the South Island. Besides being the first time we've seen some of the landscape the South Island has to offer, today has also provided us with the most treacherous weather conditions yet - unfortunately for only Emily's second time behind the wheel - with hammering rain and strong gusts which noticeably shake the campervan from side to side. This is the first evidence of the South's wintery temperament, which has caught up with us just moments off the ferry.

Since our last post, we've had a couple of Windy Welly days, during which time we have become completely enamoured with New Zealand's capital city. After our pleasant drive along Wellington's coastline on Friday evening, accompanied afterwards by a nightmarish quest to get pizza during which our over-dependence on TomTom began to cause problems (two closed-down pizza places, and three unnecessary journeys through the Mt. Vic tunnel later...), we returned to a campsite in the nearby Hutt Valley, where the site's owner inexplicably told us many times of his 'simplistic' ways. Maybe he was knocked out by Team Leland choosing his humble holiday park instead of the slightly superior, slightly nearer-to-the-city, and slightly easier to find campsite - where we proceeded to stay the following night - in Lower Hutt.

The following morning, exactly halfway into our camperventure, we met up with a friend of mine from Amsterdam, Liz, currently working in Wellington. She showed us around a good proportion of the Other Windy City, taking us to Nz's spectacular national museum, Te Papa, down Cuba Street with its variety of boutiques, coffee shops and trendy haunts (and the bucket fountain), and up the Cable Car to a panoramic view of the city. For the governmental, cultural and economic centre of its home country, NZ's capital was decidely underwhelming - not unlike Amsterdam - and as a result had a very youthful, positive atmosphere.

Needless to say, we found plenty to like about Welly, so much so that to leave it this morning took a bit of determination. Fortunately for us, the means by which we were to leave the city - as well as the rest of the North Island - was the Interislander ferry, which took us across the Cook Strait and neatly into our second week. The view from the ferry's deck was amazing, as we were navigated amongst dots of land jutting out from the water, until we finally pulled in to Picton.

Today, we'll find something to do in Nelson, hailed by one of our guidebooks as an alternate-lifestyle epicentre, before exploring more of the South Island's west coast tomorrow. In the meantime, here's another batch of photos from the last few days:

Me at Wai-O-Tapu, sacred geothermal waters nearby Rotorua.

Emily looking over the edge of the world.

Honey tasting on our way to Taupo.

Emily Besen: Queen of the Birds.

The two of us in front of Wellington at dusk.

Emily on the (windy) Cook Strait ferry.

