Two Americans emigrate to New Zealand from Colorado,
USA.
We talk about
our life in Nelson, New Zealand.
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Allyssa's going to college! A couple of weeks ago she signed up to play softball on scholarship and attend Trinidad State Junior College. Woo hoo! Here's the excerpt:
Broomfield’s Gregory signs with TSJC
1/19/08
Trinidad State Junior College Softball Coach Steve Swazo is proud to announce the signing of Allyssa Gregory who will play softball for the Lady Trojans during the 2008-09 school year.
Allyssa is an outfielder from Broomfield High School and was coached this past year by former TSJC coach Paula Seifried. Allyssa finished her senior year with a batting average of .300 and has a strong arm in the outfield.
“We see some talent in Allyssa where we believe she can be a very good softball player for us,” Swazo said. “She comes from a great high school program under Coach Seifried and we believe she can step into our program and be very successful. Plus we like her strong arm in the outfield.”
You'll see friends John, Star, and Allyssa's sister Kylee, formerly featured on this blog last month, all beaming as Allyssa signs her pledge. Way to go girl.
Now, this year Nelson Anniversary Day falls on 4 February. Each region of New Zealand celebrates as a national holiday its own anniversary day, and so Nelson has this coming Monday off. Not only is it going to be an awesome 3-day weekend just with that day, but SUPERBOWL baby!
GO NEW YORK GIANTS, nothing like your team being in the SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GIANTS ROCK, they are going to KICK PATRIOT ARSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Second, another national holiday, Waitangi Day, commemmorates the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) which is on 6 February each year. So that's a holiday on Wednesday. Toss in a vacation day on Tuesday, and we've got ourselves a nice 5-day weekend!
We have lots of plans in the works over the next few days, so we'll see you next week and we'll have lots to share then.
6 February: Fishing in Marlborough SoundsWe were invited again to go fishing, this time for a full day and out in the Marlborough Sounds. While I was a bit concerned about how long we'd be out, since I get so motion sick, the waters in the Sound are typically calm. Luckily, my newfound cure, ginger pills, worked their charm, as long as I didn't look up or look down too much.
Up early at 5.30am, we headed out for about an hours drive before we put Jade and Chris' boat in the water at Okiwi Bay (see map at right, with red line being our basic boat ride in and out). We went with their friend Steve and his partner Melanie. We took the boat straight out
We were on the water most of the day, with a break midday around 1pm where we beached at a bay inside Greyville Harbour on D'Urville Island (island at the top of the Sounds).
But the morning got off to an early and productive start, as each of us had a rod with three hooks, and first thing everyone caught some fish. Right away, Don had bites and pulled up, but brought up these hideous kelpies that had massive teeth. Both of these fellows came off the hook and went right back into the water. Blech!
But no sooner did we all put rods back into the water than the blue cods started biting. These cod are soooo yummy, are the premier cod found in this area. Chris couldn't have been more excited, he wanted to make out with this big one! The first one caught, and it was a doozy! Everyone was excited about the size of cod we were catching, way bigger than usual.
Blue cod is usually the fish we order when we have our fish and chips takeaway in Nelson, but it's often the most expensive fish. Not anymore! We can go fish our own, but quotas limited us to 3 each.
For the first time ever I grabbed a fishing rod and immediately pulled up this huge cod, woo hoo! That's her (yes, HER) on the measuring board, and she was one of, if not THE, biggest fish caught on the day (if I do say so myself).
We took the boat back toward Nelson after a very productive morning (see above!) and pulled it into Greyville Harbour to look for a spot to lunch (and empty bladders).
The views were awesome and we finally found a beach and pulled the boat in to set up camp where we cooked some of our catch for lunch, Chris went snorkeling and found some paua, and the rest of us 
rested and used the 'bathroom.'
The long break did us good, and afterward we decided to head back again toward Okiwi Bay and do some scallopping (is that a verb?).
The scallops were quite a challenge. Apparently you take a 100 metre line with a dredging thing and net and let it out, and then drive all slow for like forever and then you turn around to bring in the line. Don was given this thankless task, since Steve is recently recovered from a broken collarbone and Chris would need some help. Don brought in the line and then something with a buoy was done (I didn't get the explanation after being told 2x) to do something and such, and then the hefty take had to be brought over the side of the boat and in for finding the scallops.
Apparently most of the time you dredge up scallops, but it is toward the end of the season so we brought up tons and tons 
of gunk and muck and after doing this dredging thing twice, we ended up with only 32 scallops, where we are allowed 50 EACH. 32 total scallops. Bummer! Plus all that muck, it was kinda disgusting and Jade was wondering if she was picking through the bin trying to find a scallop amidst 'everyone's poos and wees' (meaning sewage dumping). That was the line of the day.
