Guess who???

A.


B.


C.


D.


It hasn't been too exciting of a week over here, down under. We decided to introduce a game...a prize will be awarded to the person who gets all of the "guess who?" pictures correct. These are all people from home, no trick New Zealand folks.

Day Trip to Akaroa




Saturday we decided to meet up with Johnny, his sister Megan and her husband Sam to take an hour drive to Akaroa, a French settlement on the Banks Peninsula. It turned out to be more of a rollercoaster ride where all of us, including the driver, felt extremely car sick. The scenery was beautiful along the way though and the town was very quaint. A lot of the French style has been preserved in the architecture and the street names are all French. We were all attempting to speak with a French accent and were referring to everything by placing a "Le'" in front of it...such as Le' bathroom or Le' gas station. We ended up walking up to the lighthouse that sits off to the side of town and meeting the lighthouse keeper. His name is Frank McNeil and he is one of the most fascinating people we have ever met. He is 88 years old, sings in a choral group, was taken as a prisoner of war by Germany in WWII for three years, and now serves as the lighthouse keeper in Akaroa. We talked to him (or should I say he talked to us) for over an hour; he even sang us a few Irish ballads. Needless to say, we told him we would be back to take the tour of the lighthouse when summer arrived (this is when they open for tours). We had coffee and cake at the Hilltop Cafe before driving back. That night we ate Chinese food and watched the movie "8 Below", about a team of sled dogs in Antarctica, part of which is filmed in Christchurch.

Sunday Blaine and I got adventurous and decided we were going to jog up to the Sign of the Kiwi, which is at the top of the Cashmere Hills. When you hear hill, most Mississippians think a little rolling hill; this however was more of a mountain. We of course did not make it all the way running but we still felt a sense of accomplishment when it was all said and done. Afterwards we attended church and had a nice relaxing afternoon. All in all, a short but pleasant weekend.

Oh, Happy Day!







Paige and I(Kate) share one major thing in common...we love birthdays! On this day in the year of 1981, Margaret Paige Deangelo was popped out into this world. From the closest reports we've gotten she was conceived AND born in a field party in Jasper, Alabama. But those roots didn't stop her from acheiving her dreams! Paige has been chasing her dreams down several diffent paths over the last few years. She moved from Starkville to Jackson to Raleigh-Durham, NC to New York City all in a very short time. She now lives in a high-rise apartment complex, doesn't own a car and walks to Madison Avenue where she works as an advertising agent in the Big Apple. She enjoys singing kareokee, she is a marvelous dancer and she loves to listen to country music(especially Waylon Jennings and Conway Twitty). Blaine and I are both sad that we won't be able to share in the celebration of her birth, it is sure to be a blow-out! "Oh Cecilia, you're breaking my heart!"

Just Another New Zealand Weekend









First things first: most of you know how much I(Kate) love Mexican food. This has been one of my constant cravings while we have lived here over the past month. Now if you were wondering, not many Mexicans live in New Zealand...hmmm suprising. Well tonight must have been my lucky night and to celebrate our actual anniversary we found an authentic Mexican restaurant owned by true Mexican people. It was so good! We both had chimichangas and chips and salsa (although sadly enough one serving is all you get). Oh yeah, and no cheese dip. But other than that a truly marvelous experience. We talked to the cook/owner and told him our story and let him know we will be his newest, most loyal customers.

Now to the weekend: We left Friday morning and Blaine drove me by his workplace. Just a factory in the middle of fields, but good to see where he spends his days. Then on towards Hanmer Springs through the winery region north of Christchurch. I as the navigator made one mistake and we ended up backtracking a good bit but we won't discuss that. We had a nice lunch at a street side cafe and then made our way to the thermal baths. The pools ranged from 27 to 40 degrees celsius (that is cold like a swimming pool to hot like a hot tub for you fahrenheit people). After the pools we took a hike up to the lookout point of the valley and mountains to watch the sunset. We went back to the pools after a bite of dinner to sit under the stars. Even though it was too cloudy to really see them it was great to have the cold air and be in the warm water surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Woke up early and ate breakfast in a little bakery then headed out for a drive through Lewis Pass. Took a short hike up to a gorgeous cascading waterfall...so amazing just to walk 20 minutes off the highway and see such beauty. When we got back to Hanmer Springs we rented 2 mountain bikes and headed off on the trails in the National Forest 5 minutes from the middle of town. This time Blaine got us a little lost, but we won't discuss that either. Showered and headed to The Heritage, the old hotel/restaurant, where we had a very gourmet dinner. I had a rack of lamb for the first time and Blaine had a ribeye. The wonderful presentation of the food matched the taste. Sunday morning we left the lodge early to drive to Kaikoura which is a coastal town around 2 hours away. The drive alone was through beautiful pastures and winding roads and then we turned a corner and the turquoise Pacific Ocean opened up before us. I think we both decided that Kaikoura is the most beautiful place we have ever seen. This is one of two places in New Zealand where the mountains fall directly into the ocean. We both saw our first whale! It is rare for whales to be close to the shore, but the water just off the shore is extremely deep! The baby and her mom were playing and spraying water up in the air and drew quite a crowd of spectators! I was so glad I had my binoculars. We also drove down to the seal site; I didn't see the sign that you were not supposed to get within 10 meters of the seals...so I got some really good pictures! We hiked up to a view of the ocean, mountains and town...wow. The pictures really don't do it justice; you are all just going to have to come visit to see it firsthand. We visited a local winery and took the tour and did the tasting. Wine is a booming industry here in New Zealand, and we learned a lot about wine making. The drive back down the coast was beautiful, but we were happy to get back home, no wrong turns this time.

