Happy Holidays from Down Under

It’s a nearly daily occurrence that I log on to Instagram and see someone in a bathing suit, or at most, a tank top. Based on my current can’t-feel-my-fingers-or-toes-status, I get instantly cold for them and wonder why on earth they don’t look freezing. In fact they look quite happy and relaxed in their limited attire. That’s when I remember, it’s not winter in the northern hemisphere.

It’s finally winter in New Zealand, and while it’s much more mild than I’m used to, you have to keep in mind that I haven’t experienced winter since the ORIGINAL polar vortex in January 2014. It’s been 18 months since I’ve been this cold (with the exception of the second night of the Routeburn). 

But really... I can't feel my hands

Since you now understand my daily confusion on the weather, you might understand why every holiday this year has felt just a little bit… different. Since I've been in the country for NINE MONTHS, I’ve been here for pretty much all of the major holidays. I haven’t talked much about them, so I thought I’d do a brief recap.

It all started with…..

Halloween

Halloween was the end of my 3^rd week in New Zealand. Also the night I met Cam. I think the first thing I said to him was “Why don’t you celebrate Halloween here?” How very cultured of you, Erin. New Zealand does celebrate Halloween, he told me, but without all the fan-fare of the American celebration. I did miss the fun of dressing up for Halloween thing, but since I still assumed I’d be home in two months, I didn’t think much more about it. Additionally, spring/fall weather is essentially the same in both hemispheres, so I wasn’t too put off.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving wasn’t a major shock either though. Since my family’s tradition is to celebrate Thanksgiving in Florida, I merely substituted Pelican Bay for Manly Beach in Sydney, when I was visiting my friend Charlie. I was in absolute heaven and remember thinking on my last morning in Sydney, “It’s December 1^st and I’m kayaking in the Sydney Harbour. Life is good.” I got to see my mom that day , have her visit New Zealand for two weeks, and then it would only be a week before I was home for good. And because of all that, I wasn’t terribly homesick for that one either.

Thanksgiving Day on the Beach in Sydney

Count on Sydney to make you forget it's Thanksgiving in America

Christmas  

I did get to spend Christmas in the States with my family, but the build up to Christmas, that whole “holiday season” feeling was completely different in New Zealand. I was longing for snow, those snowflake lights by Columbus circle, wearing a hat, gloves, and a scarf while browsing the Columbus circle tents with my sisters. But in New Zealand none of that was part of the deal. One thing I had never considered, was that when there's dayling until most people are getting ready for bed, there’s no need for Christmas lights. They're just not part of the holiday culture here. I didn’t realize what a big part of the holiday season Christmas lights could be, but without them, listening to Christmas music felt very out of place.

Can't complain about the temperature though
TTNZ Girls at the TT Christmas Party

Luckily I wasn’t the only person who missed mid-winter Christmas..

Fast forward six months, and it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas (everrrrrywhere you go..). The temperatures are dropping and people are starting to moan of a long winter ahead – must be Christmas, right? Well it’s June, so I couldn’t be more wrong. Luckily I work almost exclusively with Americans, so my workmates and I did what all good Americans, living deep in the southern hemisphere would do – throw a half Christmas party.

Christmas tree complete with presents, lights, ornaments AND snow! Well done, Kiki

James is still Scrooge - even in June

Just like our first Christmas party (in December) we had a white elephant gift exchange, and we all enjoyed some mulled cider and a fine Christmas feast. Kiki, one of the hosts, got a Christmas tree with decorated lights and made beautiful paper snowflakes. Kiki and I even got dressed up for the occasion! It was the perfect time of year to celebrate Christmas, until I turned on facebook to see photos of friends in bikinis (always confusing).

Just two girls celebrating a mid winter Christmas. Everything's normal here.

4^th of July – And that brings us to our most recent holiday. Possibly the last major holiday I’ll spend abroad. 

The Fourth of July really hit home for me. I knew going in to this season (summer/winter – it’s all very confusing) that I was going to get really sad once people started going to beach houses on the shore and having barbeques with their families and friends.

