Saturday, April 29, 2006

kapiti island


Kapiti (pronounced CAP ih tee) island is a little to the south of us, but looms pretty large on the horizon. That's our pic of it above. The whole place is a rare bird sanctuary. All the possoms, ferrets, rats, etc that were either brought or hitched a ride to New Zealand wiped out a lot of birds. There used to be a number of flightless species that had no real predators here, but became extinct very quickly once they were hunted. Many that could be saved are in sancuaries around NZ. There's one in Wellington, but Kapiti might be the largest. You have to get a permit from Wellington to visit the island, but it's just a matter of finding a day when fewer than 50 have already signed up. Boats generally leave from Paraparaumu (pronounced pair uh pair uh ooh moo) about 25 minutes away.

Some of the birds are pictured here...

Posted by Jessica at 10:47 AM

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Friday, April 28, 2006

getting into a rhythm

Internet at the house and a fax! I've been hooked up here for about a week and am falling into a routine. Up at 5am to work so that I'm somewhat in synch with office staff. (When I get up at 5am it's 1pm there - sometimes it will only be noon there after daylight savings ends...) Anyway, start my work day early. Email back and forth with staff over any questions while working 'till 9 am, at which time staff goes home for the day, and I stop for breakfast. Finish out the work day until about 1pm. Then lunch. Then walk on the beach and/or hang clothes on the line if the weather is nice. Light a fire in the fireplace and read or relax if the weather's bad. Grocery shopping etc... Planning on buying a tv this weekend. All the episodes of Lost I missed while getting ready to move are about to come on here.

Darryl starts working in Waikanae on Tuesday.

Posted by Jessica at 1:11 PM

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Thursday, April 27, 2006

The country that never stops

You realize strange stuff when you travel. It is kind of like only reading one book your whole life and suddenly someone gives you Finnegan's Wake. It never occured to you that someone could do it differently. The next time you are driving tilt your head as far to the side as it will go and hold it for a minute. Yeah it's kind of like that. Here are some things about New Zealand that they don't write about in travel magazines:
1. They don't have stops signs. You yield at any intersections that don't have lights.
2. Imagine sitting in the turning lane planning to turn left. There is someone on the other side of the street turning right onto the same road that you are planning on turning onto. They have to wait for you to turn before they can go.
3. They don't pick up the mail from your mailbox. If you want to mail a letter you have to drop it by the post office or postbox.
4. Some smaller post offices sell refridgerators and double as banks.
5. You don't have to do taxes. Based on your salary you pay a flat tax rate that is taken straight from your paycheck.
6. You don't have to wear shoes to go into stores or malls.
7. High school is college.
8. I have been told by our neighbor that on certain days you can actually see the hole in the ozone layer.
9. Hooning and boy racers are apparently a problem.
10. They only have one spoon per family
Amazing huh.
...
okay ten may not be true.

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Posted by Darryl at 11:51 PM

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Sunday, April 23, 2006

the place is alright

Getting to like the house very much. It's a cute place. The lime green bathrooms will wake you up in the morning, and I always forget which bathroom to go in for what - toilet and bathroom are seperate - but it gets lots of sun and I like the layout. Like the short walk to the sea. Yesterday I washed clothes in a big sink in the laundry room and hung them on the line. They actually dried. (I had never done this before. I did not take pictures - it could be the only thing I haven't photographed so far.)

Posted by Jessica at 10:12 AM

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back up a week to the zoo

Before we left Wellington we went to the zoo last Saturday. Didn't get a chance to put pics up until now. Ahh internet in the house. Check out the happy otter; a hard boiled egg makes him pretty ecstatic. (You can click on any of these to see them larger)







Posted by Jessica at 9:36 AM

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for your viewing pleasure
















they are always after me luck charms.






















poisson on the beach

I did not touch it.

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Posted by Darryl at 1:38 AM

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and at night the ice weasels come...

