USA Nostalgia and RWC Wrap up for Nelson

USA v Italy match

The week started out on the right foot when Monday morning the big bosses’ office at City Council was decorated floor to ceiling in red white and blue…everyone was preparing for the USA v Italy match on Tuesday night. No, John and I were not the decorating culprits – it was another American couple who work at council that took on the mission (we think). To this day star confetti is found strewn about the council building. If that didn’t get you in the mood for some good old USA cheering on Tuesday night, I don’t know what else could have. Shannon promptly headed down to the dollar store to pick up some costumes for the match the following night. See below.

Yes, we were head to toe 100% American Rugby fans running around Nelson in our American flag capes and painted faces. When we were done eating our BIG American burger and fish & chips pre-match, we looked at the clock and realized if we didn’t book it, we were going to miss the opening ceremony and the national anthem. Well, we missed it, however – we wouldn’t let our tardiness deny us the right to hear the star spangled banner sung on New Zealand soil, so…as we ran (capes waving in the breeze) through the deserted streets of the CBD, we serenaded (mostly ourselves) by belting out the USA national anthem (poorly we might add). We’ve never felt so patriotic.

The closest John had to a patriotic shirt.

We finally made it through the gates at Trafalgar Park to see a very exciting game of well-fought international rugby. The crowd, who were for the most part comprised of Kiwi’s, dressed up in either US or Italian colors rooted mainly for the Italians in the first 20 min. Supposedly Nelson has the largest percentage of people with Italian heritage, thus one of the reasons Nelson was host city to the Italian team. As the game went on the crowd swayed in favor of the US team (not just because American’s are awesome) but because the Eagles put on a damn good show. They played tough through the first half, 40 min, and in the second half Italy proved to be the better team and defeated the Eagles. After the game we headed out to have drinks with what seemed the whole stadium of people and enjoyed chatting up the locals while wearing our stars and stripes proudly.

The next day we had off (well planned) and enjoyed the beach, sun and warm weather.

If everything in Kiwiland wasn’t already fantastic enough…Scallop Season is upon us and it is a delicious time of year. John made friends with a guy during his ski trip who has a boat he takes out and dredges for scallops, each person in the boat can harvest 50 a day. After skiing John rightly told him how much I love scallops and offered to trade him for some beer from the brewery, he said for sure, beer is a great tradable commodity. We took the opportunity to make a great seafood linguine with scallops, monk fish and a variety of veggies. In NZ they eat their scallops (pronounce scOllops, not scAAlops) with the orangish roe sack still attached, much better idea, great flavor.

Russia v Aussie Match

The rest of the week flew by as we were preoccupied with anticipation of the Russia v Aussie match on Saturday. The match was fun and exciting but not as thrilling as the US match. The general rule in New Zealand is that you’re born and bred an All Blacks fan, and if you aren’t cheering for the All Blacks, you’re cheering for the team that’s playing the Aussies. There were plenty of Russian supporters, who despite the showing on the field, cheered them on happily. Aussie routed Russia and should have called in the 10-run rule several times. We were able to pack in a great lunch to the game and sit on the grass embankment. It was a fun time until the rain started in the second half, at which point in time we headed for shelter in a bar connected with John’s work, free beer, wine and food, what could be better.

Trafalgar Park - Russia v Aussie

We celebrated the next day with a lazy College Football Sunday in NZ. Yes, we get ESPN here and are able to watch College football on Sunday, Sunday night football on Monday and sometimes Monday night football on Tuesday. We also get to see the MLB postseason, which the Dodgers are going all the way this year. This is Shannon’s favorite time and looks forward to it every chance she gets. It’s hard to pull her away from her American sports, especially the BSU highlights. (This was obviously a John paragraph).

One of the large format art installations for RWC - a Maori Warrior, Council clock tower to the left.