Missing this guy and his love of the grill and the Pittsburgh Pirates

The Fourth of July is probably THE weekend of the year, where I should’ve stayed off facebook, but I also wanted to see what everyone was doing. I wanted to see my parents’ quiet weekend with Sophie puppy, my oldest sister’s weekend in Charleston with her friends, and my other sisters weekend at the beach with her boyfriend. It all sounded like so much fun and I wanted, if only through social media, to be a part of it.

Luckily, a workmate gave me the kick in the butt that I needed to survive my first Fourth of July away from home. He nudged me towards the idea that I was the one, who needed to take initiative and do something, and “hey you know what? there are free barbeque stations in Hagley Park”. Well I looked it up and my workmate was right- there are free bbq stations, first come first serve (very convenient because no one else wants to barbeque in the middle of winter). Kiki said she would bring an assortment of outdoor games, and I remembered that someone had received a bocce ball set during the half-Christmas gift exchange, so I asked them to bring that. Cam agreed to barbeque and before I knew it, I had organized a Fourth of July party.

This makes me happy. Thank you, Cam!

4th of July in the Park!

And the verdict is... he loves his hotdog with HEINZ ketchup and YELLOW mustard.

The day of the Fourth ended up being really fun! About 10 people showed up to the barbeque station- Cam made a beautiful American feast, Leo brought KFC covered in buffalo wing sauce so that we could have buffalo wings, and Domingo, our resident office Hondoran, brought rice and beans (which ended up being eated on Doritos due to lack of cutlery and because America). We all ate, played games, and enjoyed being in the company of other Americans on such a big holiday. It was really special to me to have such a successful American holiday all the way over here.

So, while the feeling hasn’t always been what I’m used to for each holiday, the holidays here have been a success. Though the weather tried its best to confuse me, the people around me have made this (three-quarters-of-a)-year incredibly special to me. Big thanks to everyone near and far who have kept me sane for the last nine months :)

Damn it feels good to be a Kiwi

This week I celebrated my 8 month arrival-iversary in Christchurch! Which means this blog has been going on for 5 and a half months longer than I intended it to. But I'm still here, and this is still a great way to recap my adventures and share them with my family -- so here we go. :)

I've been trying to limit my posts to just weekends away, but I realized that I've been leaving out so many of the things that have been making me happy recently. So without any further ado, and in no particular order, here are the things that have been making me smile since getting back from the US last month. 

My parents got a puppy. She's the cutest little thing in the world and I love her. I also love when my mom sends me photos of her. Especially this one:

We got bikes! To be fair, Cam had a bike, and one of his best friend is kindly lending me a bike for the winter. We used them to ride to the market a couple weekends ago, and then took a ride around the botanical gardens, over to an outdoor mall for a fresh squeezed juice, and then to the riverbank to chill out before riding them home. It was a really nice day -- Thanks for the bike, Margaret. 

We've been trying new cafes in Christchurch on weekends! Cam discovered neatplaces.co.nz which just has lists on lists of brunch spots around town. This one was probably our favorite.

We bought a really cool poster!! And found this awesome frame at a second hand store for $15. The poster is drawn to look like an old computer game in Christchurch's Cathedral Square. The square looks so different now - as does the rest of the city - so it's really cool to have this poster of Chch pre 2011. And it's making my apartment feel homey to have some art on the walls.

The Fifa U20 World Cup came to Christchurch... and the office got excited. A couple Sundays ago we all met at the office for a fish fry, a Stanley Cup viewing party, an office parking lot soccer game, and most importantly a pre-drink party before the Germany v. Hondoras game. It was a ton of fun!

A win for Germany! 

Beer and Cam in the office! Much better than a normal work day.

We went to an improv show in Christchurch with a couple of our friends! 

And the winter sunrises and sunsets have been amazing!

On the roof at my current site inspection - Probably the highest point in Lincoln, NZ

Sunrise from the office (cause I've been getting there too early)

And lastly, I got to video chat with my mom and my sister.

My mom and my sister were together in New Jersey and Cam and I got to FaceTime with them! Courtney got hurt last weekend  and was receiving some TLC from our Mama so it was good to see her smile. Those are the times when you miss home the most, but I'm so thankful for video chat :)

So now, on to the main point of this blog post - Cam and I and three of his friends spent a weekend on the Coromandel Peninsula at his family's beach house. 

