It's Warming Up

Sunday, September 23

Another week and it's been great with the warm, sunny weather. The trees at the house are blooming and so are the cherry blossom trees throughout Palmerston North. I turned in my UCOL resignation on September 19 and my last day will be October 19 (the day before my birthday).

Since I had the day off on Friday, September 21, Josh and I had a picnic lunch in the backyard. We drove up to Massey to submit a form for some holiday pay I earned working one of my temp jobs a few months ago. It's probably going to be $8 total of holiday pay but something is better than nothing. As we left Massey, we drove back through the Victoria Esplanade where you can drive through a street lined by cherry blossoms.

After returning from Massey, we drove out to Himitangi Beach in the afternoon. We stopped for some Tip Top ice cream (caramel fudge and chocolate) at the Himitangi Beach Store before driving down to the beach. While I read some guidebooks for our upcoming trip to Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, and China in November), Josh was writing my name in driftwood on the beach.

I was so surprised that Josh had written my name on the beach (and given me a flower too). It was very sweet! We watched the sunset and saw something unique to New Zealand...a vehicle was pulling a guy on a surfboard in the shallow end of the ocean. I think the pictue I took looks like it belongs on the cover of a New Zealand guidebook. What do you think?

On Saturday morning, we met up with Kim and Fleetwood (Fleetwood's another American RAScholar) at 10:45 to check out the Sakura Festival. The Sakura Festival is held at International Pacific College in celebration of the cherry blossom trees. Although IPC is primarily a Japanese school, the Sakura Festival was a celebration of all cultures: Japanese, Indian, Irish, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Thai, etc.

We started the morning by watching different dancing performances. Then, we were off to find some food (stopping along the way to look at stalls selling items). We found some food stalls and I decided on the pad thai noodles and white rice for $5. Josh got curry and rice for $5. We ate our picnic lunch underneath some trees while sitting on the grass. It was such a nice day for a picnic but we'd all forgotten to wear sunsceen since the morning had started off cloudy.

After lunch, we walked around the remaining displays and then returned to the performance stage to watch more dancing. The performances concluded with a dance/parade that went down a street through campus. Our group got split up at this point but thanks to Josh's hieght and the fact he was wearing his "Wild Kiwi" green hat we all found each other once the parade was over.

We left the Sakura festival around 2:00 and drove back to Kim and Fleetwood's house to pick up our car. On the drive back, Kim and Fleetwood mentioned that there was a hangi (traditional Maori way of cooking) that night for Massey's international students and the event only cost $5 per person. We thought that sounded like a good deal so we made plans to meet up at 5:00 that evening.

When Josh and I got home, I was ready for a nap. I hadn't got a lot of sleep the night before and the sun had really zapped me. A couple of hours later we were heading back to Kim and Fleetwood's for the hangi. We literally walked over the river and through the woods to make it from Kim and Fleetwood's flat to the international student building.

It was funny to be the one who was considered international instead of hosting an event for my own international students at UCOL. The food was being prepared when we arrived. Traditionally, a hangi is prepared in the ground, however, we were being served food cooked in a modern hangi machine. The chicken and veggies came out steaming hot.

We played some ice breaker games before dinner was served. The game involved Maori numbers and mock shooting the person standing next to you. The photo is of the final two players involved in an old west style shoot out. I figured if I yelled BANG in Maori (pucko or something like that) loud enough, I would win...and I did!What, no prize though?!? :(

Dinner was served and it was yummy (it reminded us all of Thanksgiving). Of course, by that point we were really hungry though. Even the punch was tasty. We were happy with the $10 dollars total we'd spent for dinner that night. As 7:30 approached, Josh and I headed back to the car without Kim and Fleetwood because one of the only shows we watch regularly was coming on tv. On our way out, we were able to grab two extra meals since they had leftovers. What a great deal: 4 dinners for $10!

