One of Darrel's hip hopity hats for sale
Josie at the Wind Farm
Josie, Joy and Brian at the Oakura Beach, South of New Plymouth
Friday, July 14, 2006
July 8th
Darrel and I set of on a new adventure yesterday!
We have spent the past two weeks looking for a vehicle and exploring other options for our trip to the South Island (where we plan on settling). We almost settled on a fire engine red station wagon, which would have done the job for the trip, but might not have suited our needs once we got to wherever it is we are going to settle. Then Darrel’s dad offered us a van that was about to be sold from their Plumbing Business. The plan is to sell it for them when we are done using it. It’s big enough to sleep in the back while we are tiki touring south and also big enough to pick up our shipment from the port when it arrives. The only catch is that we had to clean out the van. It was not pretty, but 6 hours later, we knew that at least the remaining dirt and grime was relatively clean.
So, yesterday we said goodbye to Joy and Brian and drove towards Palmerston North to visit with Craig, Trudy and Kelsey. About 45 minutes from our destination we hit a roadblock, heavy rains and tidal rivers make for flooding and closed roads. New Zealand really needs some riparian buffers!
We thought that we were stuck in Wanganui for the night so we treated ourselves to an amazing Thai dinner and a movie. (It seemed that most of the other stranded people had the same idea) While in the theatre we overheard that the road was now open to one lane and that cars where being allowed through. So we made a run for it, and rolled into P.N. late at night, just in time to watch a parade of boy racers exiting town.
Kiwi Definition #1 Boy Racer= Young person (usually male) who spends a lot of money on their car, fitting it out with loud exhaust systems, loud stereos and speakers, fancy rims, low rider kits, airbrush paint jobs and big stickers. Boy Racers are known for driving up and down the main street of their home towns for hours on end with no real purpose or destination.
Today, we have been playing with Kelsey (Darrel’s neice who is a lively 2 years old), visiting a wind farm and starting to pimp out the van with tinted windows (we are not envious of the boy racers, we are just trying to protect all of our possessions.)
The wind farm is located on a farm just South of the city. The towers dot the ridgeline, but are hardly visible on overcast or cloudy days. The closer we got the more awed I became. They are beautiful graceful towers. The clouds were low and heavy with moisture, the blades looked like they had streamers attached to them, but it was the condensation from the air streaming off. The cool part of the wind farm, is that they are farming electricity as well as cows and sheep. And what’s encouraging is that they are now powering 35,000 homes and are just about to double their capacity and a whole new wind farm is being constructed just south of here near Wellington (the countries 2nd largest city) and will power all of Wellington and neighboring suburbs.
Yeah! a country that is into its renewable energy and actually doing something about it! I would so much rather be surrounded by Windmills than even the remotest threat of a nuclear melt down!
July 12, 2006
We are now in Wellington, a very blustery place in winter. I can understand why so many New Zealanders have dreadlocks. (Darrel and I met in Wellington while studying at Victoria University.) I went to the campus yesterday to meet with a professor. He coordinates an Ecological Restoration Masters program. I am very interested in it, but need to get to the South Island and snowboard for a few years before I am ready to go back to Uni. It is about 3.5 hours to snowboardable mountains from Welly- not quite out the back door like we had in VT.
Right now we are staying at Odie, Joel and Adam’s house. Welly is surrounded by hills and we are right up on top of one of them- great view of the city.
I just started a new knitting project (kind of like a shawl, but an annoying 1-ply yarn that is taking a bit to get used to) and Darrel is working on decorating some hats to sell while we are unemployed and rambling around the country.
Darrel and I set of on a new adventure yesterday!
We have spent the past two weeks looking for a vehicle and exploring other options for our trip to the South Island (where we plan on settling). We almost settled on a fire engine red station wagon, which would have done the job for the trip, but might not have suited our needs once we got to wherever it is we are going to settle. Then Darrel’s dad offered us a van that was about to be sold from their Plumbing Business. The plan is to sell it for them when we are done using it. It’s big enough to sleep in the back while we are tiki touring south and also big enough to pick up our shipment from the port when it arrives. The only catch is that we had to clean out the van. It was not pretty, but 6 hours later, we knew that at least the remaining dirt and grime was relatively clean.
So, yesterday we said goodbye to Joy and Brian and drove towards Palmerston North to visit with Craig, Trudy and Kelsey. About 45 minutes from our destination we hit a roadblock, heavy rains and tidal rivers make for flooding and closed roads. New Zealand really needs some riparian buffers!
We thought that we were stuck in Wanganui for the night so we treated ourselves to an amazing Thai dinner and a movie. (It seemed that most of the other stranded people had the same idea) While in the theatre we overheard that the road was now open to one lane and that cars where being allowed through. So we made a run for it, and rolled into P.N. late at night, just in time to watch a parade of boy racers exiting town.
Kiwi Definition #1 Boy Racer= Young person (usually male) who spends a lot of money on their car, fitting it out with loud exhaust systems, loud stereos and speakers, fancy rims, low rider kits, airbrush paint jobs and big stickers. Boy Racers are known for driving up and down the main street of their home towns for hours on end with no real purpose or destination.