Cam's family has a house in the town of Pauanui, just a quick walk away from the beach. I've heard so much about his summers at Pauanui, so I was excited when he asked me if I wanted to go up with him for a weekend. In a non-typical fashion for me, the weekend was full of mostly relaxing activities. We had a really great time playing games, making pizzas, and going mini golfing. But we couldn't leave without climbing the mountain, so despite my unwillingness to get out of bed Sunday morning, Cam and I climbed Mt. Pauanui. 

Excuse our appearance.. it was early. but look, we made it to the top!

We got to the house Friday afternoon, and after a quick look around, walked out to the beach. The lighting was beautiful and I was so happy to be there. We had so much fun watching the waves crash and taking a few selfies. 

Cam's friends arrived just after we got back from the beach and we drove them around the neighborhood, and picked up some fish and chips on the way home. The fish and chips in Pauanui is on point. 

Showing them the beach!

We spent the rest of the night playing an apparently very stressful game of Jenga until we all passed out early. Turns out traveling was too tiring for all of us. 

The weather wasn't great on Saturday, but we had to get out of the house during the day, so we bundled up and went to the local mini golf! Turns out Cam is randomly really good at mini golf, so he crushed all of us, but everyone had a lot of fun. The mini golf course was pretty funny too. It was basically a series of holes that all went in to a little hut over a pipe that took the ball on to another green. We got a little tired and cold by Hole 13 and skipped to the end, where I got the ball in the winning spot and won a free round of mini golf! Guess we have to go back soon :)

Pretty funny little huts, huh?

Almost forgot- we got ice cream!

Saturday night, it was time for Cam to show off his pizza making skills. Their house has a wood fired pizza oven in the back, so after you let it heat up, you can cook pizzas so fast! It was really fun to do with five us there because each of us got to design our own pizza (or two) and have a go and cooking it in the oven! My pizza had heaps of pepperoni of course. #america. 

PIZZA CHEF!

Sunday morning, Cam dragged me out of bed around 7 am to climb Mt. Pauanui. I'll admit it wasn't pretty but after a 40 minute uphill climb, the view was worth it. Unfortunately we had to rush back and have breakfast with our friends and head to the airport, but next time we go i think we should take a little picnic (what'd you say Cam?)

love this view!

Overall it was a really nice weekend! Really fun to spend the time with Cam's friends and see a place that's so important to him. Next trip I want to do a bit more exploring on the Coromandel though! Cathedral Cove is definitely on the bucket list. 

Til next time, Pauanui!

(And special thanks to Don McLeod for letting us use the beach house!!!)

Happy Birthday to the Queen

When I was still in the states coming off a 6-weekend-in-a-row travel streak, Cam told me we had a public holiday for the Queens birthday coming up. My first reaction was "3 days off. I'm sleeping the whole time." My second reaction was, "Why are we celebrating the Queen's birthday?" It's rather confusing seeing as 1. It's not the Queens birthday, 2. We don't live in England, and 3. People who do live in England don't get a day off for the Queen's birthday. At any rate, a holiday is a holiday and despite my initial reaction, we gladly took a little trip to celebrate. Looking back on the weekend, if I had to use one word to describe it, it would be.... lovely :)

For the three day weekend, Cam and I decided to spend one night in Akaroa, a little town on the Banks Peninsula. I've been to Akaroa twice before - once on my first Saturday in New Zealand, and once as a brief stop after a hike. I hadn't done much either time, and kind of wrote it off as a pretty place to drive to and enjoy a meal at a cafe, but not that much more. Cam did some research and came up with a whole slew of ideas of things to do in Akaroa, so we thought it would be nice to spend a couple days there exploring.

Akaroa in October 2014 - Cloudy but still beautiful.

We spent Saturday in Christchurch, and on Sunday afternoon, we drove out to Akaroa to begin our adventure. The weather was stunning and the views going over to Akaroa were nicer than I had ever seen them before.