And here we are finally with internet. I STILL have no idea what day this is. Coupled with the fact that I have been getting up early and J's laptop is reading the time in Richmond and I don't have anywhere to be on a regular basis and I don't have a tv and I'm creating a run on sentence, I am discombobulated.
It is a very quiet Saturday night(?) here in Otaki. There is a strange bird making whooping sounds somewhere outside and I am partaking in my new favorite snack.....wait for it...........custard in a milk carton!!!!....hey did I hear an eww? It's great.mmmm. So I have a job. I don't know how really. It was kind of like I was crossing the street and I was looking the wrong way as I commonly do and bam! I got hit by a job. I called about a barrista position in the paper and interviewed with a couple in a Subway sandwich place. They are starting a coffee business from scratch and they need someone who knows coffee. Since coffee and I have been on a first name basis for several years now they hired me. So I get to be the hotshot American coffee guy. It's a fun thought for me. There is a lot that they don't do over here as far as coffee and tea drinks go so I get to train them, and they are sending me for training with a roaster in Wellington. They want this to build into hopefully a chain called Barista Boys. I just need to figure out what the different lingo is for stuff here. Flat white, long black. I think they just combine a shape desciption and color and viola! a coffee drink. I'm just going to bandy some phrases about like Fat Mauve or "I'll have a short puce please." But I don't start until after next week so until then I just bide my time. There is only so much to do in Otaki. J and I went to rent a movie the other day in downtown Otaki which is really only ten buildings. I think some guy asked us to if we wanted to dance so I said no thank you and J saw a guy with a silver eye. It was a mini adventure. We walk on the beach and beach comb but the lack of an ozone down here means that you really should not do that for more than twenty minutes. So we spend a lot of time looking out the window of the house. I think the neighbors are starting to avoid driving past our house. Every once and a while I see someone slowly pulling their curtains closed. The rest of the time we're laying on the floor. Occasionally on very special nights I can be seen running from strange New Zealand spiders like a little girl. At least tomorrow we get to visit the monastery in Stokes Valley and we have internet now so we can stop scaring the neighbors. Until later I'll you with some pix of Otaki and stuff like that there.

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Posted by Darryl at 12:06 AM

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Thursday, April 20, 2006

otaki beach house

Waiting on the modem to arrive today so we can connect at the rental house. We are way out of the city - further than we would like - but the rent is low while we wait for the US house to sell, and it's a short 5 minute walk to the Tasman Sea. Hardly anyone on the beach, and very warm today despite ot being fall here. Here are a few pics of the yard and garage in back. More info to come when internet access is easier...





Posted by Jessica at 10:43 AM

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Saturday, April 15, 2006

driftwood


So I asked our new landlord where we could buy firewood for the woodstove, and he said, "Why don't you just collect it from the beach?" I'm not used to abandoned beaches with wood for the taking.

We're heading up with our things tomorrow (Sunday here - Saturday in the US). One more night in the hostel which has become really really noisy over the holiday weekend. Tons of asian kids up very late -- maybe here for the Snoop Dog concert?? Snoop really is performing here in NZ for Easter weekend. A surreal combo to me - NZ, Snoop and the Easter Bunny.

Posted by Jessica at 9:19 AM

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Friday, April 14, 2006

korokoro

Have to post to say that the pics D nipped off google of the harbor are in no way indicative of the gorgeous view up that secret drive. I will have to go up there and photograph the actual view, which is from far higher up and takes in mountains and the water and an island out there. But there is no photo that will convey the way that walking up the steep and winding incline through native trees and Scottish gorse is like stepping into the wardrobe and arriving in Narnia. Each step around a bend takes you further away and above until you feel like you have landed in your own private Ireland. You don't hear anything but wind and birds. It's a snowglobe without snow, another world.

Our things would not have fit even packed in wall to wall unboxed. They would have had to leave some in the drive. We would have had to sell half of what we brought along. And paid a lot more to do it. A beach house is nothing to sniff at. But folks here act as though we were moving to another state. Like we went from Richmond to Miami. Your avg. person doesn't drive the hour and fifteen minutes to Wellington. We're moving out among retirees enjoying golfing and the countryside. I know it's a rental, and we can move back in later, but it's a shame to get used to where things are here and hopefully make friends only to buy a home near Welly in 6 mo. or so (assuming our house back home sells) and start again.

I am amazed at how well I like Wellington, since usually large cities are not my thing. It's large and artsy, but cozy and laid back at the same time. Or that's my impression. I will miss being close to it while we live in Otaki. Well the beach... I could never have afforded a house this close to the sea at home. Here they have so much sea everywhere that a beach house is affordable one.

