Taxes and the Shortest Summer Ever

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In honor of today, the first day of Fall!

Autumn Approaching

Early September marked the beginning of our third month back in the states. Today, as we walk out of our apartment in the DC area that we now call home, a chill can be felt in a late evening breeze. The early mornings are getting progressively colder, the leaves are starting to turn, and you get the distinct feeling that the light tank top and shorts you keep wearing aren't going to cut it much longer.

Where has my summer gone??

I feel I have been cheated out of a proper summer.  Not only has the season flip meant that we only got 2 months off between New Zealand winter and mid-Atlantic fall but, let's be honest, summer was not even really 'summer' in Christchurch. Even the locals said it. Woe is me, I know. But I really feel we missed summer, not just in weather but that everything has been moving so fast since we returned.

At Cape Reinga. My feelings on winter approaching.

Ahh winter, back again so soon!

The Taxman

A tax notice that managed to arrive to my parent's house, sans zip code, from the New Zealand inland revenue department served as another reminder that we lived in Aotearoa. Because let's face it, can you really say you've lived somewhere if you haven't paid taxes? I believe I was told somewhere down the line that on the working holiday scheme I did not need to worry about taxes. However, with the promotional (popsicle) job I was technically 'contracted' and so I did need to file a tax form. I did not owe anything in the end, which was good since that job took out 25% of my paycheck in taxes anyways! I did I guess, just actually needed to fill it out- and it was due in March... Oops.

On the bright side, if I'm losing my summer to NZ at least I'm not losing any more money to them! We now have a wedding to save up for! I have just finished up a quick trip back to Florida that included a bridal show, wedding dress appointments and meetings upon meetings with wedding venues and reception sites. It seems that no matter which of the many different locations and venue types you pick, the cost is going to come out to a similar, very high, number that makes you re-think every purchase you will make for the next 7 months. I saw so many fun, interesting and different places on this trip- and I got to enjoy the sunshine! Now back to the increasingly cooler weather where we will crunch numbers and make some decisions!

Engagement Photo :)

I hope my favourite bride-to-be in Chrsitchurch has her plans coming along nicely as well!

Campervans: How Does That Make You Feel?

Even though time has passed, our interesting experience with campervans and bad experience with the company Maui means that we still cringe every time an RV drives by. (Honestly, I didn't realize how popular they were in the US until now.)

Thanks to the 'meme' and ecard fad that has taken over the internet, I have been able to find some images that sum up our feelings on camping currently.  Plus, they are just simply amusing.

Ah, the hotel we traded the van in for on those last two nights... bliss!

For those who have been paying very close attention, you may recall my first campervan concern from the beginning of our adventure during my popsicle gig.  This is when Wells fisrt explored the idea:

"On the second day... Wells fell in love with camper vans and is currently trying to convince me that it would be a great place to live in DC while he is in med school! A little help over here?!"

Oh to the days of innocence! Luckily I no longer have to worry about that!
With a nod to this and our upcoming wedding:

Ha! Not that I never liked camping... but I think we can both use a break. And I love our DC apartment!

Cheers!

In Review: FINAL

Having been back in the States, we have been gained some perspective but it is still hard to completely sum up experiences or feelings in a few words. Besides being full of amazing adventures, our time in New Zealand has really been a 'real life' test.  Newly engaged, we set off for a country where we knew no one and set ourselves up with very little help.  We budgeted, bought a car, wrote papers and got jobs. We had an amazing time playing tour guides for our friends and got to do so many unforgettable things like caving, hot springs, jet boats and skiing. Still though, we had our own crisis to deal with when we were stranded with a broken camper van! I am proud of us making it through the tough times and am grateful to all the friends we made who made us smile along the way :)


I have done a fair amount of traveling, but I realize now that that is different than living. Living in New Zealand has definitely given me a feel for the country better than touring would have. This is something I realized when our friends would come for such short periods of time. From understanding the Maori culture to Paua shell I feel I really got to know the country and the Kiwis. The closest I had been to living somewhere before was when I studied in Spain, but then I still was having my meals made for me, I wasn't paying bills and I did not have a job. I think my jobs here have given me some of my best insights. Not only did I work with kiwis, but as my jobs were bar tending and product promotion, I have interacted with quite a number and variety of locals.