What fun the sea fishing is! You can't help but be successful, and with 3 hooks, I often brought up 2 fish at a time, and the girls ROCKED as we were the ones meeting the quota, the boys didn't come to play until too late. Girl power!
At the end of the day we met up at the marina to wash out the boat and filet the fish for everyone. Chris was wielding the knife and then tossing the head and bone out into the marina water, when we noticed a stingray in the harbour waters, hovering around us like the seagulls, waiting for the fish heads. We watched the ray for awhile and realised it had no tail, so was it a skate? But then a MASSIVE stingray showed up and he was super close to the surface and we saw it's massive eye, it was SCARY. The camera was in the car, so too bad we couldn't get a picture, but it was really really gruesome, icky!
AND,
Did I not tell you the Giants would win. WOOOHHOOOO GO, New York Football Giants!! Superbowl winners, that's my team!
Don and I are planning our first vacation outside of New Zealand. Travelling from New Zealand is a bit trickier and far more expensive than from the States. This is the second of three blogs on travel out of and around New Zealand.
Read Part 1 on Currencies and exchange rates.
It is expensive to fly pretty much anywhere inside and outside of New Zealand. Within the country, we’ve routinely paid $150 roundtrip per person just to go to Wellington, a 25-30 minute flight. Christchurch is less than an hour and it can be $200 roundtrip. From Christchurch to Auckland—the two major cities on either island—over about a 90 minute flight can be as much as $400 (one person I know paid), but typically closer to $300 or so. Yes, specials are available if you can jump on them, and you can find flights that are cheaper at different times of the day.
The problem is the monopoly of airline service: there is one carrier throughout most of New Zealand, Air New Zealand. Bankrupt airline Origin Pacific went belly up shortly after we arrived, but Pacific Blue of the Virgin family now flies between the three major cities—Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch.
The closest destinations are the cheapest, as logic would tell you. It's a 2 hour flight between the New Zealand and Australia's closest coasts and one can get reasonable fares for $400-$900 roundtrip, depending on extended travel outside of the major cities; a basic Auckland to Sydney might be $400, but a Nelson to Brisbane or Nelson to Melbourne would come closer to $8-900.
Flights to the Pacific Islands are often on sale, and often very reasonable. It will cost you about $600 to go to Samoa, or $800 to visit Fiji, roundtrip from Auckland. I have seen fares from Auckland to Samoa on major sale at $300 roundtrip periodically, so best to hop on deals if you can. Going to the Cook Islands, or Rarotonga as a main destination, is in the $700 range from Auckland. These three Pacific Island destinations are very popular with kiwis.
If you're flying to the States, expect to pay approximately $2,000 each just for round trip airline tickets unless you hop into a deal of some sort. I saw for the week of Christmas Air New Zealand was offering one-way fares from Auckland to Los Angeles for about $400, that's pretty good!
Expect to pay as much and more to go to Europe, $2,500 and up. You can go one of two routes, so if you have time to stop and smell the daisies, going via the U.S. or Asia/Dubai gives you some choice.
Fares to parts of Asia can be moderately expensive. I'm told by someone who went to Thailand that you can get there roundtrip for $1,000. Auckland to Beijing or to Tokyo is looking to be about $1,500 - $1,800 roundtrip. Auckland to Ho Chi Minh City is pricing at about $2,000 and to Hong Kong or Shanghai about $1,600. I'm sure there are deals to Asia frequently.
For all of these fares, you must add in the cost of flying in and out of a smaller town.
Even though there are options, at least, to travel between the three major New Zealand cities, try travelling from a provincial location to any destination, and tack on hundreds to your roundtrip airfare. You can get anywhere on a 747 from Auckland, but you might pay as much just to get TO Auckland, depending on where you live. From Nelson, most quotes I have done tack on between $100 and $200 per roundtrip per person. But if you live in Southland (Otago, Dunedin, Invercargill) you won't often be able to travel anywhere reasonably, many will tell you. They are just too remote and the populations are too small, so fewer options mean higher costs. Likewise, few airline specials apply to the provincial areas, especially the smaller you get.
One debate we’ve had about planning our trip to Australia is, should we drive to Christchurch and then fly to the Gold Coast, because you can get there directly from Chch, but the ticket from Nelson adds on about $300 total for 2 people. It’s a five hour drive, and it feels sooooo long, I don’t think I can stomach it after a long time away--you just want to get home. But my friend has driven a few times before flying out because the petrol will cost them $100 but the flight costs $300, and that $200 savings is worth it to them. I daresay most kiwis would agree.