Posted by Jessica at 7:25 AM

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Thursday, April 13, 2006

This edition brought to you by the letter "C"

C stands for choice. J and I had a difficult decision today. She likes to quote a famous buddhist teacher who teaches a lesson of "not sure". It is a beautiful lesson. One should not get so head up about things in life because they are subject to change. We went looking at rental houses the other day. These houses were up in the hills a little out of town in a place right off one of the two main highways leading out of town. This particular highway is known for its traffic backup around rush hour so these houses are not as sought after as the others closer in town. We liked the first house off of Korokoro (which is a maori word meaning "I'm winded you go on ahead."). We went to the second house but found it rather difficult to find the address. American don't like to wander around other peoples yards for fear of being shot. It doesn't quite work that way here. We were about to just leave when J decides to call the real estate agent to see where this house is. She gives us directions which leads us around the corner and way up a private narrow drive into the bush past Heathcliff on the moors and lands us somewhere in Ireland. We find the house which is a tiny thing with an electric pump that you run about twenty minutes a day to pump water into a storage tank. It has a small wood stove for heat and refillable propane tanks for cooking and water heating. This house was at the top of the hill surrounded by wind swept forest with wild mushrooms and a stream somewhere back in the woods. The thing that had us completely flabberghasted was a large glass window looking out over this....

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Posted by Darryl at 9:52 PM

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C stands for change

So we have to interview with a lovely couple who actually owns the driveway that we would use to get up to the house. They want to make sure that we won't be dog hiding ax wielding nudists (more on that later) . We have a lovely meeting. They call the real estate lady. Great we're in!!! That when the doubt starts nagging. This house is tiny. Being American we have a ton of stuff coming by ship arriving in June. If it were possible to fit it all in the house we would be wall to wall with stuff. We could sell it. Yes. But that would make the small fortune that we spent to get it here in the first place a little null and void. Did you see that view?? The view man!!! Look at the view!!
So the next day before signing the papers for the house (with the view) we have one more house to look at about an hour and fifteen minutes outside of Wellington in a place called Otaki. It was almost a pity call. We were just going to check it out as a courtesy. It IS almost a hundred dollars cheaper a week but it could not beat that view. No way huh uh nosiree.
It was bigger.
It was cuter.
It has a workshop.
It's almost right on the most unspoiled beach you could ever dream of.
did I mention it was almost a hundred dollars a week cheaper?

oh and a lemon tree in the front yard.
So We were in a quandary. I know I know most people should have such problems. But that view!!! And it is so close to the city. So after much hemming and a little hawing. I haw more than Jessica. We chose the Otaki Beach house. It is quite a drive into Wellington and hopefully I can find some work somewhere around the place or learn to commute by train. We actually have room for our stuff in the house. We are meeting with the owner tomorrow at a cafe around the corner. So if all goes well we will be living at Otaki Beach but you can never be sure can you?

as a sidenote...C also stands for chemist. We went to the pharmacy here where I was marveling at the different names for the over the counter medicines. J had a headache so we bought something by the name of Nurofen Plus. Apparently it is the same as Tylenol except the plus is a little thing called Codeine. woohoo. C also stands for good time. Sorry it's the Nurofen kickin in.

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Posted by Darryl at 8:23 PM

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Tuesday, April 11, 2006

I do believe in fairies.

We went and looked at a lot of rentals today. I think that we have found our area outside of the city. Wish us luck. I will feel much better when we have a more permanent place to live, but I do like a good hostel. To anyone who has an interest in traveling a hostel is a way to go. The is a youthful energy about hostels that you will only find one other place and that is on campus. Hostels are like being tickled. They are fun. There is a manic exchange of energy, but there is always a chance that one might pee themselves. Wait it made more sense on paper. I have it worked out somewhere. It made sense at the time. Anyway wish us luck.

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Posted by Darryl at 2:33 PM

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Monday, April 10, 2006

hostel

Posted by Jessica at 7:43 PM

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d... photo from the road

Posted by Jessica at 7:42 PM

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photo from the road

Posted by Jessica at 7:31 PM

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souvenirs

Souvenirs is a very pretty word. It is from the Old French meaning to remember. A token or momento. I have a brought a little souvenir from the U.S. with me. I have a bad case of poison ivy. I feel like a leper. One of my first purchases in NZ was calamine lotion. I am mottled in pink and white. It is on the palm of my hand!!!! (horror of horrors for the fellahs). J and I went to see V for Vendetta the other day. I liked it. She thought it was boring. I must say that there is a lesson about prejudging. I was convinced that it would suck upon high, but while it did not live up to the brilliance of Mr. Moore's graphic novel (very few movie adaptations do match their literary conterparts) it wasn't half bad. Gotta go do stuff now. I am worried about money matters. I Really don't want to be flat broke in a foreign country.

