Iowegians in New Zealand

Abel Tasman National Park, Farewell Spit and Marlborough Sound

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:48:00 +0000

Updated pictures-
here

We have arrived back in Auckland and have to go back to work tomorrow. Here are the highlights of the remainder of our Christmas holidays.

Abel Tasman National Park- We stayed in the town of Motueka, which is a few minutes outside of Abel Tasman National Park at a backpackers hotel. We actually tented in the yard (along with a bunch of other people) as I was very late in making reservations for the area. We found that Christmas is a busy time to travel in NZ and I should have done a little more planning. The NP is along the northern coast of the South Island. The area is known for the beaches and the 4- 5 day tramp to get from one end of the park to the other. There are a number of tour operators and water taxi services that offer day trips, kayaking, guided hikes, etc. We did a multi sport option- we kayaked in the morning, took a water taxi along the coastal trail and then got dropped off at one of the beaches. We walked about 2 hours of the NP trail and then got picked up by another water taxi for the ride back. The beaches were beautiful and I would love to go back and spend more time here when it was not so busy.

Farewell Spit- From Abel Tasman, we drove out to the most northern point of the South Island. The area is called Farewell Spit, Think of a sand finger that extends out into the Cook Strait and that is the Spit. The Spit has its own little micro climate. It drizzled and blew all day while we were there (while the rest of the area was sunny and hot). We did a couple tramps in the area and saw lots of fur seals. We found one area were there was a cave that was full of momma seals and the pups. They pups were all playing around and crying--- they were quite fun to watch. While we were in the area around 125 whales were beached on the Spit. The Spit area has a history of whale beachings as it forms a shallow cove. The whales get in the cove and have a hard time getting out. We did not see the whales, just heard about it on the radio.

Sky Line- A roadsign and spur of the moment decision took us to the Sky Line. This is a extreme version of a ski chair lift with a free fall both forwards and backwards. It was so much fun I went twice!

Marlborough Sound- NZ is the first country to move over to the new year. For New Years Eve, we stayed at Punga Cove along the Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sound. To get to Punga Cove, you take a 1 1/2 hour water taxi ride. We spent New Years Eve at the beach bar where there was a DJ playing. The night was beautiful with a full moon. The following day we walked 4 hours of the Queen Charlotte Track. We had planned to stay for a 3rd day but ended up leaving early as it became extremely windy. The night of Jan 1 we had gall force winds through the Sound. The winds were howling so much that we were kept awake most of the night. The water taxi back to Picton ended up taking twice as long as it should have--- the driver forgot to drop of a couple people and didn't discover it until he was half the way back to Picton. What should have been a 1 1/2 hour trip took 3 hours.

The remaining couple days were spent making our way back to Auckland. We spent a night at a B&B outside of Picton. The last couple days have continued to be very windy so the ferry crossing back to Wellington was windyer and rougher then the first crossing. Last night was stayed at a very plush backpackers lodge in Wanganui. Tonight--- back home in our own bed and back to work tomorrow.

Ferry to Picton and Blenheim

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:08:00 +0000

http://picasaweb.google.com/jandlmarshall/2009ChristmasRoadTrip?feat=directlink

Boxing Day we drove further south to Wellington. On the drive south, we went along the River Road, which is a tourist route to Wanganui. The River Road is basically a single lane gravel carriage road in some places. There are some small towns along the road that were booming during the river barge days and are now tiny villages. Wanganui is famous in NZ as well. There has been a debate for a couple years if the town name should be spelled with an 'h' in it. The Mauri want the 'h' added, otherwise the name doesn't mean anything to them. A couple weeks back the government made a decision to remain neutral and said that it could be spelled either way. Big controversy over it all.

We took the ferry to the South Island from Wellington. To get to Picton on the South Island, you have to cross the Cook Strait. This strait is notorious for windy weather. The winds blow from Australia across the Tasman Sea and don't run into anything until they hit NZ. Once at NZ, they winds get funneled down the Cook Strait, which splits the North and South Islands. I would guess that winds were over 50 knots on the boat. It was windy enough that you had a hard time standing upright and you were blown away from the railing if you were not holding on. Thankfully, the seas weren't rolling to much for the crossing. People also have a history of getting sea sick on the passage.

