Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Kayaking

Hey!!

I've gotten a few requests to do some more blogging so I will try right now. Kelly and I have been on a bus tour of the south island for the last week. We've had a GREAT time so far!! We started out in Nelson, a town at the northern tip and took a kayaking trip to the Abel Tasman National Park. It started out well, we headed off into the ocean, with very choppy conditions and not too much sun, but no rain at that! After about 45 mins of paddling away, our guide took us into "Shag Harbour" (no joke), and it turned into a secluded, calm, quiet area with beautiful scenary. It was so peaceful!! We continued paddling around for a bit and came to a turn where we saw our guides' face light up! He yelled back to us 'They're here! I see about 20 or 30 baby fur seals!!" I was so excited! Kel and i hurried up and got around the corner to see these little guys. They were adorable! They have these BIG eyes that stare at you under the water, but then they also come up to your boat and sniff around because they are so curious! It was amazing!!

Two love birds....

One lone guy...



Kel and I paddling out of Shag Harbour...



The whole day was perfect! It was so much fun and the weather held for us and started to clear up on our way back into the beach. Actually, aside from seeing these amazing creatures up close and personal (I honestly still feel like it was fake and we were really at an aquarium and the people in NZ are really tricking us....) but anyway, on our way back into the beach our guide decided to start a water fight with everyone. Kel and I were about 20 meters behind him as he started this up, so Kel goes 'Lets sneak up and get him!!" Great idea kel. So in we went! We were close and since I was in the front I started to splash him with my paddle and around he turns to start to get us, and obviously, since there was water coming at me I lunged away from it and Kel did so too at the same time... thus, we capesized into the Tasman Sea!!! AH! It was very very funny and not very cold at all so we enjoyed ourselves for a bit! I unforunately lost my sunglasses, but I think it was worth it in the end : )

I'll try to update this more. There is a Glacier story to tell and lots of good times we've had along the way! We're in Queenstown right now and head out tomorrow on a boat ride to Milford Sounds. I'll be sure to update more as soon as I can!!

Take care everyone!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Road Trip!!!

Kel and I woke up on Saturday morning to start our road trip of the North Island!


Zach, our friend from High school, and his friend Stu from down here came to pick us up in Wellington and off we went!


It was Zach's birthday and we headed North for Lake Taupo. Once we got into town we checked in at the Visitors Center and Kel had been thinking of skydiving, which this was the place to do so. The info center guy had the best place in town as soon as her and Zach mentioned this, and hooked them up with a reservation!! About an hour later Kelly was JUMPING OUT OF A PLANE!!!! She's nuts. She jumped from 12,000 feet that consisted of a 45 second freefall... Yikes!! Zach went along as well and they both said it was amazing and they would definitely do it again!


We headed back into the City and got our set up for the evening... a classy little Motel/Camping set up... turned out to be around $12 a night for each of us. And came the very great inside joke of "We don't need that much space". It's one of those ya had to be there moments, but I'm writing it on here so Kel and I don't forget about it down the road.


We got ready for the night and walked down into the City center. We got quite a few coupons for dinner and drinks from the Sky Diving place and used them all up that evening! As we were getting into town though I noticed that my wallet wasn't in my pocket anymore.... damnit!! Very typical for myself though. We wondered back and couldn't find it in the pitch black, so decided to carry on with our evening and look again in the morning.

The night was VERY fun. We got to celebrate Zach's birthday and had a few other interesting things happen from the walk home (or just Kelly and Zach getting lost along the way and Stu and I beating them home in a cab but then being locked out of the room... thats another story though).

Everything went smoothly for that first leg of the trip... aside from the whole losing the wallet debacle....

A gorgeous sunset view over Lake Taupo - courtesy of Kelly Stovin

Kel being OH so excited for landing safely on the ground.



Zach and Kel acting scared prior to the jump


End of Term

Hello Again...

So last Friday was our final day of Term One, and the end of my first week with student teaching!! Apparently every Friday is 'Sports Friday' so the PE crew and any other teachers get together to play some sports. This Friday we played "Tchuckit" or something like that... very odd game. Then we moved on to Cricket. Kel came to school with me, so she was there for the games! Both of us had never played or really even heard of cricket before but I suppose we caught on pretty quickly.... Kel did quite well though because she is a baseball girl and that is a big part of the game... kind of.

After about an hour of playing though it was moved on the After School Drinks -- obviously our favorite part, and mainly why Kel came to school that day! But the last day of a term the teachers stay after school and have drinks in the staffroom. It was lots of fun!! Its so different from America because that would be so NOT allowed. It was laid back and a good way for me to meet some new teachers and get more acquanted with everyone!

