Our Anniversary in the Marlborough Sounds

March 15^th 2009 was our two-year wedding anniversary. We decided to celebrate by taking a long weekend getaway to the Marlborough Sounds in the South Island. For those of you who don’t know, a Sound is formed by the sea flooding a river valley. The Marlborough Sounds is made up of four large Sounds. We stayed at Raetihi Lodge located deep in Kenepuru Sound, which you can see from the map below.

We had picked this particular lodge as it was isolated deep in the Sounds. They have no TV there and only 14 rooms. The only way to get there was to take a water taxi across the Sound. We packed lots of books, board games and wine!

We flew into Nelson Airport and rented a car because the lodge was two and a half hours away from theairport. The drive was AMAZING! We drove around mountains, over bridges and through forests. As we got closer it got colder and colder. Being that our anniversary is at the end of Summer (on this side of the world), we were looking forward to a warm weekend where we could swim and snorkel. However, a cold snap decided to show up at the same time. It worked out, as we got to spend “quality time” with each other and actually play the games and read the books. Oh, and drink all the wine we packed.

The first day at the resort was the busiest of the days that we stayed there. There must have been 13 guests including us. Most were American. I couldn’t believe it! I’ve not been around that many Americans since my last trip home in August 08. I was surprised by how strong the accent sounded. I guess I am already becoming a Kiwi. Back to the trip… Our first day was the best day weather-wise. We got to go for a kayak. Yay! I’ve only been on a kayak once before so was happy to be out in the Sounds kayaking with my Honey. We were out for about 45 minutes, then headed back to our room for a little siesta. We ended up sleeping for 2 hours and woke up just in time for wine.

The rest of our time there was very mellow as it was too cold to go out and do much of anything. By the last night, there were only 4 of us at the resort. And it was definitely time to go home. Three days of not watching the news, taking 2 hours naps in the middle of the day, sleeping 10 hour at night, and spending all that quality time together was enough. We were definitely rested and rejuvenated.

On our way back to the airport, we stopped off at the Nelson Farmer’s Market, a big outdoor market in the center of the town. When we arrived, I quickly realized that we were the only people of any ethnic makeup there. Up till now I always thought that Auckland had very little diversity of any kind (coming for San Francisco), but Nelson… forget about it! Nelson makes Auckland look like San Francisco or LA…for a minute!

100% Humidity

The following article was in the New Zealand herald today:

Auckland sweltered last night as humidity peaked at 100 percent.

Weather analyst Philip Duncan says overnight temperatures in Auckland hardly fell below 23 degrees. He estimates that combined with the humidity, it felt more like 32 degrees. Mr Duncan says when humidity reaches 100 percent it means the air is completely saturated and sweat cannot evaporate from skin.

The muggy conditions have been caused by a low north of the country pulling air straight from the sub-tropics.

It is a different story in the South Island, where single digit temperatures have been recorded thanks to a cold southerly change.
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So far February is my least favorite month here in NZ. It wasn’t just one day of humidity, it was the majority of the month with humidity in the 80s and 90s. Without air conditioning, it was unbearable. I’m so glad my marriage survived!

Mom's trip to New Zealand

My Mom’s visit to New Zealand was a very last minute split decision. We had been planning her trip and purchased her ticket before I moved here. But circumstances changed, and she was unable to come. We decided to cancel her ticket just a few weeks before the flight. Then, lo and behold, on Thanksgiving weekend (27th- 30th of November, for those Kiwi’s reading my blog), she decided that she couldn’t take being away from me any longer and was going to keep to her original itinerary and come see ME!

I’m very proud of my Mama for taking such a long flight to another country (first time travelling to another country other than Mexico) all on her own, especially with a bad back. That being said, here is a photo of our first dinner on our deck. Once dinner was done, the girl rolled down to her dungeon and went to bed since she was sooooo jetlagged. The dungeon refers to the lower level of our house. When you enter our home it’s at street level. Most people don’t realize that we have 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a laundry room and 2 storage rooms downstairs. We just call it “Josie’s Dungeon”.

We didn’t do too much sightseeing initially, just small walks around my neighbourhood and lots of BBQ’s with Holming’s family. On Boxing Day we finally got out of town. We went to Tiritiri Matangi, bird sanctuary with the whole gang. After a few hours of hiking and observing birds, we had a nice picnic on a white sandy beach.

Besides Tiritiri, we also went to Goat Island, Victoria Park Market (twice), Titirangi beach, walked the Zig Zag track, took a walk from the Waitakere Ranges Visiting Centre, One tree Hill, and Mount Eden. My favourite walk was the Kitekite Falls. There we walked about 40 minutes to view a waterfall but when we were finally to the viewing point, it started to rain cats and dogs. Instead of walking all the way to the water pools, we had to quickly run back to the car. Once down the trail, it stopped raining, of course. I was so amazed at how well my Mom walked the trail and how she kept wanting to go farther.

All in all, the trip was a great success. My mom was able to see how I live my day to day life and she was reassured that I need her here with me. I really believe she fell in love with New Zealand the way I have. I can’t wait to have her back. Love you Ma.

Holming’s Birthday

Holming’s birthday just happens to be the first day of summer here in NZ. Lucky for him. I remember when my birthday was in the summer, now it’s in the winter. Enough about me, lets get back to his day.

Two things were certain for his birthday, one was that he wanted to be on a beach and two was that he wanted to BBQ. We did both. We packed a lunch and took a 30 minute ferry ride from downtown to Motuihe Island. http://www.motuihe.org.nz/motuihe/content.aspx?pageId=2

The ride there was absolutely breathtaking as this was one of the first fine days we had had since I had arrived in NZ. We hiked to a secluded beach where we picnicked, swam, napped and ate again. It was lovely.

Here are a couple of photos of our day.

Happy Birthday Honey!