We can recall what we did the first time we went out to Andy and Carolyn’s Okuku Farm, but from that moment it has felt like a home away from home. The farm is simple and functional; the land speaks for itself. It is also a playground for the imagination. Carolyn always has a project going on. One Saturday, the two of us drove out to help her plant native seedlings around the pond in efforts to promote the return of native bush to the cultivated land. Since she started the project several years ago, she has noticed an increase [View Full Entry]

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Matt and Gia arrived in the dead of winter, in efforts to uphold their reputation of tropical vacations. They had already been to blazing hot Maine and steamy Ireland beaches, so New Zealand in July was the next obvious choice. They travelled on the North Island for a wee bit to acclimatise to the Southern Hemisphere before they headed deeper south to meet us in Chch. By the time they arrived at our doorstep, they had already formulated their own opinions on what was important to experience whilst in New Zealand. Mashies, for one. KFC in the US is bad enough [View Full Entry]

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Rev up your engines: Some Friday nights are low-key as we wind down from the work week, and some are energising as we charge up for the weekend. One weekend, Fly My Pretties, a New Zealand compilation band that Pete and Isla had introduced us to, was in town. We joined the pack of dreadlocked twenty-somethings at the Royal Theatre to listen and groove to their eclectic acoustic and electric sounds. The concert was just the thing we all needed to ease us into weekend mode, as it was both uplifting and relaxing. Pit crew’s first challenge: While Pete escaped to [View Full Entry]

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When opportunity rises, I am usually the last to know about it. I had been zoning out during our staff meeting when I heard my boss say that she had approval for one occupational therapist to attend an international stroke conference… in Australia. My eyes lit up and I rushed to submit my application before the deadline later that week. As soon as I was granted approval, I teamed up with Haley, my physiotherapist co-worker, to book lodging and coordinate flights. The days preceding my departure were jam-packed culminating to lecturing for an hour and a half on visual perceptual chan [View Full Entry]

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Steffin and Becs wanted to have one last hurrah at the beloved Greymouth beachfront house before they packed up the final boxes and moved out. We had barely met them, but in typical Kiwi warm hospitality we were invited along to join them at a hāngi. A hāngi is a method of cooking in an outdoor earthen pit oven which involves digging a pit, heating stones over a bonfire, placing wire baskets of food on top of the stones, and covering everything with earth for several hours before lifting the hāngi. We had a great time at a hangi held by [View Full Entry]

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Although Queen Elizabeth II was born on 21 April, the Queen's Birthday is celebrated each year in New Zealand on the first Monday in June. She is honoured as the head of state of New Zealand’s constitutional monarchy, and as our liberator from a Monday of work. Carloads of outdoor enthusiasts flocked to lustrous Wanaka to catch a glimmer of the paradise created by crystal clear lake waters lapping the feet of the surrounding alpine panorama. For those that didn’t want to lift their fingers to the crag or peddle their feet along the tracks, there was the opportunity to &ldquo [View Full Entry]

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Home to the Hobbits, the North Island is a place we had been waiting for an excuse to travel to. Upon hearing that Todd and Caroline would be stopping in New Zealand on their around-the-world honeymoon, we snatched the chance to meet up with them. Besides, we figured it would be grand to see old friends in a new land. We ignored the warnings of many South Islanders who quipped, “Auckland is too busy and the people are rude”, and decided to see it for ourselves. We boarded the puddle jumper, flew over Cooke’s Straight, and landed in the largest city [View Full Entry]

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Snow cats get ready: there is snow in the Southern Alps! The first snow of the winter season has always excited us, giving us images of snow shoeing and carving down the slopes. So when Ele called up to invite us along on a tramp through the snow, we were much obliged. We were itching to go by the time Steve, Ele, and Tom showed up at our doorstep at noon. Steve tore off as we bounded out of the city, and we were soon into cruise mode. The i-pod came out and we even started singing. Singing turned to hoo-rahs [View Full Entry]

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Easter brings images of little girls in spring dresses and new hats and little boys in shortie suits. Crocuses pop through the earth’s surface, but a winter chill hangs on just enough so that we caught a chill in our Sunday’s best. It was always a relief to change into the preferred play clothes when dinner was done. Easter was a holiday tightly wrapped into one day filled with chocolate eggs and jelly beans. In the past few years we have enjoyed our Easter brunches with Jenn and Kirt. In typical Jenn fashion there was always too much food, and it [View Full Entry]

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When people ask us, “How are you finding New Zealand?” we often struggle to answer the question. A move into a different culture and climate has its ups and downs, and the array of feelings is hard to capture in a short reply. Instead of blurting out a lengthy response, we have coined the statement “It is the same … but different.” We have not moved to a third world country, where we might be lacking in the finer conveniences of the western world. In fact, in some ways we have upgraded. We can’t imagine how we ever lived without high-speed [View Full Entry]

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