Kiwi Centric - Our journey to New Zealand

Archaeological survey, my ass

2008-08-30T16:04:00.001+12:00

I have retired to the cozy couch under a blanket after a ridiculously long day of survey at Whatipu this fine spring day. A few learnings today:

1. I rented and drove my first car in NZ, right hand drive, through traffic and then ridiculously windy gravel roads. I know kung fu. Err, or wait I know how to drive!! Think left, think left think left. Turn signal on the right, WIPERS on the left, duh!

2. More water is not enough water. Silly rabbit, a little water bottle is not enough water for this kind of work. Especially when the tap at the carpark says "boil or treat all water before drinking" and it's 15k to the nearest store. +1 for thirst.

3. Don't choose the Giant Probe. It's heaviest, and even a bit dangerous when the operator is tired. Even if it does go deeper, it's just not worth +2 exhaustion.

4. Gratuitously large GPS devices that can zap your loc AND check your email while you are also editing your thesis in Word are stupid. +1 exhaustion for each extraneous piece of software on the damn thing.

5. Walking in sand is hard. Walking muddy, shitty flooded trails between dunes and the hills is harder. Somewhere upland, a cow is looking down at me and laughing.

6. When the trail ends in a little swampy lake, for goodness' sake Stop Walking. Don't roll up your pants and try to boulder hop through it with a pack full of electronic gear. Repeat: a probe is not a stabilizer. Heed the warnings of the geese who are honking at you from across the swamp, and Go Back.

7. Oh, Toto. Heed the little dog who barks at you to Come Here, there's Something Cool Here. He will lead you to a lovely little pa with terraces, and show you how to shimmy through the gorse to see the eroding midden.

8. Being someplace beautiful makes everything okay somehow. -25 exhaustion for serene beauty, black sand, bird calls, ocean waves, cool caves and green.

40th Annual Auckland Film Festival

2008-07-17T14:50:00.003+12:00

Well for those that know me, you'll be shocked to hear I am going to see a screening from the festival today. I generally don't "do musuems" and definitely don't do "art". I actually do, but usually in my own way and in accordance with my own style which is usually a lot "less cultured" than what other people consider art.

Any ways, here's the website for those film geeks out there: http://www.enzedff.co.nz/

Some pretty cool stuff playing actually. Today I am seeing "King of Kong" which is a documentary about the world champion of Donkey Kong, which you will probably remember as an old 80s video game.

Recently I have even seen 2 foreign films (and you can't blame Jen as she is still in American Samoa for another week). I saw My Best Enemy (an Italian film and I don't recall the actual Italian name) and Camille Fauque
... aka Hunting and Gathering. I really like the Italian one. Hunting and Gathering was decent but a bit slow for my taste and I didn't feel the motivation of some of the characters.

So who knows maybe I will become an art movie buff, but don't hold your breath :)

Matthew

Coming to America

2008-07-17T14:46:00.002+12:00

If its good enough for Eddie Murphy, then I guess its good enough for me.

I sent out an email to most everyone I could think of, but I am sure I forgot someone.

Anyways, I am coming to the US to visit for 2 months. New Zealand is going great, but it will be nice to visit friends and family again.

Here's the rough itinerary (I have my NZ->US tickets bought, but not my interior travel yet, so this may drift by a day or two)

September 8th Fly to San Francisco from Auckland (Mon)
9 - San Francisco (Jet lag)
10 - San Francisco
11 - San Francisco (Thursday: 1984 club night? )
12 - San Francisco (Friday: burritos at Marachis/El toro and drinks at Zeitgeist?)
13 - San Francisco
14 - San Francisco
15 - San Francisco
16 - San Francisco
17 - San Francisco
18 - Fly to Chicago (Thurs)
19 - Chicago
20 - Chicago
21 - Chicago
22 - Chicago
23 - Chicago
24 - Chicago
25 - Chicago
26 - Chicago
27 - Chicago
28 - Chicago
29 - Chicago
30 - Chicago
October 1 - Chicago
2 - Chicago
3 - Ft. Wayne, IN (Ben Folds Concert) (Fri)
4 - Drive to Boston (Sat)
5 - Boston (Sun)
6 - Boston
7 - Boston
8 - Boston
9 - Boston
10 - Boston (Fri)
11 - Boston - Lots of people going to be in Boston for wedding (Sat)
12 - Boston
13 - Boston
14 - Boston
15 - Boston
16 - Boston
17 - Boston (Fri)
18 - Somers, CT
19 - Somers, CT
20 - Somers, CT
21 - New York
22 - New York
23 - New York
24 - Philadelphia (Fri)
25 - Philadelphia
26 - Philadelphia
27 - Drive from East Coast to Chicago
28 - Chicago
29 - Chicago
30 - Chicago
31 - Chicago (Halloween) (Fri)
November 1 - Chicago
2 - Chicago
3 - Drive to MN
4 - MN (Jen's family)
5 - MN (Jen's family)
6 - MN (Jen's family)
7 - MN (Jen's family)
8 - MN (Jen's family)
9 - MN (Jen's family)
10 - Drive to Chicago from MN (spend night there)
11 - Fly to San Francisco (spend night there)
12 - Fly to New Zealand

SF - 9
MN -6
Travel Days - 9
Chicago - 20
Boston - 13
CT - 3
PA - 3
NY - 3

Sir Elton John

2008-05-15T16:03:00.002+12:00

Well, I went to see Elton John last night.

The tickets were so expensive I am embarrassed to say how much I spent and that was for the nose bleed seats. The good seats were double what I paid. Even in NZD this was still alot. The concert was pretty cool and was on May 14th, 2008 at Vector Arena in Auckland, New Zealand. There was no opening act, which in my opinion is always a good thing. Also he played for about 3 hours which is awesome.

He was very modest and friendly and kept thanking various parts of the audience after each song. He also stopped to sign about 70 autographs before his encore which I thought was cool.

The crowd was pretty old and mellow during most of the show, but people started to get up and dance towards the end of his set.

