Surf's Up!

Today is the start of a four day Easter weekend. Jeremy and I were headed out to go hiking in Whitireia Park when we drove past the bay and were shocked to see big waves and tons of surfers. We had to stop.

So cool!

It's been 16 or 17 years since I saw surfers in South Padre Island during a trip I took with the Wittnebel family. I forgot how amazing it is to watch. And now I want nothing more than to learn how to do it myself. I don't know how often the waves are so perfect for surfing in Titahi Bay but I can't resist the urge to run out and buy a board. And take lessons. Many lessons. 

We sat and watched for quite a while. Just. So. Cool. 

Minnesota is not a fly over state and other things only Americans argue about

I have a difficult time distinguishing between a New Zealand and an Australian accent. I think most Americans do. Kiwis (New Zealanders) have a difficult time distinguishing between a Canadian and American accent. I get it all the time. When Kiwis ask me where I'm from they hesitate to guess because they don't want to offend me by guessing the wrong country. Not that I'm offended to be called a Canadian. Well, not much. :)

As an American, I can hear several different American accents and pinpoint the region, if not the state, each person is from. Most Kiwis don't even know where 90% of the states are located within the country. When I tell people where I came from, I usually have to say north of New York. Maybe they know where Boston is, but they have no idea where New Hampshire or Vermont are, or likely even that they are states.

Jeremy and me at the top of Mt Moosilauke in New Hampshire

I can relate. Nearly every New Zealand city I hear or read about I have to look up. I grew up just hours from the Canadian border and I'm pretty sure I can't name and/or locate all of the Canadian provinces. It's a big world! Ask me to point out Zimbabwe, Yemen, Botswana - forget about it! Geography has never been my strong suit.

We're all a little provincial. You know what you know. You pay attention to what's familiar. If I made mention of the Minnesota/Wisconsin rivalry in New England they maybe knew what I was talking about. At a minimum they knew or had a general sense of where the states are located. Here they may not even know I am referring to US states.

Flying into Auckland

There are several Flight Centres (travel agencies) around Wellington. They have posters in their windows promoting trips to the Americas. The US is just lumped right in there with Canada and Mexico. Just as Americans may lump New Zealand and Australia together.

I had lunch with someone from my hometown a few months ago. We spoke about things that only someone very familiar with my hometown and my high school would understand. I grew up by Lorraine Park; Frau Schmoll now lives in Florida; Italian Dunkers from Angelo's are delicious (we may not have actually touched on that, but it's true). It was like speaking my native language. Even though I speak English to everyone, these words don't translate to everyone. You have to simply know what they mean by having lived in the same place.

When I lived in Alexandria, MN, I would say I was from the Cities and maybe describe which end of the Cities I grew up in. In New England I would say I was from Minnesota or the Midwest. Now I just say I'm from the United States.

These are not groundbreaking observations. In fact, you could figure this all out without moving to another country. It's just been intriguing for me to live it. I am an immigrant. An American expat. It's all very surreal. Sometimes it's overwhelming and I feel out of place. But mostly it's just opened my mind to a whole new set of wonders.

View of Titahi Bay from walking path near my house

As I walk around my new neighborhood {btw - spell check wants me to spell this as neighbourhood and I'm just not ready to do that}, I am struck by the incredible beauty. The fact that this inland girl lives less than a mile away from the ocean shore is almost unfathomable. The sound and sight of crashing waves leaves me feeling awestruck. I spoke to a young woman who grew up in Porirua and it was clear that she saw it through a different lens. It's just what she knows. It's not unusual or awe inspiring because it's the view she's always looked at.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I like my life. It's a little different than the norm. I see all the wonderful pictures of my friends' babies, hear about the weekend family barbecues, see my friends getting together without me, and I realize there are some things I'm missing out on. But I have different experiences that are also pretty cool. I hear a bird call I can only hear in New Zealand, I meet a nice new person with a cool accent and a different background from my own, I see a landscape I've never seen before and know that I can come back to again, I have regular access to Tim Tams and have learned about the Tim Tam Slam - these are the little things that add up for me and make it worth it.

Ruakuri Bush walk

Now those family and friends I'm missing just need to get their tushies out here to the South Pacific and share in the fun with me.

Easter is in fall and Halloween is in spring

I've given myself a challenge to really give this blog a shot. The challenge is to write a post every day for 21 days. It may be short, it may be crap, but it will get me in the groove and I'll be able to determine whether I've simply been lazy or honestly have no desire to write a blog.

With that fantastic lead in I sure you're just dying to read the rest of this post, right?

Saturday, Friday in the US, 19 April will mark one month since we arrived in New Zealand. The lead up to us leaving was insane. It seriously happened so quickly that I had very little time to really take in what was happening. Little time to truly appreciate the fact that I was leaving the only country I had spent every day of my life in minus 5-6 weeks I had spent visiting other countries.

The focus had to be on getting shit done. Tons of little and big tasks jumbled on lists written on scrap papers strewn across my desk at work, strewn across our apartment, and crumpled into the crevices of my purse. Eventually all put into a Google Doc that Jeremy and I shared because, it turns out, random and missing to-do lists help you get virtually nothing accomplished.

