Kawakawa Bay on Anzac Day

So today was Anzac day, which is the New Zealand and Australian Remembrance Day. (ANZAC is "Australia New Zealand Army Corps) (I think haha)... I wanted to get up in the morning and go to the Dawn ceremony but apparently it's literally at dawn, so we would have to been up at 4am and heading out... suffice to say we slept until 9:30am. :(

Later on in the day, Kiwi's dad Rod was going kayak fishing out in the bay so he said we could come and sit on the beach and stuff so since it was 21 degrees today... why not?!

We headed out to Kawakawa bay and after he got going out into the water, we drove out to a point and climbed down the cliffs (there was a small path) to the water and chilled out for a bit. The scenery was beautiful in the area and I am proud to say these pics were taken by my trusty Canon Rebel Xsi digital SLR... my baby. LOL. I haven't gotten to use her yet so I was happy to get out and get some shots!

After the climbing round, we went and got some ice cream (hokey pokey for me of course) and we laid on our towels and chilled and waited for Rod to finish up fishing. He came back with 2 Snapper which is being cooked for our dinner as I type! (YUM!)

It was a really nice day out and got to see another part of New Zealand I haven't been to yet! On the way back we saw Water Buffalo (too far off to take pics though) that are raised for their milk for mozzarella and yogurt.

What a great day!

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: TOGS. It means: Bathing suit/trunks (is unisex).

Auckland Museum

So I was tired of the last couple days being cooped up in our room recuperating from my whole tooth ordeal... so after watching "Band of Brothers" and then watching "Saving Private Ryan" we decided to go to the Auckland museum to check it out. They have a nice War memorial museum part to it... so we wanted to go.

We wandered around the other parts for a little while, then made our way up to the War memorial. It was really cool, and sometimes made you a little quiet to see some of the stuff. For example, underneath a very large (real) Nazi flag was a collection of about 4 shelves FULL of Nazi pins. It was quite sobering! (And there was what seemed to be a "Hitler Youth" knife which was kinda scary....)

Some of the items in the museum were spattered with blood which made them kinda creepy, but there were some really cool items on display. And if you have watched any form of WW2 movies or shows you recognize them right away... like if you watched Band of Brothers it was cool to see the German Luger.

Auckland museum boasts not 1 but 2 WW2 airplanes... the Spitfire was cool but the Japanese Zero was cooler, especially with the story about the pilot and all his belongings that he donated, as well as on the wall there is a map of New Zealand... in Japanese. The Zero had actually been in combat whereas the Spitfire seemed it wasn't. As well, the Zero was being equipped to be a Kamikaze plane when the ground crew delayed repairs because they knew it would save the pilot's life... and it did because when they delayed, the war ended. Good on them! (Also because it saved other lives as well.)

So all in all it was a pretty good trip.. I love History stuff, especially WW2 history. :)

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: BRILLIANT. It means: Excellent ... (I hear his mom say it all the time!)

Don't like dentists? Don't read on...

So I went to the dentist today (oral surgeon to be precise) for a consult... and he was like "so, I can do this now". I was TOTALLY not in my "I wanna have a tooth yanked" mindset... but decided wtf. So I go in sit in his chair and he comes back with a needle for a sedative and proceeds to tell me "my you have nice veins, do you do sports?" and I replied yes... I guess my veins are so nice that I didn't feel the needle but the sedative hit me fast and the lights started looking funny. He then brought my favorite *sarcasm* freezing needles and started to freeze my face. I will spare everyone the details because I simply don't remember them clearly because of the sedative but I did remember however unfreezing during one part and had to get more needles because I felt it and boy it wasn't nice. After, his assistant or wife or whatever took me to a bed and put me under a blanket and I waited for Kiwi to come get me.
I just woke up after sleeping for a bit, we watched a couple of episodes of "Band of Brothers" (which oddly I have never seen and I LOVE World War 2 stuff), and I fell asleep for a while. Just woke up and I can feel everything and I only get to eat liquid or soft food so I am eating Miso soup right now and get to have potatoes for dinner. :P

Kiwi doesn't have a word of the day. :P

Japanese Night! :)

So we had our Japanese themed night last night, and it was a lot of fun! We dressed up and each cooked (or rolled) our own dishes... Kate and Adam did vege tempura (tempura broccoli is YUM) and a chicken dish, Rod and Deb did sushi and Kiwi and I did "Fat Elvis" which if you have been to The Eatery in Vancouver... it is heaven! It is deep fried tempura avocado with unagi sauce and japanese mayonnaise on it. It was a great hit, the plate was cleared!

