South Island- Round One

We knew we wouldn’t be able to see all we wanted to on the South Island in ten days, so we planned another one week trip to see the north of the south island. We took the Interislander Ferry across the Cook Strait and through the Marlborough Sounds to Picton last Tuesday. We rented a car and decided to take the secondary route to see the beautiful scenery, but because these damn NZ roads are SO windy, I got a little car sick and wasn’t able to enjoy too much of the scenery. We still haven’t been able to achieve the 100km/hr speed limit here and can’t understand how anyone could even come close to it!



We drove to Nelson for our first night of camping. Nelson is a beautiful little city and is the sunniest place in NZ. We were really looking forward to the sunny weather because we haven’t been as lucky on the North Island. So after fighting with the tent for 45 minutes and almost filing for divorce, we realized we needed to go by some tent pegs. Not sure how it is supposed to be put up without pegs, but apparently is has been done. After this minor hiccup, we went in town to meet up with some Albertan friends! We had drinks on an outdoor patio and caught up on life in NZ. We knew Ryan from Ontario and Edmonton and met his fiancée, Ashley who is also now living in Sherwood Park. It’s always so nice to see a familiar face!

The next day we drove to Motueka which is close to the entrance of the Abel Tasman National Park. We stayed at the Top 10 Holiday Park (a really clean and nice chain of campgrounds all over NZ) for two nights and booked our next two days in the park. The Abel Tasman is a National Park filled with beautiful golden sand beaches, clear aqua green water and really dense rainforest. It is 52km long and usually takes 3-5 days to complete by hiking and/or kayaking. We chose to take an Aqua Taxi to our drop off point and to hike back to the entrance. It was about an hour’s boat ride to get to our starting point which took us by various beaches and around some small islands. We hiked 24km through native NZ rainforest and tons of beautiful beaches. Unfortunately it was raining on and off so we didn’t get to fully enjoy the beaches and the clear aqua green water. The water is perfectly clear when the sun is shining, but I was a little bit scared to take the plunge in the dark water…especially because there are seals, penguins, dolphins and a local shark spotted there last week. The hike wasn’t as difficult as the Tongariro which we did last week, but was definitely getting tougher coming on the end when all we wanted to do was sit down! We hit up the hot tub at the campground that night to relax!

The next day, we had rented kayaks for the day to do part of it by water. We got all the gear and suited up to head out to one of the small islands to see the fur seals and penguins. It was once again, cloudy and rainy so it was pretty scary out in the open water with Aqua Taxis flying by us, but we did make it to the island and stopped to pee. Ha. We unfortunately, didn’t see any seals but we did catch a couple of penguins which are really cute. We stopped on a small secluded beach for lunch before hopping back in the kayak and making our way back before low tide hit. We did beach it at one point, but it was a great day on the water. The Abel Tasman National Park is definitely a beautiful spot to spend a couple of days and we are very glad that we made the extra trip over to the South Island to see it! That night, Ashley and Ryan joined us at the campground for some drinks and fun. Of course, we are now planning on hopefully meeting up with them in Asia at some point too!



We left the National Park and headed back to Picton (where the ferry comes in) to meet some of our Wellington friends to head to Blenheim for the Marlborough Wine and Food Fest. We took a bus to Blenheim (29km away) and joined in on the fun with 8000 other wine drinkers. It was a great day with lots of great wine and food and of course, amazing entertainment. Liam Finn, who reminded us a lot of Sam Roberts performed for an hour and a half. We both loved him! After he finished, Gin Wigmore who is a young Kiwi girl performed. She is becoming really big in NZ and has just signed a record deal in the US so hopefully she’ll break into the North American market soon and you’ll all know what I’m talking about when I say that she sounds so much like Janis Joplin! She has been one of my favorites since arriving in NZ so I was pretty stoked when we got to see her live! We are going to buy both of their albums and send them home with Clement’s parents. I would advise you all to check them both out!