Today, the big event was that I jogged/walked enough laps to cover the distance of the Tongariro Crossing!!! AWESOME! I did my 14 laps or 17.5 kms in 2 hours and 2 minutes. I'm not worried about the time at this point, just getting my body used to covering the distance without shutting down! I was really happy to reach the goal that we need to reach for the Tongariro and we still have a month left before we plan to do the crossing. We'll throw more stair climbs into the mix too. We're up to 10 reps in the Tower Building when we go there.

Other than that, it's trip planning for Asia (a very budget trip...as in $25 hotel rooms, budget) and getting ready to move back to Arkansas. We depart New Zealand for the states on November 30. We'll split a week and a half at my mom's and Branson before visiting Mexico from December 11-19. We're returning to our favorite resort for the third time: Excellence Riviera Cancun and we're so excited about 8 days of eating, drinking, and relaxing before getting back into the working world. We'll spend Christmas and New Year's with Josh's family in Cabot and then head back to Fayetteville to figure out where we're going to live! Never a dull moment!

24 hours in Wellington

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Josh and I drove down to Wellington yesterday and returned today. We caught Jessica's music recital (our first ever recital) and spent time catching up. We had soooo much fun and soooo many laughs. We left Palmerston North around 2:30 in the afternoon, I was eating a microwavable Watties chicken curry with rice meal (they're so good and were on sale last week at Pak N Save so I'd bought 10!) It rained so hard all the way down to Wellington.

We made it to Jess and Ike's apartment just before 5...on time! We met Ike since Jess had already left for the recital. We met up with Jess and Ike's neighbors, a young Danish couple, and literally crossed the street and walked up a hill to the university (a 7 minute walk at most).

As we entered the recital hall, we saw someone handing out programs. It was Elise, another American Rotary scholar studying in Wellington although she too has her Ph.D. We said hi and found some seats to watch the performance. The majority of the songs were in French or Spanish and were opera. I kept waiting for Jess, who kinda looks like Emmy Rossum, to start singing songs from Phantom of the Opera.

After the performance, we stopped by the apartment so Jess could change and we could figure out where we wanted to go for dinner. We decided on a place called the Loaded Hog which has a lot of everything and a place that Ike and Jess had a 30% off coupon for out of a Wellington discount book.

We found easy parking not too far away from the restaurant considering it was close to 7 on Saturday night. When we entered the building and started looking around for seats, the entire place was PACKED...and the building was HUGE! Eventually, we spotted two empty tables that could be pushed together, however, we still needed five chairs. Josh and Ike went around and rounded us up the right number of chairs and we moved on to what to eat for dinner.

Josh ordered a burger and I had a chicken/bacon (really ham) salad. The food was so good and Josh really liked his hamburger because it tasted like meatloaf! We hung out for so long we were hungry again as we left the restaurant (well, it did take a long time to split the bill as it's not a common practice here).

We headed across town to Strawberry Fare for dessert. I thought Josh and I would each get our own dessert, however, the brownie at $10.50 had nuts in it and all the other desserts were around $15.00. I opted for a mochachino and Josh got the brownie which we said if it didn't have many nuts in it, I would help him eat. When the food came out, it looked great: wonderful presentation. We had some big laughs over dessert, one of which was over the fact that they didn't have artificial sweetener in packets here so I had to take this huge bottle of liquid artificial sweetener to put in my coffee...nothing subtle about that!

After figuring out how to split the bill again, we dropped Elise off at her apartment before returning to Jess and Ike's for the night. They recently upgraded to a futon instead of the homemade "couch" (boards and cushions) that they'd purchased online when they first arrived in New Zealand. Jess told a funny story about how the Salvation Army wouldn't even take the "couch" back to their business to sell, but they did throw it away for her!

The futon was super comfortable because it had two pads whereas the one Josh and I have in the states is not comfy at all. We got really good sleep and only woke up the next morning when Ike left the house around 9 to meet up with some guys from church for a breakfast. The three of us, Jess, Josh, and I had breakfast at the house (a great spread of cereal, fruit, toast, juice and coffee) and looked at photos on the laptops until Ike returned around 11:30.