We had birthday cake after for Rod, Kiwi's dad and I iced it as a Snapper, because he loves to go out and fish for them :)

After which we played some Speed Scrabble and then poker. In the end, Kiwi was the winner with a full house, Aces over Kings... it was a hand to be reckoned with for sure...

It was a really fun night and I'm looking forward to the next night... Canadian night!!!

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: BONNET. It means: Car hood

Bad day :(

I didn't wanna blog about it, but being as I can barely talk right now, I think typing is the only thing I can do.

I woke up earrrly this morning in pain, one of my crowns had been giving me a small amount of discomfort and seemed to be loose the other day... but this morning my face and gums were swollen and it was definite tooth pain. Kiwi called his dentist right away and they had a space for me 30 mins from when he called so we went in. After a small exam he prescribed me some antibiotics and gave e some options... and the option I am going to take as soon as the infection subsides (yes, ANOTHER kind of infection!) is to get the thing yanked out of my face. Obviously the root canal has failed... and I am not spending thousands more on it for it to fail again and be back at square one... plus its gold! (I have a pirate tooth lol)

So I am currently lying here in bed, waiting for some painkillers to kick in and just scarfed a couple cupcakes because my one antibiotic requires food (and not allowed to have booze! Lamesauce.) and although sweets don't seem like a good idea right now, they damn well taste good, and I don't care. :P

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: CAPSICUM. It means: Peppers (as in green peppers, yellow peppers, red...etc.)

My new toy

Oh right, I almost forgot to show everyone my new toy, in which all of my blogging is done on. :)

Road Trip to Rotorua!

So I have figured out a WAY better way to share my pics of my comings and goings in New Zealand! I am still working out the bugs but a slideshow is a much better way to go!

So we got back yesterday from Rotorua, we had a nice relaxing time and although we couldn't do what we wanted to do originally, we are going to go back soon!

We went to the Polynesian Spa and enjoyed relaxing in the acidic pools and alkaline pools... the hot pools are amazing! Then we had our own dinner we made in our hotel room (Kiwi did it up!) and left the next morning.

All in all, it was a nice time :)

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: PAKARU. It means: Something that is broken.

Good day today!

Well, I'm sitting here typing my first blog on my brand new MacBook, in my hotel room in Rotarua in which we just drove in our new (to us) 2002 VW Golf Polo. We also got a phone (finally!!!) and as much as I wanted a Blackberry, it's not smart in New Zealand. (Too expensive and slower service... so I got an iPhone 3Gs.

We had a shower and are waiting to go to dinner in about 30 mins.

It's been quite the week dealing with my bank about my money... turns out the teller in Canada stupidly put the same account number in the sending and receiving banks so it was messed up from the get-go.

So I got woken up by Kiwi this morning telling me we were going shopping... I thought I was dreaming.

So if you have an iPhone, I have MSN on it as well as ping! lite app so I can keep in contact with anyone in Canada those two ways.

MSN- twistxofxfate@hotmail.com

ping! lite- twistxofxfate

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: BUGGER. It means: Shit! (LOL)

Thai Night! (Ok a few days late...)

I just realized I forgot to post about our Thai night that we attended!
Fortnightly (hehe) there is a themed dinner night, held at a different couple's house, so on Monday we went to Martin and Sharelle's and had THAI NIGHT! Everyone made a dish and brought it over. For myself and Kiwi, we picked a salad, and Kiwi made it (he was so proud of it!).