Clement’s parents are travelling on their own for a couple of weeks as well, and arrive back in Wellington on Thursday for a few days before leaving on the 23rd. We also leave on the 23rd to head back to the South Island and finish up our NZ travels, before leaving for Melbourne, Australia on March 5th! In the meantime, we are going to soak up our last 6 days in Wellington and say bye to all of our amazing Kiwi friends. It’s been a blast here in this quirky city and we will never forget the friends we have made and our time spent in Wellington!

NZ Rugby Sevens

We have officially survived one of the biggest parties we will probably ever attend. Each year in February (middle of summer here), Wellington plays host to the New Zealand International Rugby Sevens. Over the past couple of years it has turned into a huge costume party. It's not just any costume party, it is one where 99.5% of the people are dressed up in elaborate costumes that are either homemade a year in advance or ordered online from the US. From the time we arrived in NZ, everyone was on a mission to find us tickets for this event because they sell out in 20 seconds. We were extremely lucky and were able to secure tickets a couple of weeks before the big weekend, which only meant one thing...what to wear as a costume?! We didn't get too crazy, but four of us went as "The Average Joe's" Dodgeball team. I wish I could describe some of the costumes we saw but no description or pictures would ever do it justice. So, Friday morning we wake up bright and early to start drinking and get ready to head down to the waterfront and eventually to the stadium...to "watch" Rugby! The stadium seats 35,000 people and only a small fraction of them actually watch the game (unless NZ is playing, of course). The weather was perfect and we did actually manage to watch a couple of the games on Friday before heading out on the town (well Clement did, I knew that if I went out and had to wake up early the next morning to do it all over again, I would have died). He got home at 4am and we got up at 9am to start all over again. There is this notion that everyone "saves themselves" for Saturday (the final day of the tournament) because "the city goes off!". Go off it did! It was complete mayhem in the stands, on the streets, in the bars and even in the harbour (Ninja Turtles, sperm, carrots, jailbirds, and many others all taking the plunge into the Wellington Harbour). They close off the main street which houses the bars and pubs and have one hell of a street party. The bars have their music playing outside and it was just one sweet as time! (ha, couldn't resist). People were up dancing on the bus stops and everything. It's amazing, because you could never get away with half of the stuff that was going on at home, but here the cops just love it and as long as you aren't disturbing others or property, you're good to go. In fact, there were less than 100 arrests the entire weekend (keeping in mind that 75,000 people went through the stadium in 2 days). Even the people who can't get tickets get dressed up in costume and join in on the partying! There seems to be extreme consequences if you don't dress up and I wouldn't dare risk it on this weekend!


I really wish I could describe the chaos and fun of this weekend, but you will just have to see if for yourselves. Wellington is the only place where the Sevens are taken to this level so if you ever get the chance to come to NZ, make sure you plan to be in Wellington for the Sevens weekend. We promise you would never forget it!



Oh yeah, the rugby. The final game was great as it was between two small pacific islands who can really play rugby- Samoa and Fiji. Fiji ended up winning the tournament, which was great to see and there were tons of Fijians at the game watching their native country take the trophy! Canada competed but didn't make it very far. I suggest us Canadians stick to ice hockey...

Beautiful New Zealand!

