Looking ahead

I’m home enjoying a three-day weekend thanks to Wellington Anniversary Day. And it’s nice we hadn’t planned any outdoor activities because it’s been windy and raining and rather dreadful outside all weekend long. But it’s given us a chance to catch up on some reading and work on some upcoming travel plans.

Jake and I decided a while ago that we’d be moving back to Kansas City, and we’ve recently booked our flights. We’re leaving on 2 April. During our transition, there is this incredible window of opportunity for a bit of traveling. And in this case, “a bit” is nine weeks! And we can’t say no to it. When else are we going to have this perfect combination of no rent, no jobs and no children? (Technically Jake will be on leave from his job in KC.)

We’ll share more details about the itinerary as it comes together, but basically we’ll be taking the long way back to the States via Asia and Europe.

In the meantime, we’re starting to think about all the details that we need to manage. (How much NZ wine are we allowed to ship to the States? How do we have a garage sale when we don’t have a garage or a yard of any kind? Do they let tourists into the weekly water buffalo auction in Borneo?) I’m a list-maker, and I’m having a great time drafting our checklists. But we’re also planning to make the most of this summer – our plans for next month include the Sevens Rugby and the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. We’ll keep you posted.

A Christchurch wedding & stroll on the beach

It's been a couple weeks ago now, but wanted to share some pics from our weekend trip down to Christchurch. Our friends Greg and Hannah got married on a gorgeous Friday afternoon, and we enjoyed a trip down to the little beach suburb of Sumner.

Christchurch is where a large earthquake struck back in September, and we still saw several damaged buildings in various states of reconstruction. They still receive occasional aftershocks but we didn't feel any.

Here are some examples of your typical Kiwi road signs.

And a view looking east into the ocean.

This trip ended, as all the good ones do, with a few too many leftover beers to fit in the suitcase.

Holiday adventures with Mom & Dad

Happy New Year! We're enjoying our third Southern summer, and we were lucky enough to get to share our warm holidays with my parents Carl and Deed during their recent visit. They arrived on Christmas Eve and we spent two weeks touring around Wellington and venturing farther out to see more of the country.

I could write a book on all the fun stuff we did and saw, but thought I'd just list the highlights.

Our Top 25 Memorable Experiences from Mom and Dad's Visit (in no particular order)

1. Climbing up to the lighthouse at Castlepoint on the windiest day I've ever experienced.

(See Dad and Jake below braving the gales.)

2. Kayaking in the Endeavour Inlet and walking part of the Queen Charlotte Track.
3. Riding the TransCoastal Railway from Picton to Kaikoura and watching the land and sea roll by from the open-air train car.

4. Hearing how Mom and Dad saw a whale in the ocean off the East Coast (Dad caught it on video).
5. Strolling through the beautiful botanic gardens in Wellington.
6. Mom and Dad tasting their first pavlova and green-lipped muscles at Ed and Heidi's barbecue. (Thanks guys!)

7. Singing Auld Lang Syne with the next door neighbors and their friends to ring in the New Year ... and realising I don't know any of the words. (Thanks to Phil and June!)
8. Looking for sea shells on the beaches.

9. Watching Mom frown and politely describe her first taste of Marmite as "satisfactory."

10. Bicycling between the vineyards in Martinborough and savouring the tasty wines there.

11. Feeling relieved when Mom was okay after her slow-motion bicycle accident (According to a source close to the scene: a member of the riding party directed her down a lone vineyard road then instructed her to abort, after which she "forsook the appointed mission and crumbled painfully to the ground.")
12. Perusing the vintage vehicles in the Southward Car Museum.

13. Pitching our tents and camping in beautiful Otaki Forks and finding some cool green rocks in the river there.

14. Antiquing in Greytown and stopping to admire every old tractor we came across.
15. Slapping at the ever present South Island sand flies.

16. Willing ourselves across a couple of very bendy and bouncy swing bridges.


17. Imagining the baby seals but not actually seeing any on the deceptively named "Baby Seals and Waterfall Walk."
18. Having a Kiwi sighting one evening outside our motel -- an impressive experiences as it is an elusive and rare nocturnal bird. See indisputable photographic evidence below. Or it may have been a hedgehog.

19. Appreciating the native bird songs, including that of the mischievous Lu Cup-Heer Robin.
20 Enjoying the harbour views from our deck at home and promising Dad I'll have breakfast out there every day from now on.

Thanks to my wonderful parents for making the long trip out here and visiting us! It's been heaps of fun, and it's also reminded us how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful and friendly place.

See a few more photos from our holiday adventures with Mom and Dad in this slideshow:

Celebrating two years in New Zealand

Amongst (that's not a typo - Kiwis say "amongst") all the holidays and merriment, Jake and I have something more to celebrate.

This Tuesday, 28 December, marks our second expataversary. Can't believe it's flown by so quickly! Five years ago I would have thought the idea of moving to New Zealand was ludicrous and unattainable. But thanks to my amazing husband (and his mad accounting skills), it's our reality. Although it sometimes still feels a bit like a dream.

A rematch with the Skyline Track

It's been nearly two years since I shared the story of my solo hiking trip on the Skyline Walkway. I was still fairly new to New Zealand, and still fairly new to hiking to be fair. It was a long, sweaty exhausting day.

I'm proud to say that last week I retraced my steps, in the other direction this time, and it was great! I'm in better shape and my time was much faster. I even giggled a bit as I passed the section in which I got lost the last time.

I still saw some beautiful scenery and friendly farm animals.