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Posted by Darryl at 7:54 AM

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Friday, April 07, 2006

our own wheels

got a car from wcd today in lower hutt. 2002 mazda demio. pics at Mazda's site. getting used to the driving seems to be the main thing. right of way and staying left. turned off at haitaitai park while looking up directions. heard strange bird calls that sounded like the deep jungle. still doesn't feel like we are here. doesn't feel like the car is ours. maybe because we're jetlagged and in a hostel.

Ok - just read OH's post which is below. There's no point in my continuing, as his description of it all is spot on and way more entertaining than anything I was about to write...

J

Posted by Jessica at 8:23 PM

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getting hostel

I feel like one of those things that the astronauts let go of in space. I feel untethered floating in the ether. J and I landed sometime yesterday. Don't ask me what day it is. I have been told that it's Friday but I don't really believe her. I think that it's Wheresday. We have been on the go since we landed. Our intinerary goes something like this:
1.Leave Richmond.
2.Land in L.A. and get rental car. Drive up and down Sebubla Blvd (Sepulveda for those in the know) always seeming going the wrong direction. We stop turn around wind up in Utah scratch our heads turn around again and go back to the airport find our destination where they poke our very confused pet*
3.break ipod
4.sulk
5.get haircut
6.poke pet again
7.lock pet in small iron cage and run away before some authorities arrest us.
8. fly to New Zealand carrying luggage containing a massive neutron star.
After watching 60 movies over a span of 45 days We landed in Wellington to very lovely weather. And grab a rental car. We our currently staying at Wildlife Backpackers Hostel which is a five story building very tastfully painted in zebra stripes which has the benefit our being seen anywhere within a 5 mile radius and not being seen by lions in the bush. Our two days here so far has consisted of driving up the coast to Levin where our dog is staying in quarantine in a room bigger than ours. Not Kidding. We drive up to the kennel where the dog is looking at us in a lineup of canine prison camp. She has apparently been traded for a pack of smokes to be somebody's bitch. I don't know if she can last the other 29 days without at least trying for one prison break. She is safe which is big relief off of our minds. We can use that extra 40% or 89% for Jessica to worry about other things like drivng and money.
I don't mind so much driving outside of the city. In the city is another matter. Picture this . Normal rush hour. now add bright sun. good. now throw the steering wheel on the other side 100 klm pedestrian crossing roundabouts one way streets metric conversion and strange road signs. To the keen observer you have two young people walk up to the car stand there and discuss whose going to drive for a minute. They then get in their vehicle buckle up and very slowly back their car out of their parking space and proceed to scream while while gasping and pointing all the way to their destination where they then flop backwards panting to recover for an hour. Rather like some exotic mating dance for herons.
In the interest of saving money we have turned in our rental car and bought our own. Yes we are the proud owners of a 2002 Mazda (pronounced Porsche) Demio (pronounced uh mazda) The Demio is a cute cherry red (or wine) colored car with a radio that says CAIO!!! when you turn it on and proceeds to only pick up stations 70 through 90. The wholesaler where we bought the car set everything up for us. The car is street legal for six months until we pay another road tax. In another year we have to get our warrant of fitness (inspection sticker). Getting the insurance not mandatory here but highly recommended until the heron mating season ends. J calls a guy gives him our names and voila insured ! the background check consisted of "ahem Do you drive?.....well yes.....I see. Have you had an accident lately?.... no.....Great you're insured."
I guess they do things differently in small countries.
J and I are going to look at rental houses tomorrow. Namely in a Wellington suburb called Khandallah which is an Indian name meaning "very hilly place of excessively small roads and dangeroulsly sharp bends good luck to you". Hopefully we will find something soon so we can relax a little and the movers have someplace to lug our stuff which should be approaching Valncia Spain very shortly. CIAO (pronounced adios for the benenfit of our furniture)
*to those in the know we are in possession of a very rare skinny bug eyed lemur disguised as a 2 1/2 pound chihuahua.

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Posted by Darryl at 8:22 PM

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