HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ERIC TODAY!!!

Story of The Day

The media in New Zealand is like a pack of wild dogs. It seems as if they jump on a new 'scandal' every other day which completely engulfs all media coverage. Except the scandal really isn't something of monumental importance. They just like to highlight a certain issue of the day and beat their point home. Here's a couple examples recently: (1) The NZ Rugby All Blacks Jerseys being sold by Adidas are $220 NZ. Even though this has been the price for a while, all of a sudden every newspaper, radio and TV story touched on the outrageous price when they found out the jersey could be purchased online in the US for half price. The Adidas brand managers even appeared on for an interview on the nightly news. (2) Price of Milk. This became a media target and after plenty of commentator analysis, the politicians jumped on the ride and are to be conducting a formal study on the appropriateness of the price of milk.

I couldn't imagine either of these actually being a large news story in the US. This has to be the difference between a country of 300 million plus and 4 million. Little things get more attention here. So this brings me to todays New Zealand Herald. On the FRONT page (granted not lead story: that has to do with people that leaving restaurants without paying the bill), headline states "Nervous Americans pull plug on waka ride for World Cup Welcome" (A waka is a Maori canoe). The first paragraph reads "They may have the courage to face the world's rugby giants but World Cup minnows the USA Eagles are too nervous to take a waka trip across the Whanganui River." Sensationalism to the extreme. Later in the story it notes safety and security reasons prompted the USA to decline the waka ride. Check out the comical cartoon on the right. We'll see how much coverage this gets in the next couple of days.

The NZ media is always good for a laugh. Now just wait until those USA minnows win a few games at the World Cup! It's 16 days away and the country seems ready to burst with anticipation. Dana and I are going to the USA/Ireland game and NZ/Japan games.


In other activities we visited the Auckland Botanical Gardens this week. Another fantastic public amenity at no cost to visitors. Some of our visitors may be interested in seeing this while in Auckland. Mom Hines and Mom Morris I am looking at you.  Also, Special Birthday Wishes to Pop Pop Morris this week!

Rangitoto

We visited Rangitoto this weekend. Beautiful island in the Hauraki Gulf that surrounds Auckland. It was formed around 600  years ago from volcanic activity and is thought to be the youngest island in the Hauaki Gulf and youngest volcanic field in Auckland. We took a ferry over to the island that provides fantastic views of the surrounding landscape and even saw a few dolphins riding alongside the ferry. 

Here are a few pictures from Rangitoto (try saying this....isn't it fun?) and the ferry ride:

Check out a few more photos at: https://picasaweb.google.com/114612877246919085926/Rangitoto# 

Karekare Beach

Few pictures from Karekare Beach. Western coast south of previously visited Piha Beach.

More photos posted at: https://picasaweb.google.com/114612877246919085926/Karekare#

Living in Auckland

Having spent the past couple of years living in suburbia, it’s a welcome change of pace to be living in a city again. We’re just starting to uncover all the layers Auckland has, but our experiences thus far have been top notch. Some highlights: (1) if you’re an Auckland resident you can get into museums for free. We've been to the Auckland Museum (see previous post) and the maritime museum (Auckland is the world’s capital for sailing). Planning to visit MOTAT this weekend which is a museum dedicated to transportation and technology in New Zealand. (2) Food is easily accessible. Grocery store is maybe half a mile away and within a couple blocks of the apartment is a diverse selection of ethnic restaurants. (3) The library system is amazing. They have a website that you can look up and request books be sent to the local branch. Dana is reading a few books of John Grisham and I’m working on 1491 – New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. (4) There is a bus that runs every ten minutes from our neighborhood to downtown. (5) Several cool parks with stately trees (expecting they will look even better in the summer) and well maintained open grass areas.

Couple of pictures: 



Cornwall Park



Auckland Skyline



One Tree Hill

There was a native tree at the site of this monument when British settlers arrived, however it was supposedly cut down for an unknown reason (speculated it may have been for firewood). And from my understanding there have been various trees that have been planted at the top of the hill that have either not survived or Maori activists have taken down to show displeasure with the New Zealand government. So now there is a monument, and the hill isn’t living up to its name. A little disappointing. However….the panoramic view of the city is fantastic. Not surprisingly this used to be an area of volcanic activity and this cone erupted 20 – 30,000 years ago.

I’ll leave you with two other highlights for us. Dana found some hazelnut coffee. Upon seeing it in the store she tossed it into the cart and flashed the biggest smile I’ve seen out of her in NZ. New Zealanders love their coffee strong, Dana likes her coffee weak and flavored- looks like she won this round! We also found an Asian farmers market with tons of cheap produce. Eleven kiwi fruit for $0.90 NZ. Should have bought more, we’re down to just one remaining kiwi fruit after 3 days. All of you in the US, keep an eye out for my new kiwi fruit import/export business.

This week has been bitter cold with some parts of the country seeing snow for the first time in over 35 years! Dana has the weekend off, so we are hoping it warms up enough to explore one of the islands in the Auckland harbour...



Ring of Fire

Mt. Doom  1 – Eric & Dana 0. The volcano won the first round as we visited on a day that turned out to be a challenge to ski. We braved some strange weather (a mix of snow and rain) that left us soaked to the bone. There was also a cloud hanging around the volcano all day, limiting visibility to just a few meters ahead of you. Less than optimal conditions! We struggled along, losing each other (and the trails) several times due to the visibility, and called it a day around 2 pm. Lesson learned from the experience: check the weather beforehand as it can be unpredictable in New Zealand. Maybe a little volcanic activity would have been good to warm us up!

We’re going to tackle Mt. Ruapehu again in the summer for supposedly one of the best day hikes in all of New Zealand, and see if we can even the score. It was difficult to get good pictures of the volcanoes due to the cloud cover, however we could occasionally get glimpses of the striking view of the three active volcanoes in the area (Ngauruhoe, Tongariro, Mt Ruapehu). All three are contained within Tongariro National Park, New Zealand’s first and the fourth oldest national park in the world. Thankfully we didn’t encounter any volcanic eruptions during our visit, however these three are some of the most active volcanoes in the world. The area has averaged a new eruption every two years during the past two centuries.

After our defeat on the slopes of the volcano, our travel back to Auckland the next day provided for some interesting stops. We randomly followed a sign for thermal pools and ended up in Tokaanu Thermal Park. We didn’t have the bathing suits with us to jump in, however there were some pretty amazing sites of pools of water boiling and steam eerily rising from the earth.  There was also a boiling mud pool that looked like chocolate fondue…but wasn’t.

We also drove around beautiful Lake Taupo. Seems like a popular vacation destination with a large amount of hotels and shopping in the town of Taupo. Fun fact about the lake: it was created by a volcano collapsing in on itself and still has activity occurring underneath the water. We also stopped by Haka Falls (a little north of Taupo).

More photos at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/114612877246919085926/CentralNorthIsland#

Half Way In This World

Check out our neighbor. Sometimes he just needs a little bit of fresh air....