One of the world's most celebrated sopranos is coming to ... NELSON! Can you imagine a world famous opera singer in our little town of 50,000? It's happening, and even if you don't like opera, you really have to go along to admire the awesomeness of someone like this in little Nelson. I happen to like opera and bought tickets the first day they went on sale.
On Saturday, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa--who sang at Prince Charles and Lady Diana's wedding in St Paul's Cathedral--will help Nelson celebrate it's 10th anniversary of the Sealord (sponsor) Opera in the Park. It is also Nelson's sesquicentennial ... our 150th year as a town/city. Every year Nelson has welcomed opera stars to a grandstand laid out in a sports field, and Nelsonians bring along their blankets, camp chairs, and picnic baskets to listen to wonderful music outdoors among the stars. In fact, it used to be called Night Under the Stars. For the 10th anniversary of this event, Nelson is really doing it up in style.
Born in Gisborne to adoptive parents, Te Kanawa is of mixed European and Maori descent. She has won a grammy, performed operas all over the world, sang on many occasions for the Queen of England at various events, and was Dame-d (whatever it's called!!) in 1982. Her US debut, MOM (POP QUIZ to make sure you're reading!) was at the Santa Fe Opera in 1971 (the year of my birth) and she sang her last opera in 2004.
This event is being put on by the festivals office at the Nelson City Council and I understand from them that tickets have been sold to people all over the world: the UK, Europe, America, Australia, Scandinavia, everywhere. The town is growing crowded and you can hardly find a hotel room. I see people walking around the CBD with maps--the telltale sign of a tourist--and it's very hard to find a carpark. The place is getting packed!!
I'm so excited to see this legend of the music world, and we'll be picnicking on the grass, toasting with a bottle of wine that, for $15 each, we get to hear such beautiful music by one of 'our own.'
Happy valentine's day to you all!
A fascinating story came out this past week. And so refreshing to hear, like in New Zealand where they are dealing with their colonisation issues, an apology for past mistakes. Hard to imagine, coming from the States where so little has been done by our government to help indigenous people.
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- The Australian government apologized Wednesday [13 Feb] for years of "mistreatment" that inflicted "profound grief, suffering and loss" on the country's Aboriginal people.
New Prime Minister Kevin Rudd [replacing Bush crony John Howard] read the apology Wednesday to Aborigines and the "Stolen Generations" of children who were taken from their families.
"To the mothers and fathers, to the brothers and sisters we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation on a proud people and a proud culture we say sorry."
For 60 years, until 1970, the Australian government took mixed-race Aboriginal children from their families and put them in dormitories or industrial schools, claiming it was protecting them. As a result of the policy, "stolen" children lost contact with their families and heritage, received poor education, lived in harsh conditions, and often endured abuse.
"There is nothing I can say today that will take away the pain... Words are not that powerful," Rudd said in the Australian Parliament.
He said that the apology was the start of a new approach towards Aborigines which included helping them find their lost families, closing pay gaps and a 17-year difference in life expectancy between Aborigines and white Australians. He said new policies would be introduced to provide better healthcare and education to Aborigines. The policy was largely a secret until a decade ago, when a government inquiry and high-profile movie exposed it. That sparked a mass movement, supported by many white Australians, demanding an apology.
Former Prime Minister John Howard refused to offer an apology, saying the current generation should not be held accountable for past misdeeds. He instead issued a statement of regret. Rudd, who defeated Howard last November, made an apology part of his election campaign. Howard's successor as leader of the Liberal Party, Brendan Nelson, supported the apology Wednesday.
Mary Farrell-Hooker counts herself among the Stolen Generations and is now a spokeswoman for an Aboriginal activist group. She is of mixed race and was one of 12 children of alcoholic parents. Her father was in jail for raping her sister when her mother was hospitalized after a suicide attempt. "The police came to the school and told me they were taking me to the hospital to see my mom," Farrell-Hooker told CNN. "We never went to the hospital."
Instead, Mary, then 12, was taken to a series of foster centers. At one of them, she said, she was repeatedly raped by a white "house father.""He would actually come into the room and force himself onto me, rape me, molest me," she said. "If I didn't do what he wanted, he would threaten to do the same to my sister and (threaten to) split us up."
Her parents came to find her, she said, but were repeatedly turned away. She tried to run away but said the police always returned her to her tormentor.
Some white Australians don't believe the apology will bring about reconciliation. "I think Australians will be sorry for many generations for offering this apology now," said Piers Akerman, a conservative commentator. He said Aboriginal compensation claims will now gain new vigor.