Perfect Day

It was only Cam's second time in Akaroa so I was really happy that we got really lucky with the weather. We got to Akaroa just in time to have a New Zealand Sauvingon Blanc and a cheese plate at my favorite little outdoor cafe (the same one I went to in October) and take in the winter warmth (14 degrees C!).

Cheese Plate for Two Please

Next stop on Cam's itinerary was a trip to the Giant's House -- named by a little girl looking up at it who said it was so big it must belong to a giant.

House behind us! Sun still shining :)

Contrary to that idea, it's owned and lived in by an (assumingly) whimsical lady who has devoted her life as an artist to maintaining the grounds and creating an entire garden of mosaic sculptures. The sculptures are huge! Often over six feet tall. Here are some of our favorites:

The Prince and Princess of Akaroa!

Too Sunny!

Since the sun was going down, it was time to go find our accommodation -- and you'll never guess what that accommodation was. To keep things interesting, we rented.... a treehouse! The treehouse was part of a series of private huts on the hills over Akaroa.

En Route to the Tree House!

The treehouse had a main room/bedroom - with a potbelly stove and an electric blanket for keeping warm! - and a balcony -  complete with a daybed for some afternoon cuddles.

View from the day bed

Basically, it was perfect and designed for peace and serenity. We drove in to town for a special dinner at The Little Bistro and then retired to our treehouse for stargazing and the best sleep either of us have had in a looong time.

Cozy by the fire

One more perk of our humble abode? A breakfast made just for us in the main hut in the morning.

Main Hut for Breakfast

The main hut was eccentric to say the least-- with random odds and ends all over the place. Our hostess showed us her newest artifact -- a brass horn from an old car -- then told us to find something to read while she made breakfast and left us to find a National Geographic magazine from 1980 (heaven for Cam!).

We said goodbye to our treehouse around noon and went in search of a penguin colony about 20 minutes past Akaroa on the Peninsula. We drove up a steep gravel road, while constantly wondering if my rental toyota corrolla would make it.

High up above Akaroa Harbour

Cam reassured me that if we got stuck a friendly farmer would help us out -- Thanks, Cam. We made it most of the way to the penguin colony when the road got really steep and our ability to get back out of it in the corrolla became more and more in question. We ended up turning around and taking a less steep route down the hill. (which unfortunately wouldn't take us to any penguins)

This is where things got interesting. We were driving down the road, through a farm (which apparently was not private properly) when all of sudden we were stopped by 5 giant BULLS on the road. Cam assured me they were most likely domesticated but that if they decided to charge us they would do serious damage to the car (and me - Cam would be fine). Thanks again, Cam.

You may not proceed.

Fortunately, these bulls were used to being herded so we just drove (read Cam drove while I screamed) slowly at them until they decided to run in the direction we were going.

"Take a picture of this! You're herding bulls!" - Cam

Occasionally they would turn around and look at us, or two of them would fight with eachother, but eventually we did make it to the end of the road and they found a far away patch of grass to graze.

Coming to find his friends

The end of the road proved to be not that exciting (and I just wanted to get away from the bulls), so we got in the car and headed back up.

There was just one more thing on Cam's list of things to do. He had heard about an interesting set of trails centered around a historic cemetery that had separate regions for the "roman catholic cemetery" and the "dissenters cemetery". I was a dragging my feet a bit due to being mentally exhausted after fearing death-by-bull-charge for so long, but the toyota corolla was smelling a little smoky from braking down the mountain for the same amount of time, so the corolla won and we let it rest while we walked around the trails. Surprisingly enough, this ended up being one of the best parts of the trip. We found an opening in the woods that took us out to the roots of a giant tree that had previously been cut down. The perfect place to sit down and take in day 2 of winter warmth.

My Happy Place

It was at this moment that I decided I loved Akaroa. It's so much more than a place you drive to for a cute cafe and a walk around -- it was stunningly beautiful and had given us the relaxing getaway from Christchurch that we were looking for. And the best part was once we got back in the car we were only 90 minutes from home :)

Except for a quick stop at our favourite pizza place (Cassels and Sons at the Tannery)

Happy Birthday to the Queen and thank you Cammy for the wonderful weekend in Akaroa. Another great trip in the books!