His set started off kind of wonky with a lot of slow whiny songs and a few old slow songs. Then in the middle there were these 10 minute jazz jams made out of every song which started getting annoying. Most of his songs are cool pop ditties that are over in 3 minutes and leave you wanting more and hearing a 10 minute version that builds and wanes and builds again gets annoying after a while. I think he could have mixed it up a bit more and played the crowd a bit more as well. It is hard to work the crowd when you have to sit down to talk in your piano mounted microphone... maybe he should have worn a headset too.

The piano playing was awesome! The music was awesome, and had some really interesting guitars (including a banjo for one song). All the "traditional" instruments like strings and brass were from a synthesizer and weren't that good. It would have been awesome to have one more band member playing various instruments during different songs. The drummer was the original drummer and for an old guy, kicked ass.

Here's a few songs I remember from the play list:
Tiny Dancer (awesome)
Levon (Awesome)
Daniel (awesome - hi Clare!)
Bitch is back
Sorry is the hardest word
Crocodile Rock
I'm Still Standing
Saturday nights alright for fighting
Candle in the wind
Someone saved my life tonight
Honkey Cat
Rocket Man
Benny and the Jets
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
I guess that's why they call it the blues
Take me to the Pilot
Pinball Wizard

Encore---
Don't Let the Sun go Down on Me
Your Song

=======================
One song I wanted to hear was "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" but he didn't have a female duet for it. Also I remember a few 80s songs "Nikita" and Sad Songs Say So Much which he didn't play. I think he played most of his hits other than those though.

All in all a good show, a chance to see a legend play, some great piano work and some awesome pop music!

Cheers,

Matthew

Wellington

2008-05-14T14:55:00.000+12:00

Hey all,

Just got back from a solo trip down to Wellington for the weekend to just have some fun.
I flew down Friday and had a Reiki treatment. I then saw "Across the Universe" movie at the Embassy theater (that's where they premiered the Lord of the Rings movies... beautiful old theater). I think
I sat in a seat where one of the hobbits sat for the premiere as each seat still has name plates.

I met a woman that lives here with her family via another friend that came out to visit and we have kept in touch a bit. She was nice enough to invite me to stay over at their house and I took her and her 7 year old son to see the Hurricanes play Australia in rugby. It rained cats and dogs, but we all had a blast! She works for Telecom here and they had an office party before the game based on an Austrian theme. Had tons of food and games and stuff. A lot of fun and good to see some people with Team Spirit!

On Saturday I saw two fringe plays and saw another friends Gypsy band play live. That was awesome. He is also in a Ska band which I saw on Sunday morning at the TePaPa museum. I also got to go one of my favorite restaurants "Sweet Mothers" which is a New Orleans style southern restaurant!

Sunday I mostly hung out with some other friends I met via Runi (Nikkie and Frankie) and we had Malaysian for lunch and wandered around Cuba street for a bit and went to a friend of theirs place for tea. Sunday night I found a place called the Malt House which has about 40 different beers and has some really good selection, although nothing from America. I talked beer with the manager for a while and tried a few new ales out, then saw a comedy at the cinema. Also got in a few workouts at the hotel gym over the weekend and lots of walking so all in a great time other than crappy weather.

Cheers,

Matthew

New Friends

2008-04-08T16:03:00.002+12:00

Hey all,

Just a quick update to say Jen and I finally made some good friends here. We met a nice couple from of all places New Hampshire (hi Ben and Kate!). They rock and have helped us meet some other cool people here that they have come across. We also met some other new people via Jen at school. It's weird that she is the more social one for once. I have met a lot of "acquaintances" here, but haven't met a lot of close friends yet.

One thing we have found is that kiwis are harder to get close to. It can take months to a year to lay the basic foundation of a relationship without scaring the other person off or rushing the relationship too much. This makes it really hard to meet people fast and definitely creates a preference towards meeting international people that live or are visiting here.

In other news my birthday is coming up again. For those of you who know me, you know that means birthday "month"! I think I will whittle it down to birthday week this year since I don't have that much I want to do, but I am hoping to go out with some of our new friends for dinner/drinks and then to the international comedy festival in Auckland. Should be a good time. Oh, and Jen is taking me out for a steak dinner. We found a place called the Angus Steak House that just serves steaks... how perfect.

Matthew

Dig two!

2008-03-03T09:30:00.004+13:00

I just returned from my second dig. This one was a lot closer to home, about 2 hours from Auckland. We camped for two weeks in a sheep paddock, and were rained on for several days (though thankfully we did not have to dig in the rain!). Good news: the tent is waterproof. Bad news: I have no interest in camping for months to come. The landscape was incredibly beautiful, and it was sad to think that the area is being turned into a landfill next year.

This dig was with a local CRM firm (associates that dig archaeological sites as a business, as opposed to those that dig for academic research). I have been toying with the idea of working for one of these firms when I graduate.

This learning experience was brought to you by the Business of Archaeology. Not all it is cracked up to be, there are no neat squares and fussing over stratigraphy. A backhoe comes in, scrapes off the turf, and then someone with a probe (big metal stake) runs around as he continues to scrape, trying to identify features and decide whether we know enough to change to manual excavation (ie, get out the spade & trowel and move more dirt). It's a big, noisy, massive dirt moving operation. There are also time and budgetary concerns - not that academic archy doesn't have to deal with that, but in general I feel those excavations are a bit more thoughtful. I'm still pondering whether I really want to be involved in this type of archaeology...

Jen and Matt's photo album

The firm trucked in hot showers, which totally saved the day. The sun was hot (as it always is in New Zealand!), and I turned a new shade of brown I've never experienced before. By the way, I found out that it is not the fault of the hole in the ozone that causes all this hoo-haa about sun exposure down here. It's the massive reflection of the water surrounding this narrow country. So says Dr. Rod Wallace, and he's pretty much an expert on everything.

Tomorrow, school starts again. Gosh, it was a long summer break!

Lake Taupo

2008-02-13T10:59:00.001+13:00

Hey all,

Jen and I just got back from a 3 day trip to Lake Taupo here in New Zealand. Basically if you have ever been to Lake Tahoe it is pretty similar although a bit smaller and most of the activity is on one side of the lake. There is also a lot less mountain/forestry and more water related activities.