We decided we'd go out for lunch with Elise so we picked a spot called Sweet Mother's Kitchen, drove down to Elise's apartment, and tried to find parking which wasn't quite as easy as the night before. Sweet Mother's Kitchen is a mix of Cajun and Mexican types of food. The place was crowded inside and out so that was a good sign. We found two tables outside that we pushed together.

The menu was divided into items they sold on weekdays/weekends and times of day. The chicken salad that I wanted wasn't on the weekend menu but I asked the waiter if they could make it anyway and he said yes...SCORE! Josh ordered a spinach and feta quesadilla. When the waiter asked what we wanted to drink, I asked if they had free refills on their "fizzy drinks" (soda in New Zealand speak). The waiter, not a native Kiwi based on his accent, looked so confused! He said no, there weren't free refills and where is this place you can get free refills? We all said, "AMERICA!" which I thought was pretty funny. Although you don't typically get free refills on soda in NZ, I still thought it was worth checking out.

The food was really good again today so we were happy. After eating, we returned to the apartment and parked Jess and Ike's car on top of Salamanca Street and began to walk down the hill to their apartment. Josh noted as we walked along that many of the cars were missing mirrors on the left-hand (sidewalk) side of the street. That's when I noticed OUR CAR WAS MISSING ITS LEFT SIDE MIRROR!

Apparently, this is a common type of vandalism on Salamanca Street. My blood didn't boil in anger but I was pretty upset. What can you do though? I thought it must have been a cosmic trade off of sorts because when we left Jess and Ike's apartment to go to lunch, I'd been really worried that we left the laptop out and Jess and Ike's laptop was out in open view too in the living room of their apartment. I really didn't want someone to steal the laptop because it has all of our photos on it. I've been especially on edge of laptop theft since many of my UCOL students have had laptops stolen from their flats. So, anyway, the laptop was still there but we were one car mirror less than when we had arrived in Wellington. I know in the scheme of life this is a very, very minor thing but it is irksome due to the fact that we were planning to sell the car in a few months' time. Bugger!

Elise had to return to her apartment because she had some event later that evening. We'll see her again the first weekend in October when she'll stay with us in Palmerston North after a opera she's performing at in Whanganui. After Elise left, the four of us chatted for awhile before Josh and I decided to hit the road back to Palmerston North. We'll most likely see Jess and Ike again in mid-October at the Rotary farewell get together in Wellington.

The drive back to Palmerston North was a lot faster since it wasn't a heavy downpour like yesterday. It amazed me to drive past the same landscapes that 24 hours ago had been covered by gray clouds and buckets of water. Blue skies, green grass and a bright yellow sun are much better to look at to me. When we got back to Palmerston North, we were a little sleepy since although we got good sleep the night before, we didn't get to sleep in quite as much as we wanted to. We easily fell asleep and took a 2 hour nap even though our landlord neighbor is constantly using what we refer to as the "bone saw."

Have I told you about this bone saw?!? Our landlord likes to do woodworking stuff and by "likes" I mean he's addicted to building things at least 12 hours a day EVERY DAY! He has a detached garage that he has turned into his woodworking shop. Problem is, it's right next to our bedroom/house. The bone saw usage was occasional at first, however, now it's just a constant buzzing that Josh and I hear.

The bone saw cranks up early in the morning and runs late into the evening...I can't imagine what their electricity bill must be like. Granted, of all our neighbor noise issues: the New Mexican "Humpsalot" couple who were constantly amorous at 3 am, the Fayetteville roomies who lived downstairs who had ridiculously loud parties, or the screaming Fayetteville family who lived on the other side of our master bedroom, this noise complaint is the most manageable...although sometimes I think my brain is going numb from the sound.

In other news, Josh and I had the article on Americans' views of rugby published in the local paper. I can't find a link online yet but if I do, I'll post it. We're going to write another article about the difference between American and Kiwi culture. Also, I'm going to miss tea with the mayor tomorrow because I'm going out of town for work. Josh will have to fill me in on all the details. That's all for now.