Today we biked around Blenheim, which is in the Marlborough region at the top of the South Island. We stopped at some vineyards and also the local farmers market. It was windy biking but at least the roads were flat! We are staying at a boutique hotel in Blenheim. It used to be a bank that has been converted to a hotel.

Tomorrow we are off to the Abel Tasman National Park where we will do some more hiking and probably kayak as well.

Tongariro Crossing

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:02:00 +0000

We are currently in the middle of the North Island at Whakapapa and it is Christmas Day. We did a 7 hr hike today that has both of us very tired. The hike was called the Tongariro Crossing. It starts with an hour of marsh land, then you climb up a volcanic mountain that is barren for 1 hr. From there, you go through a volcanic crater, then a steep climb up the other side of the crater. From here, you spend an hour climbing up volcanic ash and get to the peak. On the other side there are 5 sulphur lakes that you walk past, then another crater to go through. After that, it is all down hill for the next 2 1/2 hours. What a way to spend Christmas Day!

We head to Wellington tomorrow to catch the ferry to the South Island. The ferry ports in Picton, which is in the Marlborough Sounds area. The Marlborough Sounds area is famous for wine and is were a lot of the Saviougn Blanc is grown. We plan to spend Sunday riding our bikes and touring the vineyards.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jandlmarshall/2009ChristmasRoadTrip#

Iowa in the news

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:52:00 +0000

Iowa (or people with Iowa ties) has made the NZ news twice in the last month. First time was the first big snow storm that you had. There was actually mention of Des Moines in the article about all the snow in the midwest. Second time was Tom Vilsack. Vilsack got some NZ tv face time last week during the global warming conference. I believe Vilsack is representing the US on the committee NZ also sits on to talk about agriculture impacts to global warming.

We are off for our Christmas holidays tomorrow. We are driving down to the South Island (taking the ferry over actually from Wellington). We plan to do some camping, hiking, kayaking, and are taking the bikes along as well. I will post pictures of the trip.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Years. We will be thinking of you shoveling snow and scraping car windows while we are enjoying the beach.

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:08:00 +0000

New Zealand has a long history of holding outdoor summer concerts. We attended two over the weekend. Saturday night there was an outdoor Christmas concert at the Auckland Domain, which is a very large park downtown. There were 250,000+ people there and it is billed as the largest free outdoor concert in the world. All the Christmas classics were played along with Santa arriving and fireworks. On Sunday, we saw the B-52's and the Proclaimers (sing the I would walk 500 miles for you song) at a local vineyard. The really nice thing about outdoor events in NZ is that you can bring drinks, a picnic, chairs or whatever you are willing to carry. For the free shows you can take wine, beer, pop or water. For the paid shows you can normally take food but generally have to purchase alcohol from the event.

John also returned from Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. No it is not a chocolate factory in Australia where Willy Wanker has a bunch of bears singing while they work.... it is a city in Malaysia. He had to go over and help lead a training class on firewall products so that he could get certified to teach classes in New Zealand. KL was very done up for the holidays compared to NZ. In NZ you see a few Christmas things out here and there. But in KL, John said all the stores were decorated along with the streets.

Pictures: Christmas tree in Malaysia with soap bubble snow and B-52's concert

Christmas holidays are here

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 06:57:00 +0000

The weather is getting very nice down here and Christmas decorations are going up and the parties are happening. It is customary for work to hold Christmas parties for customers and staff. John and I have been to a couple parties for vendors that we work with. My office Christmas party was last weekend at the race track. This time of year there are a number of 'race days'. Everyone gets dressed up like what you see at the Kentucky Derby with classy outfits and hats. The best dressed usually make the society page of the paper. John's Christmas party was last night. His work sponsored a harbour dinner cruise and dance. Highlight of the cruise was seeing an orca whale breach in the harbour, though we didn't get to see much of it.