It’s been an amazing couple of weeks here in NZ. As you know, Clement’s parents (JP and Elva) arrived on January 25. We spent a couple of days here in Wellington showing them around before taking off on our road trip. We drove to Napier on our first night, which is a small town in the NZ wine region. It was a cute town with tons of art deco, as the entire place was rebuilt following a devastating earthquake in the 1930’s. We spent the night at a beautiful campground that is part of the “Top 10 Holiday Parks” chain that has locations all over NZ. From Napier, we continued up the east coast to Gisborne. Gisborne is the most eastern point in NZ and therefore sees the New Year and each day before any other place in the world. The town was quite dead, but we had a great time all the same. We left Gisborne to head to Rere Falls and Rere Rockslide which are 50km west of the town. It was one of the most beautiful drives we have ever done. Windy gravel roads through untouched farmland and green hills took us to this small area. Rere Rockslide is essentially a natural waterslide where the rocks have formed a huge hill. The constant flow of water over the rocks has smoothed them to the point where you can slide down on a boogie board or tube. It was raining really hard that day and we didn’t stop to buy a tube because we weren’t exactly sure what to expect, but when we got to the rockslide we quickly realized that we could have spent hours there had we been prepared. After stealing a child’s boogie board, Clem got to try the rockslide. Definitely a great time! After the rockslide we visited Rere Falls just down the road, where Clem and JP took advantage once again. We continued on to Ohope Beach and Whakatane where we spent a night and got to see the famous “Moko” the dolphin. This dolphin has been living in the Gisborne areas since 2006 and is famous for playing with everyone in the water. Everyone wants the chance to swim with Moko, but as he has been getting older his behavior has been getting more and more aggressive. When we were at the Info Site in Whakatane, everyone was informing us that Moko was in town and had been frequenting the ocean and river nearby. On our way out of town we noticed a crowd of cars and people stopped on the side of the road…it was Moko! He showed off by playing with a pylon while a couple of kids jumped in the river to play with him. We were happy we got to see him! After Whakatane, we drove a few hours away to Taupo- the skydiving capital of the world. This only meant one thing- someone had to do it! After a night at the campground enjoying the pool and sun, we got up and headed straight to “Taupo Tandem Skydiving” where Clem and JP took the plunge and jumped out of a plane at 12,000 feet. They had a great time, while Elva and I chose to stay on the ground and take pictures of the crazy fools. I haven’t completely counted it out yet, as there will many more opportunities to do so on the South Island. I’ll keep you posted! The adrenalin was pumping so we spent the rest of the day relaxing and preparing for our big hike the next morning.



Clement and I had been to Taupo and the Tongariro National Park on our way down the North Island from Auckland in November but the hike was cancelled due to poor weather. It has been something we wanted to do since arriving in NZ. Our shuttle picked us up at 0630 hrs to take us to the base of the mountain we were about to climb. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a 19.4km trek over a couple of active volcanoes. It was an absolutely spectacular day and definitely our best in NZ so far. We had our packed lunches and lots of TP because there is nothing on the track. We climbed for about 4 hours over various craters and got to see the Emerald Lakes, Red Crater and Blue Lake (once again, Kiwis are very literal!). With only 2 falls and a couple of blisters we arrived to the end point 6 hours and 45 minutes later. It was a great sense of accomplishment when we finished and are so happy that we went back to do it this time! After the hike, we headed back to Wellington and are here for the next few days before heading to the South Island to hike the Abel Tasman National Park!



We have the Rugby Sevens tournament this weekend in Wellington and the city has already started to erupt. Everyone dresses up (they take this very seriously!) and heads to the stadium for 2 days of partying…and maybe watching a match or two. Clement, myself, Terri and Alan are going as dodgeball players. The mullets and short shorts are ready and waiting for us to don them tomorrow morning. Stay tuned for the pictures….

On the road again...

Not much to report over these past few weeks. Clem has hung up his steel toes and high-vis vest in exchange for swimming trunks and flip flops! He finished work on Friday so now we are gearing up to take off on our travels again. We’ve been cruising around trying to catch the sun whenever we can…hasn’t been easy. The weather here has been rather poor. It was rainy, windy and cold for almost three weeks straight. It even got to the point on one day that people were wearing their down-filled winter jackets, hats, and mitts! Ole’ “purps” (my purple hoodie that has saved my life on numerous occasions) was resurrected from the closet for a few days there; I’m hoping to retire her soon though. “Chez Barber Julez” has been hopping with business, with the addition of a second client and one repeat customer (he usually requires my services about every 3-4 weeks). I’m starting to get into the sideburn and facial hair specialties, which I hope will attract local gents. I’ll keep you all posted on the success of the business over the course of our travels.

Today has been a really exciting day for us as Clement’s parents arrived from Charlottetown, PE this morning! It was so nice to see familiar faces walking down the stairs at the airport and of course, to have them here in NZ with us for our last month in this beautiful country! We are going to spend the next two days showing them some of the Wellington sights and then we leave for our East Coast tour on Thursday morning. We’ll be gone for 6 days and then back in Wellington for a few before taking off to the South Island for some more fun. We are hoping the weather decides to cooperate to allow us to get the best out of Wellington while they are in town. Either way, we are thrilled to have them here!