We rented a small house for a few days and just tried to chill out mostly. We went to some geothermal hot springs for some soaking, played some mini golf, got some food, watched School of Rock, read books, just basically hung out. It's about a 4 hour drive each way and the trip is pretty. We rented a car for the duration which was nice... also gives us a chance to hit the grocery store without needing to take a cab.

While watching Tv we also saw that Duran Duran is playing here in March! Woot! I rushed out to the local internet cafe the next morning (tickets went on sale the next day luckily) and although I was a bit late, we got awesome seats (Row 23!)
Really looking forward to Duran Duran as they put on a great show. I saw them in
Boston a long time ago and even though the sound was out for 75% of the show, I still
had fun!

Well that's about all for now. Hope everyone is doing well.

Matthew

Trips Ahoy!

2008-01-30T11:40:00.000+13:00

Hey all,

Well sorry for the delay in writing. Things have been pretty quiet here except for a trip up to the northland of New Zealand.

It was fun and very beautiful. Not much as far as cities or towns up there, but a lot of islands, coastlines, etc... We went on the Kiwiexperience bus up to the bay of islands and then took another bus up to the tip of the country where the tasman sea and the pacific crash against each other.

We hiked around a bit, then went to a small secluded beach nearby and swam for an hour or so and had some lunch, then off for "sandboarding" which is like sliding down sand dunes on a boogie board. Jen chickened out and I only went half way up, but it was fun. We had some nice fish and chips for dinner and then the next day we did a 3 hour outrigger kyak tour with a maori tour guide and a few girls from England. Also walked around Paihia a bit (the biggest town up north) and just hung out a bit. Oh, took a ferry over to another small town which is very old and had a nice fish dinner one night. I was queasy the whole trip though since everything was all rocking and motion, crazy bus drivers, waves, kyaks, etc... We even drove the tour bus down the beach for about 65 miles... crazy!

In other news, if anyone is planning a trip out to visit us, we highly recommend doing it in the November, December, January, February time period. This is the best weather here, it is hot summer on some days, and cool others, but over all a pleasant season to visit. Jen is also much more flexibile in this period as she is on break, but she will be doing lots of field work, so plan accordingly. Coming here in June, July, August is the worst time... Also Xmas is totally dead here, so
if you come around that time, plan to be out in nature a lot!

One final trip announcement. I (Matt), am planning a big trip back to the US this year. Jen will also probably come back as well, but her schedule will be different than mine and much shorter. I plan on coming back for about 2 months I think, Probably September 1 - October 31st or something like that. I am currently planning on visiting San Francisco, Chicago, MN, Boston, New York, Philadelphia. I may also stop at a few places along the way. I am probably going to fly into Chicago and drive around a bunch and visit SF via flight. Not 100% sure yet, but let me know if any times work/don't work and hopefully I can stay at some friends places along the way (looks ominously at Anne/Erik, Rob G, Erik W, Rebekah G, Jen's Family, Tim, + others). Feel free to meet me in any town along the way for some side fun!

Cheers,

Matthew

Auckland, ahoy

2007-12-24T18:20:00.000+13:00

Well, I'm back from a month on Tubuai. I have the worst kind of whiplash; every other hour I feel that I might turn round and be in the kitchen in Atiahara house talking with one of the crew again! I was informed this crew was unlike most - the vibe was great and everyone really seemed to enjoy one another's company. Digging was also awesome; we found some things that will change the history books, for sure. Kirch and Green will sit up in their collective chairs, and I couldn't feel more proud of being on a team that causes that.

If you ever have a chance to visit French Polynesia, I highly recommend spending time on one of the remote islands and forgetting about Tahiti. Tahiti is hot, busy and crass. The people of true FP are sweet and so friendly it makes you want to be a better person every day. Of course, I am biased about the island of Tubuai. If you get there, you must look up Wilson Doom and his business 'WIPA' to take you to the big motu. Stop by the Magazin Tino shop and say hi from 'Rob's crew'. Go to the Roulette near the big weather station and have a dinner and a dance with the most soulful and oldest Polynesian woman shakin' booty on the island. Afterwards, go to the platform atop the weather station and watch the stars that are so bright and plentiful it will make you cry. The next day, climb Mount Tai ta'a but be prepared to hit the wall on your climb - this island might look small but it's no slouch in the tramping department.

More later, for now it's xmas eve and I have some santa-clausing to do! Cheers, Jen

It's going to be a BBQ Christmas

2007-12-01T09:08:00.000+13:00

Well its that time of year again. Everyone is ditching work, sloshing through the sleet and snow and shopping like mad. We're drinking egg nog, spiked egg nog, cruelty free/egg free nog and even fat free egg nog. Every where you go there's
xmas music on the radio and lots of overweight guys in red suits ringing bells on every street corner. Well in Auckland, it's summer and people are gearing up for BBQs, picnics and weekends at the beach. It's a weird time warp to be sure, but after living in San Francisco for 5 years I am kind of used to seasons playing tricks on me.

Jen is off in Tubuia (sp?) French Polynesia doing some field work for a month and I am all alone. I stocked up on some old xmas DVD favorites. Yesterday I bought about 6 DVDs and the clerk got a good laugh, it was like "The Holiday, 50 First Dates, 13 Going on 30, etc..." and then Army of Darkness. He thought the "chick" flicks were for my wife or something but I told him those were mine and the others were more for Jen :)

Well I haven't written in a while and the last big post about our move here is one about Food. I feel we have settled in here really well and it almost seems like Canada or America now in most ways. The food is still throwing me for a loop. There are no traditional restaurants, no diners, no family restaurants, no waffle huts, breakfast restaurants, etc... It's mostly either lunch bars and cafes. The cafes serve breakfast and lunch usually and the lunch bars serve things like fish and chips and pies. There are a few fancy restaurants that serve dinner, but most are expensive Italian or Spanish or whatever. Most people here each lunch at the food courts of malls which actually have better quality food than I am used to. The saving grace is Indian. Almost every mall has amazing Indian takeaway (think Naan and Curry but actually good). For about $7.50 US you can get a really great curry, rice and naan. It is really well made too and isn't super oily or greasy. There are a lot of dinner Indian restaurants as well that are about $20-$30 NZD.

