Grocery store, Akaroa

This has been the longest day ever, because we were wide awake at 2am. However, there's no negative connotation meant to saying it's been the longest day; it's been a fabulous day. This morning we took advantage of the empty early Saturday morning streets by driving on the left hand side of the road (we're careful not to say the "wrong" side) to the grocery store. The meat section was my personal favorite-- so many different types of sausages! The weird flat fish! I picked up a huge bag of "savories" (meat filled pastries); I devoured 1 or 2 as soon as I got home. Afterwards I decided to check to make sure that the meat was cooked (it was). Lunch: kiwi, nutella and jam sandwich. Ryan, Roy, and Tammie all skyped with us-- that really helped to make us feel that we're not alone out here.

Then off we drove to Akaroa, an area that was a sunken volcano that is now a gorgeous bay. It looks like Napa. I am in heaven here. I can honestly say that this place is more beautiful than wine country; can you believe that? Oh and it's wayyyy less expensive. The drive out and back to Akaroa was worth the stress of driving on the wrong, errr, left side of the road. Bryce did all the driving but I can tell you that it's a bit scary sitting up front on the left hand side of the car with no steering wheel-- at one point I had such an adrenaline rush of fear (no fault of Bryce's, the car just went a different way than I thought it should) that my fingers hurt for minutes afterwards as if I had been electrocuted.



After almost a year of living with the bare necessities, it feels so luxurious to have furniture. We don't really mind too much that we don't have a spaghetti spoon to stir our noodles, that there's no plug in the bathroom, that the fridge is 1/3 of the size we're used to, and that there's no clothes dryer. It's like we've been training for this. :-) We're happy with the luxurious: heated towel rack, coffee press, internet, and heated mattress pad. The cold is something that we've been fighting here-- I can't understand why home owners here don't all replace their drafty windows with more energy efficient ones; all the heat pumped into a room lurks away the second the radiator's turned off. There's 2 extra doors in this house to help divide up the cottage so that part of it can be heated at a time. Oh, and speaking of doors,the handles are so high! Not good for hobbits.

Arrival

Wow, so much to say!
First, we made it with all luggage, no customs problems, no car issues.
Second this place is amazing, even flying around on a partly cloudy day you could see that.
Third, the books didn't exaggerate how nice the people are. We already got one invite to stay at person's house and our car rental offered to help me buy a car from the local dealerships(not from his fleet).
Fourth, the summer to winter thing is a bit brutal. It felt amazing to walk out of the hot airport, but walking into the cold cottage is another story. I'll have to document the fireplace that functions for looks only.
Fifth, it's just amazing so far. It's starting to sink in how long I'll be here now that all the travel worries are done. I can't wait to go skiing. Well off to unpack some more

Sunshine and snow, part one

Hiked up from Paradise on Mt Rainier with Jules, her Sister Laura, and Laura's husband, Geoff. For those that don't know he's an aussie, so we had lots of fun having him speak Kiwi. All in all and awesome day and I've got a great famer's burn (red-neck + red upper arms).
Tomorrow the Chaos amps up a level. We fly out!
Finally, 18 months of planning, hoping and madness culminates.
We've still got to work out the car situation, and our longer term home in Wellington. But we've got our home set for our arrival on Friday(1 day air-travel, 1 day 'time-travel').
Our new home resort has been hyping their constant snow. Roughly a meter since the 4th of July. It'll snow one day and they'll have sunshine the next, it makes for perfect blue-bird days.
I figured I'd share.

Talk to you you in 2 day!

Oh, Really?

Julie says I should write a blog... So I'm writing.
Originally this was going to be the story of our adventures, and trials and tribulations of moving to New Zealand. Not so much a blog as just a history. However it's impossible to tell a story without characters, and a good story has plot and character development. One could document that development through actions, but I'm more a fan of the first person, so I'll go ahead and say I'll continue the trend of sharing my thoughts.
In the last two days I've successfully sold both Julie's and my cars. Anyone that knows us, knows we were pretty willing part with our cars. While both had served us well, they were never quite ours. We both received them as part of hand-me-downs. Julie loved her V6 and options, and I loved the subie's utility which helped facilitate my outdoors resurgence. However the line of emotion ended there. They were good, practical cars.
I was thinking about how practical we were. I have just a bit of materialism, and it seems it bites me most when it comes to automobiles. I started like cars at 14 and just got fascinated by them. I love shiny, loud, faster, good handling, you name it. Yet as both Julie and I have been succeeding at work I'd resisted buying myself a new car, as did she. I've noticed over the past few year of working with more of my peers that I drove one of the roughest and oldest car. Most drove something at least made in the 00's and many bought their car new sometime after college. My friends and even most my family seem to have all upgraded in the last few years. I'd be lieing if I claimed I was never jealous. I've always wondered if I was being too miserly or others were too reckless with their spending. I've come to peace with defining it as a sense of priorities. It'd be unfair to judge others solely one purchase, and my small level of skill with a wrench has allowed me a bit more 'freedom' in my choice of automobiles. So they prioritized peace of mind and a bit of flash. I've prioritized this crazy adventure that starts in only 2 days.
Now both of our cars are sold, both to girls getting their first cars. It's kinda cool and funny in it's own way. I guess it's not too surprising it's not for people our own age. It seems like our cars don't fit 20-30 somethings. Both girls seem very driven and practical. I hope they have their own adventures too.
But enough waxing philosophical about cars.
We fly out in roughly 50 hours, and by and large we're ready. I'm relaxed in someways but I'm still get fits of nerves. The current situation of sold cars and a job for Julie was exactly the plan from the get go. It took some work on both of our parts, but 18 months after we first started talking about it, we're here.