Speaking of Wellington sights, there is a certain someone who we must share with you. There hasn’t been a day since our arrival in Wellington that “Blanket Man” didn’t come up in conversation or brighten our day in one way or another. To give you a brief lowdown, “Blanket Man” is a local Wellington celebrity. He is a homeless man who sits on the street corner in nothing but a small piece of material to cover what legally needs to be covered and of course, his blanket. Everyone knows him (there isn’t one Wellingtonian who wouldn’t know him) and always crack a little smile as they walk by him. He is harmless, never begs, and doesn’t do much other than stomp his feet and chant (mumble) loudly at people as they walk by. Oh, and the odd time you see more than you bargained for but that’s the name of the game with “Blanket Man”. I’ll attach his Wikipedia site (yes, he even has a Wiki site!) to allow you to get the whole story but just wanted to share him with everyone. No matter the day of the week or time of day, you’ll pass him (or at the very least hear him) at the same spot on Courtney Place (the main drag for bars and pubs). He always has a crushed can of “V” (energy drink) and his Ipod….we are still trying to figure out how he charges that thing!?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Hana

Sweet as what?

We can’t believe we’ve been here for 2 months! The time is just flying now and before you know it, we will be off to Oz. We have a really great story to share…. The other day I was browsing in a store here in Wellington, when a girl overheard me talking and after asking if I was from Canada or the US, asked if I knew what the size conversion was for North America. We spoke briefly about the difference in sizes when she asked where I was from…I always say that I’m from PEI, but when she replied that she was from Edmonton, I was so happy! Within 30 seconds, we had plans to go for drinks right then and there. Her and her boyfriend (Scott and Candy are their names) are travelling the world as well. The similarities between the two of us were scary…I can’t even get into the details because it just kept getting more and more bizarre. They have been together for the same amount of time as us, are travelling for 9 months, almost the same itinerary, AND left Edmonton on the same day and time as us (Nov 3/09)! So needless to say, we clicked and thoroughly enjoyed our drinks with them. They came back to our friends’ house for a BBQ and ended up staying with us for a couple of days (they slept in their campervan outside our house because we don’t have an extra bed). They both surf and many of their destinations are because of the surf, so with their extra surfboard and wetsuit, Scott taught Clem how to surf! When we arrived at the beach, Candy pulled out her bikini to wear which just happened to be the EXACT same one I had on under my dress that I bought at a small boutique in St. Albert. We had a good laugh over that one too! We had a beautiful day at Lyall Bay (where the surfers go in Wellington) and where Clem gave it his all! He was out for a while battling the waves and said it was one of the most physically challenging things he’s done. He didn’t get up this time (came damn close), but is determined to do so on his next go-round! I didn’t try surfing this time, but it is something I’ll be trying at some point in NZ or Oz. We had a great time with Scott and Candy and have plans to meet up with them again on our travels. Whether it is in Wellington again, Oz, SE Asia or Edmonton, we will see them again soon!

We also booked what we needed to for our roadie with Clem’s parents when they come at the end of this month. We have rented a car and are going to tour the east coast of the North Island for 6 days, which will include Napier, Gisbourne, Tauranga, Taupo and hopefully the Tongariro National Park (if the hike isn’t cancelled due to poor weather this time!). We will be back in Wellington for a weekend for the Rugby Sevens tournament and then are off to the South Island for a week to do some more exploring. We are going to spend that week around the northern areas of the South Island, which will include Nelson, Blenheim, Abel Tasman National Park, Marlborough Sounds and Kaikoura. We also just booked tickets for the Marlborough Wine Festival on Feb 13th with some of our Kiwi friends and are looking forward to that….it’s going to be O-some (“O” for “Awesome”).

Happy 2010!

Happy 2010 to you all! We had a quiet, but great holiday here in NZ. Our Christmas Eve dinner consisted of Domino’s Pizza and we cooked a great chicken dinner for Christmas Day. We kept saying we were having turkey dinner and everyone was thinking we were crazy. Clem’s work buddies kept teasing him and wishing him luck finding a turkey in NZ (“Good luck finding a turkey mate!”)…apparently they aren’t as plentiful here as they are at home. We celebrated our anniversary on the 27th by donning our matching raincoats and heading out for Thai food. It was a quaint little restaurant with amazing food – and of course it was Bring Your Own Wine.

