"What? Candles? Really?"

Tomorrow (or I guess in Canada... tomorrow's tomorrow) is Scott's birthday! If you didn't already know, Scott is not a huge birthday person... but he will not refuse a piece of cake. He could really do without the candles though... but a birthday just wouldn't be the same without them.

Since we are going to be away in our campervan on his actual birthday, I decided I'd make him a cake and we'd celebrate it early. I found this really good cake blog called Sweetapolia which has given me some great cake recipes to try out. If you remember my birthday cake this year, it is from the same blog. This time I tried out the Hawiian Carrot Cake.

Our kitchen here is not equipped at all for baking. The only thing for mixing was a potato masher and a flimsy plastic bowl. So... after a trip to the dollar store, and only a couple dollars later, I had myself a wooden spoon. Even still, it has been a long time since I had to bake anything with just a wooden spoon.

I must say that after this baking experience, I am very thankful for my cuisinart mixer that I have at home.

It was all worth it because the end result was a delicious birthday cake for Scott! And yes... there were candles involved. No singing though... I don't think the guys were into that so I let it slide this time. Well... really, I just didn't want to do a solo.

It's a good thing there are 4 other guys living here, cuz I don't think we could have taken down that whole cake by ourselves. 

For Scott's real birthday tomorrow, we are going to go skiing! He is definitely more excited about that than the candles.

Happy Birthday Scott! I love you!

"Are you the people from Canadian?"

5 Boys, 1 Girl, 2 Bathrooms, and a few Cockroaches.

We moved into our new place on July 24th, after spending a few hours on saturday cleaning the place up. Our landlord usually does the cleaning, but he was busy and offered a discounted rent if we would do it. Why not. How bad could it be? right? uhmmm... wrong. It was real bad. I don't think the guy living here before us had cleaned the place for months. There were more spiders in the 2 rooms than you can imagine. And I don't think Scott has ever jumped so high when he came upon this by the window....

A Praying Mantis!

I think I want to live in a van down by the river instead! But, after googling to make sure these weird bugs weren't poisonous or going to bite me, but that they actually eat other bugs, I figured I should give it another shot. So.... we go on with the cleaning/debugging. (no wonder this insect was in here... it had an all day buffet).

Then... things got a little more serious. I don't think Nikki has ever squealed so loud. While cleaning the curtains, Nikki was attacked (yes...attacked) by....

A COCKROACH!
Ok... maybe it didn't attack me, but those things are GROSS and they can move fast. After a tough chase, Scott had him cornered... and then he was done. (ewww...I'm itchy just remembering that incident).

After some of the major cleaning, we went to K-mart to get a few needed supplies...

Nikki went a little nuts with spraying every nook and cranny of the room. It obviously worked because a few minutes later we found 2 more cockroaches that came out from their hiding places and were moving a lot slower. Our first night in the place, Nikki didn't sleep very well because she thought that any sensation or itch was a cockroach crawling on her. But when we got up in the morning, the first thing we did was do a bug hunt and we didn't see any bugs. Thank you Raid! I admit, I might have gone a little overboard with spraying the room, but we've only seen 1 spider since! We still keep in handy at all times... just in case.

Anyways... we moved into a house with 4 other guys. 2 Kiwis, 1 Irishman, and 1 Finn. When we first met one of the guys, we walked in and he said "Oh, are you the people from Canadian?" uh... yes we are. And don't you forget it. Maybe he should come visit Canadian someday.

We have the 2 rooms in the basement of the house to ourselves, and share the kitchen, living room, and bathrooms with the other guys. One of our rooms is just a typical bedroom, and the other is a little living area with a couple couches. We also have a great big window looking out onto the pool. Too bad it is winter while we are living here and we probably won't get to use it at all. We are just happy to have a little more room now and the people in this house seem to be a lot more friendly than the last house. 

Since we moved into our new place last weekend, we didn't have time to take Bertie on another adventure. So, instead, we decided we should actually check out what there is to do in Hamilton.

We asked some local Kiwis what people do here, and we got the same response from everyone of them. "There's really not a whole lot to do". We found out how true that was. It is a little bit of a sleepy city.  On friday afternoon, we walked the main street downtown.