The following week was a little bittersweet at Council, as Saturday was the last match scheduled for RWC in Nelson. The team was a mixture of relief, accomplishment and exhaustion but at the end of the day everyone felt great about how well the sunshine capitol of New Zealand was able to put on 3 seamless matches for the third largest tournament in the world. A job well done. Thankfully for me, there’s plenty more to do to wrap up the project and on top of working on the final reporting for RWC, I have been asked to develop the scope and budget for the FIFA U20 World Cup Bid that is planned for New Zealand in 2015. A very exciting opportunity that 1. keeps me working a little longer than originally planned and 2. keeps my budgeting skills sharp! All in all the Council job has proved to be a wonderful part of the New Zealand experience, one that I am sure to remember for a long time to come.

The week seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye and before we knew it, it was the weekend again. With so much rugby and shenanigans having taken over our lives the 2 weeks prior, we decided to stay pretty low key, enjoying some on and off nice weather and a day trip to Rabbit Island, complete with cribbage, a walk along the beach and the last bag of Goldfish crackers we had left from our care package. However, the biggest, most exciting part of our weekend, was booking plane tickets home for Christmas! No, your eyes don’t deceive you, we will be arriving in Bozeman on December 13th and staying through the new year, heading back to Kiwiland on January 1st. As excited as we were to spend Christmas day at the beach, there’s just something not right about summertime Santa Clause. As most of you are probably aware, booking a flight internationally is difficult enough, but when your travel is planned around the holidays it takes the challenge to a whole different level. It took a good 5 hours of back and forth research between websites, and of course, some spreadsheet cost analysis courtesy of Shannon…but we were able to get it figured out, booked and are very excited to be with family over the holidays.

Meet our flatmates...Rose and Simba (in the background)

That’s about it for the past two weeks…coming up for us, Oktoberfest (John in lederhosen...yes Bayern Crew, photos to come), FIFA budgeting for Shannon, concerts, barbies (not the dolls), fanzones and RWC wrap parties – including the final…here’s to hoping for an All Black win!

Cheers,
John and Shannon

Some awesome Kiwi phrases painted on a barrier wall at an art exhibition running for the Arts Festival.


Photo courtesy of Bruce Barz...wanted to give a shout out to my Daddio for taking such good care of the Xterra while I'm away. I just found out she has a garage for the winter! Thanks Daddio xoxo

Opening Games RWC, Skiing NZ and Moving YET Again

Daddio...a joke on the chalkboard at a local bar, thought you might get a laugh out of this!

The three week catch up blog…

The first week unveiled as usual, wake up, work, running (most days), dinner, clean up, movie (Shannon falls asleep half way through), bed and repeat. The weekend brought some fun and exciting times for all of NZ, the commencement of RWC (Rugby World Cup for you Yanks - an event that happens every 4 years, similar to the Soccer World Cup). We met up with Kat and Jeff Friday night for the opening game; New Zealand All Blacks hosted Tonga and won decisively.
The mindset around NZ is that there will be riots regardless of whether the All Blacks win or lose. For those of you who are a little hazy on the premise of Rugby, I will try to explain what I have learned about the sport. Essentially it is a game of possession and position while grinding out and pounding for two 40 minute halves with a running clock, so basically they are going non-stop, full bore and not using any pads… crazy people if you ask us. All in all it is very interesting how dedicated a country is to one sport; people here live, breath and talk rugby all the time and even more now that basically the biggest event ever to NZ is here and the All Blacks are the favourite (favorite, the kiwi’s spell things a little different down here as well).  Unfortunately the YouTube video we tried to snag of the All Blacks opening night Haka didn’t come through on the last blog…but we definitely recommend if you get a chance to check it out for yourselves. It’s a great representation of the passion and dedication the kiwi’s have for this sport.

The rest of the weekend we were Rugby focused, as has been the theme over the past month. We spent Saturday at the Milton St Sprig and Fern for John’s end of season basketball party – although most of the time was spent watching the Fiji v Namibia match. Sunday was a USA day, we watched the Eagles play Ireland at the Verdict ( a bar that John works with for his job), who unfortunately took the match and America started the tournament with a loss. Even though they didn’t get the W, it was really amazing seeing the dedication of the USA team, all of the commentators mentioned that the US brought something to the table they weren’t expecting. A killer defense and some major motivation…proud to be an American!