Things I'll miss

Mountains

I am really going to miss that just about every scene in this country has a mountain in the background. Or, if not, usually some great natural marvel. After being here 9 months it was easy to become complacent, but I have loved that my walk home from the grocery store had a distant mountain range and that we could walk on volcanoes. New Zealand has come truly wonderful landscapes and I feel lucky to have gotten to explore them.

I know I leave with a greater sense of adventure than I had before, partially due to this and partially due to being around such intrepid and fearless kiwis!

The All Blacks

I will miss them not because I am a new rugby fanatic (though I do enjoy it) but because of the amazing way I have seen them be something that the whole country gets behind and creates a positive notion of nationhood that I have not quite seen before.

Great lollies

Cadbury, Whitakers, and snake lollies. Enough said.

Indian food

I know you can get Indian food in the states, but here, fast food Indian and restaurants here are as popular as Starbucks in the states. Even more popular are the local fish and chip shops and although it is fun to get a quick meal in a paper parcel, it is the easy access and relative cheap Indian food we will miss more. Sauces to make your own are in every store- and not even in the 'ethnic section' (which is where you'll find tortillas). Especially for Wells is the butter chicken. We have tried multiple restaurants and every sauce in the grocery store and the gold medal goes to the take-away in the food court of Westfield Riccarton in Christchurch.

Things I missed:

Before I left I made a list of things that I thought I would miss. Looking back, here's what I think:

Dance

I know for sure this would be something I'd miss. I can't wait to take a class, I am feeling quite deprived and not to mention not as flexible! I have learned that I can live without dance but that I'd really prefer not too :) Plus,  the litle people in my head are still going to dance anyways!

Holiday Dinners

Luckily I did not have to worry too much about this since my parents came! On New Year's Eve the four of us had Christmas dinner: New Zealand lamb, roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. The way it should be :)

Although we didn't really make it ourselves, we did get into some cooking of our own!

Shortbread

Again, saved by my parents' visit! They managed to get us some through! Very luckily since we definitely were not living in a place large enough to even try to roll out dough!

My iPhone

I really really did miss this, and for a number of reasons. First, going back to predictive texting was painstaking. Second, the phone charges here are outrageous. How, you may ask? So much so that when I got an interview for a job, I got it in a text because no one calls as it is so expensive. Actually thats not completely true, they 'drop call' here. Meaning, they hang up before anyone answers so you don't pick up and use their minutes, but they've got your attention. Not to mention that even getting service in a lot of the country can be trying.

It has really felt like stepping back in time, a bit to far back in my opinion for such a developed country. On the bright side, I am excited to be looking at the world of my iPhone through new eyes. Hello future!

Spanish

I knew that there was not going to be too mich of the language around these parts but I did not realize that I was going to be so deprived of the food! Mexican and Sanish restaurants were few and far between, and when you did find them they were normally quite expensive places. Also, I only found one drinkable margarita ($14 I might add). Though wells and I have made more than our fair share of quesadillas, tortilla espanola and paella, I am really looking forward to some great Cuban sandwiches and a margarita.

Also, I'm ready to hear more Spanish- I'm getting quite rusty!

[Insert Sentiment Here]
Although I have had time now to reflect on my amazing trip, I can never find the right words to sum up this blog. So, to keep it simple, I will just say that I feel amazingly lucky to have had the ultimate trip of a lifetime. I'm glad for all the highs and lows as I feel we grew from them but I am especially touched by the people who made their way out to see us- deep friendships and amazing times!
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read my ramblings and experiences, it was nice to know we were being thought of 'across the ditch'. Ta!

Nomadic Adventures

By the time this is posted I know I will be home already, so I apologize for the delay.  It's not my fault though! Oh so much has happened since the last time I wrote and we have hardly stopped moving- or had wi-fi for that matter! Through our end adventures it is not a case of what did we see, but what didn't we.

Since I last posted we:

• Toured the North Island with Elliot
• Traded our car in for a rented campervan and did some exploring (and ife lessons, and crisis) just the two of us
• Picked up two new friends, Ryan and Tarik, and retraced our steps back to Wellington

For the sake of everyone's 21st century attention spans, I will be brief in my writing and let the pictures do the talking!