We had to get Visas, give notice to our apartment manager, find a moving company, wrap up and delegate components of the major project I was working on at work, give my notice at work (sob!), complete the massive checklist of items to get the cat into the country, and on, and on, and on.

It's not like we were moving to Georgia, or Colorado, or back to Minnesota, or even to Canada. We were crossing the international date line. Moving to a whole new hemisphere, where Easter is celebrated in fall and Halloween is in spring. (Side note: My cookie cutter organization system is completely destroyed.) We were packing all of our belongings, putting them in a cargo container, and shipping it many miles across the ocean. We were saying goodbye to our loved ones.

The last one really got me. I haven't cried so much and so hard in a very long time. I could handle everything else. Just more ticks on the to-do list. The goodbyes broke my heart. They made it real.

But, technology is amazing. Skype, Google Hangouts, Whatsapp (if you are on there you need to friend me, or whatever it's called), Facebook, Instagram, and email have all been instrumental in keeping me from feeling isolated. And it's been fun sharing the journey with my peeps. Perhaps it will even help me find more peeps here in New Zealand. God forbid I should actually go out and try to meet people in person... I kid... Kind of.

There you have it. That's day one of the blog challenge. I'm rounding out my incredible opening with an equally amazing closing. Cheers!

Traveling to Middle Earth

It's hard to believe this is only our fifth day in New Zealand. We have accomplished quite a bit in those few days, all the while learning about New Zealand culture. Where to begin?

I guess I'll start with the travel over here. I'll save the immigration stuff for later. Jeremy left early to see his family in New Mexico. I had just seen mine a few weeks before so I wrapped up the week at work and finished the cleaning of the apartment.

Headed to Boston on Sunday because Archie had to be dropped off at the United cargo area at 5 a.m. I was so nervous about missing the drop-off time that I hardly slept. But I got him there on time ... actually like 30 minutes early so we hung out until an employee actually got there to check him in.

My flight left at 5 p.m. I had a 50 lb bag to check (49.1 lbs actually), a carry-on roller bag, and a smaller camera bag/purse. Everything went perfectly in Boston. Car rental guy helped carry my heavy bag to the shuttle, curbside check-in guy helped me get my bag checked-in, and the rest I could easily handle. Plane left on time and the 6+ hour flight was long but smooth.

Then I got to LAX and nothing else went smoothly.

I land and was able to check my messages. Jeremy's flight was delayed and he was concerned he wasn't going to make the connection but when I tried to contact him it went straight to voicemail. He must have been in the air, which was a good sign. After figuring out that I did not have to pick-up my luggage, which took way too long, I found the shuttle I needed to get to the other terminal. There was only one shuttle at that hour and it took forever.

Finally made it to the correct terminal and went to get into the security line but was told the boarding pass I had didn't work. Went down to counter to get the correct boarding pass and was told that my carry-on bag was too heavy and I would have to check it for $150!! We had packed exactly for the instructions most airlines require. No more than 50 lbs for checked bag, 30 lbs for carry-on, and one personal item that fits under the seat. Air New Zealand only allows a 15 lb bag, "for your safety." Of course, once we got on the plane we saw several bags in the overhead bins that were well over that weight. I guess we just got caught.

I was headed to the security line and finally heard from Jeremy. He was at LAX but wasn't sure if he needed to pick up his bag or if it automatically got transferred. Four different agents had split 50/50 on their answers. Since mine automatically transferred and he needed to rush his butt over to the terminal he skipped baggage claim.

He got to the ticket counter, went through the same rigamarole I did and was escorted through security in order to make it to the gate in time. As we were boarding we noticed our seats weren't together, despite paying extra to be seated together in a two seat row. We were told to take our assigned seats and we would sort it out later.

Eventually we were able to sit down together and the 12 hour flight was fairly uneventful. Slept, ate, watched a couple movies.

Arrived in Auckland and all of our luggage came through except Jeremy's bag. Apparently he was supposed to pick it up at LAX. Of course we had to wait until all the luggage had come out to start a claim for the bag to be delivered to us in Wellington when it did arrive. That made us late to check our bags in again for the Wellington flight so we were escorted to the area we needed to drop off our checked bags. My 50 lb bag would not scan so we had to go through the process of inputting the information into the computer. By the time that was done we had missed the cut-off time for checked baggage. We would have to lug it over to the terminal to have it put on the flight.

Made it to the other terminal, got some odd looks going through security but they didn't tell us where to go to drop it off. Made it up the stairs, to the gate, and were told it needed to go back downstairs to be dropped off. Did I mention we couldn't take carts (trolleys) past security so Jeremy had been carrying the 50 lb bag all over the airport. Finally got it to the right place and we made it on the plane to Wellington and all of the luggage that had made it to Auckland made it to Wellington.

The one hour flight to Wellington was lovely. Had fun answering trivia questions on the screens.

That's probably enough for one post. I'll pick-up on our first few days here in the next post.

We've Arrived!

We arrived in Wellington yesterday. Working on getting settled in. The blog is now up and running and I'll do my best to keep it updated!

 

Hugs and warm wishes from Windy Welly.