We spent the second week finalizing our new living arrangements and preparing for our fourth and hopefully final move in Nelson. Since we previously hadn’t posted any photos of our third home, what we affectionately refer to as the Ice Box – here are some shots.

One sad thing about the move is a change in walking route into work. I have come to really enjoy a certain part of my walk past a huge magnolia tree at the side of the river. I had been watching it begin to bud and blossom for the past couple of weeks and it finally got to picture perfect time the last week we were living at the Ice Box. This tree reminded me of you Carlie Sanden every time I passed by it…knew you would appreciate these photos! (bottom of the page) 

The weekend came up fast again, as it does, and we spent Friday night cooking our last dinner at our now old home.  Bedtime early and up bright and early Saturday morning to get the place packed up and cleaned. In record time, 2 ½ hrs we had completely packed up the Adventureship (not an inch of space to spare), cleaned the entire house and by noon were completely checked out. 

Our new home is in an area of town called Britannia Heights. It’s absolutely beautiful. Up in the hills above town, the deck view overlooks a valley free of houses for the most part and through the trees, you can see the ocean. We have three new flatmates – Marcus the house owner, Rose the dog and Simba the cat. Still to come... shots of the new flatties and our fabulous new view.

Our house is situated such that it’s an easy 20 minute stroll down to Tahuna beach, and directly up the street is Princess Drive, a ridgeline overlooking the bay to the NW and the valley where the town lies to the SW. The sunsets are unreal. All in all we’re very happy with our new location and excited to have yet another kiwi roommate. There’s plenty of talk already of catching snapper off the rocks on Rocks road, taking the boat up near Okiwi to fish for salmon…and so on. Yeah, the future's looking bright!

Skiing Sunday

 

So John was able to enjoy his first skiing experience in NZ, which was a great one for sure. I went up with Jeff and 3 of his friends in a Toyota Heliux (NZ’s version of a Tundra or Tacoma, all the cars are similar to the states but with different names.) Once we hit the snow line we were required to put chains on even though it was 4wheel drive, I guess they are a little over-cautious when it comes to snow here. It opened up a lot as we got up to the Mountain, above the tree line. It was weird skiing without any trees around. The hill was small compared to MT but we hiked to a few different peaks to ski more terrain, hiking up mountains in rental ski gear is not fun by the way. We got up on the hill a little after opening and had a great day all day. The weather was decent for skiing, the snow got a little sticky when the sun came out but there was new powder (that’s right, fresh powder in September) and we were able to find fresh tracks all day. Check that off the list of things to do while in NZ.

Shannon spent the day setting up the new room (weird that I needed to tick that off my list immediately – so unlike me). Once everything was in its proper place, I headed down to Founders Park to meet up with Kat and Ettie to enjoy a Duncan-Weizen at the brewery. Amazing that there’s a 50/50 chance I’ll order beer instead of wine now, John has officially rubbed off on me even when he’s not there.  After sitting on the patio soaking up the sun for a bit, Kat and I headed to the Sutter Art Theatre to watch Brother Number One a video from the film festival that is in town right now. An amazing documentary about a NZ Olympic rower who’s brother was captured off the coast of Cambodia while attempting to sail around the world with a couple of mates. They never made it out alive and the film brings attention to a genocide that has never been highly publicized. An eye opening and touching story.