We stopped at a patio for some appitizers, then walked along the rivervalley. We thought we'd walk back and check out some of the shops, but by the time we were done dinner, it was 5:30pm. Pretty much everything except pubs and restaurants closes on weekdays at 4:30 or 5pm and even earlier on weekends. Added to the sleepiness is that the sun sets here at about 5:30pm. So it actually feels like the city shuts down. Such a different feeling than a big city.



We heard about a town just south of Hamilton that had a Saturday farmer's market, and with nothing else to do in Hamilton we went for a drive. Cambridge is about 20 minutes away, and is just as sleepy and chilled as Hamilton.

The farmer's market there was way more farmer-y than in Calgary or Edmonton, here it's actually a bunch of farmers who back their pick-up trucks into a field. It was small but had some great stuff. After Cambridge we kept driving south for a little ways, and found ourselves at a resevoir and a scenic reserve (think mini national park).

The scenic reserve started out in farmland but quickly turned into heavy forest and an inactive volcano. There's all kinds of walking/hiking trails around the area and some great views.

We weren't planning on going for a hike that day and we didn't have any gear, plus the weather started moving in so we decided to come back another weekend and explore the place. The rest of the weekend was packing, moving, unpacking, and pest control.

This week's 7-day forecast: school, job hunting (1 good lead so far), baking Scott's birthday cake, and skiing on Mt. Doom... oh yeah.

"Can Anything be too Sesame Street?"

Sorry for the long wait... but we can now present to you our 1992 Toyota Estima....

                                                       ALBERT (aka Bert) the campervan!

               Scott: Copycat!
               Nikki: I was just trying to make you feel better about not looking like an idiot.
                         Beat this one...

                             

This weekend we took Albert on his first New Zealand adventure. Or... I guess Albert took us on our first New Zealand adventure. I am guessing Bert has seen it all already in his 19 years of life.

Bert is now a fully equipped campervan. It has a semi-comfortable bed in the back (needs maybe a little more cushioning) but it surprisingly is quite roomy (or as Kiwis would say, it has HEAPS of legroom). Scott almost has enough room to stretch out fully. It also has a sunroof and a moonroof.

It has curtains covering all windows, which is more for privacy than to keep the light out because it get really dark here really early. We also have a duvet and a wool blanket, which kept us really warm considering it fell to almost zero that night. Brrrr.....

It is equipped with a bunch of camping gear, including a stove, a table, chairs, a bunch of cooking and eating utensils, a water jug, and a chilly bin (a cooler). Pretty much everything we will need for our weekend trips on the north island. And I'm sure that by the time we are ready to live in it for the month of November, we will have campervan living down to a perfection.

We struggled with finding the appropriate name for our van. Thanks for all the suggestions Nichole and Sarah! we thought about Albert with a nickname Bert. Nikki questioned whether it was too sesame streety. But Scott does not think it is possible to be too sesame street. So... with that issue resolved... he was officially named Albert.

Raglan: July 16-17th

We drove to Raglan on Saturday morning. Hamilton to Raglan is about 45km and take about 45 minutes to an hour to get to. The roads are very narrow, with no shoulder and probably the most windy roads we've ever been on. And... the speed limit was still 100km/hr. uh...YIKES!

It is a good thing Nikki was distracted by the beautiful scenery along the way. Lots of people say that New Zealand is a lot like Alberta. We have to disagree with that with what we've seen so far.

Yes, there are lots of farms... but the farms here are on huge rolling hills instead of flat land.

They both have lots of cows... but here they have SHEEPIES!!!!

Alberta has the rocky mountains....  not volcanos!!

And... Alberta has lakes... not OCEAN!

                      If you look real close in the picture above you can see Scott surfing.

On our way to Raglan, we stopped to see one of the most spectacular waterfalls on the North island called Bridal Veil Falls, which was just a short 10 minute walk from the road.

It is an amazing 55 meter high waterfall that shoots straight down from a cliff that was carved out by lava from a nearby volcano many years ago. The water has eroded the soft sandstone creating an impressive pool at the bottom that is said to be 5 meters deep.

The native Maori people refer to this waterfall as Waireingo, meaning leaping water.

We arrived in Raglan only to find out that they have a ban on freedom camping (which means you are not allowed to pull over anywhere you want and spend the night, like we were planning). Luckily we found a really nice hostel, Raglan Backpackers.

            Scott outside Raglan Backpackers, with Albert in the background where we 'camped'.