Our work shuts down from Dec 24 to Jan 5. Most people will actually be off until Jan 18 but we don't have vacation to be gone that long. From Dec 24 to Jan 5 we have to take 3 days of vacation and the rest is public holidays so we still get paid. We are jumping in the car and heading south for the holidays. First stop will be National Park for the Tongariro Crossing on Christmas day. This is an all day trek that goes through volcanic areas. From National Park, we are going to Wellington and taking the interisland ferry over to the South Island. It is a 3 1/2 hour crossing in good weather. On the South Island, we are going to check out the Marlborough Sound wine region, tramp in Abel Tasman National Park, do some biking and most likely some boating as well. We are taking the tent and the bikes and planning to rough it for a couple weeks.

In other news, the All Blacks lost the final game of the season today. But, the All Whites (national soccer team) qualified for the World Cup a few weeks back, which was a unexpected accomplishment. I spent the day working on my tan at the beach and John left for Malaysa for a week for work. We also both spent a few days in Wellington for work last week. So, we are raking up the frequent flier miles.... soon to be an Air New Zealand top customer!

Favorite NZ Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:48:00 +0000

I have collected a few NZ recipes since moving down here. Scallops with Spaghetti and Crisp Bacon Crumbs is one of my favorite. I made this for the Iowa group when they were down last week and everyone loved it so I thought I would share. This comes from Dish magazine, which is a NZ produced cooking magazine.

Scallops with Spaghetti and Crisp Bacon Crumbs

500 gram fresh scallops
3 tbl olive oil
knob of butter
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 punnet cherry tomatoes (mix of yellow and red if available)
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
2 handfuls baby spinach leaves
1 lemon

Crumbs
1 tbl olive oil
knob of butter
100 grams streaky bacon, finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh white breadcrumbs
1 glove garlic, crushed
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
pinch of chili flakes
finely grated zest 1 lemon

To serve
hot, cooked spaghetti

1> Crumbs: Heat the olive oil and butter in a saute pan and cook the bacon until crisp and golden. Add the breadcrumbs, garlic, flat leaf parsley and the chili and cook, stirring constantly, until the breadcrumbs are crisp. Stir in the lemon zest and season. Set aside.

2> Scallops: Heat a saute plan with the olive oil and drop in the butter and garlic. Season the scallops and cook for 1-2 minutes each side. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and cover to keep warm.

Add the tomatoes and stock to the pan and cook over high heat until the tomatoes just start to burst. Add the spinach and a good squeeze of lemon juice and turn to wilt. Season. Add the cooked pasta, half the bacon crumbs and the scallops and gently turn to combine.

Tip into a large serving bowl and sprinkle with the remaining crumbs.

Serves 4

Vacation recovery

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:01:00 +0000

More vacation pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/jandlmarshall/IowaGroupVisitNov2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKTyOOq5dGXYA#

We had a group of 9 friends from Iowa with us for two weeks (Matt, Dorenda, Jim, Ron, Beth, Jackie, Anita, Cindy and Trish). We had great fun spending time with everyone. People came and went over the two weeks so the entire group was only together for a few days. Here are highlights from the trip:

* Jim, Ron and Beth ran the Auckland Marathon and Cindy ran the 1/4 Marathon. The spectators had a great time...... Jim, Ron and Beth said it was the hardest marathon they have done. Lesson learned- never run a marathon that doesn't provide an elevation chart.

* We rented a 'Eurotrash' people mover van to get everyone around in. We went from Auckland, north to Cape Reinga, and back down through the Kauri Forrest.

* We chartered a sailboat in the Bay of Islands for one night. We saw dolphins, seals, a whale, fish and lots of bird life. Moby was the boats mascot. Moby was a quite dog until a dolphin, fish or whale came along. He is renowned for jumping on the back of an orca whale one time and bitting his fin! We also celebrated Jackie's birthday on the boat with lots of signing and laughing to a cd of songs we made for her birthday and special lyrics Ron developed for the 'Jeremiah was a bullfrog' song. Jim also brought back a special Jackie shirt that everyone on the Greece trip will know well. And, Jackie continues to spread Joy to the world one person at a time.

* Anita's birthday was celebrated with a private vineyard tour and dinner with a 50's theme. Anita did a great rendition as Marilyn Monroe of the 'Happy Birthday to Me' song. The Pink Ladies also made a presence at the party.