I have to give props to the new book I just read, that is not really new. Blue Like Jazz, written by Donald Miller, is subtitled 'nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirtuality'. Blaine is reading it right now. New Zealand is a pretty liberal place and the book speaks to relating to people that are very different than you. Melissa and Shelley talked about it at the beach, and then it was on a reading list for one of our church classes and Mrs. Totty gave it to me as a "going away" gift. Anyways, I would highly suggest this book for the reason that it is a fresh perspective written by a guy who I think has A.D.D. and whose writing style is mainly flight of ideas.

Well, we leave tomorrow morning to go on our weekend getaway for our 2nd anniversary. We are going to Hanmer Springs, a thermal pool resort north of Christchurch. We will have a report when we return!

My Mimi



Today, September 10th 2006, my Mimi turned 89 years old! Mimi has had (and continues to have) such an impact on my life by her example of love, generosity, and spirit! To this day she continues to serve her church, her community (by delivering Meals on Wheels weekly), and her family with amazing energy and enthusiasm. I am so sad to be halfway around the world and missing out on the celebration of her birth. A world traveler herself, she is the only family member I have that has been to New Zealand already. I can only hope that I will grow into a woman as kind and servant-hearted as my Mimi. I love you, Mimi!

From Glaciers to Glow-worms


This was Blaine's idea


Franz Joseph Glacier


"WARNING: Party under the Rocks"

After a fruitful week of Kate working and me getting things set up at our apartment, we were dying to get out of town. I can't neglect to mention that I got a job, a real one, not Kmart. So after our exciting week we jumped in the car with Jonny and headed off. Five and a half hours and some beautiful scenery later we were in Franz Joseph (the town). We grabbed a bite to eat and settled into our nice little cabin/hotel room.

Bright and early the next morning we decided to head to Fox Glacier to go on a guided tour of the glacier for about 4 hours. We met up with two Australian girls we met from Christchurch for the hike. Wow! Did not realize how difficult the hike up to the glacier would be. We probably should have realized when the guide pointed halfway up the glacier and said that was where we were going to get on the glacier. This meant we had to hike up a steep trail through the rainforest - yes, rainforest - to reach the glacier trail. Quite a unique experience looking through a rainforest at a glacier, and there are only 2 places in the world where you can do this, the other being in Argentina. Once we reached the glacier, we had to put on our cramp-ons so we could grip the ice, and we continued on for an hour loop on top of the glacier. Definitely one of the most interesting and beautiful hikes we've ever been on.

After getting back to Franz Joseph and viewing that glacier, we found out about a night trail that led to glow-worms. These are not the cute little plastic glow-in-the-dark worms that came in a sleeping bag (when we were kids); these are 6 inch long worms that hang under trees and rocks and glow bright green. Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, they are actually about 1/4" and their tiny head or butt (can't tell which) glows green. They were really hard to photograph, but Jonny managed to snap off a shot.

The drive back up the coastline and through Arthur's Pass was just as exciting, viewing it from a different perspective.

This is a website where you can view all of our pictures from our trip to the glacier trip.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EZsWLlq4ZMXIg

We also wanted to post our address and phone number because a few had requested it:
4/26 Stoneyhurst Street
St. Albans
Christchurch, New Zealand
(64) 3-366-2776

Our New Home

The kitchen

Our New Car!

Spring has Sprung!