Here they were great about explaining what was going on with the camping bans. There are certain places in New Zealand that freedom camping is still allowed, but in other places, like Raglan, a few irresponsible campers have ruined it for everyone because they were leaving a mess behind. The hostel allowed us to park our van in their parking lot for a reduced fee and still use their facilities. So... we like to say that this was just a way to ease ourselves into the full campervan experience. It was great though because they rented us surfing gear and a kayak. And when we came back from a tough day of surfing and kayaking, they had a hot tub for us to relax in. (I think I could get used to this kind of campervanning!)

We can now say we have gone surfing in New Zealand in the winter! When we were driving out to the beach with our surf gear, it was sunny and blue sky. But soon after getting in the water, a storm came through and we surfed in the rain. And by we I mean Scott kept surfing while Nikki huddled behind a shelter out of the wind and took pictures. It was freezing. As you can see, the storm brought in some nasty waves that are not great for surfing. The waves were all over the place.   

The next day we kayaked from the hostel, past the Raglan harbour, and into a small inlet where we found another waterfall. It took about an hour and a half of hard paddling to get to. The way back to the hostel was a lot easier as we were coming back as the tide was going out, so we just sat back and let the tide take us back. That was until we had to turn into the inlet where the hostel was, where the tide was bringing the water out of the inlet and we had to paddle hard against the current. If either one of us stopped paddling for a second, we started going backwards. The lady at the hostel told us that we are now one of a very small number of people to go see that waterfall.

View of Mt Karioi. An ancient volcano. We didn't have time this weekend to hike it, but maybe next time.

Poor puppies!

                                             Kiwis will play soccer even when visibility is poor

"I Don't Want to be Homeless... Again"

4 days, 4 hostels, 150 pounds of bags, and tough decisions.

Friday, July 8th

We woke up super early, realizing we were actually jet-lagged. But getting started our day at 5:30am was probably a good thing. In the morning, Scott went to school to get registered in his classes. We took a walk around the University of Waikato campus. It is beautiful.

                   University of Waikato Campus

After making sure they would still let Scott into school, we found a place with internet and began the hunt for somewhere to live, making appointments for that evening and saturday morning to see a bunch of places. Despite the number of places for rent on websites, people here communicate a lot by text message, so not many of our emails were actually returned. We figured out the texting thing though and started getting responses.

              Lenny the lemon. Not cuz it was a crappy car, just cuz it looks like a lemon.

We used Lenny to get around town that day to see some SKETCHY places. Among the weirdness was a really nice place, but not available until the 23rd. So we kept looking a bit. We stayed at another hostel that night, J's Backpackers, where we made friends with some americans and actually got to cook dinner. It was nice to have real cooked food.

Saturday July 9th

Still jet-lagged, we got up early again. Turns out waking up early in a hostel is not too bad of an idea, since you get first dibs on hot water and dry towels. Anyways, we went to go see a couple more places. We ended up having to choose between 2 places literally right across the street from each other that were very simliar. We made our choice but couldn`t finalize things until Sunday, and we still needed a campervan, so we had to head back to Auckland.

                    They are blurry and far away, but this was our first flock of SHEEPIES!!!

                      The road from Hamilton to Auckland.


We found place called Backpackers Car Market where they facilitate the buying and selling of campervans. They were located right off of Canada Street.

             Scott: What should I do in the picture?
             Nikki: What do you mean "do"? It's a picture.
             Scott: Well, I don't just want to stand there with my hands in my pockets like an idiot.

                               Scott, not looking like an idiot.

There were lots of vans at the market, so we implemented the classic smell test to start knocking some out of the running. We also knocked out the manual transmissions (there is NO way we were going to deal with driving stick and on the wrong side of the road). We narrowed our search down to one van that was pretty much exactly what we had thought we'd get. We sent it for an inspection. While waiting for that to be done, we checked into another hostel, KRoad Backpackers, for the night, knowing there was no way we'd be able to purchase the van today.

With a campervan and a place to rent pretty much lined up, we finally had a chance to relax and realize that we are in New Zealand!! We walked around downtown Auckland as the sun was setting (which happens super early here, it was probably only 5:30pm). It was a much needed break from the stress of the last couple days.

                               Auckland's SkyTower

Sunday, July 10th

Still waiting on info about the campervan, we had another day to be tourists in Auckland.

                  SkyTower Observation Deck. 56 Storeys High. 360 degree view of Auckland.

                  Auckland Harbour from the SkyTower

                                      Eggs. NOT refrigerated. Not in this store, or any store in NZ so far. ???