*We took a bus trip to the most northern point in NZ, Cape Reinga. This is the point that the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet up. You can actually see a difference in each oceans color and see the turbulence where they come together. We also went 'sand dune surfing' on the 90 Mile Beach.

* We spent one night at a Top 10 Holiday Park in the Kauri Forrest area (where Matt made a great grilled dinner). We took a night nature walk and saw glow worms (Cool Tina!), a carnivore snail, and a weta. We had hoped to also see a kiwi but we were only able to hear their calls.

* We met up with Richard and Pippa from PedalTours for lunch and talked about some bike club trip options. We also had a nice afternoon with Matt, Dorenda and Anita relaxing at a couple vineyards and on a beach.

* We flew to Queenstown and got a new minivan with Jackie, Beth, Trish, Cindy and Ron. We drove south and spent a night in Milford Sound and took the morning cruise on the Sound. In the Sound we saw more dolphins, seals and also a penguin. We also did a very strenuous hike up a mountain to a beautiful lake and had a nice picnic lunch.

* A visit was paid to the Minus 5 Ice Bar where we got dressed up in snow jackets and boots and drank in the cold (could have done that in Iowa!). Afterwards, we visited the fireplace bar next door which had a music video system. Unfortunate for the bar tender, he allowed us to pick the videos for the night. And, there was a poll.........As Beth said the next morning......... "what the hell happened last night?"

* John, Beth and Trish did the Shotover Jet Boats in Queenstown, where they run you up against canyon walls at 100 miles and hour. Afterwards, we spent a relaxing afternoon at Rippon Vineyard in Wanaka sampling the local wine (the most photographed vineyard in NZ).

* Jackie, Cindy and Trish took a helicopter ride around Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers and made an ice landing. John, Trish, Cindy and Beth also did the glacier hike and Beth's "mustache man" paid a visit in Franz Josef.

* Two weeks with only a couple hours of rain!

1 year ago today....

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:25:00 +0000

One year ago today John and I stepped on the plane to move to New Zealand. We left Des Moines on Monday Oct 27, 2008. Some of our friends saw us off at the airport that morning (and watched us argue to get all the luggage on the plane) and from there we moved into the next phase of the journey. John and I have had many great experiences in our year down here. We have met a lot of great people, have had new experiences, made new friends and have visited a bunch of wonderful places. While we continue to miss our friends and family, we are overall glad that we made the move. It has been a good experience and one that everyone should try for at least a little while (yes, there is life outside of Iowa). Auckland is starting to feel a little bit more like home every day.

Holidays are Coming....

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:59:00 +0000

We have been keeping very busy the last couple weeks with work. John has been on the road a number of days to various places in New Zealand. I have also been doing some traveling for work with a new project in Hamilton. I am currently in Christchurch for a project management conference.

Holidays are coming though. This coming Monday is Labour Day here and is a public holiday. Labour Day is a good sign of summer as the ocean surf rescue patrols start this weekend.

Next Friday friends start to arrive from the US. We will be showing 9 people around the country for 2 weeks. The Auckland Marathon is Sunday Nov 1. Three friends are running the full marathon and one is doing the half. From Auckland, we will be going north to Bay of Islands, Cape Reinga, and the Kauri forest area. We will also be going to Queenstown, Milford Sound, Wanaka and Franz Joeseph glacier on the South Island.

For fun the other night we attended a wine club night. A representative from Duval-Leroy Champagne house was presenting. Four bottles of high end champagne were included in the show, whith one bottle being NZ $214 a bottle! All to pricey for our budget.....

Other big news in NZ is the exchange rate. The NZ dollar is becoming very strong and is up to US $1 = NZ $.76. The exporters are becoming concerned about the rate but the importers are loving it.

Weekend Sailing Races

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 06:10:00 +0000

John here. I thought that some of you may be interested in hearing about my sailing experience here. About every other weekend I crew for a member of the RNZAF Base Auckland Yacht Club during a race.
Stewart has a Whiting, I believe about 28'. The hull is made of Kauri (like LOTS of older sailboats here) and glassed over. Her name is Stinger.
Crew often consists of Stewart's brother in law Gary and I with Stewart at the helm. A typical race is limited to about 3.5 hours. We race rain or shine, as long as there is not a gale warning.
Start and finish is at the club. The channel is fairly narrow there and there are LOTS of moored boats, so the start is usually rather interesting. I'm glad it is not me at the helm.
After the race we her back to the marina a couple blocks from my house, then drive back to the club house to hear the results and tip a couple.