Week three (last week) was a very busy and exciting week…Nelson had its first match of Rugby at Trafalgar Park for RWC. Shannon spent Monday with the team finalizing last minute details for the match on Tuesday night. Tuesday was a fantastic day; the town was abuzz and everyone was looking forward to the Rugby later that night. Because Nelson was the birthplace of Rugby, the festivals team organized a RE-enactment of the first game of Rugby, to be played on the original grounds where that historic match took place. The event started with the boys college (high school in NZ) doing a traditional Haka on the cathedral steps (see photo above). It was phenomenal. I took a video, unfortunately, still trying to figure out how to attach them to the blog – so in the meantime, just trust me that it was amazing. Following that, around 6000 spectators and various stalls (vendors) were set up at the botanics reserve to view the historic RE-enactment. Later that night, the match was on...Italy crushed Russia (I was quite impartial to who won the game) rather more excited to see how years of planning unfolded before my eyes in the first match. I have only been involved with the team since July and it was truly spectacular, I can't imagine how the people that have been working on this for years felt. Truly proud I'm sure as for the most part, the match went off without a hitch and any spectator wouldn't have been aware of anything other than a stellar production.

Taste of Nelson at Founders Park

The rest of the week sailed by quite uneventful and by the weekend we were full swing into Rugby watching and events surrounding the world cup. Saturday was an event called Taste of Nelson, held at Founders Park, the event highlighted food and drinks of the Nelson area.

Nana's Maori Fry Bread...AMAZINGLY GOOD

 















Bays Brewery had a stall at the event and we spent the day in the sun pouring beer, listening to live music and sampling the various cuisine (our favourite being the macadamia nut and chili scallops) which were simply delicious! Once the event was over and John had everything packed up, we headed down to Deville's (a local bar in CBD) to watch the All Blacks dominate France...and dominate they did with a 37 to 17 win.  Quite a fun night with the old flatties and their friends.

As we were both well behaved on Saturday night, Sunday was a self prescribed day of rest; opening with an at home movie viewing of Road to Perdition...next on the agenda, a killer breakfast and Saturday American Football courtesy of ESPN on the 52" tellie we have at the new pad. Yes, John had an amazing day. We finished it off with showing the new flatmate our sushi Sunday ways and at that we were on track to start another fabulous week.

A couple of shout outs before we sign off... A BIG congratulations to Carolyn Sali and Russ Lodge on their engagement, I couldn't be happier for the both of you, and Caroline, remember, no wedding until end of May 2012 when we get back!  And of course a HAPPY BIRTHDAY wish to my little Shmeegs who turned 24 (in New Zealand) today...happy birthday little one, John and I love you lots xoxo

So there you have it, the last three weeks in recap...stay tuned for our next fortnightly posting which will be chocker full of American Rugby and all other things NZ!

Cheers, John and Shannon

 

Blenheim & Picton Take II - John's Birthday and a Maori Powhiri to Welcome the Italians

The week leading up to the Blenheim/Picton trip was another extremely exciting week filled with work, homemade dinners and movies, essentially in that order. We are fitting in nicely to an agreeable routine during our work week (it’s easy to be predictable while on a budget). We were making plans to go to the Western part of the Marlborough Sounds, of course plans changed as they do and we ended up in the Eastern part instead - Picton then South to Blenheim. This was once again a great time and the weather was quite cooperative - in the high teens or mid 60’s to those of you who haven’t or don’t want to figure out the conversion, don’t worry we have you covered.

Beautiful boathouses in a harbor in Picton

We spent the day driving around hanging out by the beach/water, playing some cribbage and of course doing a little snacking on some fine Kiwi treats, our first encounter with pineapple lumps. These are considered one of the most popular Kiwi snacks, being raved about in numerous travel guides and again by locals... all in all they made quit a underwhelming impression on us, even when we had them later that night after having chilled in the fridge to “crisp up”. A treat provided at Jeff’s parents house in Blenheim. We planned to meet Jeff and Kat there to enjoy a stellar dinner (our first lamb roast) some beers and of course a little All Black rugby verses those Aussie wankers, who ended up winning. This is a huge rivalry here, considering it is by far their most popular sport and Kiwis/Aussies have their cultural jabs, as we do back in the states. It would be level with the Griz/Cat and Bronco/Vandal football games. Pretty ruthless as you are all aware. All in all, a great night with fab company and something we’re hoping to repeat in the near future.