From there, we came back to Fi and Sam's to pack for our adventure the next day, as well as get ready for dinner out on the town that night!! One of the teachers decided to rent out part of a restaurant, Cafe Istanbal (Turkish food) so Fi, Sam, Kel and I went down there to meet up. It was DELICIOUS food. And a new teacher friend, Michelle, invited Kel and I to stay the night at her house, she lives in Wellington and we were meeting Zach early the next morning in Wellington for our road trip...

Going to try to upload some photos....

Out after dinner dancing with some coworkers:

Belly Dancer from Cafe Istanbal:



Fiona and Sam:



Sunday, April 13, 2008

First Day of School

Today was my first day of school. I had SUCH A GREAT TIME!!! My coworkers are all very fun and friendly and helpful! I toured around all day with one particular class, and they have a reputation for being the 'bad students'. It was interesting to see how they acted with particular teachers versus other ones. I don't want to bore you with my critics of the situation, but if you are a teacher reading this and want to know more then just ask!
Most of the students didn't know where Seattle was... when I first announced it in 1st period I heard a girl ask her friend if that was in Australia. Then later in the day a different girl asked me where it was exactly and I replied with 'the west coast of America'. She looked at me blankly so I said the same side as california. And that got her all jazzed up with questions about Hollywood, Laguana Beach and where The Hills are filmed! HA. How funny! That's why people have such awful impressions of Americans!!
After school we had a PE Meeting. This week our PE Head, Adam, wanted us to practice some sports we didn't really know... which for me were all of them!! We played a mixed game of NetBall and Soccer (Football down here). Then moved on to Field Hockey. I have never even picked up a field hockey stick before so it was a bit troublesome in the beginning, but I caught on eventually and after a lot of pointers from my coworkers.

I'm really excited about teaching now!! Obviously its just the first day, so lets hope I still have this attitude at the end of next term!!

This evening, Kelly and I are going with Fi to her NetBall game. It will be our first experience with that, and she said we can play if a few of her teammates don't show up. NetBall is essentially Basketball played with a Volleyball and you aren't allowed to dribble/run with the ball. Should be interesting!!

Kelly did a ton of research while I was at school today and is planning our next 2 weeks for the Holiday. Can't wait for that!! Sounds like we'll spend a few days on the North Island going wine tasting, zorbing (http://youtube.com/watch?v=-ljbOmNX7x0) and possibly Rver Rafting through caves with glow worms!! Then we'll head down to the South Island for about 10 days to ride on a big bus with a bunch of other travelers just like us!!! Can't wait for that!!!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

First Weekend!!

April 12-14th

Friday during the day Kel and I took the bus and walked around Wellington all day. We met up with our friend Zach from high school who has been living down here for two years. He played tour guide and showed us all the good spots!! Kel took some pictures and we'll be uploading those soon. After a long day of walking around and playing tourist, we took the bus back up the hill to Lower Hutt and met up with Fiona and Sam. It was one of their friends birthdays that evening, so we got ready to go hit the town up. We drove back into Wellington (about 20 mins -- comparable of Bellevue to Seattle or a bit further) and went to a restaurant like Benni Hannas where they cook the food right in front of you. It was fun! And the average price per meal was $30... but since Kel and I are on a budget we ordered the two least expensive appetizers and came to $20 total for both of us!! We were quite proud. From there we went to an Irish Pub called Molly Malone's.... good name.... A friend bought the first round for us and we stayed for a beer until I began to yawn uncontrollably and Kel pointed out that my eyelids were half open! Guess the jet lag is worse than I thought! The pub was fun though, and I can see us going back there. They had a live cover band, which shockingly, played the majority of American music. Oh, and Kel was getting chatted up by a local who apparently thought we were 'dumb Americans' and kept trying to say the songs they were singing were all New Zealand songs... Kel kept leaning over to me saying "This is the White Stripes, right?" or "I'm pretty sure this is Pearl Jam... and they're from Seattle, which is in America" What an idiot. Couldn't slip one past us!!

Saturday - Kel and I rose at 7:30am.... while Fi and Sam slept in past 10 (lucky)! They have a great room here at the house which looks out to beautiful rolling hills and sheep dotted across the green grass, and its our favorite room to be in!! So early in the morning we sit out there with our cup of tea and read the books we brought down with us. Once Fi and Sam woke up, it turned out Sam had food posioning and would end up sleeping the rest of the day. We had planned to take a hike over to the sheep on the opposing hill, but since Sam was ill we had to cancel. Kel and I continued to read and eventually went out to the front lawn since it was a glorious day (as they all have been so far). I'd say mid-60s or so. Afternoon rolled around and Fi invited us to go to the neighborhood pool to swim. Since we are rather stuck at the house, we decided to go on this adventure! We got down to the pool and it was HUGE and packed with children. We realized we were the only adults there with no kids to care for. This pool had a giant slide to go down into the pool, as well as a rope that kids could swing out from. Kel, Fi and I played around for a few hours then decided to go home. Sam was feeling a bit better and it was his nephews birthday, so they went out to dinner to celebrate while Kel and I stayed back to cook veggie burgers. Then we got ready to go to a house warming party of a couple that work at the school I will be working for!! We went to the house in Upper Hutt - about 20 minutes north of Lower Hutt, which again is 20 mins north of Welly. At the party we got to meet 10 or 15 teachers from the school which was really nice because i start there tomorrow so I'll have a head start on the names!! Kel and I really enjoyed ourselves there. The people are very laid back and fun!! Once again around midnight my eyelids started dragging so Fi initiated the move home.