View Typical sailing race in a larger map

Samoa Tsunami

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:03:00 +0000

There has been a lot of news in NZ about the Samoa tsunami last week. NZ had a tsunami warning issued for a couple hours last Wednesday morning. There were a number of people waiting for a big wave to hit, but by the time it got here there wasn't anything left in the surge. NZ has a large Somoa population. A lot of people come from the Islands to find jobs in NZ. I heard somewhere there as many people in NZ from Somoa as people living in Somoa. Not sure if that is 100% accurate, but it gives you a sense of the population here. There have been many articles on people in NZ losing large portions of their families to the tsunami. The tv news also had coverage the other night on the difference in assistance between American Somoa and Western Somoa. America Somoa has the US military showing up along with ships and planes, big government funding, and everything they need to recover. Western Somoa has few resources and are relying on international aid to recover. It will be interesting to watch how this aspect plays out in world politics.

It has rained for the last 5 days here and we got a southernly winter blast. The road from Napier to Lake Taupo has been closed for two days due to a late spring snow storm. A couple hundred people got trapped on the road overnight and it has been labeled the worst storm in the area in 25 years. We actually had to start the fireplace last night for the first time in a couple months.

John's been published

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:39:00 +0000

John has been published in the magazine Reseller News. It is a technical magazine focused on resellers of software and hardware. Someone interviewed him for the article/advertisement and wrote it up.

We changed to Daylight Savings on Sunday so we are getting an hour more daylight after work. Only one day into Daylight Savings and I am loving it!

The weather has been 'unsettled' for the last few days. We have had a couple spells of torrential rains. All the trees are in full bloom and asparagus is everywhere. I actually got my bike out for the first time in 4 months on Sunday.

On Sunday I went to a clothes swap party. There were around 12 girls that brought stuff they no longer wanted and you swapped for stuff that you liked. I came home with much better stuff then I went with!

We are counting down the days until our visitors get here from the US..... only 1 month to go! We are on the final push to get things done around the house before they arrive.

Kerikeri

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:33:00 +0000

One thing you will quickly notice in NZ is that there are a lot of towns with Mauri names and they like to repeat words when forming a name- Kerikeri, Matamata, Meremere...... The slogan for Kerikeri is 'It's so nice they named it twice". Kerikeri is in the Bay of Islands area. The town is becoming known for its art and food. The area is also known for being one of the early European settlement areas.

The picture with the buildings includes the Stone Store and Mission House. The stone house is the oldest stone building in NZ. The Mission House is oldest still standing wooden structure in NZ. Both are from the 1830's--- which should remind you that NZ is a young country for European settlements.

The waterfall picture is at Rainbow Falls. The house picture is a Mauri meeting house on the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, which is where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. The Treaty of Waitangi is the agreement signed between the British Crown and the Mauri.

From Wikipedia - "The Treaty established a British governor in New Zealand, recognised Māori ownership of their lands and other properties, and gave Māori the rights of British subjects. However the English and Māori language versions of the Treaty differ significantly, and so there is no consensus as to exactly what was agreed. From the British point of view, the Treaty gave Britain sovereignty over New Zealand, and gave the Governor the right to run the country; Māori seem to have had a range of understandings, many of which conflicted with the British understanding. After the initial signing at Waitangi, copies of the Treaty were taken around New Zealand and over the following months many other chiefs signed." The Treaty of Waitangi is generally considered the founding document of New Zealand as a nation.

There is still much debate around the true meaning of the Treaty. The Mauri have filed many claims against the Crown for breach of the contract and have received significant sums of money to compensate for the breaches. There are still claims and reviews going on today.

Set Your Tivo

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:15:00 +0000

John Key, the New Zealand Prime Minister (kind of like the US President)will be on Letterman Thursday night, US time. We don't get the show here until Monday. Key is also the tourism minister, in addition to the Prime Minister, and is trying to attract more people to New Zealand. He is supposed to be giving the Top 10 for the night. Someone will have to give us a preview on how it goes.