To symbolize what the government hopes will be a fresh approach to the future, a group of indigenous Australians performed a traditional welcome ceremony Tuesday of dancing and singing to mark the start of parliament's new session. As the traditional owners of the land which parliament sits on, the performers "welcomed" the lawmakers onto it.
Don and I are planning our first vacation outside of New Zealand. Travelling from New Zealand is a bit trickier and far more expensive than from the States. This is the third and final blog on travel out of and around New Zealand.
Read Part 1 on Currencies and exchange rates.
Read Part 2 on Flying in and out of New Zealand, and living in a provincial location.
When you head off the island, you want to get your money's worth and stay away for awhile. Most people who travel from NZ abroad spend a minimum of 4 weeks away. I've not heard of anyone going far away for only 2 weeks, just not done here.
People are taught young! The 'overseas experience' or OE, is a big deal here. Young people go on an OE for a year or two at a time to work and travel abroad, paying your way.
But what of us older folk who just plain want to travel and relax? My friend went on a trip this year for 5 weeks starting with three days in Los Angeles (to go to Disneyland!), then off to London for a few days, onto the continent for some tours in various countries, to Turkey and ended with 5 days or so in Phuket, Thailand. Guess what it cost her, for those 5 weeks? $27,000. She didn't stay in fancy places, she sometimes stayed with friends; she doesn't eat out a lot; and they didn't buy lots of stuff. I remember Don and I took our first European trip for 3 weeks and spent about US$3,000 on the whole thing, although our lodging was taken care of for 2 of those weeks. Still, that was only 1996.
I was speaking to a financial planner here in New Zealand and asked about travel savings. I mentioned my friend’s $27k trip, and she has several clients who routinely need $30-40,000 for a 2-month stint in Europe. I'm not sure for those folks if it included paying the bills back home too! Can't forget those.
It really can't be said enough that you have to live with the kiwi dollar and spend the kiwi dollar to really understand what the cost of living, and travelling, is for New Zealanders.
Saving money to take a trip is really tough for so many people. The Kiwi dollars don’t go as far, and people don’t make as much salary. If you consider the average New Zealand salary is low $40k, you're lucky to even put any savings away for travel. Your $100/month savings is going to get swallowed up in a day. You may save two years to go on a 4-week trip. HARSH.
People do travel, though, and families make the most of holidays across New Zealand. Camping is HUGE here, backpacking equally popular as many of you might know. Families often have their caravan and take it over the 2 week school breaks or long summer break to a new part of the country or to see family. Lucky for kiwis, they have the most awesome country to visit, so staying 'at home' isn't the worst thing in the world by a long stretch!
In April, we will visit the Gold Coast of Australia, which is about 1 hour south of Brisbane. It's definitely a tourist destination, much like Maui or Orlando, but combined and a lot smaller. It has beaches and some theme parks, lots of quality shopping, and tons of relaxing. Definitely a destination location. But the good thing is those trips are often pretty cheap by their nature. Still, converting to the AU$ is going to cost us about 20% more in money (ie AU$5,000 will really mean $6,000 for us).
Internationally, we plan to explore Thailand, which costs about $1k to fly, but much cheaper to be there ($30NZ per night hotels of good quality). We’ll look into South America, and visit Australia in the coming years since the Great Barrier Reef is excitingly close. If we want to go to the Caribbean or Central America, we'll have to combine with a visit the States I suspect just for cost savings. I keep hearing about Dubai, what a lovely shopping destination! I'm not particularly keen on Vietnam, but Don is. And I think a visit to Tokyo would be cool.
Europe is on our radar, but we are challenging ourselves to not spend tens of thousands of dollars, it would be too much to bear to see that much money go in one trip. We'll likely avoid it for some time because it would suck up so much of our money right now, it's just not worth it. Luckily we've been there a few times. Longer term we will go back and we're thinking a four- to six-month stint sometime a few years down the road, really make it worth it, but only using American dollars! We have that advantage, and it's a huge one.
I can't say enough that we are not in any way complaining about this state of affairs, other than the monopoly of the single air carrier is costly to ALL of us! In fact, we feel lucky to have good jobs so that we can start to travel outside the country. It's sad that the state of travel is what it is, especially for people who cannot contemplate affording it.
Also, I am sharing from the perspective of a person who came from a different country with different experiences and is adjusting to a new reality. Being used to air travel and holiday travel from the States doesn’t prepare you for what it’s like somewhere else. But we still tell ourselves, why go anywhere, Nelson and New Zealand have so much right here anyway. And it's still true!