What a busy week we have had! We have now moved in and are settling into our new "house", bought a car, and Blaine is having a very promising job interview at this moment! God has been very good to us.
I really love where we are living. It is a great location just a few minutes walk from the big park in the middle of the city, Hagley Park. It will probably take me less than 10 minutes to ride my bike to the hospital. Blaine has taken me to work since I have worked 12:45 pm to 11:15 pm this week. The house has all the furniture we need: 2 beds, couches, kitchen table, TV, washer/dryer, and kitchen accessories. We finally got our phone and internet working yesterday. We have windows all over to let the warm sunshine in, which is a necessity! No central heat in any of the houses here, so we have multiple fan heaters and they are my lifeline (one in the kitchen, bedroom and living room).
We bought our car at the auction. Guess what we got! A green Honda Accord just like mine(except it is a station wagon!). Everyone here drives station wagons...Jonny is single and he drives one. They are great because you can throw bikes or luggage in the back and then you can fold the back seat down and sleep in it! It is a '94 with 130,000 kilometers on it, an import from Japan. We only paid around $1800 US dollars for it. Blaine took it to the mechanic to get it checked out and there are no problems, the guy said we got a great, dependable car! Oh yeah and car insurance is so cheap, you would not believe it! We are definitely getting ripped off in the US.
All the daffodils and trees are blooming all over the city and it is so beautiful! The weather warms up on some days where we don't even have to wear a jacket. We are planning on going to Franz Joseph Glacier this afternoon and hiking the weekend. Just trying to work out all the details. Will update again soon! Hopefully Blaine might have a job very soon!

Week Review
New Zealand internet is very different than in the U.S. in that you have a limit of downloads/uploads per month according to your "plan". We have been using the lady's internet where we are staying and have used over 80% of her allowance so there will be no pictures today. I wanted to recap on the highlights of the last week and weekend. Last week I started my normal schedule at work of four 10 hour shifts and I really like not working 12 hour days. On Tuesday night we went to the Fox and Ferret, a restaurant/pub with Jonny and his roommate Craig (we refer to him as "Craiger") to play Quiz bowl...this is very popular in NZ. A big screen TV poses a series of questions under categories such as sports, geography, entertainment and your team of 4 competes to answer the most right. We named our team the "Biscuits and Crawdads" in honor of our Southern heritage. Unfortunately, we came in near the middle but it was a lot of fun! On Thursday night we went to a car auction just to look around and get an idea of what we might buy in the near future. One car went for $100! It is difficult to know what you are getting here because all the cars are named differently than in the US...have you ever heard of a Nissan California? Also, they list the cars by how many kilometers they have been driven and by what kind of gas mileage they get in kilometers per liter. So confusing! We did not bid on a car but it was an interesting experience. Friday night we introduced our group of church friends to a game of Phase 10 and it was a hit! We met the other Nashville couple that lives here and they actually know Leslie Townsend (our friend in Jackson who is in law school and is from Nashville)! Such a small world. Saturday we ate lunch downtown with Jonny and his sister that was in town and threw the frisbee; went to eat Indian food for dinner and it was my first time...very good. Sunday Blaine and I jogged/walked the 7 kilometer loop around Hagley Park. The daffodils are blooming and the jogging trail winds along the Avon River past the golf course and Botanical Gardens...so gorgeous! Had a picnic in the Gardens after church and then went to pick up my bicycle that I am borrowing from one of the Australians while we are here. We move into our apartment tomorrow! So we will have our own internet, phone number, address and space! I will post pictures of it at the end of the week!

Game Day
And football season has officially begun! Just because we are 6,000+ miles away from the Southeast region of the US doesn't mean we are going to miss football season. Blaine has been researching if there was a place that played the American ESPN channel to watch MSU vs South Carolina since we arrived here. The stars must have all aligned because a sports bar named the "Holy Grail" was the one place we found. Blaine woke up extra early (not before my 5:45 a.m. alarm clock) and stitched his MSU hat back together. I was able to get an hour off for lunch and walked over to watch. When I arrived Blaine had befriended an Australian guy and turned him into a MSU fan so that he would not be alone. Johnny pulled up to join the fun on his motorcycle with his "leathers" on just as I was headed back to the hospital. We will not discuss the game however. Overall it was a fun experience of spreading more of the Western culture to the other side of the world...American football.

Mt. Hutt Ski Trip


View from peak: Farmland and Ocean in the background


The classic New Zealand "Thumbs Up" pose


Borrowed terminology from the Starkville crew - this is a "Death Cookie". Props to Avery.


What is a wild parrot doing on the ski slopes?


