Can you do the hokey pokey with me?

On our travels to NZ, we've discovered a world of new tastes. First up is a fabulous creation called hokey pokey. It's a candy (aka lolly) made of harden honey-comb bits. There is a whole candy bar called 'crunchie' that is a "golden hokey pokey wrapped in smooth chocolate coating". MMMMM wow. Then there's a ice cream version called crunch which is a ice cream with hokey pokey bits inside a chocolate covering. But the all time favorite is hokey pokey ice cream. It's basically vanilla flavored ice cream with bits of hokey pokey swirled inside.
Other favorites... everything with dairy is really good. The cadbury chocolate is great. They have some awesome gummy candies. Rather than a more gummi texture, it's a marshmellowy texture with a softer touch and taste. Oh yeah, there is a candy called 'perky nana' its a bananna taffy lolly with chocolate on the outside. Perky nana-arianna!

East Coast

When you think of the East Coast you think of NY and places on the East Coast of the US. Well the east coast of NZ is the top portion of the north island of NZ. It's a relatively little known and less traveled area that foreigners usually don't venture off to like coming to US to visit say Arkansas or Ohio. The academy team had a game against the east coast men's select side. So we set off to play them... HSR and TAL looked at the map and saw that the east coast is only about 80 km east of us. So we figured, 2 hour or so. Well I guess we thought wrong! The ride back from Routoria (the place we had the game) was 7.5 hours! wow... So imagine a small 21 person mini-bus with 20 rugby guys and one small unfortunate girl. Well it wasn't all that bad. Let's start from the top.
We left on Friday morning. "Be at the academy at 8 AM sharp!" Well 8AM turned into 9:30AM before we actually left Rotorua. So we're on the road. We get to Whanganui (Wh is pronounced 'F' here so Fan-gan-oo-e) at 12. We have a good lunch and some excellent lollies (aka candy). Then we're on the road again. We reach our first stop at 3. Our first stop over for the night is at a Marae (r is pronounced as a 'D' here so mad-i). These are meeting houses created by tribes to have meetings or gatherings but can also be used to have a big sleepover! The only catch is that you have to have a person in the tribe to stay at the marai. Our flyhalf, Rophia, is apart of a Opotiki tribe that has a marae right on the ocean. It was really nice (pictures to come). The is a whole complex process to allow us and welcome us into the marae.

But it's a big sleepover for guys! Pros: cheap, easy, convient, beautiful, and cultural. Cons: listening to fat gusy snore all night long, smelly guys, gross bathrooms, hot body heat, and getting to sleep at 12 and having to get up at 7 cause either they stay up late or get up early. Anywho, we had a good feed. Crayfish (aka lobsters) for everyone 1,2,or 3 if you wanted! raw sea urchin, raw fish salad, and other goodies like veges, mashed potatoes, and some salads. After a bad sleep, we keep trucking. Another 5 hours to Routoria.
So I didn't mention that these towns have populations of around 100-200. Small podunk towns with no more than a grocery store, a pub, a takeaway place, a school, and a rugby pitch. So Routoria was no different.... small, one main street, and lots of wandering livestock in the road. Someoen won the rugby game but the ref was too drunk to tell us. The after party was split into 3 distinct groups: the potheads, the locals, and us. HSR and TAL went home early. We didn't feel like drinking all night with the 18 yr old guys. Everyone managed to get back to the second marae by 8AM to leave. AND 7.5 hours home.
I forgot yo mention that HSR was the ONLY girl basically the whole trip. She did well except for having to deal with guys running around in tighty-whiteys, guys having farting contests in the morning, and the stench of one fellow who everyone agrees needs to shower more often.

Here fishy fishy fishy!