It's weird not having places to go for breakfast where you can get a ton of pancakes, eggs and bacon. You can sometimes piece together a meal out of sides, but it costs like $25 to do so. They have more of a British/Irish focus on breakfast like eggs/toast or bacon/french toast (kiwi) or eggs, tomato, mushrooms, sausage, etc.. Lots of weird stuff mixed together.

My big staple in SF was burritos, Thai and Burgers. The burgers here are OK, but no one has Ketchup usually and Tomato sauce (the replacement) is gross. This is great as I have stopped eating hamburgers and actually lost some weight. I attribute this not to the burgers themselves, but to the high fructose corn syrup in the Ketchup. They do have Ketchup here but it is made in Australia (still by Heinz) but with Sugar instead of corn syrup. I feel a lot better after eating it than I used to after eating the corn syrup version. In America corn syrup is in everything and I think we are all allergic to it and becoming fat from it.

For lunches here I need to find new staples. I found a great/healthy/affordable pan Asian place that does all kinds of good dishes for about $9 nzd. I also found a burrito place, but it costs $16 nzd for a burrito at one and $13.50 for a really small one at the other. Then Indian or pies are other options, but I avoid the pies since they are very fattening. It's hard for me to pick up other staples as when I look at menus I just don't see any "real" food on them. They are filled with weird dishes that are overcomplicated and flashy.

One big thing I noted about food/restaurants is that they are trying too hard to be super cool. I heard all the "restaurants" closed like 10 years ago because no one went and everything left is super fancy versions of pub food. So you might get bangers and mash, but it would be a huge pile on the plate with all kinds of garnishes and sauces and little drizzles on the side. Not quite what you want from a pub. To give perspective you can't get a cup of coffee at a gas station but you CAN get any espresso beverage. It is this rampant desire to be fancy and show off. Every cafe has a top chef it seems trying to make things super fancy. I guess I am looking for "basics" and there seems to be a big gap between the lunch bars of pre-made sandwiches and the hyper stylized dinner options.

To fill in the gap, Jen and I eat at home a lot with fresh foods from the local butcher, baker and grocery stores. We can usually whip up a great meal for very little money that tastes better than going out. Auckland is a major city centre though and does have almost all forms of cuisine, its just hard to find the middle range of food options that are pretty much De facto in America and that I surprisingly miss for some reason.

One thing I have learned in the end is that every city or place has its own great restaurants and food and you have to not try to force an old favorite onto a new city as you may not find a good place. For instance San Francisco has good Ethiopian, but instead of trying to find it here were it just isn't, I am better off focusing on something they locally do good.

Take me to your leader, part 1

2007-11-17T18:59:00.000+13:00

Alright, alright school's been out for about a month. Time to stir things up again! A few days ago I decided it's time to turn over a new leaf. I went on a whole-foods only diet, and today we went to meditation class at the Sri Chinmoy center. To add to that, in few days I leave for Tubuai on my first ever "dig". Once again, I realize that big life changes happen as a sort of chain reaction. Somehow it is easier to start changing everything once you change one big-ass thing - like moving halfway round the world.

The whole-food plan rules (a wee bit arbitrary, but then I'm aiming for sustainability over the longer term):
- Food in recognizable forms; nothing processed to the point that I couldn't tell you what it is made of. I quickly realized that not having condiments of any sort would make me want to go off this food plan asap. So I am allowing modest amounts of sauces, oils and butter.
- No sugar or sweeteners, except stevia which is in my Longevitea, and trace quantities that may occur in my "sauce allowance".
- No bread, crackers or any processed product passing itself off as a bread substitute.
- One coffee + an apple in the AM on waking. With cream, if I need a treat.
- Copious amounts of fresh fruit, cut up and ready to eat so there are no excuses.
- Cheese is only a treat! (This one is really, really hard)
- Once or twice a month, alcohol is allowed in moderation.
- Cheating a little bit is okay, just keep to the main idea. Repeat the Michael Pollan mantra: would your great, great, great grandmother recognize this as food?

So it's closing in on one week, and I have to say I feel great. After the first two days, the hypoglycemic-type feeling ended. Then, the god-I'm-so-hungry-all-the-times set in. I can't wait till those go away! Speaking of, I'm famished. Tonight's dinner is black beans, chicken and rice. Ole!

Back to the Auckland, finally

2007-09-24T20:26:00.000+12:00

Well, its almost time to say goodbye to Sydney, Australia. I have been travelling now for what seems like months and our stuff still isn't in Auckland. I think it is at the shipping yards finally, but needs to be in customs for a while still because the forms had changed since the last time we filled them out, since it took so long. Hopefully we will get our stuff in the next few days.

I miss Jen and Lucy (our cat) a lot. Can't wait to get home tomorrow and settle down a bit.

Sydney has been great and thanks again to Ed and Steve our hosts. It was awesome visiting them and having a chance to hang out with Runi and Walter for such a long stretch since I hadn't had a chance to see them in a long time. I really like Sydney and plan to visit again with Jen at some point and who knows, maybe move there if New Zealand ever kicks us out.

The trip here has been great. The best thing is the slow pace. I saw all the things I wanted to see, and a few things I didn't even know I wanted to see :) Steve is a great tour guide and Ed knows all the cool neighborhoods, so between their suggestions we saw lots of great things. I also get a chance to head out on my own and explore a bit which was great. Finally, I have gotten the Rugby bug and have been staying up late to watch the Rugby 2007 World Cup games. I saw the Australia Wallabies play two games, and saw a few other random partial matches including Wales vs. Canada. I finally saw the New Zealand All Blacks play last night. The hard part for us is that the matches tend to be on at 2-6 AM New Zealand time since most of the other countries are in different time zones and the matches are mostly in France or England. Being in Sydney gave us 2 more hours ahead which made it possible. Also we don't really get any stations in NZ. Its mostly fuzzy, so it will be hard to watch any more games there.

