The Beginning of the End (NZ Part 8)

Bec and I have officially left Palmy for the infamous journey to America... That's right, Bec has to go through heaps of paperwork, etc. to be allowed into the States. Once again, we are making our own road trip. :) But first, more time with my beloved Kiwi family. On Friday, I spent the day with Bec at her school where there was a luncheon celebration for her graduation. Yummy food made by the cooking students. Her Mum came as well. That evening the four kids (Bec, Leighton, Chloe, and I) went to the movies to see "Prince Caspian." It was pretty good, worth the watch, we decided.


A real Kiwi hamburger, topped with all the fixings. Huge - definitely the best burger ever, and homemade. Bec's Mum began making these so the kids would stop asking for McDonald's burgers. Apparently, she also made KFC chicken and Fish 'n' Chips. I've been eating the best foods ever. More on food later...

The following pictures are from the movie theatre. From the left: Leighton, Bec, Me, Chloe







The weather has been very kind to us while I've been here. It was due time for a rain. So that's what it did... all day on Saturday. We were really looking forward to going on another ride, but it was so rainy! We spent most of the day inside, but we were desperate to be outside and play. During a break in the rain, we decided that we were going to go for our road ride after all. So while we were gathering the horses, it started to rain. All of us are pretty stubborn, however, so we kept it up, groomed (as best we could), got dirty (of course), tacked up quickly, and began the most memorable ride ever. That's according to Chloe. "At least we'll never forget it!" It was pouring. We rode out on the road (haha) for a ways, got really cold and wet, and finally decided to go home because it was so miserable. Changed and warm, we had tea (dinner), and remembered the glow worms. You can only see them at night, and this was our last chance. We drove out to the place where we knew we could see them... without a torch (flashlight). Real dumb, right? We get to the spot, and it ends up being a hike up a creek. Fortunately we were wearing gumboots (rubber rain boots). Bec and I used her Mum's cell phone as a light and hiked up the creek in the woods to where we could see the glow worms along the gorge walls. It was cool. :) They're basically little bugs that glow in the dark, little dots all over. But you can't take a picture because they die when the light is too bright.

Sunday afternoon, after church, Bec and I began our journey north. We drove from Palmy to Hamilton, where we stayed at Ness's parents' house (Ness wasn't with us, sadly). We had a bit of trouble finding it. We kept looking for Avalon Street. Eventually, while looking all over the place, we looked up at a road sign and simultaneously said, "Avalon!" We were ON Avalon... somehow... Anyway, we found their house and slept very well. The Curtis family was very welcoming, and Ness's Mum even had all the breakfast food set out for us in the morning. It was quite sweet. :)

The next morning we drove from Hamilton to Aukland. This is where the purpose of the road trip comes in. Bec has to go for a personal interview thing at the American Consolate, which is in Aukland, to get her visa approved. The latest she can go is 3 days before her flight, so we had to go up this week. On Monday morning we arrived in Aukland, but were a bit early for her meeting. We parked the car on the street, but we only paid for an hour, so we walked around for a little while, I closed my bank account, etc. Then we had to move the car so we wouldn't get (another) parking ticket. We were aiming for one of the 15 minute spots where I could just sit in the car and wait for her. It doesn't take long, just a pain. Anyway, so somehow Bec took a wrong turn and we ended up in what was obviously a private car park (parking lot). Well we couldn't have that, so we turned around, but the gate (there's a GATE???) started to close, and we were trapped!!! This was doubly bad, because Bec had to be at the Embassy AND we were trapped. I figured there had to be a way out for people, so I opened the Fire Exit door and we ran out towards the Embassy. She handed me the key and said I should stay with the car just in case our car got caught. I headed back to the car park, but I couldn't even walk into it. I saw a worker and asked him to help. As we walked over to the gate it began to open. I said, "Oh great! How do I know it will stay open?" He goes, "I have no idea. I'll just stand here." So I ran to the car, and had to rush my heart attack, since this is a manual car AND I'm driving on the left side of the road. This lady put her key card in to make sure the gate stayed open, since she was the one who had opened it, and I drove out onto a one way street where another worker told me I had to turn around. So I went back, drove around the block a few times, trying not to shake (relax, meditate, breathe) and found a 15 minute park across the street from the Embassy that was for buses only. Bec came out the door and I honked and she came running across the street, thankful that our car was back safely!! Actually, it's her Mum's car, who so kindly let us use it for our trip, since it's the better car of the ones in their driveway. Whew! What an adventure. Off to Kerikeri!

