Well as most of you know Johnny left New Zealand a little less than two months ago to start his Masters program at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, while I continue on with my own teacher’s program here in New Zealand. Although I miss my Johnny very much I haven’t had to time to pine [...]
NOTE: I’ve been meaning to post this entry for 6 weeks. I wrote it on the plane home from New Zealand and then got caught up in everything and never got around to putting it up! So, it’s a bit outdated, but I figured I’d add it for completeness. We drove down to Wellington a [...]
After returning from Rarotonga, we stayed another couple of nights with our friends Lucy and Bugsy in Auckland (whom we had met in Taupo). Once again, they made us feel right at home, and it was great relaxing by the fire with them. We had to run a couple of errands in the city before [...]
Sick of the cold, and eager to check out the south pacific paradise on New Zealand’s doorstep, Jess and I booked a trip to the capital island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands back in May. Quickly enough, the end of June came around, and after a frantic week of finishing school work for Jess [...]
Since we last wrote, May has come and gone, and we have entered New Zealand’s fall. After months of southern hemisphere summer, I think we both kind of felt like it was never going to change! However, the world turns, and we now have 0 to 3 degree nights and 10 to 15 degree days. [...]
With Jess on her break this week, we decided to tackle one of the hikes within driving distance of Palmerston North. About 3 hours north is Tongariro National Park, the 1st national park in NZ and the 4th ever established in the world. It’s made up of a mixture of landscapes, but is dominated by [...]
It’s been a while since the last post. Things have been pretty quiet, but really good for us. Jess has been working extremely hard at her teaching placement with a class of Year 8 (slightly younger than Grade 8 at home) gifted students at Monrad Intermediate School here in PN. When she was assigned the [...]
On Easter Sunday, far from family and the springtime accoutrements of the holiday, we opted instead to go see Jack Johnson in New Plymouth, a coastal city about 3 hours northwest of Palmerston North. After our own egg hunt and a nice breakfast followed by family phone calls, we headed out. We picked up Jess’ [...]
Last night I was drifting off to sleep when I felt a strange wriggling near my toes. I kicked them around and settled back in…and felt it again, this time more scratchy and kind of painful. Getting creeped out, I pulled back the covers, but couldn’t see anything. However, I had a small scratch on [...]
On our way from Fiordland to Wanaka, we decided to drive through Queenstown, famous for extreme sports like bungee-jumping and skydiving, to see what all the fuss was about. Apparently, about 50,000 other people were also interested in seeing the town. So, we drove in one end of town and out the other, without seeing [...]