Adjusting!

Managed to stay up until 1am last night! Funny though, still waking up around 8am... poop.
Today is a beautiful day, April 1st! (Happy Birthday Carol-Anne in New Zealand!)
Plans for today are mayyybe to organize our room (haha) and later on off to Nik's for dinner with Kiwi's friends he has not seen in a while.

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: TEA. It means: Dinner. (It had me confused for a while lol)

Quiet day today...

Had a nice quiet day today, had a much needed nap which has been helping with staying up later. I was having a hard time making it past 8pm without zonking out, but here it is, 9pm and I'm not tired. My appetite is still a bit wonky, I'm hungrier mid-day or afternoon but by dinnertime I don't eat a lot because my body thinks its 10pm or later. :P
We went down to the beach today and took a walk all the way down, looking for "sea glass". If you don't know what this is... it's pieces of broken glass, bottles etc. that have been pushed by the waves along the sand, naturally sandblasting them. They come in all sorts of shapes sizes and colors (mostly clear, green and brown so far) and are fun to look for. You can make many different things out of them... not sure what I feel like doing with mine just yet, but my mom wants some for sure. :)

Time to settle down for a movie... hoping our money transfer comes through by tomorrow, we're running a tad tight and I want my macbook ;)

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: LOLLIES. It means: Candies ;) (so cute)

Fush and chups!

Went for my first New Zealand "fush and chups" today LOL ok ok fish and chips ;) And I definitely could not eat it without my Ketchup. That's right, no "tomato sauce" for this girl ;)

We had crumbed snapper... it was delightful! Not heavy like beer battered and the snapper was quite tasty. We walked around while waiting for them and while we were in a store we were looking at something and talking, and a little girl stopped and stared at me. Apparently I sound funny. LOL

Trip to the zoo! (a day late yes... was tired)

So we had an awesome trip to the Auckland Zoo! Kiwi, Kate, Adam, Regan and I packed a picnic lunch and headed to the Zoo. The weather was beautiful and turned out to be 28 degrees!

We sat in some shade and had a picnic, I had a Ginger Beer (yum!) and we had some sandwiches and chips.

We walked around the park and as much as I wish I had a picture to show of a real Kiwi... (other than my boyfriend har har) they are in a nocturnal exhibit so you can't take pictures. BUT I can say that I saw two of them and they are cute!

There were lions and tigers and... no, no bears :P But they had Meerkats! There were random chickens and roosters wandering around too lol... maybe they're food?

After the zoo, we went back home for a wonderful dinner of roast beef, yorkshire puddings, roasted potatoes, beans and peas (ew... I tried one because apparently they are these minted baby peas but alas my hate for peas transcends NZ peas. Sorry!) I was exhausted and had a small nap before dinner, and watched Kiwi inhale somewhere around 12-15 yorkshire puddings. I had 5 :D Yummy!

It was an awesome day and oh so tiring... but the company was wonderful even though I was a tad anti-social at times because I was so tired. I'm hoping to not be so tired soon so today is a rest day where we are just going to organzie our room and chill.

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: JANDALS. It means: sandals. It makes me giggle every time. :P

PS- photo uploading being a pain, will put more later

Day 3, zoo trip!

We are off to the Zoo today! I am very excited for that, so of course there will be lots of pictures! (Yes mom, I am wearing a hat and sunscreen!)
Last night we slept pretty well but woke up early.
I forgot to mention the Cicadas! So on the first day I heard this buzzing non-stop wherever we went. So I asked Kiwi and Kate about it and they didn't notice at first, then realized that it was the Cicadas...
They buzz during the day, mostly just in summertime but at night they sound very pretty, like crickets but better. Apparently they make the noise by rubbing their wings together. One just started up making noise right now! LOL

So, off to the Zoo. Kiwi will have his Kiwi word of the day when we get back. :)

Day 2, continued... back from the beach!

Back from our excursion today, wow is it ever a beautiful day! It started out kinda cloudy but really cleared right up.
So we went out and picked up Nik, and headed down to Muriwai beach. It was quite windy, so any pics definitely show that. It was just breathtaking! The water was tepid so it was nice to walk in, and the waves were beautiful! We walked around and got some nice pics...



It was an awesome time and so beautiful, but the sun started to burn away the clouds and in New Zealand you can burn in mere minutes. If you know me all that well, we know how well I fare in the sun. ;)
So we headed for some grub, and I got my first taste of Burger Fuel. It was om nom-tastic!