John's 27th Birthday (Beer and Meat Fest 2011)

 


















On Wed night, we celebrated John’s Bday by yet again working all day and then went out and enjoyed some tasty beers and food. We went to a kick off to celebrate Nelson as the craft brewing capital of NZ. With several breweries in the Nelson area it proved to be quite the time. More than 12 beers were on tap and representatives from the majority of the breweries were in attendance. The mayor made a speech commemorating Nelson as the Craft Capital. The GM of NZ Hops spoke as well. It’s great having the only hop company within 15 min of Nelson. After a few beers, a few introductions to some more of the brewing community and a small meat pie or 2, delicious by the way (Lorin and Paul you will enjoy these very much) we headed to dinner at the only German Restaurant in Nelson. Kraut’s was a great time, we went in intending to use our Grabone (groupon or living social) voucher in exchange for some schnitzel and ended up going for the meat platter, I know shocking that John would want a huge Pork shank, 2 schnitzels, 2 different brats, a huge lamb meat loaf, a basket of steak chips, and to balance out everything a full liter of beer. Shocking indeed but delicious all the way around. We closed up the bar with the owner and his sister and sipped on some quality German schnapps (no Kevin and Marshall not the peppermint stuff we drank at the Griz games). Work the next two days and before we knew it mayhem Saturday was upon us.


Powhiri pronounced (PO-PHER-EE) is a traditional Maori meeting ceremony that welcomes outsiders onto their Marae or meeting place). This particular Powhiri was to welcome the Italian Rugby team to Nelson which is the host city for the team – partly due to the large amount of Italian descendants that live in Nelson (each country visiting for the world cup receives a host city for the duration of the tournament). There was a group of about 100 of us who previously had not been welcomed onto the Marae who went through our own Powhiri prior to the Italian team arriving. Being previously welcomed is required to be eligible to stand on the Marae and welcome others. There was a traditional Haka and challenge to the Italian team to see if they were worthy of entering.  Below is a clip from the first Haka of the RCW2011 tournament to give you an idea of what we're talking about!

After the introduction, the team was seated and elders of the six Iwi (different tribes) affiliated or associated with the Marae Nelson spoke and greeted everyone in turn. A few Nelson dignitaries spoke as well. Following the ceremony we were invited to attend a Hangi; an amazing feast of wild boar, chicken, kumara (sweet potato’s), carrots, potato’s, pumpkin and stuffing all of which was smoked in the ground for over 12 hours, yes that’s right, slow roasted goodness. After about 5 hours of the entire ceremony it was time to celebrate John’s birthday again. 

The boys being boys...after many many many beers.

We went over to our Kat and Jeff’s house for some NZ Scotch Fillet Steaks (Rib eye’s- Oh Yeah), beers, wine, smoked grouper, roasted veggies with cous cous, and a few other things. We played some cribbage until the 2 girls started to cheat when Shannon was caught adding on extra points (I won’t delete this – but you must know that this accusation has not been proven…innocent until proven guilty I say!), then we went to the CBD (downtown) to make some bad decisions, mainly more beer. We went to a few craft brew bars and enjoyed some of the finest that NZ has to offer while sharing a few laughs and stories. The next day was spent having a movie marathon and hangover time. Not a lot was accomplished but it was a great time nonetheless. Happy 27th to John, damn he’s getting old. Thanks to all the birthday wishes and the presents. Shannon got me a variety 12 pack of international beers mainly from NZ, Germany and Belgian, what more could you want right? 

Thanks Mom and Pops Sanden for the Montana T-shirts, more homemade raspberry jam (thats what's in the bag), the card and MT smelling incense. It was a great birthday and thank you all very much.