So we've discovered a new hobby. Well more Tim found a new hobby... it's fishing! More specifically fly fishing. The flatmates Juliana, in the picture below, and Steve have been gonig fishing quite often. On our first fishing trip, we went a really nice dock (in the pics) and fished off of a peir. Within 5 minutes, we caught our first fish! It was also Juliana's first fish in NZ and as well as mine! A nice rainbow trout! kinda skinny but good eats. Then 15 mins later I got a bite and reeled him in. BUT not knowing you have to tire the fish out, I pulled him in and he paniced and got away. Sooo sad. HSR was too busy screaming and jumping up and down to actually document the occasion. Sorry folks! But TAL honestly did get a fish... and it was big!
With fish fresh in our heads, we went out again the next day. But this time, 3 hours and NO bites. HSR was pretty bored that time. After that sad fishing trip, we set our again... the next day! This time we went out at night. And TAL must admit it's very hard to fly fish at night. You cannot see your line or fly and you cannot even see where you cast. SO after an hour or so of bumbling around with flies and lines we decided to turn in. Today a coach, Daryl Shelford, told me that his brother caught 5 fish last night in an hour! So I think I'm might try to talk the flatmates into fishing tonight! Sidenote: Daryl played professional in NZ and England and now helps coach our team and the premiership team I'm going to be playing for in NZ. Moreover, his brother, Buck Shelford, is the only New Zealand All-Blacks captain to never (NEVER) lose a match. He is a celeb here... he is equivelent to Joe Montana, a household name! Crazy...

Our first driving experience

Well, Tim had his first opportunity to drive this weekend. On friday we went out with our housemate Steve in search for some good dance music. We had little luck, but we found a little backpacker bar with some 80's music. Steve drove to the bar, but Steve wanted to get another drink, so Tim offered to drive home. Tim didn't drive but two minutes before we saw the flashing lights, he was being pulled over by a cop! We were all a little nervous, wondering what on earth he had done wrong. The cop comes to the window and asks for his license and Tim warns her that this was his first time driving on the right side of the road. From the back I correct Tim by saying "the LEFT side of the road." It turns out she was just wanted to give him a breathalizer test. When Tim passed the test, she told him to drive carefully and let us go on our way. We made it home without any other interuptions. Tim did have a little trouble with the turn signal on the opposite side of the steering wheel. To make his first drive even harder - he was driving a stick shift and had to change gears with his left hand. :)
We made it home safe and sound and had a good laugh!

Fisher persons 

Our flatmate Juliana with his catch! 

Here it is! 

The beuaty of NZ 

Lake Tawawera 

Big mouth but no muscles 

The little guy at the top is the founder of NZ 

How they found New Zealand 

Thinking about going Vegetarian

We've been in NZ two weeks today and I'm begining to think I'll become a vegetarian when I come home. I think I've consumed more meat in these last two weeks than I have in a year. And we are not talking trim meat, we are talking full fat meat on the bone meat!
Anway, back to work

Te Puka

So today was HSR's first day at work. I think she had a fairly good day. The boys weren't around today to hassle her or bother her with things to do. She spent most of the day inputting info about the boys. She also got to hang out with the kiwi girls in the office. She started at 830AM and TAL left for the beach at 800AM. The beach (in Te Puka) on the East coast of the north island was a nice white sand beach with plenty of swash and buckle for all. On the way, we got stopped by the police and our bus license was checked. Appartently our tour bus had a 12 ton license but our bus weighed 13 ton. The way I figure it, the bus was carrying 20 big blooks rather than 30 small japanese tourists. So the bus driver got a fine on we were on our way to the beach. When we got there, we jumped into the ocean to get 'pimmes'. TAL stumbled around in the water and looked busy while the other boys shifted in the sand. Soon he quickly realized that they were getting mussels! SO he helped we picked up 3 buckets of pimmes. Then we went on a run. Oh fun... more running. The academy boys ran about 10 klicks... 10 km. Definately not sweet as. When had a milk session, aka lactate session. 10 tuck jumps in knee high water then 20m sprints in the water. Then 9 tuck jumps and sprint 20m... repeat until 0. The linking hands the same thing. Then lunch. Then home. Now it is 300PM. TAL is completely knacked (tired as!) and HSR is finishing up work. Apparently she is doing the work for someone else who was supose to do it last year! A little behind on the paper work eh?