Good on all of you!

Cheers,

Matthew

Sydney, Oz

2007-09-10T10:53:00.000+12:00

Hey all,

Well after a whirlwind tour of New Zealand including some fun last few days in the Auckland area checking out Devonport, Mission Bay and Heliers Bay we are finally in Sydney, Australia.

Jen is busy studying and finishing her papers for mid terms at University of Auckland. Fingers crossed that she will do well! Runi, Walter and Me are visiting Ed and Steve in Sydney and arrived last night. They have a cool place and are great hosts! Couldn't ask for a better way to see this beautfiul city.

So far we have just been chilling in their place and nearby neighborhoods. We did a nice walk around their hood last night and head some vegetarian Indian which everyone loved (even me!). Today I am just catching up on some work and we will trek out to see the whole city soon.

More soon,

Matthew

Lamby!

2007-09-04T08:12:00.000+12:00

Hey all,

Our trip is going along nicely. To pick up where I left off, after breakfast at the B&B we got to do a farm tour. They have some cute animals on the farm behind the B&B including deer, elk, ostriches, sheep dogs, sheep, cows, and a few I am probably missing.

After the tour, we hit the road and drove to the outskirts of Rotorua where there is a ton of geothermal activity. We went to Te Pake? which is a Maori historical and thermal activity site. We saw some bubbling mud, their geysers and smelled the lovely smell of sulfur. The sulfur is actually supposed to be good for sinuses so that is nice, but the smell isn't so nice. After touring the grounds and trying to make the most of our $50 entrance fees, we went to see a Maori show where they danced, sang and did some cool spinning moves with balls and wood. Very cool show.

After this we road down to Lake Tapoa stopping at a honey vendor on the way. We breezed through Tapoa but it is similar to Lake Tahoe in California and is where all the locals go for recreation. Jen and I plan to go back sometime soon.

The landscapes and scenary while driving is breathtaking. This is the most beautiful place I have been in the world and to see such variety and contrast is amazing as the scenary changes every 10 minutes.

Here's a link to our photo album.

Soon we arrived in the Napier wine region and spent the night at an RV park. The next morning we went to Napier which is a very cute and interesting town. It is heavily Art Deco oriented as it was rebuilt in the 30s after a major earthquake. We toured the town and hung out on the water front a bit, then went to a few wineries in the area including CJ Fask, Silinus, and Te Mata (I am sure I am spelling these wrong).

We drove about an hour site and stayed at another smaller RV park. Then the next day we went to Wellington. In Wellie, we meat some great people over the last two days. We hung out in Island Bay with Jonathan, Moe, Jetta and their kids who are friends of a friend of Runi's who used to live here and just moved to Key West. Everyone was great and we really enjoyed our time. We had an nice Indian dinner in town and opted for a hotel room as the camper van is getting a bit crowded. Monday we hung out at the musuem and met another friend, Nikkie, who works there in events. We met Suzy in the afternoon who works at the mayor's office. She moved here from Florida about 2 years ago.

For dinner I found a great New Orleans style restaurant, Sweet Mother's Kitchen. They had great food and atmosphere and something for both vegetarians and us carnivores.

Today we are going to drive north for 5-7 hours which should be hard since we have been doing only 1-3 hour trips till now. Tomorrow we drive the last few hours into Auckland and pick up Lucy, our cat from quarantine!!!! Jen is very excited. Then it's Auckland for a few days and finally me, Runi and Walter are flying to Sydney, Australia to visit Ed and Steve!

Hope everyone is well,

Matthew

Our first guests!

2007-08-31T07:06:00.000+12:00

Well, our first guests to New Zealand have arrived. Runi and Walter flew in early Wednesday morning around 4-5 AM. They handled the jet lag pretty well and managed to stay up till 7:30 their first night and maybe 10:30 second night.

Our first day was spent relaxing around Auckland. We walked up to a vegetarian cafe at the top of our hill and got a little exercise and showed them our neighborhood a bit. We then went over to Parnell Village which is basically the next area over at the top of the hill from us. I work here from the Starbucks once in a while and we also use the butcher and baker up their. They are the only area to offer free internet that I can find. The community offers the internet free as a perk to its visitors and residents on its main street which is very nice for me. I work at home most of the time so it gets a bit boring and a change of pace is nice to focus my consulting work.

While in Parnell I worked for a few hours and they walked around with Jen and then we met up in Newmarket which is the other big shopping area near us. Walter got a haircut and we had Sushi for lunch (don't worry I ate in Parnell before coming over at a great place called Pan Asia which has $8-9 lunch specials and very fresh and healthy asian foods).

We got some groceries at Foodtown next, then walked to the Warehouse to get some extra bedding since our stuff has STILL not arrived from the states. Its been 2-3 months now. It is due I think in the next due weeks, or at least that is the latest estimates. It should have been here weeks ago.

At night we had a bit of dinner and just rested around the house and watched a little Outrageous Fortune which is an interesting New Zealand show.

Thursday we got up bright and early, packed and got a cab to the airport area where we rented a camper van. The orientation on the camper van and getting out of the airport seemed to take 2-3 hours, but finally we hit the road south and saw some awesome and very beautiful countryside. We drove most of the day and took the More scenic route 2 instead of route 5. We ended up at lake Rotorua in the evening at our bed and breakfast which is called Clover Downs (www.cloverdowns.co.nz). This is a working farm and B&B and is quite quaint. We had dinner at the top of a nearby mountain after taking a gondola ride up. It was an all you can eat buffet and man did we eat. I think Walter went for at least 7-8 platefuls of dinner and deserts and the rest of us packed it in as well. Next back to the room where we watched a VHS version of Intolerable Cruelty, then off to sleep. This morning we have breakfast and a farm tour ahead of us. They actually have deer and ostrich's right outside our window! Runi's friend is thinking of buying this place, so we wanted to check it out.