Job updates:


Well, the RWC is in full swing…Shannon Barz from Nelson City Council (that was for you Kat) has been busy busy working with the team to ready the staff and venue in preparation for the first game on 20 September. The tournament officially kicked off yesterday, with the first match of RWC being played at Eden Park in Auckland - The All Blacks killed Tonga. It’s been truly incredible being part of this team and it’s amazing how much I’m going to take from this experience. First of which is making the cover of the Nelson Weekly (ha!) just kidding, not about making the cover but it was too hilarious not to share…
But really, it’s amazing to see all the preparation that goes into a tournament such as this, the third largest in the world. Who would’ve thought I would have ever had such a close tie to rugby?! I also would like to thank my temp agency for listing me as ‘Temp of the Month’! It brought back fond memories of when I made Citizen of the Month back in elementary school (shout out to the Liberty Eagles). All in all, the job is going very well and thanks to all of you for the support and hopeful thoughts that John and I would find something we’re happy with down here…it made all the difference.


John's update: I have been working with Bays Brewery for nearly 2 months now. Doing similar things to what I did with Bayern, I do some sales and marketing work. I also have rewritten the copy for the new website which should be live this weekend, never thought I would help out with websites. They are in the process of teaching me how to edit and update the new website as well, another first. I’ve made a few sales which has been nice. It’s hard to sell to all the bars here because some of them are “tied” or exclusively sell a major breweries products. It would be like going into a bar in the states and being only able to just get Bud or Miller products. It’s a horrible system but that’s the way it is and you just have to find the bars that are open to buying craft beer and specifically local craft beer. The overall craft market in NZ is a bit different verses the States as well as the beer itself. I would say that NZ is similar to the US about 10-15 years ago, on the brink of a craft revolution that is. Brewers are expereimenting more and more with different styles and varieties which is nice to see but they still mainly brew malty lagers and ales similar to English styles. You can find your occasional German or American style which are growing in popularity.


House update…don’t ask, we’ll get back to you on that.


Stay tuned for the next fortnightly posting; featuring new home beginnings (again, again…again), RWC, tramping and warmer weather.

For those that are interested; here's some additional information on what exactly a Marae is (provided by Shannon's fabulous colleague, the Lovely, Miss Rachel Gray)...
If we look at a marae in today's context, a marae is an area to practise certain cultural traditions, from welcoming and looking after visitors. Also then to celebrate; so to celebrate, you know, such things as birthdays, anniversaries, and then finally and probably most importantly it’s a way of farewelling our dead. So those are probably the main reasons why marae exist. So I suppose the marae is a gathering place, a place, a focal point for a community to be able to carry out cultural practices, traditions, and basically be Māori. The people that would belong to a marae are generally those people who are descended from ancestors who occupy it, that land area where the marae stands, or the marae is situated. In this case here, there will be a common ancestor that the people of this marae are descendants of, blood descendants. So the marae then becomes their collective responsibility. (Brian Morris – Te Reo Māori and tikanga expert)

West Coast and Local Kiwi Music Adventures

Since most of our time in New Zealand thus far (in fact all of our time) has been on the East And North Coasts of the South Island, we felt we were past due to check out what the wonders of the west coast had to offer. Well…truth is, not too much, especially compared to the west coast of the states. On the itinerary, Greymouth, Punakaiki and Westport. Greymouth was quite underwhelming, with the exception of the beer tour we had at Montieths (the oldest brewery in NZ). John was probably most excited about the beer tutorial that we received (everything he already knew but probably wished I did)…well, I know now.

Our favorite part, the tasting afterwards, especially when they turned the taps over to us. Oh, did we mention we were the only ones on the tour? Yeah, 8 handles at our disposal. Watch out Greymouth, here we come.

Other Highlights of Greymouth:

1. The guy walking down the street in his shorts and gumboots, blaring "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie from the boombox rested on his shoulder. (Mercer, as you might remember this was my theme song prior to moving to Sea-town and I had a flashback of us singing at the top of our lungs this song one of my last nights on the way home from Macs xo)The guy might’ve been a few cards short of a full deck, but entertaining nonetheless.