Sulphurville to Windy Welly

2009-07-31T09:58:00.003+01:00

Kia Ora from Hutt Valley!
So our Rotorua itinerary didn't exactly go as planned, but we had a wonderful day all the same. The morning began early in hopes of catching the Lady Knox Geyser's daily 10:15 am eruption in Wai-O-Tapo geothermal Park, but good old Tom (gps for all you Americans) had a slightly more scenic and harrowing route in mind for us-delaying our arrival to about 10:16. We decided to play in the geothermal pools anyway which are supposedly the best and most colorful in all of New Zealand! We learned a lot about geothermal activity but the most valuable lesson was definitely that “pool” does not always mean bring your swimming trunks. A dive into the foggy bubbling pools of yellow, red, and neon green probably would have turned us into sulphur scented biohazards. Beneath the thick layer of fog was Champagne Lake, which was left by the most destructive volcano of the past 5,000 years. The feeling of the park fell somewhere between the Jurassic Park movie set and a kind of nuclear wasteland--but thanks to Mother Nature I now know neon green is a color found in nature and don’t feel so guilty eating green skittles.
The best part of the day was definitely Waiketo Springs, where finally we found hot spring baths. Let me tell you the off-season is a glorious thing- for NZ$12 we could lounge in hot baths against a backdrop of green rolling hills and hear distant mooing for as long as we wanted AND the place was nearly tourist-free. Heaven.
We started our drive to Taupo after taking full advantage of the free showers (because you never really know what you‘re going to find at the nightly campsites). Along the way we stopped at a very cheesy roadside attraction where I could taunt an entire colony of bees from behind a securely placed piece of glass after a life spent fearing the allergic reaction a bee sting would cause. Luckily we managed to escape bee paraphernalia free, though the honey mead was a close call.
I wish I could say we basked in the beauty of the biggest lake in New Zealand, Lake Taupo, but I am equally happy to report being here did not stop me from seeing Harry Potter in theaters. We’ve been lucky to have fantastic weather thus far, but our morning in Taupo was dampened a bit by an unwelcome downpour, so what else are two media scholars to do? Three exhilarating hours later we began our drive to Napier, the North Island’s Art-Deco capital. After I tried on about 50 different flapper-esque feathery hairpieces and Jamie several jazzy tophats, we stumbled into Hawke’s Bay Museum. The first few rooms were full of very intricate Maori carvings and textiles which were fortunately being kept in storage when an earthquake hit Napier in 1931 and completely wiped the town out; at which point the townspeople decided to rebuild almost exclusively in Art-Deco fashion. The town was truly beautiful, if a bit Stepford-like. The gardens were apparently unphased by winter’s chill and were full of brightly colored flowers and sparkling fountains that opened into a sunny boardwalk alongside the Pacific.
Next up was the New Zealand National Aquarium which finally promised Kiwi birds! Though there were only two, they were much larger than expected and not unlike the rest of New Zealand, possessed an other-worldly quality. It’s no wonder they are extinct though--without wings what good is a bird? Or so Darwin might have you believe. Our hunt for a campervan mascot is still fruitless, even after visiting Hastings, Palmerston North, and spending a brief time along Wellington’s many bays since yesterday morning. We were impressed by the waterfront homes in New Zealand’s windy capital though. And we’ll spend tomorrow exploring the city in greater depth.

Pictures!

2009-07-28T22:00:00.016+01:00

Emily climbing one of the weird trees to be found around Auckland.

The view of Auckland at night from our 19th floor hotel room.

Me in a tree at the foot of Mt. Eden.

At the summit of Mt. Eden.

The sacred Te Ipu Kai a Mataaho crater which sits overlooking the city of Auckland.

The Sky Tower over Victoria Street in the city centre.

The interior of our campervan, Leland.

Leland at the side of the road heading away from Whitianga.

Emily standing over Otama Beach on the north coast.

Emily on the empty Otama Beach in the middle of winter.

Me driving the beast.

Update from Rotorua

2009-07-27T22:02:00.003+01:00

Hello again! Time to update you on our activities from the last few days and our plans for today. I'll upload a batch of the photos I've been taking too - but not the complete collection, so there will be others to look forward to when we don't have restricted access to the internet.

After our first night in Auckland, Friday 24th July saw us explore the other side of the City of Sails. We got breakfast in the city centre before wandering up Victoria Street to see the Sky Tower (although we could have seen it from anywhere in Auckland...) which is a giant needle standing 328m as the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. Even though going up to the top stretched beyond our budget, we had a brief look around inside, and then moved on to the famous Victoria Park Market, a treasure trove of souvenirs and trinkets.

Later on, we got a different spectacular view of the city and its surroundings, from a more natural (and free) vantage point than the Sky Tower would have offered, atop Mt. Eden, or Maungawhau. It took us over an hour to work our way up winding paths to the summit, but once there we peered into the 50m deep sacred crater called Te Ipu Kai a Mataaho. When we came back down, we spent the dusk wandering around the accompanying Mt. Eden village, and headed back to Auckland.

On Saturday morning (my birthday!), we grabbed breakfast in the trendy neighbouring region of Ponsonby until it was time to pick up our campervan - our home on wheels for the next two weeks. A shuttle bus took us back to the rental place near the airport, where we we given instuctional videos and documentation until we almost couldn't stand the anticipation anymore. When we finally got to see it, they said we had been upgraded for free to a slightly larger model, standing at 7.2m in length. Both inside and out, the campervan looked enourmous, and it took me a few laps of the block before I was confident enough to take him (we dubbed it 'Leland') on the open Kiwi road.

