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Showing posts from December, 2012

So a rock wearing a top hat walks into a bar...

After many re-tries to avoid any copyright content matches, here is my video... ok so there will be some overlap because for a while we both had the same ideas and then Dustin wanted shorter and I wanted longer. So check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRiskfsKmDA We've just got back from 4 nights inland around the volcano region of the central North Island. It was action packed with sightseeing, a rodeo, sailing on Lake Taupo, a hike, and a whole lot of driving. I swear it took us like 4.5 hours each way to do what Google said was a 3 hour drive! I realized we sure picked a good city to live in because going to the tourist zone was so busy and we're so glad that our little city is somewhat off the beaten track. But the tourist zone wasn't all bad... Dustin lost his wallet at the rodeo but we didn't realize until we had driven back to town that afternoon so we turned around back to scour the rodeo grounds right away. After ten minutes of no luck in the hunt

Merry Christmas!

Here you go, a little peek into our life in New Plymouth... (I wanted to embed the videos but I uploaded them to you tube with a different gmail account than the blog is set up under and I can't be bothered to go and add that gmail account to the blog so I can find them directly. And I made them unlisted because we're not into a mega online presence so I can't search them to embed with the video tool! Most searches with "Dustin" and "xmas" come up with this Irish cartoon Dustin the Turkey instead. And, you see, this video has been hanging on the to-do list for probably 3-4 weeks now! And since it's Christmas Eve, I didn't want to delay any further and it's getting late and any tech-savvy I have in me is wearing thin... But apparently the song in mine won't let me play it for the copyright so I will upload mine again another time after I find a new song that won't cause any copyright notices to come up, maybe next week... yes I am ne

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

The Wednesday ritual when we get home from work is based on an "article" in the local paper. The columnist lists good and bad things from the week and they can be anything. Really, we've seen a range of topics. The ritual involves whoever has the energy to snag the paper first reading out the items one by one and the other has to decide whether it's a thumbs up (which emits a grand "yayyy!!!") or a thumbs down (which elicits a deep "boooo!!!") with applicable hand signals. It might sound like it's an easy game but sometimes the stories are tough to follow. Here is a sample from this week: The best part of this one is that it was published on Dec 12th! Not only cool because it was 12.12.12 but if you read the last thumbs down, you have to wonder how she avoided Christmas stuff this far into December anyways and when does she expect it to start, Dec 24th? So that's what people get incensed about, and stoked about, in this part of

Wowington

Late report on my trip to Wellington at the end of November. It started out with me being a klutz at the airport and spilling my water bottle all over the floor. Then it was a beautiful day so I had a lovely aerial view of The Mountain on my way out. I'll take their word for it...? After checking into my room, I spent the first day walking all over town. I was taking some photos to use for one of my VA client's projects. Then I went to Te Papa the great museum they have. However, even though it's been a couple years since I went, I remembered lots of it! Which just meant that I could whiz through some parts and that worked out well because I was meeting people for lunch. There was a big outdoor screening of some other hobbit movies that night. I did not attend. Also, the market wasn't open yet in this photo but later I went back and tried stilt walking - maybe hobbit stuff is fun! I missed my first NZ celebrity sighting though! Outside the little taco place

Kindness of NZers

When you all wonder why we consider moving across the globe and we aren't always able to articulate why, here are a couple stories that help me explain. Yes the people are kind and we feel a sense of community much more than we ever have in BC but these examples show you how much more we feel and notice it. There was an article in the regional paper earlier this week about a farmer who had about 120 of his cows drop dead within about an hour. The cause of death is still not determined even a few days later and there are some that are still sick on his farm. So yes it's an unfortunate bit of luck and the initial thought was that a container used to store feed was contaminated but it appears that wasn't the case. Today I read the paper and saw a follow up article. The main information was that farmers from hundreds of kilometres around were pulling together to donate a cow or two from their herds to help this farmer. The big milk company seemed to be offering to transport t

Stratford A&P Show - Animal Antics and Plenty of fun!

I had to work all day last Saturday Nov 24th so was so glad that we could still attend the Stratford A&P show on Sunday. A&P shows are a long-running tradition here and we likened it to the PNE maybe 30 years ago? Maybe not. In any case, it's a combined trade show for farm equipment and local producers, it's a competition for the best blue-ribbon cows, there's a midway with rides, of course food and lots of entertainment.... including sheep racing!! Notice how the jockeys are horses? If the jockey fell off, the sheep was disqaulified. Food prize at the finish line! In addition to the sheep racing there was also pig racing: And a dog herding ducks: And all the finest wedding couture and farm equipment you could want: "I want to look at wedding dresses!"   "But I want to look at the newest advances in cow-milking !"                       Problem solved. Even though our past review of the 2010 New Plymouth Santa Cl