The Shaw's Farm

Baaaaaaa

We have had one of our favorite days in New Zealand to date! This wasn't some expensive tourist trap or extreme adventure, just good old fellowship on some of our favorites people's farm; Ed and Nikki Shaw. These people are almost self-sustaining and have an amazing outlook on life. Think amish...just with electricity and a car... ok, maybe more like mennonite, but no need to get technical. Ed still does his work with his two bullocks, Henry and Blackie, not a tractor. He also makes his own guns, bows and arrows, knives, and anything else you can think of. Pretty much this would be the only person I would be worried about Drew leaving me for. Anyway, they have lots of animals... including sheep!! When we pulled up I was for sure this is where I would be able to accomplish the one thing I wanted most in life. Unfortunately, being self-sustaining also means eating meat that you have provided... put two and two together ... and the sheep don't exactly want to be your friends. Needless to say, I did NOT get to pet them. Sad day for me... even more sad for the sheep. So I guess getting to pet a baby sheep is going down the same drain as my dream to be a beach volleyball player. (Apparently I'm too short....and I'm also really bad at volleyball).

And I can't forget the "goat cart". Ed made (of course) a cart for one of the goats so his children could ride in it. It was a blast! And I think it might be a good solution to our economic problems. Goat's are pretty cheap to keep and don't require gas. Just something to keep in mind. Other then that we had some amazing food right out of the garden and some meat Ed hunted (of course). No lamb though!

Sorry if there are lots of mistakes in this blog. I'm watching the All Blacks vs. Wallabies game and I'm not a very good multitasker. As for the other blogs I really don't have an excuse.

Kaikoura and Mr. Lyford

Mt. Hutt

wow..two days in a row...don't get too used to it!

We went snowboarding at Mt. Hutt which is about an hour from Christchurch. It was a little bit bigger, much more like an American Ski Resort. The type that should have stopped selling lift tickets about 500 people back but wouldn't dare turn down the money. It was still lots of fun and beautiful. We learned not to take runs that said "OPEN with variable conditions". I should have known better after watching a couple of really good snowboarders about eat it, but apparently my better judgment didn't make it to the top of the mountain with me. Drew and I sat there with a couple of other snowboarders deciding if this was a good idea. Without my better judgment helping me out I decided to be the guinea pig and ending up sliding half way down the run on my butt down an entire sheet of ice. I guess that is what the variable conditions meant. Since my wonderful husband didn't want to leave me he did the same thing, only a little more graceful. The other two snowboarders decided against it after watching our failed attempts. We either could finish going down the tricker part of the run or hike back up the mountain. We choose the later and had to hike up the mountain, then climb down a hill into the back of the parking lot, and walk back to the lodge. All while carrying our snowboards. I refer to this as "the walk of shame".

On the way home we stopped to pick up a Japanese hitchhiker who needed a ride down the mountain. I thought about asking him to fix some of the electronics in the car as payment because it was probably his people that made them, but after Drew tried to speak some Spanish in attempt to communicate I decided it was better if we all just sat quietly and listened to music. I would have played something out Japanese hitchhiker would like, but I don't have any techno or Japanese rap on my iPod. I made a mental note to myself to download some of this music in case we come across this situation again.

Well, I'm going to spend the rest of my time trying to fulfill my mission to legally touch a baby lamb. They are super cute and I will go to anything to be able to do this before they grow up... since I won't be living here when the next group of little balls of cotton roll around.

kiwi fun fact: Kiwi here is considered people and kiwi fruit is the little green thing that we eat. It is very important to use correct terminology here because if you say, "I ate a kiwi today" they might think you eat people and not be your friend.

Well, having to use the internet in an internet cafe is getting expensive and is the reason for lack of blogging. We are now in Christchurch, but spent a couple of wonderful days in Kaikoura....