September Updates

Monday, September 10

The last week was busy for us but we had some good times. After presenting at the Palmerston North Rotary Club (lunchtime meeting last Monday), Josh and I were invited to have morning tea with the Mayor of Palmerston North, Heather Tanguay on Monday, September 17. That should be a neat experience.

Wednesday started a five day run of mostly sunny skies in Palmerston North (our first daffodil had already bloomed on August 30).I was so happy that the sun was shining Wednesday afternoon when I got off of work, I came home and told Josh to get ready because we were going to the beach. One stop at Subway for a sandwich later, we were on the road to Himitangi Beach. Josh and I started eating outside, however, it was too windy and cold so it was back into the car for us. The pictures are of us and the sunset view we had.

We got through Thursday and on Friday we were off to Himitangi again (after doing 4 laps around Savage Crescent with a promise to do 3 more when we got home). We didn't have a picnic this time, however, the sunset was still incredible and we were able to view Mount Ruapehu clearly in the distance although Mount Taranaki was clouded over. We threw in some jogging and hill climbing on the beach before going back to Palmy. We kept to our word, and finished our laps that night.

On Saturday, I took some UCOL international students to a small farm north of town. I had really wanted to hug a lamb in New Zealand but I didn't know when I would have the chance because sheep are so skiddish. However, after the sheep were penned into a small area, I had my chance. The only problem was that the pictures I had taken with the first lamb I held weren't taken because the button wasn't held down. I was glad I checked the photos though so I could pick up another lamb and get these shots. Seriously, I was so excited to hold the lamb!

Ian, our farm guide, did a great job of explaining all the uses of wool...did you know that wool is naturally fireproof?!? The wool from sheep on this farm is used to make carpet.

After learning about the sheep, there were two lambs that needed to be hand fed because their mother had died. They each had a warm bottle of milk to drink. These lambs were more accustomed to being around humans since they depend on them for their food. Most sheep do not have tails because they are cut off so that flies are not attracted to the poo that sticks to their tail wool. These little lambs still had their tails, however, according to Ian, they wouldn't have them after that afternoon!!!

After the farm tour, we had morning tea. Hot tea and scones were a great way to end the morning before driving back to town.

That night, Josh and I stayed up to watch the Rugby World Cup on tv. This is such a big deal in New Zealand. The New Zealand team, the All Blacks, are heavily supported. I wasn't even sure if the USA had a rugby team (they do). The All Blacks totally dominated Italy...it was fun to watch and I definitely know more about the sport than I used to. After that match, USA lost to England :( but I guess that's to be expected considering we, as Americans, don't really support the game.

On Sunday, Josh and I watched a live rugby match...Manawatu Turbos verses Speight's Otago. Josh had a free media pass since we were going to write an article about the American perspective of rugby. After waiting forever to purchase my ticket (we only had the one free pass) because the EFTPOS machine was broken, we were in the gates. We found seats and watched the guys play...definitely not the All Blacks!!! I was just happy that the sun was shining and I was so warm that I was able to take my jacket off~very nice! The game ended in a draw. What, no overtime in rugby? and we returned home.

Josh and I completed 10 kms that night around the neighborhood...a personal best. We did the same today so I feel happy that we're making progress towards our goal for the Tongariro Crossing. Now, I'm off to bed as tomorrow is an earlier morning work start (9:00) and we have to drive a good distance to speak at the Rotary Club of Taihape tomorrow night. We are looking at going down to Wellington this weekend to watch Jessica's music recital on Friday night. Sounds like fun.

Sunday, September 2

Sunday, September 2

What have we been up to? The "real" world for us (quotation marks because we feel like our time in New Zealand is our temporary/time out/fake life) consists of going to work at UCOL for me and Josh working from home for Massey University. Last week, I picked up 6.5 hours of extra work (extra $$) as an Academic Counselor in addition to my 20 hours as an International Student Co-ordinator. I really like doing the academic work which consists of proof reading papers and helping students develop their thoughts on writing assignments.

