Blogs from Paraparaumu, Wellington Region, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

A long and painful series of flights landed me safely in Wellington. The sinuses that had been suffering through a cold since last weekend made their complaints known all the way through the many hours on planes. The first flight was empty so I claimed a row of seats managed to lie down and even get some sleep. From Bangkok to Auckland was a different story - a full plane with a small army of people who clearly lacked any understanding of the concept of personal space. That made landing in NZ an even bigger relief than normal. Seamless transfer (by foot) to the domestic terminal and thence to Wellington. Cloudy day so no clear views of the volcanoes on the way down. The beauty of the approach to Wellington was completely overtaken by intense pain. ... read more

January, 2009 Friday, 2nd I left Clive & Lize’s at 7am, not realizing it’s a public holiday and the busses only run from 08:30. I phoned a taxi and was at the train station in a flash! Public transport rocks! I took the train, and various other modes of transportation including my feet to El Ranch (Waikanae Christian Holiday Park). I checked into my flat, aptly named The Ritz, unpacked and set about exploring the grounds with a map. I walked around for about 2 hours, including the 20min walk to Waikanae beach. The grounds are huge and it’s really beautiful here. I stood and watched as Sam and Burnie took some kids from the motor camp Go karting. I observed how they interacted with the kids and their parents, quite interesting. After the session I ... read more

New Zealand thoughts & observations 1. Language - it takes awhile to pick up on the pronunciation and terms. Some examples: W sounds like da Kiwis tend to raise their voice as they finish talking, often I am trying to figure out what the question is and they are simply saying I’m done talking, your turn. 2. Terms - Kiwis have a lot of terms that are different than US English and for the most part very descriptive. An example is an auto body shop is where the panel beaters work. The shop is called a panel beaters shop. Kiwis always use the term scheme for plan. They have saving schemes, retirement schemes and business schemes. A section is basically what we call a building lot. There are enough of these that are just sort of ... read more