The rest of the week we will probably sleep in the camper van and we plan on heading south to Lake Tapoa then on to the wine regions of Napier and finally to Wellington and Lower Hutt to take in the big city and see some of the Lord of the Rings filming locations. We are going to drive back up the west coast to Auckland next week and then hang in Auckland and do day trips for a few days. Then it is off to Sydney (Jen has to stay back for school sadly) to visit Ed and Steve and see the wonders of Australia!

Pictures coming soon!

Cheers,

Matthew

Spring.. er Study Break!

2007-08-28T13:04:00.000+12:00

Well, it's spring break here and a beautiful day to boot. I spent most of the past few days at school studying and writing a few papers due the day we get back in session. School here is very focused on papers, not tests and not much on group projects or presentations. I still find it hard, but more so because I don't know how I'm doing. They just don't give any feedback. Most students in my undergrad classes actually seem frightened of the teachers.

I listened to a doctoral candidate lecture about stone tool remnants in Egypt last week. I'm a little tripped up by how far out on a thread the pros go in archaeology. It almost seems like they're making stuff up. One prof told me to trust the data, but I have a hard time with that when I come from a background in business - worse, marketing! I know you can prove anything with data, and spin it to meet your needs. What's to keep me from thinking they make the data fit their needs? At this point I stop and say, am I really dumb or really smart 8-)

Today's picture is the distal end of a human femur. The one on the left is a normal adult bone, on the right one with severe arthritis. Now you know why it hurts!

Archy

2007-08-15T18:52:00.000+12:00

Alright, suffice to say then that the vices are good here (yay for coffee, and beer for the most part - but don't get me started on the bottled alcopops they also drink!). Now on to something from the History Channel...

Today I looked at pelvises (pelvii?). We were learning to sex individuals based on skeletal morphology. (Sounds pretty smart, eh?) My first thought about school is that I need to enhance my vocab. I speak like some kind of Valley Girl, and now lost in a sea of Brit-speakers it is amplified into quasi-ditz. So I keep a little flashcard notebook. Who'd have thought at 38 (39 in a month, eh?) that I would be transcribing words from the dictionary?

I spent all afternoon reading about Melanesian prehistory. More specifically, non-Paupua New Guinean prehistory after Lapita. I'm utterly enthralled, and can't say how excited I get trying to study. There's so much work that needs to be done in this arena, and scholars of this locale constantly refer to projects yet to be done. I am so ready! Just need to learn my craft. Sigh! If only I could rewind the tape 20 years I could be out there mucking around. Then again, computers were not ready for me at that time...

Mmmm... Beer.....

2007-08-07T12:52:00.000+12:00

Well you knew it would happen eventually. A post specifically about the beer here. Overall, I would have to say I am "pleased" with a bit of longing. Most of the people here have a liking for simpler and less complex beers. They like the lager category of beers and drink pale yellow watery drinks. In my quest for some good ales, I have been all over town and have only found one IPA anywhere. Here's the run down on the major brands, bars and the future.

There are 4 major breweries around here from the looks of it. Lion Red is the BUD style brewery and is very popular. There are 3 others, Monteiths, Speights (Duneden), and Mac's. Monteiths is kind of your run of the mill brew pub style beer. Picture some random brew pub that makes 6 of their own beers. Most of the flavors are good ranging from an Original Ale, to a stout like dark beer and a few others in between. Although they are tasty, they are a bit uninspired and lack crispness and deeper flavors. Also there are very few hops to be found.

Speights is the big south island brewer from what I can tell. They also have a small line of several beers and I would just label them as almost identical in quality and flavor as Monteiths. They do have one brew called Distinction Ale which is quite tasty.

Macs is the crazy micro brew style company here and have outlandish advertising, and their own line of brew pubs around town with cheap (think $5-7) beers on tap. Some of their notable beers are Sassy Red (a beautiful bitter), Mac's Gold, a decent lager that is very popular and the daring Hoprocker which is a super hoppy Pilsner! Mac's is definitely my favorite beer line so far and is available at just about any store and on many taps around the city. Most pubs so far seem to have one of these three lines in them and that's about it. Sometimes they will have Guinness or some other beer to augment it.

As far as places to drink, there are a ton and I have only been to a few so far. Most cafes and restaurants are "licensed" to sell beer and some have BYO. Of note so far is the Belgian Beer Cafe - http://www.belgian-beer-cafe.co.nz/ This place has all the favorites from tons of Leffe on tap to Hoegarden, Stella, Chimay, Delerium, Duvel, Kwak, etc... They don't have an exhaustive list, but rather about 6-10 brewers featured only. They also have very few bottles beyond this. A place like this I would expect to have 100 different bottled beers for what they can't keep on tap, but alas, they don't. Still, it is a great place with good food. Some of the beer is pricey, but if you pick and choose what is on special or less expensive, you won't break the bank. They also have decent food and good atmosphere (at the Ponsonby location at least).

I have also gone to a place called the Cock and Bull. It is styled after a British pub and they had their own line of 5-6 beers. Most of them ranged from a lager draught to a nice wheat beer called Busty Blonde. The real gems were a Belgian style named Monk's Habit which has won local awards. This was $7 for a small snifter but was worth it. The pricey Mayhem was the only IPA I can find on tap just about anywhere unless you count Touys (which tastes like piss and has no hops). $10 bought me a pint of this since it was 6%. The barkeep was super friendly and told me about the local beer scene and let me try everything for free. They were out of Epic Pale Ale which is one of the best beers around here and very hoppy in character. Tastes more like an IPA. I got a six pack on the way home and tried it last night with Jen.

We also found a bar called Shakespeare's which has a custom line of beers from various places. They have about 12 taps and most of their stuff was VERY fruity. Think lambic almost. The stuff was almost sickeningly sweet, so I wasn't overly impressed. The beer did have a lot of character and flavor though and most of the percentages were 6-12%! Most of the beer you buy at the store here is 4% sometimes.
I would go back and try a few more beers here, but if you don't like sweet, stay away.

Jen and I tried out The Bog a few weeks ago which was a local Irish Bar. It was nice enough and is in our neighborhood but only had 1-2 beers from each of the above companies and Guinness. We did see a nice Aussie Rugby match on the tellie though.