Sunday - Kel and I slept in until 8:30 this morning!!! Then did our usual routine of reading in the lounge area. Around 11 we decided to walk down to the Dairy - which is the neighborhood convienent store. We headed down and took our time - maybe a 10 min walk down the hill - then browsed around the store looking for unusual things to get! Today we settled on Balsamic Vinegar and Onion chips! They are really good! Then I wanted a taste of home so I got a 12oz can of Diet Coke - which was $1.50... that will be a rare treat for me! : ) Then Kel and I made the hike back up to the house - they live on a very large hill! Once we arrived back home, we wanted to make home made hummus so we started that up in the food processor and it turned out really well!! Fiona was getting home from Church as we were starting on my homemade Minestrone Soup for dinner tonight. She did some errands and my Sous Chef Kelly and I finished the soup. Once we were all set to go we headed up to do the hike we planned on doing yesterday. We took off around one and didn't finish the hike until a bit after four!!! It was a lot longer than we all had been planning on!
I can't wait until we get the pictures off of kellys camera to show you how amazing this hike was!!! We started up on what i would consider a normal hike, a little trail with forest/bush surrounding you. And as we went higher the bush cleared out and we started walking along a pasture. It was the same area that we stare at every morning!! Although, as we were walking and passing cows and sheep every few feet, I kept waiting to see a Cowboy ride up on his horse and start yelling at us to get off his land! Apparently though, that doesn't happen down here.
As soon as the photos are up, it'll give you a better idea of what it looked like. But it was hard work, and amazing journey to see. At one point on the hike we were able to see both the bay in wellington and the other side of the island where the Tasmania Sea is! It was beautiful!!! We could also see far enough to see the south island.
We got home and started up the soup to reheat and Fi made homemade rolls for us. It was delicious!! We put on Dave Matthews in the background as we ate and chilled out from such a glorious day!

Tomorrow I get to start at my new school!!! SO excited to meet more coworkers, my students and see the school! I'll be sure to update more as I can and hopefully will have many fun stories to share!!
Love and miss you all.

Friday, April 11, 2008

NZ vs America

I'm going to make a list of differences between New Zealand and America. This way I can remember all the strange things when I get back home and my memory fails me : )

  • Cold water is on the left side and hot is on the right
  • There are two BUTTONS to press on the toilet - one is a half flush while the other is a full flush (saving water)
  • "Tea time" is dinner time
  • They drive on the other side of the road
  • The drivers seat is on the other side
  • They eat 'whetbix' for breakfast... which Kelly likes and I don't
  • Vegemite is a big thing down here which is a yeast extract-peanut butter consistencey and smells rancide so we haven't tried it yet.
  • The mail men down here drive on the sidewalk on motorcycles
  • There is no 'taking a shower' its having a shower
  • Ice Box is the freezer
  • Lemonade = sprite
  • Trolley is a shopping cart

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Arrived Safely

Hey All,

Kel and I got into NZ last night and met our host family - Fiona and Sam. They are very sweet and fun people so we're looking forward to living with them! The one trouble we are having is that they speak so quickly and have very thick accents so it takes Kel and I a little while to catch on to what they are saying!

A few things I was asked about before I left:
So far the toilet doesn't flush in the opposite direction... it actually flushes straight down. Not sure if it is just the toilet at this house, so I'll update as I travel through the country and experience more toilets.

My dad asked what the country smells like.... Kel said she got a 'baking smell' not quite like pancakes but flour and water smell. And I think it smells fresh and like the ocean water. So there ya go dad, thats what we came up with!!

Today kel and I are going to take the bus into Wellington and explore a little -- its currently 7:30am and we're a little warped from the time change but it should work in my favor since I'll need to be at school around 8am next week!!

Thats all for now. I'll let you know how our first weekend in Wellington goes!!
Molly

Monday, April 7, 2008

Leaving America

I'll be leaving America on Tuesday April 8th and arriving in Wellington on Thursday April 10th.

This is also just a test post to make sure it works! : )