HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We're some of the first to celebrate the beginning of 2011. The past year has been a difficult and rewarding one. I cannot wait to see what the year ahead has to offer!

Cheers,

Matt and Kosette

Weekend at Cape Palliser

Approaching the pinnacles - a hard-to-miss spire marks the beginning.

Look close! A wee little person approaches.

Another wee person. We hike at least 50 meters apart for safety.

Looking back down the valley.

A view of the Putangirua Pinnacles. This is a famous Lord of the Rings filming location, Dimholt Road, or Paths of the Dead, that Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas take in the 3rd movie.

Things got a little crazy.

Photo op.

Put down the camera and slowly run away. You are in the Danger Zone.

Action is nothing without discipline.

Color-blind sniper is spotted miles away.

You looking at me?

Cape Palliser is known for its seal colony. I now know seals for their awful smell.

Cape Palliser lighthouse - 250 steps up the hillside. The 123rd step is a doozy!

Bright enough to be spotted miles away!

Cheese! Don't tell Matt he has a sunscreen mustache.

We spent a quick weekend at Cape Palliser, which is the southern portion of the northern bit of NZ. Highlights include Putangirua Pinnacles, beautiful coastline, smelly seal colony, and a picturesque lighthouse (and no gas stations).

Merry Christmas

Matt's Christmas

Work sponsored Christmas party - for me this means wearing a sweater, which doesn't work well in summer, but old habits die hard. There was some caroling, but Kiwi's seem to prefer Lady Gaga to Rudolph, and dancing to chatting. Christmas in summer makes it a very different experience!

Christmas day I was at the hospital working and experienced the Kiwi tradition of Christmas Fairies - orderlies dressed in drag chasing you with a water cannon while some guy in a kilt plays "Scotland the Brave."

Kosette's Christmas

Meet Caz and James, a Scottish girl and her Aussie partner (not a bogan). Caz works with Matt, but I commandeered her as my friend. While Matt was hard at work Christmas day, I was eating beef wellington with Caz, James, and their family. It was so nice to be part of their Christmas and to be treated like family. They are incredible friends and we are so happy to have them here.

Zoo keeper says...

Don't be a bastard.

Don't worry- it'll feel better when it stops hurting.

Please don't use zebras as disciplinarians.

Return to Possum Mountain

Push a button and they sing "On the Road Again." I think it might be a pun.

What can I say?

It's just like Rear Window except Jimmy Stewart is a possum who witnesses a possum murdered by another possum who buries a possum in the garden, which then gets dug up by a possum - all witnessed by a possum.

Two kinds of weather

Windy as

Rainy as

South Dakota Fame

One of the huts we stayed in on our trip had a stack of old NZ hunting magazines. Much to my surprise one of them featured a rifle company out of Rapid City, SD. Hunting here seems interesting - I think you need a gun permit, but then you can shoot as many mammals as you want. None of them are native, so I guess they all qualify as trespassers.

Conversing with Kiwis

We had our first visitors last month and it made me realize how far we've come with the language. Here are a few examples of our interactions with the native peoples. (Some have been recycled, apologies if it's old news to you)

Ordering a muffin:

Me: "What kind of muffins today"

Kiwi: "Spinach fetter or beery"

Me: "Beery?"

Kiwi: "an spinach fetter"

Me: "What kind of beer?"

Kiwi: "BEERY, strawbeery, bluebeery, raspbeery"

Me: "Spinach fetter please"

Patient after hysterectomy:

Kiwi: "Win can oy have six?"

Me: "What?"

Kiwi: "Win can oy have six?"

Me: "What?"

Kiwi: "Win can oy have six?"

Me: "Six what?"

Kiwi: "SIX"

Me: "Sex?"

Kiwi: "Yis, win can oy have six?

Me: "Sex weeks"

I was just walking down the corridor (hall) and overheard a patient/employee interaction:

Patient: "What?"

Employee: "Audiology is right here"

Patient: "Where?"

Employee: "This is the audiology department!"

Patient: "What?"

Employee: "YOU ARE IN THE AUDIOLOGY DEPARTMENT"

Patient: "Ok"

No one here knows what a gynecologist is, either:

Me: I’m an OB/GYN.

Kiwi: What’s that?

Me: A gynecologist

Kiwi: What’s that?

Me: A gynaecologist

Kiwi: What’s that?

Me: An obstetrician

Kiwi: What’s that?

Me: I deliver babies

Kiwi: A paediatrician?

Me: Never mind

More Signage

This sign is posted outside the maternity nursing station. I like to stand next to it with a "Do NOT make me offend you!" look on my face.

Lake Waikaremoana: Our 1st Great Walk

"We're going over there!"

Moving up the bluff.

Looking down on the lake.

View from the hut on top of the bluff.

Panekiri Hut, our home for the first night.

Cold morning!

"I'm over here!"

"Go around!"

Day two, lakeside destination.

What is happiness? Happiness is: Going tramping, getting to your destination just before it starts raining, having a fisherman pull up on a boat and offer some freshly caught and smoked trout because he had more than he could eat. Yup, that about sums happiness up.

Yummo!

Waiopoa Hut, home for the second night.

She's in the Danger Zone!

NZ weather can be very extreme at times. Just before we arrived at Lake Waikaremoana, there had been some serious rain. This bridge had been partially swept away.

Third night, third hut.

We cleaned up in the lake - very refreshing (read: FREEZING!)

Boat ferry back to the car: next stop Napier B&B for dinner and a real bed!