2. The guy at the only micro brew bar in Greymouth who was pissed out of his gord and very interested in American lifestyle. Definitely a native local, he was so intrigued with the fact that all Americans eat doughnuts (especially cops), or so he advised us…

3. Last but not least, lemonade guy. Sitting at the bar at our motel, talking with the owner who pours Bays (yes, this trip doubled as a work visit for John) we witnessed quite the argument over what a proper lemonade mixer is. Well, let us tell you, we sided with the owner, who did in fact purchase “dearer” lemonade at the Warehouse previously that day…however, the patron preferred sprite, which in her mind was the premium lemonade alternative. Interesting. This conversation dragged on for what seemed like hours. Part in fact because the lemonade guy lost his lady over this debacle (which he felt the need to go on and on about – the substandard lemonade at the bar and how his lady went home because of it). Poor bloke, went home empty handed, no lemonade, no lady.

Bright and early the next morning we were off to Punakaiki, better known as Pancake Rocks. Allegedly, this day was supposed to be sunshine and rainbows, however, true to West Coast form…it rained, and rained, and rained. Oh and wind, wind, wind. Before we go into pancake rocks, we should mention that the drive from Greymouth to West Port is considered one of the ten most beautiful drives in the world by Lonely Planet. Think similar to Highway 1, West Coast, US. The drive was stellar, and along the way we ran into a roadside honey stop (Shmeegs, I thought of you)…these little roadside shack-shoppes are all over New Zealand, filled with fresh local product at awesome prices.  On your honor system, you take what you want and leave your $$ for the product, no attendant on duty. Works well in NZ…US, we think not (think Halloween, kids approaching a bowl of candy with the ever present “Take only one” sign. Yeah right.)

Pancake Rocks are a rock mass that has been wave and wind carved into various open ceiling caverns over thousands of years - absolutely breathtaking. At high tide, when the waves come crashing in and break against all the holes and cracks in the rocks, large spits of water shoot up meters above the rock level. This place truly illustrates some intense West Coast weather, where it’s beautiful to see, it’s hard to stay long as the whipping wind and rain make it almost unbearable to stand there and watch. However, definitely well worth a look! Back on the highway we ran into a herd of cows running up the road, no big deal…and then were well on our way toward Westport and yet another seal colony (Jim, hopefully you’ve been following what these are – just in case, we took another photo for you).

Quite honestly, we could’ve done without the Westport stop. Nothing much to share here, other than we drove out to the lighthouse, had our PB&J (thanks again Mama Sanden) and turned right around to head through the valley back toward Nelson. Another beautiful drive. Very similar to what you would find in Montana up the Seely Swan Valley, withe the exception of the baby lambs we came across, John just had to stop for a photo…

We hit a snow flurry on the pass after Murchison (everyone was driving half the speed limit, not a lot of experienced snow drivers in this part of NZ) and were thankful the Adventurship held tough, we made it home and prepared for another week of Rugby and Beer.

Friday was upon us before we knew it. A rail jam event at the Playhouse just outside of Mapua with the Flatmates…why not. $10 entry and big sharpie X’s on our hands we headed in to check out the rail and the band. The band was amazing and used 2 didgeridoos, those huge 6 foot wind instruments that rest on the ground used in Australia.

Photographer + vino = sub-par photographs

Great music, cool vibe, fun friends and wine flowing…sounds like a great Friday to us, and it was. Although (Shannon) definitely felt it on Saturday which turned out to be a very unproductive day.

We made up for it on Sunday when we headed up the Dun Mountain trail right outside of town to check out some uncharted territory (for us) and some new views of our amazing city. It was a great way to spend a beautiful sunny day, outside, walking through the forest and hillsides, waiting to see what’s around the next corner. A great feeling we experience quite often being in NZ, especially when it comes to our living situation!

Fast forward to Monday when we found out that the house we’re living in sold and guess what, we’re moving out! Yes, it’s true, yet another move for us…much much sooner than we were hoping, but something we’ve become quite accustomed to.

So, the next couple weeks have some exciting stuff in store… John’s birthday + ski trip with the flatmates and hopefully a new place to call home. Until next time…cheers!