For some reason last time I'd chosen the windiest day of the year to go, and when you're walking on the highest ridges that separate the city of Wellington and the South Island (as well as Antarctica), it makes a bit of a difference. This time I enjoyed a surprisingly calm and nicely overcast day.

The view of the South Island (above) wasn't the clearest I'd ever seen from up there, but I think the clouds and weather gave it something of a mystical appearance, like it's not even real.

A bit later I took a shot (above) in the other direction to capture Wellington and the harbour.

The walk took maybe four hours or so. This cow was not the slightest bit concerned when I walked within a few feet of him to pass by on a narrow part of the track.

And my reward at the end of the track was my familiar and beloved lookout platform at the top of Mt. Kaukau. From here it's a downhill walk to the village of Khandallah and a stroll through the neighborhood to our house.

Yanks vs. Routeburn (by Jake)

Last weekend I had an opportunity to sneak out of Wellington with my friend and fellow KPMGer Brett to Queenstown en route to the Routeburn track.

The Routeburn is a one-to-three day walk – and we were perfectly happy with sticking to the three day plan and enjoying our time and the awesome huts along the way. You might recall that Jamie and I have recently completed the Milford track and we have tackled most of some less challenging tracks (Abel Tasman & Queen Charlotte), so I was keen when Brett was wanting to complete the Routeburn.

The weather on the Friday was about as good as it gets for New Zealand, both here and in Queenstown, so it was nice to say goodbye to the office and get out amongst it. It wasn’t long until we got sorted in the lodge and had our hut passes in hand, so the beer was quickly flowing like wine. We were joined in Queenstown by Blake, an American friend of ours that is completing a secondment over in ‘Stralia (Sydney, Australia).

The first day was a little rough at the beginning based upon the volume of beers from the night before. In order to get to the Divide (our starting point) we had arranged a transport to drop us off there and it is a pretty long trip. Once I had determined that I was on solid ground again we were off. Early in the day we had some really amazing views from the Key Summit and a much needed rest as we ditched the bags on the side of the trail for this side trip.

One of the highlights for us was taking an ice cold swim break under one of the falls after taking on some relatively fun up hills. After thirty minutes, my frozen fingers began to take on color again and I was both refreshed and relaxed. Night one was an extra special treat as there was a massive group of high schoolers and their chaperones staying in the other bunk house.

The second day was definitely the most challenging and the first hour was a real treat as we pushed to get ahead of the group and we worked upward towards the Harris Saddle. We were a bit unfortunate in that the clouds limited our views of the other ranges and the side trip by the saddle was closed due to likely death by snow. We made it to the top in one piece, which was a minor miracle as none of us had thought to pack an abundant supply of peanut butter that, as anybody can tell you, is the core ingredient to any successful hike.

There was a huge lake up near the saddle that spit out a river that lead us towards the night two hut that was appropriately named the Routeburn Falls Hut. It had the best view that I have ever had from a DOC hut and we were welcomed in by the coal burning fire in the kitchen to warm and dry our rain soaked stuff / selves.

Blake was off extremely early on the third day to catch his transport and plane, so Brett and I were left to enjoy a less challenging long, slow down hill walk to the end/beginning. The weather was generally nice and it was very scenic with all of the river crossings (these tend to offer some of the best opportunities to capture photos).

Overall, I was really impressed by the Routeburn track. I suppose that I was incorrect in thinking it would be a lot more like the Milford track. It was different, but really nice in its own way and perfect for a nice trip with the guys.

Our mystery weekend revealed: Waiheke Island

Many thanks to the entries we received for our latest (and only) trivia question about the destination of our mystery weekend. Gisborne was an excellent guess, and I'm happy to say Jake was convinced we were heading to Gisborne all the way up until we practically stepped on the plane.

But in fact, our destination was Waiheke Island (why-HEE-kee), a beautiful little spot that's just a 30-minute ferry ride from Auckland. We've been here once before for a very quick afternoon, and have always talked about going back for a full weekend.

To get there after work on Friday, we drove our car to the airport, then took a plane, then a bus, then a ferry, then a taxi to finally arrive at our accommodation. All together about five hours of transportation to arrive on the island, which is a popular destination for wealthy Aucklanders. The weather there is certainly much warmer and sunnier than Wellington.

On one day we spent hours lying in the grass near this beach in Oneroa. We lay on a blanket and read books and enjoyed the sunshine. We tried not to stare as one couple made out for about two hours straight. That's them above Jake's shoulder in a rare moment of not making out.

The island has some interesting plants. Not sure what these are but they were so colourful I couldn't resist snapping a photo.

The photo above shows our three favourite New Zealand plants. The tall cabbage trees (we have one outside our window at home), the flax on the right with tall spikey branches, and of course the beloved grape vines. If you ever see any greeting cards or artwork from New Zealand, you're likely to see flax or cabbage trees represented.

The island has several little bays and lots of boats parked in each.

Our goal for the weekend to take it easy and enjoy the sunshine, and we did a pretty good job.

We hired bicycles to pedal around the island and let me tell you -- Waiheke is a bit hillier than Martinborough! To borrow a kiwi phrase, my hammies were burning! But well worth it as we found some amazing views and beaches and wineries.

The two wineries we visited were Mudbrick (above) and Cable Bay (below). The are both perched on a beautiful hillside overlooking the harbour and on to Auckland in the distance.

While we were there, a helicopter landed on the lawn and dropped off some folks for a wine tasting. Still sweating from the bike ride and patting down my helmut hair, I thought that was quite a fancy arrival.

We're so glad we've had a chance to come back and get the full Waiheke weekend experience.