What a unique skiing experience we had; like no other we've ever had. It only took an hour of driving after Jonny picked us up at 7 a.m. to get to the parking lot at Mt. Hutt. By the way, the parking lot and a ski rental shop with restaurant are the only things on the mountain. The closest town is about 20 minutes away and it requires a 4WD or tyre (NZ spelling) chains to get to the parking lot of the ski slope. Everything is above the tree line at 6800 ft., which is a little different from home.

From the peak of the mountain we could see mountain ranges in one direction and the ocean and flatland (equivalent to The Delta) in the other direction. We found some fresh powder on some isolated trails that were labeled "Experts Only" (Kate was a little skeptical). Many a death cookies were avoided on the slopes; these balls of ice will take you out in a heartbeat. Once we were knackered (this is a Jonny-ism which means extremely tired) we headed down and discovered the parrot above on top of someone's car. This was the perfect end to a not-so-normal day of skiing/snowboarding.

Antarctica, Here We Come...Sort of.




Saturday turned out to be a rainy, cold day so we opted for an inside adventure. Jonny suggested the International Antarctic Center and we had a great time! Here are a few fun facts we learned while we were there:
1. Christchurch is only 2,377 miles (3825 km) from Antarctica
2. Emperor penguins are the tallest penguin and can grow as tall as Paige (around 4 feet tall)
3. Human hair can grow up to twice as fast in Antarctica
4. Winds can blow up to 180 km/hour (you do the conversion)
5. Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth and can reach temperatures of -89 degrees celsius
6. The first sighting of land in Antarctica was not until 1820
7. Since there is no government or one country that owns Antarctica, you do not need a passport to visit
8. There are actually 3 different South Poles--the ceremonial, geographical, and magnetic; the magnetic South Pole is actually out in the ocean somewhere
9. Only $15000 will get you a nice cruise to Antarctica

We went in a room that simulated the conditions when it is dark (which is 4 months out of the year) and extremely windy and they took the temperature down to -18 degrees. It was a very memorable experience. The site that this museum is on is actually the airport and preparation center that all the trips to Antarctica leave from. For any more information, you can go to www.iceberg.co.nz.

This is a picture of the new edition to my hospital, the Woman's Center; so, if I decide to have a baby here, this is where I will be delivering (ha ha). Well, it is Saturday morning and I have officially finished my first week of work. Blaine is steady on the job hunt and our landlord, Katey has called an enginnering contact that she thinks might be able to help.

I really think I am going to like my job in the Coronary Care Unit. We get lots of patients that have had heart attacks, congestive heart failure, intra-aortic balloon pumps and pre and post heart surgeries such as angioplasty and stenting. We have a very diverse group of nurses from South Africa, France, Germany, and England...so I am not the odd one out.

We planned on going snow skiing today but they are having a blizzard in the mountains and we wouldn't be able to drive up there. If the weather clears, we plan on going tomorrow. Last night we went over to one of the church member's house and played Risk...I am not very fond of this game and it dragged on for 3 hours. But we had fun eating and visiting...most of the people are from Australia and so they taught us about cultural differences there. We have another friend couple from Nashville, Tyler and Susan. He works at K-Mart and she works as a pre-school teacher; we will pretty much be neighbors when we move into our flat. They bought a 1984 white van they call "Betty" for around $1500 and it has a bed in the back. They are fun because they are Southerners and we relate to them well. The sad news is that they are leaving in October to travel for 2 months before moving back to the States but we will have fun with them until then!

This is just another picture form our Saturday drive through the mountains. Wanted to share a few interesting facts about New Zealand: guess what they don't have here???!! SQUIRRELS. They also don't have central heating or insulation in their houses. Last night it sleeted/rained all night and we just about froze to death. At one point I(Kate) took a blanket that I brought from home and wrapped it around my head like a turban to try and stay warm. I think we might make a trip today to K-Mart to buy a little electric heater. One thing they do have here is ketchup and Blaine definitely bought a bottle the first day we were here (that's for everyone who knows about Blaine's ketchup obsession...he eats it on everything!).

No other news from today...just another day of orientation and job hunting. Thanks for all the Southern dinner suggestions...we will have to see how many ingredients we can find before we make a decision.