We decided to spend New Year’s apart this year. Clement went up to a beach house with a bunch of guys for four days to Waiterere Beach. He had a great time! His days were spent on the beach, boogy boarding, playing tennis, golf, and table tennis and you can’t forget drinking his height in beer (drink as many cans of beer that equal your height when stacked). It was funny because we went from spending every waking minute together for the last two months to no communication at all for four days (he had no cell reception). I stayed in Wellington and went out with some of my Irish friends. They are truly some of the best people I’ve met and it feels like we’ve known each other for 20 years. Canada is on their list of places to go so I’ve convinced them to hit up the east coast and especially Newfoundland, where they are more Irish than the Irish!

We had a blast and did some pub crawling around the city. There were quite a few funny moments that I can’t possibly recap, but I’ll try. The first bar we went to was for the countdown, called “Southern Cross”. It’s a bar we frequent as it has an amazing outdoor garden and when it gets chilly they provide you with blankets and hot water bottles. Then we went to a bar called “Havana”, which was no bigger than a small apartment! At one point I was dancing in what I thought was the living room (the small antique chandelier hanging right over my head didn’t help) and asked who’s house we were at!? Ooops, like I said it was a bar. The Irish lassies liked this bar because “it smells like an Irish pub”. I’m sure you are all picturing this place by now. We then went to a bar called “Alice” which is an Alice in Wonderland-themed bar. This place totally tripped us out as we walked through a long hallway covered in red velvet curtains only to find everyone dressed up as the Alice characters! Apparently we didn’t get the memo. The movie was even playing on small, old-school, 13 inch, black and white TVs. Despite the wild partying that was going on at this bar, the tea cups and tea pots on every table made us feel as though we were out for our morning tea rather than NYE! So off we went down the street to “The Big Kumara”, another Wellington hotspot (or so I’m told). We walked in and instantly were up to our knees in foam. Yes, foam. Just like the infamous 1999 Myron’s Foam Parties! This was the point of no return, as we looked like ditchpigs after 30 seconds of being inside. We decided we were going to party like we were eighteen and had a blast doing so. Our pub crawl came to an end at 3am when we realized we couldn’t go anywhere else looking like we did….not to mention trying to tell people that we are 28 and just came from a foam party. The best part was when we walked out of the bar and looked up at the sign…it read: “The Big Kumara- Wellington’s Best Student Bar”. That’s right!

We both feel that 2010 got off to a damn good start and are looking forward to seeing what it holds. Hope you all had a fantastic NYE and wishing you all the best for 2010!

Merry Christmas!

First off, we want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!! It is Christmas Day here and we are enjoying this holiday to ourselves. Our flatmates have gone away for a few days over the holidays, so we are enjoying having the place to ourselves to cook a “turkey” dinner and have a few glasses of the finest NZ wine! You would never know it was even December here, there are no decorations, no lights and barely any mention of Christmas. It is quite weird for us, considering how Christmas is such a commercial event at home. It’s a refreshing change, although we could have used a Christmas carol or two to put us in the cheer. Speaking of Christmas music, we just found a music channel on TV that was playing “Christmas Number 1’s” over the last decade. It was great until it got to the year 2006 when Gwen Stefani’s “Wind it up” came on as the number one holiday song?! It left us a little confused, but we enjoyed the 2000-2005 selections nonetheless.

In terms of other happenings, we had a party at our place last weekend, which was a blast. There are four guys that live upstairs and four of us downstairs so we hosted a “Heaven and Hell” themed party…upstairs being heaven and downstairs being hell. Kiwis take themed parties very seriously, so there was no lack of elaborate costumes. I went as an angel (obviously!) and Clem went as a “she-devil”. It took some convincing, but when six o’clock rolled around and he didn’t have a costume, the idea came in handy and he was beautified in no time. With his tights, boobs, eye shadow, toenail polish and skirt, he quickly became the highlight of the party. I now have some serious material for blackmail in the case that I ever need it….You couldn’t move anywhere in the house and everyone seemed to have a great time, not to mention the Brazilian cocktails that our flatmate Marceu whipped up for us!