None of the beers in Auckland, New Zealand are crazy flavorful, but many are a nice treat for a cold day and there are a lot of middle of the road staples. So instead of seeing a lot of crap on one end and a few good beers at the other end of the spectrum, everything is clustered firmly in the good/competent category with a few exceptions. It's nice to know we won't want for a good a brew when we are in the mood, but I still have cravings for a few brands back in the United States. I think the future for NZ is a slow move to more and more flavorful beers. Over the last few years the trend is starting to show that more people like Ales and more hoppy flavors or bitter flavors. This will hopefully lead to more and more companies like Mac's and Epic being able to take chances on more and more flavorful styles. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Cheers,

Matthew

LB arrives

2007-08-04T19:23:00.000+12:00

Just returned from the cattery, and I'm happy to say Lucy has arrived. She's shaken AND stirred. I was very upset that she wouldn't come out of her kennel to greet us for almost five minutes, and she had this wild look on her face. But then she emerged and said her hellos, and showed me she still knew how to drink and pee.

The Pussy Cat Lodge is a bit "airy" for an indoor cat; the areas are not completely sealed from the outside with a big space up top open to outdoors - save some chain link fence. As you can see, it is chilly here this time of year. So now safe in my warm house all I can think about is how cold my Lucy is tonight...

Cuppa

2007-08-01T08:08:00.000+12:00

So, I'm happy to report coffee here is _excellent_ (with Bill & Ted emphasis). The packaging and ad campaigns are also entertaining. Here's this morning's brew:

Lights, Camera, Action...

2007-07-25T15:34:00.000+12:00

One of the first things I was curious about here is how/where to get my movie fix. There seems to be a ton of theaters around town and almost all of them are playing 100% Hollywood blockbusters currently. We did find one other theater that has a more "arty" flair to it and had all the artistic films in the area and around
the world. The biggest theater chain here seems to be Sky City Cinemas.

So far I have seen 2 movies here. The first was Harry Potter at the Queen Street Sky City cinema. It was a pretty good flick and even though we were in the second row, I still felt that every seat in the house was great. They design theaters here a bit differently and despite the weird padded wall on the way out, the biggest change is that they don't cram the front row up against the screen. They leave a bit of breathing room up there which is nice.

The second thing they do at "some" theaters or showings is do reserved seats. We had assigned seats (B4 and B5) and were expected to sit in them. I know in England they do this as well and there are different tariffs for the various parts of the theater. Here I think it is one price and first come/first serve regarding preference for seating. I am not 100% sure on that.

The second show I saw was Fantastic 4, Rise of the Silver Surfer. The only reason I even saw it was for lack of anything else to see. I had seen EVERY other movie playing here for the last few weeks. This time I went on a Sunday and paid full price ($14.50). Harry Potter was also full price and I think they charge even more on the weekend and 15% more on the Holidays I think. Tuesday is bargain day it seems with a $9.50 price tag. Students and other groups get a small discount but NOT for blockbuster films. I am not sure what they call a blockbuster as every single movie seems to be one.

We found a great site, www.flicks.co.nz, that lists all movies playing and even shows every movie being released and the release date for the rest of the year and includes listings for all over New Zealand. I have been using this to plan out some of my future shows. It seems that movies come out here at either the same time as the US, in the case of the biggest blockbusters, or they can be delayed for a month or two usually. Sometimes a movie will come out even later than that. "Because I Said So" is opening in August and I swear I saw that like 4 months ago. Most of the movies in the next week or two are things I didn't have time to catch in the states and of course the Simpsons!

One other cool thing here is they have a thing called Gold Class. Tickets are about $35 or so. Gold Class is basically the ultimate movie watching experience. Picture being in a room with 30 lazy-boys with a wooden stand next you, a personal assistant to get you drinks and snacks and a big screen with great sound! Now you are starting to get the idea of Gold Class. They have a lounge outside that serves food and alcohol! as well. I can't wait to see a movie this way. Sounds like a great time. I bet the food and alcohol are very expensive though, so Jen and I may "prime" at home a bit, and enjoy a drink in our seat while watching the film. I think I may see the Simpsons this way, but if not, maybe the next big blockbuster.

Outside of the theaters, there is now 2 Netflix style companies which I may have mentioned. One is www.fatso.co.nz and the other is www.movieshack.co.nz - Both are your basic Netflix business model and they charge $19.95 for 1 movie out at a time, $29.95 for 2, $39.95 for 3, etc... So far we have watched V for Vendetta (which was awesome) and The Aviator (pretty good). We also watched a Bollywood movie called Bride and Prejudice which was a lot of fun. Our DVD player keeps choking on the discs though.

We just recently purchased a multi-zone/region free DVD player that is supposed to be able to play movies from any Region. For those that don't know, Hollywood some how insisted on having special Region coding added to all DVDs manufactured. Region 1 is the US (we're number 1, woot!) and New Zealand is Region 4. All geographic areas have a Region code and 6 and 7 are reserved for future use (the moon?). The goal of all this craziness is to make it so that DVD players only play 1 region and DVDs are released with a single region code. Ultimately this makes it so you can't buy a "cheap" disc from another country and expect to play it or have relatives ship you a DVD from another country where it gets released first. The main reason is that since movies can take a long time to come out in some places in the world, Hollywood doesn't want you getting your hands on a DVD (even though you bought it) from another region as it can jeopardize a ton of their local theater ticket sales. Region free DVD players basically take advantage of the fact that it is only a software change in the actual players and hack them to allow you to change regions as easy as selecting a menu. I have heard that Hollywood is adding new special region protection software to the DVDs now to prevent region free players from playing them. And the game goes on and on... don't people have anything better to do? Why don't they just release everything worldwide within a few weeks and be done with it. Any ways, our player has been skipping like crazy on stuff and I am worried it is having problems playing some of these DVDs. I may return it as it may be defective even... hard to say. Usually if you mess around with it enough it will play.