My first day at work and Blaine's first day on the job hunt is now officially over. They both went quite well. I had orientation at Princess Margaret's Hospital that turned into a 45 minute bus ride towards the hills. I had to catch the Orbiter bus from a stop down from our house. Blaine, however, caught a ride with Katey Lane, the lady who we are living with in her sports car convertible...they rode with the top down in 40 degree weather because Katey had to take her skiis by the shop. Blaine now has his work visa...we thought he was going to have to take part-time employment for 8-10 weeks until his visa came in but found out on Friday that if he came at 8 o'clock on Monday he could get his visa that day! He made several contacts in person and over the phone with some job leads and then got so tired he had to go play golf! He actually played with the pastor of the church that we visited yesterday. We decided to try out this church on recommendation from one of our church members at Meadowbrook. It was a very small church that was planted just 6 months ago from a couple of families from Australia. It was held in the community center and everyone was very glad we came and even invited us over to one of their houses for tea afterwards.
I am going to cook a Southern meal for dinner one night this week for Katey and her daughter, Charlie. I haven't decided what to fix. Any suggestions?
Here is a picture of the house we are staying in for 3 weeks...very modern.

I am slowly learning the in's and out's of creating a blog, so bear with me. I wanted to show everyone that as we expected there ARE sheep here. And I also wanted to demonstrate with an audio/video clip that I have not lost my southern drawl YET.

We had the most exciting day so far in New Zealand! We woke up to a breakfast of soy milk and granola (Blaine’s first time to have soy milk). After much discussion, we realized soy milk is definitely the way to go—the milk we drank expires May 2007! We all showered and headed off for new explorations. Johnny took us on the drive that he takes most tourists…it is one of those drives that would never get old (as you can tell from the pics). We had lunch in Sumner along the beach; the weather was cool with a strong breeze. This is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen; Switzerland might come close. Johnny can whip his 4WD car around the winding mountain roads, skimming past all the cyclists within inches. After witnessing this, I have decided that it would NOT be in my best interest to take on the challenge of biking up these mountain roads. We got back into town after many scenic drive stops and visited Johnny’s sister, Megan and her husband, Sam, who live 5 minutes from where our flat will be. It is great to meet a girl to chat with since I have only been around guys for the last 4 days. We are about to go out for Thai food and watch the rugby game of All Blacks team (New Zealand) versus Australia. I know nothing about rugby so I will educate you all after my lesson tonight. We have tons of pictures from today, so check out tomorrow and hopefully I will figure out how to load a short video as well.

We finally had a day to see a little of the outer regions of Christchurch today. After checking out of our hotel, we took the bus downtown to visit the Immigration office and go by to finalize our rental property. Everyone knows of my(Kate) love for Mexican food, so we searched the city and found The Burrito Company (sort of like Moe's)...it was excellent and I will definitely be revisiting. We then took the bus to Southshore and walked out on the beach and on the New Brighton Pier and watched all the fishermen (one even caught a baby shark). [Mrs. Totty, rest assured the shark was unharmed and returned to his ocean home safely]

We spent the night with Johnny and dined on fish and chips for supper. Took a night drive up into the mountains to get a view of the city...so beautiful. It is nice to have a friend with a car to show us around. Saturday night we will move in with our realtor and get settled into our temporary home! More news later...

Good News!!! We found an apartment today! Had a disappointing start to the day after we viewed a few flats that were pretty terrible. We went in Harcourts, a real estate company, which we found out only sales property and does not rent (or “let” as they say in NZ). But while we were in the lobby, a real estate agent spoke with us and was excited to meet us because she had availability in her own personal rental properties. She drove us around to 2 different apartments and we decided on one that is close to the city center. It is a two bedroom furnished apartment with a washer/dryer. The small catch is that the apartment is not available until September 5th, sooooooo we are going to live with the realtor at her house until then. This sounds weird but her name is Katey Lane and she is very nice.

The pictures are from our walk around the city today. Both are taken along the Avon River which is a crystal clear stream running through the city with shops/cafes lining the banks. We ate dinner with Johnny (of course) tonight at a pub nearby. More news soon!

This is a picture of Blaine and me in front of the cathedral in the city square where we ate lunch with our friend Johnny who lives in Christchurch (we met him on our trip to Germany). You will probably be hearing a lot more about Johnny, seeing that he is the only friend we have here.

All the things we learned on our first day in NZ:
Crayfish does not equal crawfish (a.k.a. “mud bugs”), in NZ it is lobster.
They don’t call running shoes tennis shoes or sneakers but in NZ they are trainers.
Since they drive on the left side of the road, they WALK on the left side of the road (I think a lot of people were cussing us today).
Everyone, YES everyone in the world knows how to spell Mississippi; this is the first thing they tell you when you say that is where you are from (and the spelling is about all they know about Mississippi).
Everyone’s hair looks better in low humidity.