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Showing posts from 2011

Choice news bro

Slightly overdue update but also timed just perfectly. Today I received an unusual email from Immigration New Zealand. It simply advised me that my immigration status has been updated. Since we hadn't applied online this time, I was expecting to hear back from our contact with the agency we applied through, not with an automated email. However, what better way to find out we've been approved than following a link and trying to remember a long unused username and password (only used a few times back in May 2010...) and getting it on the first try? Sure is a good thing that we had a bottle of bubbles in the fridge to give this moment proper pomp. (Sorry Brian and Crystal, we'll get another bottle for you! haha) So yes, the officially official news is that on March 18th, 2012, we depart this soul-sucking city for greener pastures once again. We'll then have 12 whole months to make arrangements to get longer working visas so that we can live peacefully among the kiwis. It

Canada Calling

Here we are back in Surrey. We got in Tuesday in the early afternoon after about 26.5 hours of travel. I think we're just starting to feel like we're onto a normal schedule! We didn't feel the jet lag on the last trip but this time we did a bit more. We departed Melbourne on Tuesday the 26th at 9:30am and arrived in Vancouver at 1pm on the 26th. After we left Phillip Island, we had a day of driving ahead of us. First stop was heading to the city to drop off the surf board. It took a couple hours to get up there and then we continued through to Torquay but hit some big traffic jams. So that was another couple hours. We found a Mexican place for lunch and the Dustin was on the hunt for some flip flops as he lost a couple pairs along the way. There are a few good outlet shops in Torquay so we checked them out. Turns out the surf comp had a lay day for the men and the women were out but there was only a short time left for the day so we didn't end up heading right down to

Phillip Island Fun

Apr 21/11 7:21pm Dustin went for what will very likely be the last surf of the trip today. We're down in Phillip Island and although the wind was a bit rough, he went out anyways. At least we had some sunshine too. After leaving Denmark we got into Albany and stayed there for a couple nights. I liked Denmark better but Albany was still on the to-do list. Unfortunately the surf there was not working when we got in and Dustin booked in with a surf coach for the next day but the conditions weren't too great then either. But was it good for him to get out and pick up a few pointers on his technique. While he did that I went to the farmer's market which wasn't very big and then walked around waiting for the shops to open up. We had to get the van back in by 3pm on Monday and Albany is a 4.5 hour drive to Perth so we decided to leave Sunday and take it leisurely rather than have to be on a schedule on Monday. Turns out there's pretty much nothing worth seeing in betwe

Greetings from Denmark!

Apr 13/11 8:28pm We are in chilly Denmark today. Probably not the Denmark you know and love but a city of a few thousand on the southwestern corner of Australia. But the good news is that just a few campsites away from us are about 11 kangaroos grazing on the lawn. They are such fascinating creatures and it's too bad it took this long to spot some! We saw a few just before we got dinner going and then when we returned to the van they were almost right beside it but slowly moved further as we made more noise. We ventured into a town called Augusta yesterday, hoping for some surf and maybe a dolphin sighting. But the only water the surfboard has seen is more rain and we didn't see a dolphin but did see some stingrays and octopus from the edge of the river. Unfortunately we are finding the holiday parks to be well below the New Zealand standards we're used to. Finally tonight though they have an enclosed kitchen area which includes a fridge/freezer (the van comes with a mi

Long Van Nights

Apr 11/11 9:05pm This is night number three inside a van. We picked up our hire after a lovely breakfast out with Theresa and Mick. They took us to a place in the Swan Valley in Perth. We all had eggs benedict or a variation thereof. We got repacked and sorted out by around noon or so and then headed south. We stopped for a sausage sizzle and then continued on. We got into a place called Bunbury to do some grocery shopping and then figured we had time to get in another 50kms or so before sunset. (They advise you don't drive after dusk here in case you hit a kangaroo. This is serious as we know of people who have hired cars and hit one and boy does it get expensive after that. So all the tourist info you pick up mentions not driving at night.) We spent the first night in a place called Busselton. The holiday park office had closed but she thought we were her other pre-booked late arrival so opened up for us. It was only shortly after 6pm. We were able to check in and cooked up som

Exed from Exmouth to Pleasant Perth

We just returned from a place where massive grasshoppers roam, we saw the biggest cockroaches we've ever seen, and it was the hottest city we've visited yet! It's called Exmouth and it's the main city near the Ningaloo Reef and they also have whale sharks that migrate through the area this time of year. We flew up last Sunday and just flew back to Perth today. It's about an hour and a half flight from Perth and I think the nearest city to it is about 150kms away. Our trip out of New Zealand was just fine except we learned the planes on domestic routes aren't as nice as the international planes. So we got stuck watching Burlesque en route from Sydney to Perth. But the flight attendant walked up and said, "Do you guys want some alcohol?" haha so that helped. We arrived to handwritten signs saying, "Welcome to Perf" and "2 Gypsy Gingers" - thanks to Theresa and her partner Mick. It was around 7pm and it was still so warm out! While i

3 Nights Left

The cicada will sing us to sleep tonight as we seem to have one hiding in our room. We have just 3 nights left in New Zealand. The time has flown in some respects and yet it felt just right in other respects. Tomorrow we check out of this hostel and check into our airport motel and we will spend the next couple days tying up the loose ends with the sale of the car and closing our bank account. We've sold the main things we wanted to sell and we've even found a couple little souvenirs to take with us. Every time I wandered a souvenir shop though, none of the trinkets could really encapsulate how I feel about the place. None would even come close. I've actually been fairly melancholy about the fact that we're leaving. I certainly feel a connection here that I'm not ready to let go of. But, plans have been made and we'll stick to them. It will give us time to think more about our vision for our next few years. We've decided to wait until we've been back to

Maitai Bay March 17

Paihia and area

Trigger Fish Snapper When the shark fought Dustin right around the boat! It's a kina bro! You eat the insides and Dustin tried it on his dive. Too bad the divemaster got to take that home

Kerikeri

Rainbow Falls: it's not just a clever name We caught about 1m of snapper that day. As you can see, some had to be thrown back.

Dustin's Dive of the Poor Knights

Our Beloved Terry

So Far So Good - an unintentional tribute to Bryan Adams This is our best friend Terry who took us all over New Zealand.

Whangamata pronounced "Fun-ga-mah-tah"

Bay of Plenty Photos

The night we moved our tent in the middle of the night to escape the flooding. White Island off the coast of the Bay of Plenty. It's an active volcano. Gorgeous carvings outside a school Te Puke is major kiwi-growing country. They have a lot of themed signs. It's great. Sunset with some wine. No Dustin didn't grow a moustache.

WWOOFing near Mahia

This was out WWOOFing stop in later February. It was south of Gisborne near Mahunga and Mahia. It was a huge sheep farm and accommodation. We biked for about 20 minutes and weren't even at the edge of the property yet. Not a bad view from the office. Ms. Ali Good ol' Baxter

Valentine's Day Photos

We went to the Tui brewery on Valentine's day. It was about 11am and Dustin was quite happy because we got to be the first to write in the new guestbook and he wrote that he took his wife to the brewery for Valentine's Day.

The cheese-making farm on the North Island in mid-February