I'm Done

So today was my last day. Scary, but relaxing. Julie is right that we've planned this so much it'll probably be almost boring... almost.
I was suddenly reminded of when I quit Les Schwab. I'd worked there between college & high school and again my Junior & senior years at UW. When I went to leave in Sept 2004 I was 3 months out of school and not having much luck in the job search. Working 50 hours a week busting tires wasn't faciliatating a good effort though. Ultimately I picked up some money doing some political work and ended up at B. At B I moved twice and manged to handily beat inflation/cost of living. B allowed me to learn lots and do things I've always wanted. I wouldn't be an instructor, have gone to whistler/tahoe or proabably started climbing again with out the income, and the boredom. It challenged me mentally and emotionally at times. But it's never been 100% what I needed to be happy, or rounded. The last years have been good and very comfortable. But I've been craving a different meaning to my life. Paychecks and having the yuppie staples are nice. But that's never been who I am. I always be a little punk, a little WT and a little too hyper.
So now here I am. Unemployed, with no near term prospects. I've been here before. I'm starting to grasp it'll all work out in the end

Anniversary Day

I've joked around with Bryce that our impetuous little NZ adventure is so well planned out that it might turn out to be pretty boring. Pretty much everything's in order-- we have every day until our departure planned out. A big surprise came when we found out that my sister and her new husband will be coming from Australia to visit a few weeks before we leave-- luckily we are able to fit them in too :-) The plan is for all of us to go on a Mt. Rainier hike the day before our plane takes off. Hopefully it'll be nice and warm so we get our fill of summer before we plunge back into winter.

One major bump in the road though is the vehicles-- we haven't had one person contact us about the car or the motorcycle. We'll lower the price a bit but there's only so low we'll go for vehicles that work great-- especially if we may be coming back in 7 or so months.

I'm enjoying my last day of work and our 1st anniversary today-- puttering around and making the best chocolate chip cookies EVER. Later tonight Bryce and I will celebrate by walking to Cafe Juanita near our apartments.

Afraid?

The whole New Zealand thing is definately already opening my eyes and we've still got 4.5 weeks.
I actually had someone come out and say they'd be afraid to do it. I've had older people try to talk me out of it, older say go for it, say they're jealous, young say their jealous, and recently I've noticed a couple my age say 'they couldn't do it' and finally one gal came out and admitted she'd be too afraid.
Fear is a funny thing. It's seldom truly rational or we'd never get in cars.

People throw around adrenaline junky, but I think too calously. Most people I know that participate in 'risky' behaviors take tons of steps to reduce risks. Meanwhile we all drive our cars distracted or tired. Climbers spend hours practicing knots and anchor placements that minimize risks, scuba divers triple check their systems, sky divers will patiently arange their chutes.
I think a lot of people that participate either due so to conquer fear, or really just love the activity for the experience. I'm somewhere in between myself. I find I don't like fear or an adrenaline boost. I definately like conquering my fear mostly before I even take a step outdoors.
But that last little bit remains....
I feel like as scramble solo, as take that first hand-hold up the mountain, that first step off the cliff as you rappel, as I eye-ball each speed check going into a snowboard jump, or as I enter the point of no escape on a snowboarding line I've never taken.

To me it's about eliminating the foolish risk, taking all the precautions, thinking out every possible outcome, weighing the good and the bad... and then you've got to jump.

One can't stand on the edge forever. Backing away is embarassing, not even if no-one knows. It's the internal pride.
I wouldn't say I leap for just anything, until yI know how hard I can fall. But I try not to exaggerate the fall in my mind. As we tend to mature and gain experience we take less risk.
Hell we've already outlived our foolish years. Now we can make informed decisions, but too many of us confuse the being informed with being trapped.
Thank goodness my wife is brave enough to do this and encourage me to jump with her. I've always known we were like minded, but I'm realizing how much I can learn as we each push each other.
It's good to be afraid, it means your alive and your aware of risks. But I won't let fear define a life of boredom for me. I'm not afraid of sitting still, one day, but for now I won't be afraid of enjoying the adventure.

If New Zealand means 1 less nice car in my life or one less bedroom on my house... good.