Clem found a job a couple of weeks ago and has been working as a labourer with a construction company in central Wellington. He works long, hard hours but is enjoying it so far. He will work until the end of January, when his parents come to NZ for a month. He can be found in a “high-vis vest” and steel toe boots doing what he does best- SWEEP! Yup, ten hours a day are spent sweeping, lifting and moving heavy objects such as dishwashers, “rubbish” removal and hooking loads onto cranes. Needless to say he is beat at the end of the day!

Meanwhile, I’ve been spending my time reading, making copious amounts of peanut butter balls for local potlucks and lazing around on the beach. I had an interesting experience at the beach the other day that I should share. We live about a ten minute walk to the closest beach. My friend Terri and I decided to go for a swim one day after she finished work. They have a raft out in the middle of the water that you can swim to and laze on for hours. So on our walk down I interrogated her on the potential sea creatures that I may visit us in these waters. As some of you know, I am not a fan of anything that moves in the ocean, including any type of seaweed. She assured me that there wouldn’t be much to be worried about and we carried on. After all, the water is aqua blue and crystal clear. So we enter the water and are about hip-deep in this clear water. It was really cold so when she encouraged us to dive in at the same time, I told her to go first and I would follow. So she dives in and jumps up to encourage me to do the same…only I was already half way to the shore squealing like a two year old girl and cursing like a sailor. When she dove in, a HUGE stingray darted out from underneath her!! She didn’t believe me, so I’d like to give you an idea of our conversation (which was more like an argument):

Julia: TERRI, GET OUT OF THE WATER, I JUST SAW A HUGE STINGRAY!!!
Terri: Julia, no it’s okay, it’s just the weeds. Don’t worry about it. C’mon.
Julia: TERRI, I WOULDN’T LIE TO YOU. I KNOW WHAT I SAW!!!!
Terri: Julia, just get back in the water. Let’s go to the platoon. It’ll be fine.
Julia: TERRI, DO YOU GUYS HAVE STINGRAYS HERE? I MEAN, I KNOW YOU HAVE THEM IN NZ, BUT DO YOU HAVE THEM HERE AT THIS BEACH? I’M NOT ^&*$# LYING, I SAW ONE!!!
Terri: NO JULIA! It’s fine. I don’t believe you, you are just paranoid.
Julia: I’M NOT %^&$# PARANOID. I SWEAR I SAW A STINGRAY. GET OUR OF THE WATER, NOW!!

Anyway, you get the point. I was freaking out and Terri wasn’t happy. We sounded like an old married couple and argued back and forth for about five minutes before the two 20-something year old guys down the beach ran out of the water squealing like little girls. I ran over to them and asked what was wrong. They went on to tell me they overheard us arguing and thought I was just being paranoid about a stingray…all because of my accent (we don’t have accents, THEY do). So, I was right all along, there was an official stingray sighting by this Canadian tourist! The Kiwi boys went on a rant about Steve Irwin, who I couldn’t have cared less about at this point! The fact was that a stingray swam right in from of me!! Terri ran out of the water and apologized as we walked down the beach a little ways to watch all of the clueless swimmers enjoy their time in the water! Little did they know….

After too much “googling” and multiple Wikipedia searches, the last stingray stinging that happened at Oriental Bay in Wellington was a young girl in 2006. The reassuring statistics have told me that one is more likely to die tripping over their living room rug than from a stingray sting….whatever!

Other than that eventful day, we have been having a blast! We are celebrating our first anniversary on Sunday and are going to go to a Thai restaurant which is also a BYO – Bring your own wine. It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by, but we were reminiscing yesterday and while 2009 has had its ups and downs, it’s certainly been a memorable one! We are anxiously awaiting Clem’s parents’ arrival when we will do some more travelling. Until then, enjoy your turkey dinners, drink too much wine and as bad as it sounds, have fun in the snow and cold this Christmas! Love to you all!