We stayed in a cute little hostel called The Albatross Inn. In our room there was a sign that said, "Do not be alarmed if a siren goes off in the middle of the night. It is to alert the firefighters if there is a fire since their pages don't seem to work. The siren is not an alert for a tsunami, air raid, hurricane or any other disaster you should be worried about." At this point I can only assume this is a volunteer fire department. And although I appreciate those who volunteer to risk their lives for other people, I do have a little bit of a problem with the fact they feel it is important to wake up the whole town to let them know what is going on instead of using their pagers. How they can even make a siren that is loud enough to wake the whole town is beyond me. Maybe they should use that knowledge to make the pagers volume turn up higher. Luckily, this only happened one night out of the three we were there. And believe me ... it works. I was ready to get up and fight a fire just so the stupid thing would go off and I could go back to sleep! As some of you are reading this you are probably a little worried for our safety. I know what you are thinking... "if that is only used to alert firefighters, then how are you supposed to know if there really was a disaster?". Don't worry, the sign covered that too. They said a man in a van would drive around and scream if something was to come up. I appreciate that the people of Kaikoura have learned from history and thought Paul Revere was on the right track. Although I had no idea they cared that much about American History. My only concern is that the man that is supposed to drive around in the van to warn us is also one of the volunteer firefighters.

One of the cool things about New Zealand is that you can be standing on the beach and be only about an hour from snow mountains. One day we drove up to Mt. Lyford and went snowboarding, which for me personally was the best day of snowboarding I have ever had. It was a weekday so there were probably only about 50 people on the mountain including employees. Drew and I even hit some jumps. Not in the way Shawn White or Zach Standefer hits jumps, but at least we attempted them.

Other then that we went to a wine tasting and saw tons of seals! Not at the same time though. There really were tons of seals, not just the wine making it look like that. As soon as we can get on Drew's computer we will post some pictures. And for all of you that are wondering what the heck that picture bellow is about.... Gollum people. New Zealand + Lord of the Rings.... come on.

MY PRECIOUS!!!!! OH MY PREEECCIOUSSS!!!

Well after wondering around Pauline's house for a week and a half checking the snow report about as much as my mom checks her facebook feed, we learned that Rainbow ski field was finally open. So, we jumped in the car and headed up the mountain, chains and all.

Any time you might be traveling with Drew you always need to add in some extra time for scenic photography sessions. I appreciate this about him since I am what you would call a social photographer. Someone who only gets their camera out when everyone else is doing it. I still don't always make the effort to take the picture. I do however always have my camera with me. Luckily, Drew brought his camera on this journey and got a couple good pictures of some rainbows. I guess this is why it is called Rainbow Ski Field because we saw tons on rainbows on the way there. I have no idea why this place has so many rainbows (except for God of course!), but I spent most of my time looking for leprechauns which I decided will be the other team that plays the 1/2 blacks in my rugby game!

Once we got a good way up the mountain I became very aware of the fact that New Zealand has chosen against the idea of a guard rail. I'm not sure if this has something to do with the fact they are called the adventure capitol of the world, but at this death defying moment in my life I became very grateful for America and their desire to keep their drivers on the road. But in the end it was all worth it! We drove at about 2 mph up to a little winter wonderland in the middle of the mountains. It was defiantly the best snowboarding we have ever experienced! I did not plan to mention this next part for fear of never wanting to show my face again, but for the sake of your amusement I will make an exception. Whatever the reason was that NZ decided not to put up guard rails, it must be the same reason that they do not have chair lifts. At least not where we were. They have something I assume they use as birth control for their snowboarders because it is a metal bar you put between your legs and it drags you up the mountain. This is not a joke. I unfortunatly had quite a hard this with this concept and fell a lot. I also am now baren because of it. Was it all worth it? I think so...

Kiwi Fun Fact: the switches here are opposite... Down is on and up is off.

Well, I'm not sure how much I'm supposed to be making additions to this blog. I don't want to do too much because after a while even I would get sick of hearing about our lives, not to mention at this moment we don't really have much going on. So, my plan is just to write as I feel the urge. If you don't like it, don't read the blog.

We (Drew mostly) have successfully been driving on the other side of the road and finally made it to Nelson after a trip through Wellington where we had mass wind and rain storms and then across the ferry from the North island to the South island. We were a little afraid of how bad the ferry would be because of the bad storms in Wellington, but luckily we made it through without chundering (throwing up). We arrived on Friday, but had to wait a couple of days before Drew could get in to talk to the chef at the restaurant where he hopes to work. That happened on Monday and went well so he will try working in the kitchen with him tomorrow night. Because I know my how talented my wonderful husband is, I am sure that it will go well as long as he keeps his less then adequate attempt at speaking like a kiwi to a minimum. We don't want him to confuse the chef. Although Drew would really like to pick up this lingo, someone with such a perfected southern draw should just stick to what they know best.