Last room is painted!

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:04:00 +0000

We have hit a major milestone this week and have painted the last room in our plans to redo the house this year. We finished painting the lounge (what a living room is called here) this week. We are also getting new carpet put down in the lounge. I think we are going to get some carpet that has some sort of corn oil component in it and is made in the US. Just doing our part to support the US economy :) The only room left to redo this fall will be the main bathroom and we will end up hiring that done.

On Saturday we went out to watch the All Blacks. They played poorly and lost for the 3rd time in a row to the South African Springbooks by a couple points. The All Blacks almost pulled out a win in the last minute, but it was a case of waiting until much to late in the game to get their act together.

On Sunday, we went to the Auckland Home Show. The Auckland Home Show is basically like the Des Moines Home Show- you get all the vacuum salesman, home and garden construction, and miscellaneous house stuff. One interesting part was the row of homes, which was a couple streets of trailerable baches. If you buy your plot of land, you can trailer in a small bach and hook up the utilities. They pretty much look like a small mobile home. Which buy the way, we have never seen a mobile home park in NZ. Some of the baches were pretty cool with walls that would open up like garage doors to get the outdoor living feeling.

I am also starting to help with the 2010 PMI New Zealand conference planning. The conference will be held in Wellington next August. The project managers reading this blog need to plan to attend the PMI conference here next year instead of Des Moines or New York City!

This coming weekend we are going north to Kerikeri, which is a small town in the Bay of Islands. We will be spending a few days there with a group of friends coming in early November and we are going up to make the arrangements. Hopefully there will be good weather and I will have some good pictures to post next week.

Picture Update

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:49:00 +0000

It is getting back around to weekend travel time again. It has been a beautiful week in NZ. There was not a cloud in the sky all weekend. We spent Saturday working around the house. On Sunday we headed north to Waipu Caves. This is a large cavern with stalactites and stalagmites and glow worms. Glow worms are insect larvae that are on the ceiling of caves or dark and wet areas around NZ. In the Waipu caves, the glow worms look like thousands of tiny stars.

Following are links to pictures from the last few weeks.

Iowa visit- Some of the 'surprise' pictures are blurry but you get the idea.....
http://picasaweb.google.com/jandlmarshall/IowaTrip2009_08_22?authkey=Gv1sRgCOn9mcjhg9HFvQE#

Las Vegas-http://picasaweb.google.com/jandlmarshall/LasVegas2009_08_29?authkey=Gv1sRgCKehzeqoxee-ngE#

Back home again

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:29:00 +0000

John and I arrived back in Auckland at 5:00 am Sunday morning. It was a quick trip back to the US but we were happy to see all our friends and family. We had a great time in Clear Lake. We also had a picnic with John's family and I went to Cedar Rapids to see my family. On Thursday I flew out to Las Vegas to meet up with John. It was HOT- at midnight is was still 95. We just walked the strip, stopped in a couple of the must see hotels and did a little shopping. We had a pleasant flight back to NZ on Air New Zealand. The only problem with Air NZ is that they are to efficient- I missed out on the ends of my movies both going and coming because they flew to fast.

So, what was it like to be back in the US? We noticed a few more empty buildings in DSM and some areas weren't as tidy as what they might have been. We heard a little about Obama and health care reform but not as much as we thought we might.

We decided we really missed the NZ system of no tipping, especially in Vegas. I also noticed that I ended up with a wallet full of change that amounted to about US $1.25. A wallet full of change in NZ would be at least $10 due to all the $1 and $2 coins. I also decided I like the NZ system of rounding to the nearest dime so they don't have to deal with pennies.

On the other side, I really enjoyed having shopping options. In NZ, you might have 3 stores to choose from and each store carries pretty much the same thing. In the US, you have 10 stores to chose from and each one has distinct items. And also Super Target..... we need one in NZ.

September 1 was the first day of Spring here. I asked around and nobody seemed to know why Sept 1 was the first day of Spring and not Sept 21. The first day of Winter in NZ corresponds to the first day of Summer in the US. Maybe one of the NZ people that follow this blog can answer this question.

Surprise!

