Happy New Year!

We are back from our 10 day road trip around the North Island, and enjoyed a quiet New Years Eve here in Wellington. Below, is a map of our travels with each overnight stop labelled. Steve took his telescope along on this trip, with hopes of getting to some very dark and clear skies.

On the first day we drove north, towards a little camping symbol on the map, right on the west coast near Kawhia. By the time we got there, we were well off the main road and had passed some absolutely beautiful vistas and countryside. There was no clear campsite, but a general store/bait shop/petrol station with some grassy lawn and a little "Accommodation" sign.  Soon after stopping, an older man came out, welcomed us, ensured us that this was the right spot, and said he was upgrading us for the night. Bill showed us into a 4-bedroom cottage style house, and said we were welcome to stay there for free. He said he only charges for the rooms when someone has seen it online and booked ahead. He was super chatty and nice, and in the morning we had breakfast in their little store's cafe and heard about all the great sights in the area. Bill was pretty proud of his website too, so here it is: www.kawhiaaccommodation.co.nz. Below is a pic of us just before stopping for the night. The lush green valleys were beautiful and sheep were grazing over every hill we saw. 

We set out the next day and took the slower roads (= gravel, one lane, twisty) to see some of the forests and beaches Bill had told us about. We stopped in Bayley's Beach the second night, and stayed at a campground there. There's a Canadian woman who lives there now and has set us a business giving 'tours' of the night sky to the public, using her telescope and observatory. Steve had emailed with her and she had invited us to visit. The campground was nice and Steve even got to use his telescope that night.  The weather was supposed to turn to rain the next day though, so we headed north. It was so rainy that day and we couldn't find a campsite anywhere, so we ended up staying at a hostel that night. The owners turned out to be a Canadian woman and her Kiwi husband, who had been running a backcountry tours in Alberta for the last few years. They had just moved back to NZ with their two young kids a week before. 

The next day was clear and sunny and we headed north again, planning to stop at some huge sand dunes on the way. On the road to the giant sand dunes in Northland, we had to drive through some farmland. Cows were all over the road, and before I knew it, Steve was out of the car, arms open wide doing a flinging-swirling motion with his hands and yelling "Cobus, Cobus, com'on girl". I nearly cried laughing, but he just looked at me and said "What's so funny? That's how you herd cows." I have to admit, it worked!

Below are the sand dunes - absolutely huge and right on the coast, surrounded by forested hills and ocean. They are open to the public and people can rent boards to slide down the dunes. We just hiked to the top and enjoyed the beautiful views.
Later that day we arrived at a campground on the shore of the bay pictured below. This was where we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and the weather was absolutely wonderful. Steve got to use his telescope both nights - the sky that far north is really dark and Auckland is far enough away that there is almost zero light pollution.

 Christmas morning (below), we woke up to beautiful sunshine and crashing waves. We did a 2h hike over a few ridges to get to the very northernmost tip of NZ, called Cape Reinga. When we got back to camp we went for a swim in the ocean and had fun playing in the huge waves.

Boxing Day, the 26th, we discovered we'd run out of stove fuel... the nearest place to buy more was over an hour away so we decided to move on, although we really wish we could have stayed there longer. We drove south, and before going through Auckland stayed at a campground in the Puketi Forest. We'd noticed that all the beach sites were getting very crowded by now, and we figured a campsite in a forest would be a bit less popular. 

There are huge fern plants and fern trees throughout every forest - my Mom would love it.

Some of the many blue and white Agapantheses we saw...

Here's another lush mountain view... what you can't see are all the sheep on the hills!

Driving through Auckland, the traffic heading north was at a standstill - it seemed like the whole country was heading to the beaches, and we quickly decided that fighting crowds like this wasn't much fun. We drove around the East Cape area, which is quite remote. There aren't many big towns and shops can charge $1.75/L for gas (it's $1.40 in cities). But even still, the campgrounds were full. We spent one night sleeping in the back of the station wagon, and the next night we managed to get a spot at a very large and crowded RV/camping park. 

A highlight for me was seeing so many beautiful horses in the countryside. We stopped at this one spot to say hello... 

It was a great trip, but we are glad to have a homebase to come back to. After going through so much countryside and so many small towns, driving into Wellington felt like returning to a huge city! We both agreed that we would love to live somewhere smaller and more remote, but we'll have to wait and see if there are any job opportunities for Steve that are worth sticking in Welly for.

Car Day!

It's a rainy cold Saturday here and we headed out this morning to get our new used car. Our parking spot is around a tight bend and at the top of this hill (on the left by the fence). 

