When it rains, it pours

You may be thinking that post title is a metaphor for something in my life that I am about to share with you, but it's really just about the tropical storm/cyclone that hit NZ this week. It really rained - A LOT.

This is what happened to our underground parking lot.

Apparently, some sort of pipe burst due to the amount of water flowing through it. I don't really know the details. All I know is that I have to park on the street and the carpark smells a bit like poo.

The rain also made its mark on my beautiful Mount! This landslide landed on top of the holiday park (a.k.a. campground) at the bottom of the Mount. Luckily, no one was injured!

We have now experienced earthquakes and tropical storms in NZ. I guess that is one thing Canada has going for it - not much of those type of natural disasters going around causing trouble. They are kind of exciting though...

On another day, this is the beautiful Pilot Bay at sunset and shortly after. We live in such an amazing, lovely place. Someone remind me again why I'm leaving?

She sells sea shells...

I think sea shells are very beautiful - when they are on the beach at the sea. I don't particularly appreciate them in wallpaper, bathroom towels or soap dish form. I mean no offence if that is your style. I have seen some very nice ways of doing the sea shell motif. A nice variety of shells in a vintage glass jar, for example. I can handle that.

Decorating preferences aside, one of my favourite places at the Mount happens to be the aptly named "Shell Beach". It's an area of rocks where the tide brings in multitudes of sea shells and they get stuck there! Six inches deep of pure shells. It's great.

Lindsay and I spent some time here when she visited and found a good variety of treasures. My favourite are the black ones that have a white stripe/polkadot design on them.

I may even have a jar of them in my living room....

Don't Hassel The Hoff

The following story really happened. David Hasselhoff came to Main Beach, Mount Maunganui and Lindsay and I were there.

He arrived by helicopter/surf lifesaving boat.

He posed with some pretty, young lifeguards. Or maybe they were just models. I don't know.

He handed out iceblocks (a.k.a. popsicles) and walked through the masses of people.

They played BayWatch theme music and I really wish he would have run down along the beach.

But that would have been a bit ridiculous.

P.S. I am about 99% sure that David stayed in the hotel building that we live in. There is an autographed headshot now posted in the reception. Why else would that all of a sudden be there?

Happy (Belated) New Year!

I know it's already 10 January, but I would be remiss if I didn't wish everyone a Happy New Year! 2010 was a very exciting year for us - many changes, many incredible experiences, meeting so many new people. It was truly what they call "a good year".

To ring in the new year, we had just arrived back onto our beloved North Island from our trip down South with the family. We drove back to Mount Maunganui from Auckland to experience the craziness that is the Mount at New Year's. Apparently, it's the place to be (I say apparently because I'm still not too sure what all the "hub-bub" is about. I'm too old and boring, some may say).

The streets were flooded with people and all the hotels full. I have never seen quite so many teenagers being ridiculous at once. I only saw two girls crying though, so I thought that was pretty good.

The main road through town was closed off to vehicles and police were stationed to check if any alcohol was being brought into the beach/town centre. The beach had stages with concerts and carnival rides. There was also a first aid tent set up where we saw a number of people ringing in the new year by being passed out. Classy.

We did really enjoy the fireworks at midnight that were set off of Leisure Island. They were pretty good. And the company was also very good. We will miss our NZ friends!

Mark watching the fireworks in awe. I think it was genuine.

My Family!

The people.

Mark and Jamie. I don't know (is the answer to your question about Mark's hat).

Laura, I will miss you!

Happy New Year!

My apologies to Jucy Rentals

I am going to make this post short because it is too painful to relive all the details.

We rented two cars down on the South Island for our adventure. One of them broke down and left half of our party stranded in the middle of a mountain pass while the rest of us went to find cell phone service. Lindsay and Andrew didn't mind though - they had a great time taking photos. Dan and Dad had a nap.

We were given a replacement rental car and finally arrived in Queenstown safe and sound about five hours later than planned.

The next day we did a whole bunch more driving. And we had a bit of an accident - between the two rental cars. This is the part where I can't relive the details. Let's just say it was no one's fault. Right? Right.

Immediately before the incident. Lovely scenery.

After. Sadness.

Luckily, we purchased the "Stress Free" Insurance policy from the rental company so we were all good. Best $170 we ever spent. And we met some lovely fellows who gave half of us a ride.

Anyways, I think ruining 3 out of 3 rental cars in under a week is pretty impressive. I was going to make a big deal to the company about the first car breaking down (which was really not our fault) until we crashed both the other cars. I was suddenly quite ok with the service we received after that.

Sigh.

Oh, I guess that was an earthquake.

Our trip down to the South Island with the family was eventful to say the least. I'll start with natural disasters.

Christchurch, NZ. Beautiful city. Very lovely old brick architecture. Makes for a nice looking city, but falls down during earthquakes as evidenced by this damage from the September 2010 earthquake.

We arrived in Christchurch on the evening of Christmas Day. We found our rental townhouse (after we tried to break into a different one, but that's another story) and settled in for the night. Most of us were awoken by a weird rumbling sensation around 2:00a.m. (Lindsay and Tim basically slept through the following few paragraphs).

Mark rolled over and whispered, "Aftershock!" To which I replied, "No, it wasn't." He said, "Yes, it was! What else could it have been?" I said, "It was just a, a, um....." Then the whole house shook again. Earthquake.

Mom apparently sat straight up in bed and panicked immediately. Andrew thought Dan was having a seizure. He wasn't. All was fine and we sort of slept through the rest of the night with a few more rumblings.

The next morning, we went to the central part of the city to look around. We were at the City Arts Centre chatting with the locals about earthquakes when the big one hit. It was weird. Scary, but short. It was a 4.9 on the richter scale. A number of the older building began crumbling again and the police began shutting down the area. Smaller aftershocks followed and eventually the whole city centre was taped off (due to the amount of older unstable buildings in the area).

Tim and Mark after the big one.

Me after a number of aftershocks. Less than impressed.

We are glad to have experienced just enough to make a good story, but not more. Andrew said it was better than anything we had paid for up to that point! Our thoughts go out to all the city centre businesses in Christchurch. They had just recovered from the September earthquake and were now shut down again. Very unfortunate and a rough time for the businesses and residents. Hopefully, that was the last of the quakes.

Earthquakes aside, Christchurch was a very enjoyable stop. I recommend going next time you are in the Southern hemisphere.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! Such a treat to enjoy it with my family in New Zealand. We have been very busy this past week exploring parts of the North Island. My family spent the second (and third...and fourth) day nursing alot of sunburned skin. But they are mostly all back to normal now and applying sunscreen on a regular basis.

So far things have been going smoothly. We have only hada few hiccups (i.e. getting stuck in a hotel elevator going from the basement to the sub-basement and back for about 5 minutes).

We are now busy prepping for Christmasdinner and tonight we head to the South Island. Just a few photos to give you an idea of what we have been up to.

I anxiously await the arrival of the family.

Hurray! Tim looks less excited...

Hot Water Beach

Cathedral Cove

My family in NZ!