Part 1: Elliot's Trip
Elliot joined us in the beginning of May in Wellington and left us in Auckland. Our first stop after the capitol was Tongariro National Park in the center of the North Island. The next day (after waking up in our tent which had frosted over in the night!) we began the 7-hour Tongariro Crossing which took us over and around 3 volcanic mountains:

It was quite a feat and luckily we hadn't sent Elliot running for the hills already!

The next day we did a massive swing through a canyon by Taupo. I'm glad Wells and I did it together, I dont know if I could have done it alone! We ended our day in sulfer-smelling, geothermic Rotorua after rolling down the hill in a giant H2Ogo ball filled with water.

Taking the Plunge!

Waitomo Caves: a truly amazing experience with abseiling (repelling), cave exploring and glowworms.  It was great to test the boundaries of my comfort zone, especially when it turned out to be such a great day! I had nothing to be nervous about, only amazed:

Magazine worthy!

That night we headed to Raglan, a small surf town with surf breaks professionals come seek out. We stayed at the Eco lodge in a converted caboose (though apart from some gardening we learned 'Eco' meant 'excuse to have to power outlets'. Noted.)




Our next stop took us to the beautiful bay of Islands north of Auckland where we took a fun sailboat ride in Pahia and Wells caught dinner!

So happy!

We hit the Auckland art gallery and found a cool exhibit that gave us this fun shot

Part 2: Campervan Living

When we were still so excited..

As we had nowhere to live and the prospects weren't looking promising, we sold the car and rented out a campervan... for a month an a half.  As we had to pay upfront, the rental quite nearly broke the bank and we had no money for insurance. This later came back to bite us. However, it was a great way to set out exploring, stay in some interesting places and Wells got a lot of surfing in.  We spent most of our first month in the Northland, north of Auckland.

Undeniably Beautiful

 A couple of the more unusual places we spent the night in our quest to Freedom Camp:

A parking lot by an oil refinery and a wood chipping plant... Hey, they had a bathroom.

A cemetery. As the local who told us about it said: "No one will bother you there. At least no one alive."

Part 3: The Boys' Trip
We picked up Wells's high school friend Ryan and his friend Tarik from the Auckland airport midway through June and made our way back down to Auckland.  Although we hit some of the same places we had with Elliot, our experiences were different ans equally amazing.

They love to be proud.

First, we hit Hot Water Beach in the Coromandel Peninsula.  Digging in the sand uncovers boiling, volcano heated water!
Next, we hit Hobbiton, after making a quick stop to see the shrine to NZ's own soft drink "Lemon & Pearoa', or L&P.  "World famous in New Zealand."

We passed though Rotorua again to take a dip in the free natural hot springs on our way to the Waitomo Caves. Even though we had done this with Elliot, we had a totally different experience with different caves. Green Glow Eco-Adventures was seriously one of the most amazing things we did in New Zealand and worth every penny.  Paul is a wonderful guide and, again, an excellent photographer!

Yes this is a real photo! Glowworms galore.

Tiny crawl spaces!

After this we continued retracing our steps so that we were back in the Tongariro National Park area, where we had done the alpine crossing with Elliot. Except this time there was snow!

Enough snow for some ski, but really nothing beyond the bunny slope.

Lack of snow was bad on the mountains but, it meant that the Alpine Crossing could still be done (with ice axes and crampons).  Wells led the boys through the mountains and I went with them as far as I could before turning around and picking them up at the end.

Luckily, when Wells and I passed through a week later (on our way up to Auckland after the Fulbright ceremony in Wellington) there was definitely enough snow!

Final 'In Review' post to follow!

In Review: North Island Edition

As we get ready to take of on our 2nd grand New Zealand road trip with Elliot, I thought it would be a good time to reflect again on our time here.