She's a beauty - a green 1995 Honda Accord wagon with 133,250 km. We bought her for 3000 NZD from another young Canadian couple who are just ending a year here in NZ. It was fun meeting them and hearing about some of their adventures. We drove across town to a big grocery store to stock up for the next week. We are planning to leave tomorrow (Sunday) and take two days to drive up to the northern part of NZ. The forecast is calling for rain most of the week, but hopefully we'll get a few sunny breaks and clear night skies. 

Pohutukawa

This is a Pohutukawa Tree - native to northern NZ and considered their Christmas Tree because the bright red flowers bloom at this time of year.  They are all over the city and absolutely beautiful. This picture doesn't do them justice and I will likely post more since I'm constantly admiring them. 

more departure pics

My Mom just sent me some of her pictures from the day she drove us to Vancouver for our departing flight. Below, Steve next to the Altenmueller's van (kindly lent to us so we could get all our luggage in one vehicle).

Above, seconds after I broke the strap on Steve's backpack. I was pretty stressed but I guess Mom thought it made a good photo.

Here we are in the Vancouver Airport, bike boxes on the left, three duffle bags/backpacks in the middle, and on the right is Steve's telescope box. On top of the telescope box is Steve's old fashioned suitcase which carried his telescope mirror, safely cushioned. As much as I made fun of him for it, the suitcase got several compliments from fellow travelers (most of them elderly).

Throughout all of customs, the only things that drew interest were the bike boxes (had to open one for US customs) and our hiking boots. NZ Customs wants to ensure all hiking/camping equipment is clean, so we dug out our hiking boots and they gave them a thorough wash for us. Thankfully we had just cleaned our tent, so they didn't have to spray it.  Other than that, no one asked us anything about why we were entering NZ, how long we were staying for, whether we had visas, how much money we had... sort of anti climactic.

Week One

A few days after moving in (or should I say after a few hours), Steve was hard at work re-assembling his telescope. It was soon ready to go and all he's waiting for now is clear skies! He also put out bikes back together, and we went out in the sunny weather last weekend. Thankfully, we survived riding on the 'wrong' side of the road and cars seem pretty bike-friendly here. At times, the roads are so narrow the cars really have no choice but to wait behind you. 

We are loving all the flowers and trees in bloom - this is a flower that we've been seeing everywhere, and according to our quick google search, it's called Agapanthus. 

When we take the stairs as a shortcut to downtown, this is the view from the top of the hill. Victoria University is on the left, and the main downtown core is in the distance. It's about a 30 minute walk to get to the water. The hospital is also about a 30 minute walk, but in a different direction and away from the water. 

The first week involved a lot of walking around downtown - finding groceries, banks, stores for phone and internet... all that fun stuff. We've also explored the parliament buildings, the main library, the National Library, the Botanic Gardens, the museum (with an amazing exhibit of the biggest Colossal Squid ever displayed). I guess we should have taken pictures of all these adventures... 

With both Christmas AND summer at the same time, a lot of people take longer vacations in December.  We've decided to follow suit, and are hoping to find a used car in the next week or so and go exploring in the North Island. We'll start working in January. I've had one interview at the Emergency Dept here, but am really not keen on going back to shift work while trying to enjoy this opportunity to see NZ. I've also met with some people at the Hospice here, and there might be some opportunity for casual nursing hours there. I'm still hoping to meet with some nursing professors here too, in case there are any research opportunities.  Steve is continuing to do some work for his boss in Ottawa, but will also get in touch with some of the astronomy/telescope folks here.  

14/51 Adams Terrace, Aro Valley, Wellington 6021

We finally have internet at home, so we decided to start this blog and share some pictures with you all. Below, are some of the pictures we've taken of our apartment. We were so thankful to find this place on the second day of being in town. The landlords are a retired teacher and chemist who live in the Hutt Valley (neighbouring town) and have 3 grown kids. They even helped us move our heavy bags from the downtown hostel to the new apartment! 

Looking down our street - a steep hill to climb and ride up, but there are also a set of stairs we can take as a shortcut to downtown.

Looking out our front door, which backs onto a steep hill of bushes and trees. In the distance are more green hills, and in the foreground are the communal clothes drying racks. 

On the left is the bedroom, on the right is the living room. 

The living room/kitchen/eating area... lots of nice breezes when we open windows and the front door.

 This is me today, hard at work on the blog.

packing

We're packing up the last of our things and getting ready for our flight to BC tomorrow morning. Snow is falling outside and it's nice to get a taste of a real winter before heading to summer down south.