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:50:00 +0000

For those that don't yet know, we are in Des Moines, Iowa for a few days (right this minute!). We kept the trip pretty quite as we planned a surprise for our bike group in Clear Lake. And what a surprise it was! We had a lot of shocked people when they saw us- and we got to do the surprise about a dozen times.

John and I arrived in DSM Thursday night. We met up with the O'B's Friday at lunch for a bit. Saturday was spent doing a bike ride/bar ride around Clear Lake. We have spent today with John's family.

Tomorrow morning John is flying to Las Vegas for a work conference (the work conference provided the opportunity for the trip). I will be going to Cedar Rapids on Tue and Wed to see my family. I am then flying out to Las Vegas to met up with John for a night. We leave Las Vegas to fly back to Auckland Friday evening.

A couple quick things on being back in Iowa. There is a lot of corn and beans and really straight roads!!!! And how I have missed Super Target (The Warehouse doesn't even begin to cut it). It also seems like we haven't been gone for the last 10 months. We are just picking up right were we left off.

As you can see this is a whirlwind trip and we are packing in as much as possible. I appologize now for not getting a chance to see everyone.

After living in New Zealand for 10 months….

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:24:00 +0000

1- Driving on the other side of the road becomes natural and you wonder if you will be able to drive properly on the ‘right’ side. You also get really good a flying through the roundabouts.
2- You don’t hit the windshield wipers every time you want to use the turn signal…. and wonder what will happen in a car with the switches on the ‘right’ side
3- All your US credit cards, bank cards and even drivers licenses start to expire ….. and you don’t notice until to late
4- You get slimed in the face from a snail in the mail box when you squish it by accident
5- You get used to composting food and splitting up the paper and recyclables and wonder how you ever produced so much garbage before
6- You look forward to nice weekends when you can hang laundry on the line instead of using the electricity hog dryer
7- It starts to seem natural that it is cold in August
8- You start doing stuff in the rain instead of sitting inside waiting for it to clear off…. you may be waiting awhile
9- You start to wonder if going back to the US will be a culture shock and what it will be like
10- You really miss having a country radio station to listen to

Back on the grid

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:43:00 +0000

We have been living off the grid for the last few weeks and slaving away on renovations. We have put flooring down in 3 bedrooms, the dining room and the living room. Only the hallway and some closets left to do! Our goal is to get all the flooring done by this coming weekend so we can go back to having some fun.

We have been sneaking out a little. Last weekend I attended the Auckland Food Show while John went out sailing. And what a food show it was! It is a gourmet foody heaven---- the DSM wine club group would have LOVED it. The show was held in a convention center. Each stand had free samples (beer, wine, hard alcohol, cheese, ethnic foods, oils, chocolate, etc). I came home with a big bag of goodies. The show is held every year if anyone wants to plan for the next one.....

On Saturday we ventured out to one of the very few Mexican restaurants in town. This is a family owned shop that is only open for lunch a couple days a week and serves authentic Mexican foods (not Carlos O'Kelly's type Mexican, but the real stuff). Apparently we weren't the only ones that thought it was great as they had a constant line to order. A girl that John works with raves about the food so we thought we butter check it out.

This coming weekend we are going to Rangitoto Island for the day. This is a volcanic island (non active) that sits right in the Auckland Harbour. It is not inhabited and is run by the DOC. There was a cheap ticket ferry special this coming weekend so we are going to hike up to the top of the volcano and look down into the crater. Rangitoto Island is a major focal point of the Auckland landscape so it will be neat to get on the island. During the winter months the sun was rising up behind Rangitoto on the way to work so I would see a volcanic mountain with a big halo over it. That made the drive to work a little better.

The weather is definitely turning spring like- think April /May in Iowa. All the trees and flowers are starting to bloom in Auckland and it is not getting so cold at night. We are also going a few days between rains. Last night was really windy --- I kept getting woken up with the wind blowing so hard against the bedroom windows. The weather service is predicting an exciting spring with thunder storms (which are rare here) and tornado's. I never would have guessed that NZ would get tornado's before moving down here. Interesting thing though is that there are not any tornado sirens in the towns. The tornado's I have heard about tend to be very brief- not the creating a mile wide path of destruction type like you get in the Midwest.