Weather

I don't even know anymore. I have given up on the weatherman and especially on that warm northerly wind people used to tell me about. Ironically, when we returned from Australia it seemed warmer in New Zealand, if that makes and sense, which was nice for our 3 day, 47 km hike in the Abel Tasman for sure.  Settling in Wellington we have started to experience the famed wind, though unfortunately it recently brought with it a cold front and it definitely feels like winter now.  Plus, in contrast to all those lovely long summer hours that I was raving about before, it has started to get dark earlier and earlier with the sun setting at about 5:30. The season change is especially confusing when I get emails that say 'feeling the heat?' and other various summer references that are obviously coming from the states.

Driving

Since I last wrote, the confusing and unnecessary 'give-way' rules have changed! Yay! However despite the few weeks of radio and TV ads informing people of the change, there are still a few people who you'll find haven't quite caught on and so still awkward moments will arise. In time they will learn, in time.

Also, since the last review we took Betsy in for a new WOF certificate and we are glad to say she passed! In New Zealand you are required to be driving with a valid Warrant Of Fitness (WOF) which expires every 6 months. Basically, they give your car a check-up to make sure it is safe to drive on the road, there are no broken tail lights, etc. This doesn't mean you don't need an oil change, but it mean that everything is working. They won't give you the certificate until everything is clear, which means you technically can't drive it. Very relieving to get a clean bill of health! There is debate as to how useful this rule is. On one hand it does make you take a look at your car every few months, but on the other, if you car is fine is it worth the.. fine, as it were. You do see a high proportion of older cars on the roads here, but whether that is due to them staying in shape longer (what I used to think) or if it's just that cars are outrageously expensive here (another valid option).

Accents

After returning from Australia, I found myself really noticing accent differences and variants that make the Australian and New Zealand accents unique. Maybe it's those Spanish linguistic courses I took, but I find myself analyzing commercials and people I meet. I know I have mentioned before how it can be hard to understand (especially giving street names over the phone) but now it is a much more linguistic interpretation. It is to the point now that when we were re-watching Star Wars the other night (oh, yes) I picked out a little boy who only had 2 lines and said to Wells 'ah, he must be from New Zealan'. Dropping the 'd' of course as they do here. Sure enough, he was.

Try as I might, however, I cannot imitate the accent. Especially the Maori English accent. I try, but I just can't get it. Here is an example from a popular public service commercial against drunk driving:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIYvD9DI1ZA 

Living as a Nomad

That's right.

This past month in Wellington has been the longest we have stayed in one place since the beginning of March when Brady came for his trip. After that we were in a mix of hostels, tents, a converted jailhouse and an old ship. Finding a place to stay in Wellington for just a month (that's how long before Elliot arrived). Most people were wanting longer-term renters, understandably so. On top of that we are a couple and on a low budget. We are a hard sell.  We ended up finding a place that has been amusing everyone that has Skyped with us. The place is very nice, but then to get to our bed we, ahem, climb out of the window in the living room, down a narrow set of stairs and into a small bungalow. Yes, essentially we are sleeping in a plywood box in the backyard. But, hey, for a month the novelty lasts. Now, after this trip with Elliot we will be scrambling to find a place in Wellington again. A joy I am glad to put off for a few days. I am fantasizing about staying in one place for at least a year when we move back.

All our worldly possessions in the car

Luckily, I was able to transfer branches with the Promotional company in Christchurch and have had a few jobs plus some lined up when we return. Even with the high cost of living here, I've been impressed with our ability to save up money for these exciting trips we have lined up!

Elliot has arrived! Here we go!

In A Sunburned Country: Australia from the view of an American living in New Zealand

"Unless we're there on one of those freak days when it rains, it will be sunny and warm- and surfing!" I remembered Wells saying as we walked into the Christchurch airport in the dark early morning. Famous last words. Just yesterday we had dropped Brady off for his flight back to the states and now there we were ready to start a whole other adventure in Australia.

"They have 287 days of sun a year." 

I thought about this statistic as rain spattered against the plane window. Welcome to Surfer's Paradise. It looks like we brought the Christchurch weather with us. We made it to the hostel while it was still really early due to the time change. We filled our empty stomachs and killed some time with an all you can eat pancake breakfast. The weather report was looking like rain so we booked a ticket to nearby Byron Bay for the day after next. Plus, it could have been the weather but this city was seeming a bit... Grunge... Seedy. It looked like it had been set up to be a small but bustling city and maybe the wrong people came. Or the surfers just weren't concerned with how it turned out.  The next day we decided not to sit around and made it out to the sea even though the sky was grey. Wells rented a surfboard and I borrowed a boogie board from the hostel. I had forgotten how fun that is! Even though it wasn't a picture perfect day it was so much fun to be in the water and enjoying the waves!