We've also stayed busy with our Rotary committments. Last week, we gave two presentations to Rotary clubs. Wednesday night, August 29, we presented at Waikanae which is about a one hour drive south of Palmerston North. Thursday night, August 30, we presented at Otaki also about an hour south of Palmerston North. Yesterday, September 1 (the first day of spring and note I am sitting in the house without the heater on at 2:30 in the afternoon for the first time in awhile), we helped sell raffle tickets for the Foxton Rotrary Club at the Foxton Spring Festival.

Next week, we have two more Rotary presentations scheduled. One is for the Palmerston North club that meets Monday afternoon and the other is the Awapuni club which meets on Tuesday evening. On Tuesday, September 11, we're scheduled to speak at the Taihape Rotary club which is a little over an hour's drive north from Palmerston North. At this point, we've given over 20 presentations to Rotary clubs all over New Zealand.

Also on our to do list is training for the Tongariro Crossing. Remember how we did the Tongariro over Easter weekend and said we'd never, ever do it again because the mountain totally dominated us? If you don't remember, refer to the April 8-9 blog post. Well, we are motivated to train for the next two months and see how we do on the Tongariro Crossing at the end of October.

After 10 days of training, Josh and I are up to 8.75 kms which is almost 5.5 miles a day of jogging/walking. We train by going around Savage Crescent which is a 1.25 km loop. The Tongariro Crossing is 17 kms total (with 3 main areas of steep uphill climbing) so we're working on walking that distance and throwing in some stair climbs at the Tower Building at Massey University's Hokowhitu Campus as well. I'm going to be REALLY MAD if the Tongariro isn't easier to climb after training for two months!

We've also found our dream house in Fayetteville if it stays on the market until we can make an offer. My mom is driving over to check it out for us....one of the benefits of moving back to somewhere you have family and friends. We'd like our move back to be as easy as possible i.e. only having to move the furniture once out of storage instead of out of storage to an apartment and then out of an apartment to our house. We'll see how all that works out.

My brother is suppossedly coming to Australia for his job in the Air Force. I'm trying to contact him for more details but I haven't been able to reach him. It'd be great if we could meet up down under.

Josh and I have also found a new facination with facebook.com's Traveler IQ Challenge. I love geography so taking those quizzes is addictive!

Josh and I hope everyone back home is enjoying college football...especially those Razorbacks. GO HOGS!

Monday, August 20

Monday, August 20

Today we had to check out by 10 am which was fine because the earlier we left Orewa the sooner we could reach Auckland and the zoo. Josh loves zoos so he was excited about checking it out. Of course, it was raining all the way from Orewa to Auckland (check out the Sky Tower view from the Harbor Bridge) and even when we reached the zoo there was still a bit of drizzle.

However, we went in anyway and the rain soon stopped (the picture of the zoo entrance was taken as we were EXITING the zoo too sunny skies). We saw all the standard animals (I always ask Josh to take these silly pictures and the biting sign refers to the otters which you wouldn't think were dangerous). I was a happy camper for first two hours or so. Then, I was zoo-ed out. Josh kept us going for another 30 minutes or so and then we had to leave so we could return the rental car to the agency.
We didn't get too lost returning the car (only one wrong turn) and we had the same shuttle driver take us to the airport. That lady is really nice. We checked in and were about an hour early for our flight so we hung out in a cafe part of the airport until it was time to board our flight.

We boarded and were off as the sun was setting. I kinda freaked out a little more on this flight than I have been lately...I think it was because I kept hearing this creaking noise that didn't sound right to me. We were safe, however, and check out the SPECTACULAR view we had as the sunset on Mount Ruapehu...STUNNING!
Back in Palmerston North, getting off the plane I did my third leg kick here as per the tradition. We picked up our bags and found the car. It was so weird to think that the last time we were here Josh's parents were with us and it was still dark outside because it was so early.

Vacation over, it was time for us to get back into the real world of work and Rotary again.