Today, we have been playing with Kelsey (Darrel’s neice who is a lively 2 years old), visiting a wind farm and starting to pimp out the van with tinted windows (we are not envious of the boy racers, we are just trying to protect all of our possessions.)
The wind farm is located on a farm just South of the city. The towers dot the ridgeline, but are hardly visible on overcast or cloudy days. The closer we got the more awed I became. They are beautiful graceful towers. The clouds were low and heavy with moisture, the blades looked like they had streamers attached to them, but it was the condensation from the air streaming off. The cool part of the wind farm, is that they are farming electricity as well as cows and sheep. And what’s encouraging is that they are now powering 35,000 homes and are just about to double their capacity and a whole new wind farm is being constructed just south of here near Wellington (the countries 2nd largest city) and will power all of Wellington and neighboring suburbs.
Yeah! a country that is into its renewable energy and actually doing something about it! I would so much rather be surrounded by Windmills than even the remotest threat of a nuclear melt down!
July 12, 2006
We are now in Wellington, a very blustery place in winter. I can understand why so many New Zealanders have dreadlocks. (Darrel and I met in Wellington while studying at Victoria University.) I went to the campus yesterday to meet with a professor. He coordinates an Ecological Restoration Masters program. I am very interested in it, but need to get to the South Island and snowboard for a few years before I am ready to go back to Uni. It is about 3.5 hours to snowboardable mountains from Welly- not quite out the back door like we had in VT.
Right now we are staying at Odie, Joel and Adam’s house. Welly is surrounded by hills and we are right up on top of one of them- great view of the city.
I just started a new knitting project (kind of like a shawl, but an annoying 1-ply yarn that is taking a bit to get used to) and Darrel is working on decorating some hats to sell while we are unemployed and rambling around the country.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Darrel and I have spent the last week getting reacquainted with New Zealand. We flew into Wellington, Sharleen (Darrel’s Sister) picked us up at the airport. We made one stop on our way to Sharleen’s house; Darrel got out of the car and took two steps before we heard someone exclaim “Darrel, what are you doing here.” It was his good friend Kate. Small world down here!
We are currently staying in New Plymouth at Darrel’s parents place. We have been walking on the beaches, exploring art galleries and gazing at the huge snow covered volcano just to the East. Darrel and I couldn’t bring our snowboards with us (they are coming with our shipment in a month or two), so it is a bit bittersweet that NZ has more snow from last weeks storm than it received for the entire 2005 winter season- and they are forecasting more to come. Despite the snowy mountain, New Plymouth is quite warm, not T-shirt weather or sunbathing on the beach, but sunny and nice for walking, biking and knitting on the deck.
As you may have guessed, our roughly laid plans are changing fast. Our dreams of owning a trustworthy diesel have been shattered and our interest in living in a city has blossomed.
Our current destination is Christchurch; we just have to get there somehow. Christchurch is the third largest city in NZ. It is on the South Island and is an hour or so from ski areas and the Southern Alps.
We are in the process of finding a car to drive south, and it is not really all that fun. The problem with cars here, especially in our price range, is that they are imported used from Japan and likely “clocked” during the import process. Also, the manuals are in Japanese and it's harder or more expensive to find parts. So we are on the lookout for a NZ new hatchback or station wagon for our Tiki Tour to the South Island. We are chillin’ in New Plymouth till we sort it all out. We hope to be in Wellington by next weekend.
We are currently staying in New Plymouth at Darrel’s parents place. We have been walking on the beaches, exploring art galleries and gazing at the huge snow covered volcano just to the East. Darrel and I couldn’t bring our snowboards with us (they are coming with our shipment in a month or two), so it is a bit bittersweet that NZ has more snow from last weeks storm than it received for the entire 2005 winter season- and they are forecasting more to come. Despite the snowy mountain, New Plymouth is quite warm, not T-shirt weather or sunbathing on the beach, but sunny and nice for walking, biking and knitting on the deck.
As you may have guessed, our roughly laid plans are changing fast. Our dreams of owning a trustworthy diesel have been shattered and our interest in living in a city has blossomed.
Our current destination is Christchurch; we just have to get there somehow. Christchurch is the third largest city in NZ. It is on the South Island and is an hour or so from ski areas and the Southern Alps.
We are in the process of finding a car to drive south, and it is not really all that fun. The problem with cars here, especially in our price range, is that they are imported used from Japan and likely “clocked” during the import process. Also, the manuals are in Japanese and it's harder or more expensive to find parts. So we are on the lookout for a NZ new hatchback or station wagon for our Tiki Tour to the South Island. We are chillin’ in New Plymouth till we sort it all out. We hope to be in Wellington by next weekend.
We spotted a Swamp Wallaby while on a bush walk. Despite the tiny picture, we were actually quite close to him. He was munching away on ferns, and keeping an eye on us while we gawked at him for a while. 
Darrel, Josie and Simon on our Bush walk, just north of Sydney.
We had brunch with some NZ relatives visiting Sydney.Pieta and Jennifer, Darrel's Cousin and Auntie, are in the center. Deborah, Darrel's Sister is on the right.
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