Its HUGE! I could not finish it... it was called a "Ford Freakout"... it had lettuce, tomato, burger, bacon, avocado and aioli sauce. YUM! Even the fries ("chips") are yummy.
We headed out back towards home and stopped at a dairy to get some ice cream... and I had it! Yeah, that's right, Hokey Pokey ice cream! It was amazing, and was a testament to how hot the NZ sun is! It was melting faster than I could eat it! BUT SO GOOD!

We walked along the beach eating our ice cream cones (Kiwi taught me a good method to eat it so it didn't get all over me). The sun was beating down on us so he ordered us inside for the rest of the day because I will crisp.
Was an awesome day... time for some relaxing.

Another one of Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: TRUNDLER.
It means: shopping cart (lol)

Day 2 in New Zealand

Got some sleep!! (hurray!)
We were absolutely exhausted but pushed hard to go to sleep at more of a NZ hour than West Coast hour... I believe it was around 9pm NZ time. We had a lovely dinner of pasta with the whole family, and then went for a little walk out in the warm night air (okay so the wind picked up and got a tad chilly so we cut it short lol) but I got to try something that apparently is a mainstay of NZ summer... Feijoa. It is quite tasty. It grows on trees and looks like what chestnuts look like when they are growing (green bulbous) but when you rip them open they have sweet white flesh that is yummy. :)

Then we had a wonderful dessert (I can't remember what it was but it had apples, raisins and cloves in it) with whipped cream. Om nom nom. Then off to sleep!

Today, we are going to try and hit up a couple beaches, so more pics are a must! I am very sad that I left my SD card back at home for my Canon Rebel XSI digital SLR camera but soon I will have one, or it will be sent over in my first Canadian care package from Mom :)

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: ZEBRA CROSSING. It means: Crosswalk. (His sister Kate giggled when he used crosswalk because it's so Canadian) :P

First day in Kiwiland!

Well hello everyone! Yes, I actually have arrived in New Zealand. It was a LONG LONG flight (sleeping pills are a Godsend!), and I can see why Air New Zealand keep winning awards, they are great. Other than screaming children (wanted to claw my ears off)... flight went well.
We got in and through Customs and everything fairly easily, and arrived to the cutest scene of Kiwi's parents and sister Kate holding up a sign (picture to come later) that said something like "Welcome home Ryan and Karinne, eh". It was so awesome. Getting into their car and driving on the other side of the road was realllllllly weird! Mom was right about going around curves though, those really throw you for a loop!
We arrived at Kiwi's parents and unpacked, they cooked us a wonderful breakfast (even the eggs taste different!) and we went out with Kate to go and pick up a car. We went to the mall and I tried some Kiwi candy... "milk bottles, spearmint leaves, pineapple lumps and Jaffas (sp?)". Om nom nom!
Then we decided to head to the beach... it is pretty hot here, about 21 degrees today...



It was really fun but because New Zealand doesn't have any ozone layer, I can't stay out in direct sunshine without sunscreen. But I collected a bunch of shells which was super fun!

It's been a long day and relaxing is definitely in order now. :)

More beach tomorrow and more pictures!

xoxo

PS- Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day is: BOYRACER. It means a douche in a modified car. LOL Apparently the beach we went to is packed with them on beautiful days :P

Off to New Zealand!

Well, busy day today so short post but I'm off to New Zealand! Got all my stuff packed (BIG bags!) and will post when I get there! Hopefully will have a good nap (we arrive 6am on FRIDAY!)... and then off to experience life in Kiwiland!!

<3

3 days until New Zealand!

So here it is, the first post on my blog. Funny how it comes 3 days prior to when I depart, but time has not permitted for any "blog creation" free time. So here I am. :)
Yesterday we went (my mom, my Auntie Trish, my sister and I) to visit my Gramma. It was really great to get to see her. We took her out for a sundae at Dairy Queen.




Last night was my family and family-friends going-away party... it was a blast and I had a LOT of fun. We had TONS of yummy food (thanks to Mom, Lish and Auntie!) and we even made a little surprise for Kiwi...

(If you don't know, it's Pavlova, sitting on the coffee table in front of me.) It was demolished... everyone loved it!

Me and Colin hamming it up!

So today is POURING rain and we are in the middle of our garage sale... it's going okay but definitely could have been better if we had nice weather.

Kiwi and I are hanging out with Jess and Shea tonight, mini golf and some eats! Can't wait. :)