Other then looking at the first possible place to live today we really have been sitting around waiting on this job stuff to go through. Let me just say, this has not done wonders for my small frame. If I keep up this routine of eating, sleeping, and sitting around, the only job I'll find here is in the next filming or production of Willy Wonka as the head Oompa Lumpa.

Speaking of food, our favorite new snack is wedges! These are just seasoned potato wedges served with sour cream and sweet chili sauce. I realize these foods are not native to New Zealand, but for some reason I have only seen this heaven on a plate creation here. I strongly suggest you give this little snack a try ...and like I said before...you too can have your own little New Zealand adventure.

Kiwi Fun Fact: There are 12.7 sheep per person in New Zealand

The New Ride

We said I would put up pics of our new vehicle when we got some and here they are. Our New Zealand Nissan Terrano 2.7 Diesel beast of a machine. We think it will get us where we need to go and quite possible a little further!

Here is a map of NZ so you can look and see where everything is.

The beginning of our journey...

First off, I want to apologize because I had told some people there were no flea's in New Zealand. I believe I was misinformed and want to set the record straight. There apparently ARE flea's in New Zealand. So, please forgive me for unintentionally lying. OK, now that that is off my chest...

I am writing this blog so whoever wants to keep up with what Drew and I are doing in New Zealand can. I will try to include some New Zealand terminology/history/etc. so you too can experience what New Zealand is like without having to pay all the money. I'm not much of a blog writer/journal keeper sort and I feel like this would also be a good time to apologize to those other bloggers out there I may have made fun of in the past. It's only fair since I now too am a "blogger".

I will have to do some catch up because we have been here almost a week and it has taken me about that long to get this thing going. We arrived in Auckland (which is the largest city...think New York City on a smaller scale) on Wednesday morning and immediately had to go to an orientation with the company that we signed up with to get over here. We were both super tired, but the orientation was very informational and helped us set up a bank account, get a tax number, etc. You are supposed to stay up the whole day and go to sleep at a normal sleeping time, but I couldn't make it and fell asleep around 5:30...I think. Although Drew and I did lots of planning for this trip, the one the we didn't plan was the fact that once we got over here and did not have our cell phones anymore we would have no way of knowing what time it was since neither one of us wears a watch. This made the rest of the night very interesting because we were of course all messed up on our sleep schedule and woke up many times through the night and never knew what time it is. Apparently hostels don't feel that time is very important either because nowhere had a clock. Anyways, it was a long night and I only slightly felt more rested the next morning. The other thing we had to do before we could leave Auckland was buy a car. This was a little overwhelming to say the least. We did lots of searching on trademe.com (which is their version of ebay, but with a better name) but weren't exactly sure the best way to go about it. We also went down to a lot where cars came right off the boat from Japan. They were stacked in there like sardines and when even our taxi driver made a comment about the place I knew we were in for trouble. Luckily, my Dad has raised me well about buying cars (and other things too) and I quickly diverted us from this disaster. So, we did the only reasonable thing we knew to do and called some friends that lived in Tauranga so hopefully they could help us buy a car. And that is how we ended up in Tauranga (which is about 2 1/2 hour drive from Auckland on the East coast). Barry and Lorraine have been graciously letting us stay at their house even though they have been in a middle of shifting (this is what they call moving). One of their friends, Chris, took us out one day and helped us find a car!! We put a bid on the car and at the end of the day found out we were the happy owners of a Nissan Terrano (which is US version of a pathfinder). I will try to put pictures up soon! We also went to Chris and his wife Melinda's house Saturday night to watch the All Blacks vs. the Wallabies rugby game! This was great fun and I love watching Rugby. I have decided the only way to make this game better was if it was played by hobbits. Now, I just have to find some and organize this. Of course they will be called the 1/2 blacks. Hopefully in the next couple of days we will be headed south to Nelson with some stops on the way (snowboarding!?!) but we are having trouble getting a wire transfer for the money to buy the car. It's very hard to find a time when both banks are open to make this happen and since the US is a day behind us it is still the weekend there. Tomorrow is looking hopeful though.

FUN KIWI FACT: Apparently rat tails are making a comeback here in NZ. I saw a couple. Seriously.