There is also a company called movielink.net that we noticed recently and that allows you to "rent" movies over the Internet and download them. Basically broadband video on demand. Much to my chagrin, they sensed that I was in New Zealand from my IP address and said that they will only digitally rent movies to the US apparently? Does anyone smell a conspiracy here? I suspect Hollywood is behind this as well. I still need to check if our old Netflix account will serve up on demand videos or if Itunes will let us buy a season's pass still...

So in conclusion, it's great to have a Netflix style service here and great to be able to not miss any of the movies that I want to see. The price is a bit more, but all the more reason to try out Gold Class!

See you at the show!

Matthew

Meant to be?

2007-07-24T21:14:00.000+12:00

Our first morning here, we stopped to eat breakfast at the first decent looking cafe we could find near the hostel. Imagine our sticker shock when the bill was over $30! (And no, there were no mimosas involved...) After a chilly night in a place that didn't seem to believe in heat, it was scrumptious.

Notice the day's paper, and the article I opened to. I almost dropped my flat white when I saw it. (In case you can't make it out, it's one of those statues from Easter Island.) Spooky, huh?

Back to the Future

2007-07-19T08:55:00.000+12:00

Greetings, North Americans, from Tomorrow!

This morning I woke up to a very chilly house, turned my head, saw this and thought "Thanks, Dinosaurs!".

-Jen

The high price of cutlery

2007-07-16T08:02:00.000+12:00

Greetings all,

Well it has been a whirlwind few days and I haven't had a chance to post much. We viewed a small house in Remuera last Wednesday night and another group was also viewing the house just after us. They wanted it and were even willing to pay more than us, but I guess the landlords thought we would be a better fit for the place so they gave us a shot at it. We had to decide under pressure wether to get it or not. Jen was kind of opposed due to the cost and the pressure and I was a tiny bit leery of the location being down a 4 block hill from the main road and having spotty bus service. The neighborhood is beautiful though and we have a park across the street, a Kwik-e-mart (not the real name) around the corner and a bus stop 1 block away (although it runs rarely and doesn't go directly where we want). If we walk the half mile hill we are about another half mile from New Market which is a HUGE shopping district and if we go the other direction we get to Parnell which is a ritzy boutique style area with cafes and restaurants.

At the last minute we decided to go for it since the place is just gorgeous and deceptively close to everything.

I will post some pictures shortly and address information. We have spent the last few days shopping to get the essentials for the place. Everything is VERY expensive here. For instance we went into a discount plastics store and the cheapest garbage pale was $30. They go up to $100+ We also found a small plastic chest of bins (think Target for $20 to put your kids toys in).....$399. We went to a fancier home store and found cutlery sets for $1000.00+, A $69 can opener (cheapest was $20) and many other things to blow your fiscal mind. For reference the US dollar is only about 21% ahead of the NZD so 21% off $1000 worth of spoons is still $790 USD. Also I am not picking the most expensive things we found at really expensive shops. Everything is this price. For instance a trip to Alaska at one of their discount travel places was quoted at something like $18,000. I am sure it included lodging but still... wow!

If you are moving to New Zealand keep in mind that things are quite expensive here, especially manufactured stuff and electronics. TVs go for $1500 +, nice furniture is about $1000+ per piece and simpl things like a set of measuring spoons can run $20-80. I recommend filling box after box of EVERYTHING you think you might use here. Shipping a few large boxes of small stuff might cost around $300 vs. buying that stuff for $3,000-10,000.

We have found that almost everyone has specials and sales constantly and if you shop around you can find these deals. For instance groceries and meat seem to be affordable and even though cafes are expensive, there is often a special on the menu that is about 1/2 price. Things like paperback books might run $15-30 a piece but you can get DVDs for around $20 I think. We packed all our DVDs in a case logic case and left the boxes in storage and we converted all our music to MP3 and will probably just I-tunes anything new we want. There is a company called www.Fatso.co.nz that we were going to check out and it is like a www.Netflix.com service. We need to get a TV still and a Multi-Zone? (Region Free) DVD player that will play our US DVDs as well as the ones here. We found a used TV/DVD combo for $200 which is amazingly cheap, so we might grab that.

For everything else we have been using www.trademe.co.nz (think www.Ebay.com) and have gotten a nice futon to sleep on until our bed arrives. The futon will double as our guest bed after that. We also are looking for a desk and won some nice kitchen stuff. It is expensive to pick this stuff up without a car and taxi's don't like to lug a bunch of stuff around. We found a company called www.taxitrucks.co.nz that will rent you a burly man and a truck at $60 an hour + $30 call out fee. This is nice for our refrigerator that we need to get still. Also another company is www.moveit.co.nz with cheaper rates but less flexibility.

Our place doesn't have a fridge and although it has 3 bedrooms and a parlour, doesn't have a dining room and the kitchen only has space for stools at the counter breakfast bar. We plan to eat at the counter and get a nice table for our deck to eat outside when the weather is nice. Weather is similar to San Francisco in the winter, so you can still go outside, although this week was really wet and cold and our place was freezing. No central heat here, so we had to go buy our own. We bought 2 oil electric 5 blade heaters which don't do much at all. One is in the hallway and one in the living room. We have our own fireplace though and have been running it a lot. We actually burned a bag of coal yesterday. I feel so old school all of a sudden. We also do not have a dryer, but do have a washer. People hang their clothes out to dry here almost exclusively and we have some lines on the porch for this. It took my clothes over a day to sort of dry in this weather though, so you have to plan ahead and make sure the stuff is out in time for the sun in the afternoon.

Well definitely some stuff to get used to, but some simple shifts are enough to enjoy the lack of glutenous comfort we were used to. Everything here is very conservation based. All the outlets even have on/off switches which people actually use. The toilets have 2 flush modes, half/full. People just generally try to use less, plan out exactly what they need and buy that and schedule things more. We are used to doing anything we want exactly when we want. Need a taxi, there it is, need a bus, one will be by every 3 minutes, need an ATM or a Starbucks, no problem, 2 on every corner. I think in the long run I will appreciate the fact that things are a tiny bit more spread out here and you have to think about what you want to do more and pay for what you use.

Till next time,

Matthew