Kerikeri is the home of Bec's aunt and uncle who, along with 5 other kids, also house Bec's brother Joel. They own a motel, which is pretty cool. The weather here is lovely, it's very green and sunny, and it's a pleasure to be with such good people.

Today Bec and I went to Waitangi, which is the historical site of the treaty signing between the British and the Maori. It's quite cool.


This is a waka, a conoe used by the Mauri, mostly for war.


The Mauri love adorning with wood carvings, and are quite good at it. It's a tradition passed down, and each tribe has its own particular wood carving symbols.


This is the top of a mari, a house, which is basically a big room in which the Mauri people lived. This particular one we visited was made for all Mauri tribes included in the peace treaty signed at Waitangi.


This is one wood carving from a tribe. I'm not sure which one... Anyway, they had representatives from each tribe come in and do a wood carving for this mari. Because they knew that there would be tribes from all over there, and that lots of people would be seeing it, they did amazing work. The carvings are often decorated with inlain paua shell.

After visiting the historical sites at Waitangi, we decided to take the coastal walk, which, as it says, follows the coast line along the bay. It was lovely weather, so sunny, blue skies, almost no wind, and warm. We had a few adventures along the way. :)


I decided to climb down a ledge to the coast to get a better view. This is Bec pointing off somewhere in the distance.


This is the Bay of Islands, where we took our walk. Isn't it beautiful? Imagine this as your backyard... Not that my backyard is all that bad. :)

We stopped in a field of green green grass. It naturally made me want to do cartwheels. Bec and I decided to practice our cartwheels, handstands, headstands, etc. There are videos to accompany, but they take too long to upload. So this is Bec after a headstand.



Somewhere else along the way we climbed down to the rocks (we think they are volcanic rock, since NZ was made from volcanoes). I'm not sure what I was doing, but Bec thought it looked like a sillouette.



I told her to do the same thing for a sillouette of her. She decided a teapot would be best. This is why I love her. :)



Because of the erosion, trees are growing sideways out of a cliff that basically falls down to a pile of rocks next to the water. Of course, I thought they looked like fun. So we climbed them. Well, we had to climb over to them a bit through the bush, and then we could climb across them, sort of.


I think this picture is precious of Bec sitting in her little nook. We were about 4 meters, or maybe 15 or 20 feet above the rocks.


I'm not quite sure what I'm doing here, but it's a cool tree, huh? :)

For lunch we sat on the rocks right by the water and had a little ocean biology lesson after we ate. We found some cool living things... not really sure what they are...


This little guy was inside one of those curly shells. We think he was a sea snail. Very cute.


This might be either a sea urchin or a banacle, but we really don't know. It was stuck to the rocks. The longer it was out, the smaller it got. We think we killed it. We also found mussels, one of which Bec successfully pried off the rocks. Strong tongues. It's still alive. As it dies, it will open up. We're thinking of steaming it so we can eat it.

Other Kiwi foods I have eaten:
- New Zealand Oysters
- Mince Pies: Kiwis like to make pies. Mostly mince (that's my favorite), sometimes it's just pastry crust, sometimes it's potato top. (Mince is ground chuck, but they always flavor it.)
- Possum Pie: Possums are an introduced animal to NZ, and they are devestating for the natural environment here. Typical Kiwi ingenuity, they kill as many as they can to save the land, and then they put them in a pie so they don't waste it.
- Pavlova (creamy goodness)
- Becker's Slice (Bec's own yummy desserts)
- Chocolate Self Sauce Pudding (kind of like a cake... only better)
- Apple Crumble
- Kumura (a vegetable kind of like a potato, only better)
- Pumpkin Soup
- Roast Pumpkin
- Sausages (like hot dogs, only bigger, and different)
- Kiwi burgers (shown above)
- Hokey Pokey Ice Cream (my new favorite)
- Cadbury Chocolate Bars: Crunchy, Picnic, Flake, Time Out, etc.
- Pineapple Lumps (When God was giving out stuff, New Zealand slept in. When they got there, they were a bit groggy and weren't fast enough for the gold. After realizing the dire nature of getting first dibs as God called out the item, and as soon as God spoke, "Pine-" NZ buzzed in. God finished with "-apple Lumps," and handed NZ the chocolate candy. It tastes pretty good - and it's as good as gold.)
- Wheat Bix (think Wheat Biscuits, only with more grains)
- Vegemite
- Fijoa (a fruit)
- Sweet Milo (kind of like hot chocolate)
- I WILL try Rice Pudding and Tamarillos (another fruit)

That's all for now, folks. :) Hope all is well! Take care.