The summer outdoor concerts are starting to be announced as well. The B-52's are coming in Dec (which we got tickets to!), there is a Mo Town revival concert in Feb, a number of winery estate concerts being lined up and AC/DC is coming as well. Now is the time to start lining up your NZ summer travel plans.............

NZ Tip #207

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 07:06:00 +0000

Don't leave your mail in the mailbox for to long........ the snails love envelopes (particularly the white ones). You will have holey mail by the next morning. For some reason snails don't like the glossy advertisements though.....

Latest news in NZ

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +0000

We have been spending any free time working on putting down wood flooring in the house. We have 2 rooms done and will start on the 3rd this weekend (we are doing 5 rooms in total). It is starting to turn spring like- the daffodils are up, the rose bush leaves are starting to bud, it isn’t raining so much and we haven’t been keeping the fire stoked up at night. There was a mention on the radio of ‘early spring’ the other day as well.

For fun news, we attended Starlight Express the other night in downtown Auckland. Starlight Express has historically been a permanent show (in London and New York only I believe). Someone from NZ figured out how to make it a touring show for arena venues. The whole show is done on roller skates and is about a competition between trains. John is planning on sailing this weekend with the guy he races with. I am planning to attend the Food Show.

In local news, there are a couple big issues being talked about. A couple years back a law was passed that made it a criminal offense to smack your kids (on the hand or anything). There is a citizens referendum (vote) being held this weekend to determine if the citizens want to keep this law or revoke it. Based on the citizen response, Parliament will make a decision on what to do. This is getting a lot of publicity on both sides of the issue. The other issue is changing the drinking laws. There is talk of raising the drinking age from 18 to 20 and making the bars close at 2:00 am (currently they can be open all night). They are also talking about dropping the blood alcohol level (which is the same as in Iowa right now). NZ at one time thought they would create a European sophisticated drinking culture by allowing drinking at 18. Instead, they have just created more people that get pissed every night. The other hot topic is the parliaments travel spending. Get this---- if you are a member of parliament from about 20 years ago, you have a grandfathered clause that lets you travel anywhere in the world with your spouse for a 90% discount on the tax payers dime! You don’t even have to be in office anymore. Obviously this is getting a few people talking.

All Blacks 22 Wallabies 16

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:23:00 +0000

We attended our first rugby match Saturday with our friends Sarah and Rod. We had great seats, only 3 rows off the pitch. The All Blacks start every game with the Haka. The Haka is a traditional Maori dance and was often used in war. Generally, the opponents watch the Haka at the start of the game. Obviously some of the opponents don't enjoy the ritual as it can be very intimidating (as it is supposed to be). Here is a youtube video from a past All Blacks game of the Haka.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdMCAV6Yd0Y&feature=related

Each side scored at least one try (5 points) and the rest of the points were off drop goals (3 points). The public opinion is that the All Blacks played better then they had in previous games this year but still are not up to speed yet. Check out the rugby for dummies-

http://www.utrugby.com/resources/Rugby%20terms%20for%20Dummies.pdf

In 2011, the Rugby World Cup is being held in New Zealand. This is a HUGE deal for New Zealand. The Rugby World Cup is one of the largest sporting events in the world and in the same class as the Olympics and the soccer world cup. The official World Cup website actually shows it is the biggest sporting event in the world in 2011. Auckland is adding on to the Eden Park stadium for the World Cup and the city has bought Queens Warf downtown and is going to do it up in preparation for the big party. Games will be held all around the country. Start making your plans to visit in Sept/Oct 2011!

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/destinationnewzealand/index.html

South Island Earthquake

noreply@blogger.com (John and Lisa) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:31:00 +0000

I woke up this morning to emails asking if we felt the earthquake in the South Island. We did not feel a thing and I didn't even know about it until I got the emails. There has been a lot about it on the news though. The initial earthquake was centered very far south in the South Island. It was a 7.8 quake which is the strongest quake in NZ in 78 years. NZ gets 10,000 to 15,000 quakes a year. Most of them are south of Auckland so we have not felt one yet. Sounds like there was some minor structural damage with the quake last night but nothing major. So, all safe in Auckland!