              Lots of shopping on Queen Street

             K-Road in the evening. Reminded us a little too much of Bangkok.

We got the call early in the afternoon that the inspection was done, with some minor things that needed done. Luckily, the sellers agreed to pay for those things to be done. Unfortunately for us, that meant we needed to stay another night in Auckland while the van was in the shop. So we checked into ANOTHER hostel, BK Hostel for the night.

Monday, July 11th

In the morning, we were able to finalize the purchase of the van. We were very thankful for the Backpackers Car Market because they helped us with everything that needed to be done to buy it. We walked away with keys to our very own 1992 Toyota Estima Campervan!!! (pictures to come... i know the anticipation is killing you...)

So gas here is like $2.05 per litre and sometimes higher, so even an average gas tank like ours is $135 to fill up, which we did and drove back to Hamilton. All the fuss around getting the camper meant that Scott had to miss the first day of school. Oops. But it was either miss the first day, or extend the rental car, and drive back and forth for the third time in a week.

During our weekend in Auckland, we had worked out our living arrangements as well. The place we wanted was ours but not until July 23rd. Luckily the landlord had a room in another one of his houses available that we could stay in until then. So when we got back to Hamilton, we had a home to go to. No more hostels!

               Kitchen in our temporary home.

             Backyard of our temporary home.

We are finally feeling like we can start to settle in now that we have a home and a campervan. You'd never figure that an English-speaking, Westernized country could give you culture shock, but we have certainly had our share of it so far. It sounds cliche, but it's the little things: no indoor heating, people walking around barefoot, walking on the left side of the sidewalk, red peppers that cost $4.95 each, ketchup is called tomato sauce and tomato sauce is called pasta sauce. Anyways, despite some stressful moments we are loving it here. The kindness of strangers can be a powerful thing sometimes, and has been a big part of making the last week easier. The most exciting part has been starting to plan out our weekend trips...

"Oh, We'll Just Figure It Out When We Get There"

After a few months of anticipation, we finally left for New Zealand on July 5th. Saying goodbye to our weepy parents at the Edmonton Airport at 11am, we were on our way.

First leg: Edmonton to Seattle.

              Seattle Airport was really nice, great view of the mountains.

Second Leg: Seattle to Los Angeles
                    LAX is a horrible place where we had the pleasure of spending our 4 and a half hour layover. Didn't deserve any pictures because we do not want to remember that place.

Third Leg: Los Anglese to Nadi, Fiji
                 While checking in at Air Pacific counter in LA, the short Fijian man sympathetically looked up at us and asked us if we wanted to switch to the emergency exit seats cuz we are so tall.

                 That man is our hero!

The flight was 10 hours long and our tv's in our row were broken, but luckily we were tired enough from our earlier flights that we were able to sleep pretty well on and off. The seats were narrow but we were very grateful for the ability to stretch out. We rolled into Fiji early in the morning while it was still dark.

            At the airport in Fiji

Leg Four: Nadi, Fiji to Auckland
                After watching the sunrise in the Fiji airport, we boarded the plane and were headed to New Zealand. It was a 3 and a half hour flight over open blue ocean on a clear day all the way until Auckland...

Auckland Airport:
                So someone asked us before we left "what are you going to do once you get off the plane in Auckland?" At the time we just said "oh we'll just figure it out when we get there." After 30 hours of travel with little sleep and airport/airplane food to eat, we came to the realization that our initial plan to go out and get everything lined up in half a day was a little bit unrealistic. So, instead, we spent extra time in the Auckland airport getting a cell phone lined up and renting a car. We put the campervan shopping on hold and decided to drive straight to Hamilton.

Leg Five: Auckland to Hamilton
              We rented a little yellow Hyundai car we named Lenny (sorry, forgot to take a picture), and took to the roads. We pulled away from the car rental place and first thing we encounter is a roundabout (traffic circle). YIKES!

   
It was scary and there may have been some screaming involved... but we made it to Hamilton without incident. That is where we learned the hard way that a person turning right has the right of way to the person turning left. (draw it out if you have to... but don't forget you drive on the other side of the road here) Anyways... just about got hit, but stopped just in time.

So our total travel time from Edmonton to Hamilton was 39 hours! We were exhausted so we checked into a hostel, had a shower and crashed.

          Scott eating New Zealand's famous meat pies. Very dangerous for his figure.