Beautiful rainbow over Byron. Photo: Wells

The next day we took a couple hour shuttle to Byron Bay, a small hippie town down the coast and it WAS a picture perfect day. The water was warm and crystal clear, Wells had the best surf day of his life and the sun was so warm, perfect for soaking up. Bliss. Florida, I will never take you for granted again. 

I'm glad we made it here in time as the next day was cloudy and the next, rainy. 

I later learned that the country had recently overcome about a decade of serious drought and that the past couple of years had brought, in natural contrast, floods. Now if I was basing my sunshine statistics mostly on a drought season, I'd expect 287 days of sun as well.  

Colors everywhere!

Our second day in Byron we took a bus tour out to Nimbin, a small hippie village lost in time. It started with the Aquarius Festival held there in 1973. Since the dairy business there collapsed, many people stayed behind and built communes for an alternate lifestyle. Think of it as Woodstock if the people had never left. Today, the area is a big supporter of legalizing cannabis, especially hemp which is free of THC. The cops have turned a semi blind eye, ignoring sales of marijuana as long as it is not on the street or in front of children. It was definitely a way to spend a few hours and see the remote rainforest area that it is surrounded by.

Nimbin area rainforest/waterfall

Ahoy!

 After a rainy day surfing in Byron, we boarded the overnight Greyhound to Sydney and arrived there the next morning (gotta save on those hostel costs). Since our room wasn't ready we explored the city a bit, toured some awesome old boats and a submarine (!), then went on a free walking tour of the city. We learned how the nation really pretty much was founded by convicts and some history into the iconic opera house and bridge. It was kinda funny being tourists again. In New Zealand, we lived in Christchurch. It was like traveling around a place we lived in and would for a while. Here, we were back in the tourists category, just touring the country for two weeks. I wondered if this was what it was going to feel like when we got back to NZ and moved out of Christchurch. For some reason it feels so different, people seems to have a different reaction depending on what you tell them. Truth be told, sometimes it is nice to play the tourist card.

Emerging from the sub!

Speaking of being a backpacking tourist, I have never been so bombarded with travel packages and travel booking stores. New Zealand and Australia are the most tourist-centric places I have ever been. New Zealand has a government I-site building in cities and at most attractions with information pamphlets and people to help you book. In Australia however there are competing companies with flashy stores offering free Internet and/or surfboards if you book through them.  The are hundreds of package deals that teach you how to surf over three days, spend a couple nights on this island or a trip to Ayers Rock. I though about how this contrasted with our backpacking trip around Europe where we pretty much figured everything out ourselves.

Our second day in Sydney was a lucky sunny day so we climbed up the bridge lookout and took the ferry across the harbour to Manly Beach where Wells did some surfing. The city is really very beautiful when the weather is nice, with so much of the city by the water.



Our last day in Sydney was spent on a Blue Mountains tour. Made of sandstone plateaus and deep valleys the are is covered with eucalyptus trees. The oil they disperse into the air gives it a blue tinge. We got to take in the sights, have a nice long bushwalk and also stopped at a conservation zoo where we pet koalas and were surrounded by wallabies and kangaroos. Or course there were also penguins, crocodiles, crazy colored birds and wombats. Australia really has the coolest animals. The wombats are a bit weird though.  We wrapped up our Sydney trip with another overnight trip, this time by train, to Melbourne.

Awesome animal photos:

Gotta love those grass filled cones!

So cute!

At the Blue Mountains

 

You really realize how big Australia is when you see the travel times. It was about 13 hours from Byron to Sydney by bus and 12 or so by train to Melbourne. Although it is pretty expensive to travel like this, it is definitely not as easy to caravan in as New Zealand. This picture might help.