From the cabin of the van, we got our first real insight into the New Zealand landscape. The hills and greenery provided stunning views, and each one seemed to outdo the last in terms of magnitude and beauty. By the time we got to the winding roads, veering their way up the sides of the hills, we were speechless. Several times we pulled over at the side of the road just to take in the view, and so there are plenty of photos to be shown...

We headed towards Whitianga on the Coromandel penisula, on the north coast of the North Island. We rolled into our first campsite just outside of the tiny resort town, which was pretty straightforward because of our arriving in the off-season (don't forget it's winter here). Maintenance of the campervan was a bit daunting at first, however, but once we worked out how to plug the electricity in, turn the gas on and hook up to water, we got the hang of things. We had a very modest dinner on Leland's gas hob before turning in for the night.

The following morning we got to explore the beaches of the peninsula, starting with Buffalo Bay in Whitianga, which lead (via ferry) to the incredible Flaxmill Bay. Presumably this part of the region was more of a holiday spot for locals than for tourists, as there were plenty of privately owned holiday homes, and very few vacationers. We felt like we were well off the beaten track, which was nice. A little further north up the coast was Otama Beach where, despite it being the middle of winter, we enjoyed a perfect blue sky on a nearly empty sandy beach.

Heading through Coromandel Town and south through Thames on our way to Cambridge, Emily got her first chance to drive Leland on the first straight roads we encountered. She describes it as 'terrifying', but successfully navigated the 'wrong' side of the road to our next campsite.

On Monday 27th, we met up with one of Emily's old academic supervisors from Muhlenberg, Sue, who took us to breakfast and showed us around Cambridge town. She provided Emily with useful insight into being an American coping in New Zealand, while I had to say that New Zealand doesn't seem to be fundamentally different from what I'm used to in the UK (even if things are a little backwards)... We were shown Sue and Don's stock of cows, before we said goodbye and headed down to Rotorua, famous for its hot thermal springs, where we are this morning. The smell of sulphur in the air is extraordinary, and fills the campervan whenever we open the doors.

Although we didn't get to experience any real hot springs yesterday, we plan to spend today driving towards Wai-O-Tapu and Kerosene Creek where we can watch the natural occurence of a geyser, before taking in some authentic Maori cultural performances in Whakarewarewa.

(Photos to follow.)

City of Sails?

2009-07-23T11:29:00.002+01:00

We arrived in Auckland today after what felt like days of travel. We dipped our feet in the Pacific during our layover in LA and technically 2 days later, we looked at that same ocean from our 19th floor hotel room in New Zealand's largest city.

We spent the day wandering around the city waiting for our hotel room to be ready and fighting off crankiness (me) and extreme exhaustion (probably me again). Walked east to Newmarket through the park near Auckland Museum full of really strange Dr. Suess looking trees that had roots that seemed to go for blocks. We sorted out some practical things such as phones and bank accounts and decided life in New Zealand is quite easy, especially since no one seemed to care that we would be staying in the country for 12 months with the "unemployed" box checked. OH and the airport used BEAGLES as drug dogs, very threatening...but it does go hand in hand with the very friendly dispositions of all service people we've interacted with. We finished the day with a nice meal at a very trendy Indonesian/thai/malaysian restaurant. yum.

All in all the day/days of travel make this Auckland arrival pretty surreal. Tomorrow will be spent letting it sink in after some much needed sleep.

The trip begins...

2009-07-20T22:39:00.001+01:00

We're going to New Zealand tomorrow. And we'll get there after about 1,000,000 hours on a plane.

can she do it?

2009-07-03T05:38:00.004+01:00

I am about to embark on the most challenging adventure of my life...

fitting a year's worth of clothing into one suitcase.

Introduction...

2009-07-02T23:08:00.001+01:00

A blog to document our antipodean adventure.