Kia Ora everyone! We're a couple from Kansas City who moved to New Zealand in December 2008 to take on a big adventure in the southern hemisphere. We'll be sharing our experiences of living, working and traveling in and around this amazing country from our home in Wellington.
It's time for the annual Wellington Sevens, a two-day international rugby tournament that is famous for its fancy dress (Kiwi term for costumes) and its high level of alcohol consumption. And it was quite a year to go because New Zealand took home the first place trophy.
Jake and I went with some friends and dressed as the East Coast Crazy Horses, a fictional New Zealand gang from the movie Boy. I have to admit I was pretty excited to wear a mustache.
The movie was a big deal here in NZ but if you're unfamiliar with it, this one-minute-long clip introduces the gang-affiliated characters and offers a bit of insight their simple-minded antics and general silliness.
And what good sporting event is complete without a streaker?
A few fans wore Tui sombreros and ponchos featuring variations of the beer company's "yeah right" campaign messages. This one reads "I wasn't passed out. It was just my afternoon siesta," and it was the cleanest one I could find.
Other costumes ranged from simple to complex to "how am I supposed to fit in my seat?"
While the rugby is fun to watch in bite-sized pieces (seven members per team and seven-minute halves), seeing all the costumes and watching all the fans at various levels of inebriation (and amounts of clothing) are by far more entertaining. But after two days of so much fun, I'm ready for a siesta of my own.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
Jake and I went with some friends and dressed as the East Coast Crazy Horses, a fictional New Zealand gang from the movie Boy. I have to admit I was pretty excited to wear a mustache.
The movie was a big deal here in NZ but if you're unfamiliar with it, this one-minute-long clip introduces the gang-affiliated characters and offers a bit of insight their simple-minded antics and general silliness.
And what good sporting event is complete without a streaker?
A few fans wore Tui sombreros and ponchos featuring variations of the beer company's "yeah right" campaign messages. This one reads "I wasn't passed out. It was just my afternoon siesta," and it was the cleanest one I could find.
Other costumes ranged from simple to complex to "how am I supposed to fit in my seat?"
While the rugby is fun to watch in bite-sized pieces (seven members per team and seven-minute halves), seeing all the costumes and watching all the fans at various levels of inebriation (and amounts of clothing) are by far more entertaining. But after two days of so much fun, I'm ready for a siesta of my own.
It's been nearly two years since I shared the story of my 
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