By the time we ran away from the bad weather and made it to Melbourne, we had a week left in our trip which was great since we really enjoyed Melbourne from the quirky shops and street art to the diversity festival with lots of food, the super cool Australian Center for the Moving Image, and of course having friends! Wells had a high school friend studying in Melbourne and our Texan friend we had met in Christchurch lived there too. Plus we made some friends with a couple Australian Fulbrighters! Two things you won't leave the city without doing are visiting Chinatown and drinking coffee.

Chinatown is always a good bet for bustling place with cheap and different foods and other quirky things. One night out we had an all you can eat BYO(wine) dumplings meal followed by a photoshoot in a store that somehow survives on only Asian photo booths. And these are not your average mall photo booths. You get hats, choose your backgrounds, and after get to add silly clip art. So Asian.

Number two, coffee is really big in Melbourne. And by that I mean, independent coffee is really popular. Its the little tucked away shops that everyone likes and they are everywhere-if you know where to look. We went to one hidden place called 7 Seeds that a friend took us down an alley to. They roast their coffe in house and have free cuppings every week where you smell the grounds dry, in hot water, and sample them. You have a sheet to mark down tastes and smells from woody to milk chocolate to stone fruits. Learning about where all the different coffees come from and how their tastes are different felt a lot like a wine tasting- and from what we hear, that is the future of the coffee world. Here's to sophisticated palettes making us strain for those faint qualities of dark cherry.

Wells and the 12 Apostles in the early morning haze.

Part of our Melbourne experience also included a tour of the Great Ocean Road. There were plenty of day trips available but we decided on a two day trip since we heard it would not be as rushed, plus it included a nights stay. It was definitely a full couple of days but we got to see everything and we stopped and a pretty cool volcanic park where we could walk around and see koalas, wallabies and kangaroos all in the wild. We did have a pretty crazy encounter with kangaroos jumping right toward and past us. In the end, we decided that the rock formations of the Great Ocean Road reminded us a lot of Lagos, Portugal and made us extra glad that we had that awesome experience with Brady those few years ago when we explored the coastline ourselves. There is something great about being able to find and experience something on your own, though sometimes it makes more sense to do a tour like the one we did. Someone else to drive and give you information you might not have otherwise figured out (like the naming of the 12 Apostles was really just a big marketing ploy). The Blue Mountains tour was also this way. Yes, we could have spend much more time walking around the trails ourselves but our guides very informative (taught us how to throw a boomerang) and we wouldn't have seen all those awesome animals! I still think that self exploration is the way to go when you can though, and it was nice to know that Wells and I would be doing that again in New Zealand with the freedom of our own car :)

London Bridge over 'London Bridge' (which ironically half of did fall down)

All in all we had a great time in Australia and packed a whole lot in. Similarities and differences abound between the Aussies and the Kiwis. They are both fairly new countries with vast differences in terrain. Australia, however, is huge. Everyone knows where it is and where it is located. I don't know if this is the reason for it but New Zealand can feel more isolated and the people in turn have a more isolated viewpoint. I guess these things all depend on how much one has traveled as well. It should also be noted that Australia hands down has cooler animals. Koala, kangaroo, etc versus the Kiwi, a flightless bird. It's nice what the bird has been able to do for New Zealand identity, but then what? Prices, like in NZ, are pretty high- this was an expensive trip. Though I did see something I was not expecting: lower priced boxed wine($14 for five liters) and higher priced liquor ($58 for a bottle of Smirnoff).

One of the biggest differences I saw was the difference in the attitudes and reaction to the native cultures. Even though both had their basic rights severely violated, the Kiwis  still hold the Maori in a higher respect than the Aussies do the aboriginals. The Maori have their own TV channel and their language is considered an official one and one that appears under official signs. Even if there is some social discrimination, I have never felt it like it was in Melbourne concerning the aborigines. You learn about how they were killed and pushed off their land and how they may detest the area and not wish to ever return, but the tension truly becomes palpable when a cultural diversity week celebration is held in the city with food dance and performance- none of which displays a trace of the traditional culture. In this regard, New Zealand, you have shown us all up.

To end, some fun Aussie signs:

A 12-year-old with clip art must have done this.

Ah, so that's what you'd look like

Kangaroo attempt!