Kate and Adam made a (from scratch!) beef curry, Martin and Sharelle made a chicken and vege curry, and Kiwi's mom and dad made peanut chicken satays. We also had some little appies as well. It was quite a great spread and everyone did a great job!

We also got to wear ties! it was Martin's great idea... he brought down some ties for all of us to wear on our "thai/tie" night.

Afterwards we played a game called "Quiddler" which was a ton of fun. Pretty close game up until the end when I beat Kiwi for the win ;)

(You can't beat the word "mountainous" when it uses all your cards, is the longest and well, thanks to Kate for the help. )

Looking forward to the next theme night, which is JAPANESE!

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: Going for a BLAT. It means: take a little drive

Yummy dinner!

Last night I had the privilege of having a wonderful dinner cooked by Kiwi's dad, Rod. He went out on his kayak earlier in the day and caught some Snapper, so for dinner we had super fresh crumbed snapper with salad. I am pretty picky when it comes to fish and this was very very yummy! Thanks again Rod :D
Today being Easter Monday we are all chilling, not sure of what we will do today, and we are still waiting for our wire transfer. :( My bank back home was awesome up until now...
We are doing our road trip up to Rotorua hopefully this week when the money shows up!!

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: SWEET AS. It means: An exclamation or confirmation, kind of as a positive affirmation.

Bug Blog!

So today has been pretty chill, what with a nasty sunburn and not being able to be out in the sun with it. So I've had a nap, checked out some sites and then we got called downstairs to see:

A Weta! Apparently these guys can get pretty massive but this was just a smaller one... didn't move while we examined it (yes and I was a little apprehensive too). Just to show you the size, here is the Weta by Kiwi's dad's finger:

After that, apparently there was yet another insect to discover... a Stick bug! I think it's obvious how he gets his name...

Aaah bugs. Woo. HAHA... well they are interesting only because they are not anything like I have ever seen before. I still stood a good distance away just in case they jumped. Apparently the Weta will bite... I don't need that one!

Off for a walk on the beach!

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: BOLLOCKS (I'm pretty sure I don't need to translate it, but just wanted to point out it was used in the paper.. on a headline. Apparently it's not really a swear anymore according to a poll. LOL)

SUN! SAND! SURF! SWIMMING! SALTY! :P

So on Saturday we woke up earlyish and drove out to Nik and Lynn's to meet up with them and head out to Goat Island. We stopped on the way in Matakana for a Farmer's Market, and then just before Goat island for some Fish and Chips. (We had to pay $1 for each portion of Ketchup! Boo-urns!)

So after lunch we headed down to Goat Island. (No there are no Goats on it, it's just a name. I think there was a Chicken Island too around that area... there are a lot of little islands.)

So we found a good spot to chill and jumped in and went swimming! It was a tad cold at first, apparently during the real summer it is warmer but being it is fall now, you have to get used to the cold. Nik did that easy for me by splashing me... :P So Nik, Kiwi and I swam and Lynn chilled on the beach taking lotsa pics for us and taking in some sun.

We also went searching on the beach for things, found some awesome shells, sea glass and played with little starfish. It was a seriously fun day, and I had a great time with Nik and Lynn. we were totally all exhausted and sunburnt by the end, but fun times were had by all. I can't wait to go again! :)

Housesitting and weekend plans!

So we are housesitting for some awesome peeps-Martin and Sharelle. We have to feed their cats (who are black and white and quite meowy lol) and we can watch movies on their awesome projector TV (which we did with the lovely Kate and Adam and a tad grumpy Regan) and we watched a movie and had a couple drinks. Their house is quite beautiful and we are very priveleged to get to spend a little time in it. Kate made us an awesome dip that I don't really know what its made of but is apparently "very Kiwi".
Tomorrow we have plans with Nik, Lynn, Sam and Natalia to go to a Farmers Market and then to Goat Island for some snorkeling. I'm pretty excited, hoping for some decent weather!

Bedtime... but as per a request and because I always do it now...

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: JUDDER BAR. It means: speed bump. LOL yeah that was an interesting one, there are signs for them too! :P