Opera in the Park was wonderful, really magic. I think Don and I might have been the youngest people there, apart from the kids to age 18 who were dragged along, but oh well!
The week before was entirely frustrating as you could tell the town was full of grey hairs and they were out driving and walking, all SLOWLY. Cars would stop in the middle of the street, and no one could seem to manage a roundabout. Oy, I was so glad the weekend was over after it all. I might have gotten into about a dozen car accidents, including on my bike.
Dame Kiri was magnificent and her 'friends,' cohort opera singers Samoan Jonathan Lemalu, Helen Medlyn and Simon O'Neill -- who was fabulous and had the entire stadium standing with Nessun Dorma -- entertained for some 3 hours.
The big stadium -- well, big by Nelson standards!! -- was packed with people all around. 
Then the main event started -- Dame Kiri walked out and said, "Hello, I am Dame Kiri Te Kanawa." Everyone started laughing as she hardly had to introduce herself!
She chuckled too and then started singing after thanking a bunch of people. She did a variety of numbers, many from Puccini, and in the middle tossed in a few musical numbers as well. 
Medlyn, a mezzo soprano (left on screen), sang Habanera from Carmen and also brought the house down, as she is a local favourite performing at this event most years. She has quite the stage presence and is very expressive. I didn't really care for her voice, actually, and found I liked her least among the stars of the evening. But fun to watch.
My two favourite performances of the evening, I already mentioned O'Neill's Nessun Dorma, but he and Dame Kiri performed O suave fanciulla from La Boheme (which just got tickets to see in May in Wellington!), and it was wonderful!
Dame Kiri is in a bit of hot water at the moment, however. While I didn't see a whit of the opera diva that night -- in fact, she came off almost meek to me on stage, meek! -- the diva is never far away. I heard from a couple of sources two funny stories. First, there was a host for the evening who was announcing songs and performers and she was booted after the interval 
because her Italian pronunciation wasn't up to snuff! Yes, booted by our Dame. Then apparently at the after party, our very own mayor got a snub of his own, and was ordered around just a bit in a not so nice way. Oh Diva!!
And now our dame is in all the papers with this lovely story, which I first heard on the national radio stations ... Kiri is getting BLASTED by everyone for her behaviour and words, not good for young potential opera fans, but when you're a diva, I guess you just ARE.
New Zealand's opera diva and its popera darling perform in Auckland this weekend - weather permitting. But Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has no intention of sharing the limelight with Hayley Westenra.
An icy blast puts the youngster firmly in her place, as Dame Kiri says: "Have you heard Hayley? She's not in my world, she's never been in it at all."
Speaking to Canvas magazine, Dame Kiri decried the popular operatic style that Westenra has taken to the top of the charts in Britain and New Zealand.
"They are all fake singers, they sing with a microphone. People call them up-and-coming, but they never last. They are the new fakes for the new generation."
Westenra would not be drawn on Dame Kiri's comments, but appears to have outlasted the diva's observation that "these people, two or three years and they're gone"
OUCH!
Last Monday, 23 February, started Bikewise week -- which for some reason is really two weeks, ending 2 March -- which is a challenge for kiwis to get on a bike and try cycling, with the hopes that they'll pick it up for health and transport.
That's all fairy tales and pie in the sky, fine. What I really care about is the Bikewise Business Challenge where companies of like size compete against one another for participation percentage and total kms placement. This year, Don is excited too as he can actually participate on a team. And he's going gangbusters!
Above is our progress to date, the Nelson City Council listing that I could fit into a screen shot (there are heaps more people on the list). For the first day I was on top of the pack (as I logged my kms early!), then I drifted down and held position 7 or so for the first week. Then all those dudes you see started logging on and clocking their kms in chunks and VOILA! I sank like a stone. My aim is to take out a spot in the top 10, but it's going to be rough. The top 8 are pretty firm, and so I have to do some craft work to stay in 9 or 10 spot. Wish me luck! I'm DYING trying to keep up, but so far, so good. Plus I actually biked to work on 'bike to work day' this past Wednesday - managed to avoid helmet hair.
As you can see, Don is doing awesome, clocking in extra kms whenever he can, plus biking to work most days. He is second only to that Penny person ... who happens to be my boss! She's scoring well for the Public Comms team. But Don's boss is that fellow in the final spot in the above image, Schruer. He's coming on strong.
Don will end up in 2, or 3 probably. He's putting money on 2nd place. I'm hoping to eek out a 9 or 10 place spot, so keep your fingers crossed for us both!
And next week? We're both going to sit on our asses the ENTIRE week!