Oh yeah... rugby

Rugby... forgot to mention about rugby. The academy is a full-time rugby job from 830-400. The first week we did testing (pull-ups=21; prone hold = 5:03; press-ups [push-up] 61; bench [80% of weight] = 22; hand stand push-ups=13; beep test = 12-3 [but that was 2 hrs after getting here!]). So now our days our set... monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday & friday: 830-1015=weight lifting and stability, 1030-1200= 1-1 coaching, 1200-100= lunch, 100-330=training with footwork or fitness. Tuesday and Thursday have extra training at 600 for an hour and a half. We are learning 'how to pass' this week. Actually learned quite a bit about the push pass and spin pass.

On wednesay, we have lactate days. Basically running until we can't run anymore... run sprint run sprint run and then puke, then sprint. The background is that you push your muscles past fatigue and past lactation. Run until your muscles cannot work anymore then push it and sprint. Cleanse your muscles of all lactic acid... SUCKS! So you sprint 500 m up a hill, then jog. Then sprint up again, then job down. Repeat X 5. Then sprint 450 m up the hill, then job down. Then sprint 400m up the hill, then down. Sprint 300m up the hill, and yada yada until 50m sprint. THEN sprint 20m with 20 tuck jumps. Repeat X 10. Sounds imposible? No I can ateast it. WOW more running than i've ever run. More to come...

everything's sweet as

Sweet as = really good!
It's been harding changing to the new words and saying here. Bloody hot! oh yeah hey! It's nice eh? But things have been sweet as. Heather just got a job at the academy. She's working an office girl from 830-330 monday through friday. Which will be nice cause she's been sorta bored with nothing to do. (I am sure she'll be wishing she had off time to 'muck around' muck= fool around). Everything else is good. We're still hoping to get a car soon. We're weighing the options of either buying a nice car (2000-3000 NZ) and get a good resale value back... or a cheap car and run it to the ground (500-700 NZ). We'll be sure to take a picture of that car...

Timer photos are the best 

Duh 

Ba-ba-black-sheep have you any wool? 

Heather & Steve @ hot pools 

Our room 

Living room (nice huh) 

Ahh nature at its finest 

Geo-thermal-what? 

Rotorua from above 

Redwood forest

The past few days

The weekend finally arrived after 4 hard days of: TAL= rugby & HSR= relaxing, reading and sleeping. Hard work for all. On Saturday, HSR and TAL walked about 5km to the town centre to check out the deal with Rotorua. Lots of stuff to do! Many shops, stores, people and sights to see. We mainly tired to get a feel of town and ventured into toursity shops and stores. We had one mission... get hangers. So we found a massive store called "Warehouse" which is basically like a HUGE Kmart. It was funny cause HSR and TAL realized that they hadn't spent a single kiwi cent since they've been here! And spending 3 odd dollars on hangers was hard. But we got through the pain and got hangers along with an assortment of other goodies (shaving cream, water, and some food). We then went to another store called 'Pak'N'Sav'. Oh BOY! Another awesome Costco type store. Imagine a store created like a huge maze wall-to-wall in meat, fruit, candy, and other food commidities. We were a bit overwealhmed to say the least. After quickly getting through there (in 15 minutes), we started our trek back.
On Sunday, we started slow reading in bed until 10 or so and then making our way out for some breaky. Instead of hiking another 10km (~5 miles) we decided to take a short hike around the Springfield area (our neighborhood). We found a small hiking trail and started walking. To our surprise, we found ourselves among herds of sheep! While many kiwis just laughed at us, we thought it was kinda neat (except for avoiding the tiny poops EVERYWHERE). HSR was a bit sad cause they were scared of us. You gotta figure that a sheep's life is simple. Eat, sleep, and then these humans come and shave your body and take your childern, then eat, sleep, eat, sleep. So we gave them the benefit of the doubt and left them alone. Occasionally they baaed at us and pretty much stared.
Moving back in time... Friday we walked to the redwood forest. Rotorua is the center for forest research. So they have a huge timber forest of mainly redwoods. It is awesome! Huge, massive, giantic redwoods (like the ones in Northern Cali) everywhere. Trails and bike paths galore! Time to sign off.

14 Jackson Street in kiwiland

So our house is quite nice and quant. We staying at a house that is set back from the street is a fairly residential area near a golf course. The house is set on ~2 arce lot with a lot of open space with fruit trees, a tennis court, cottage, shack, and a sitting area. It's really nice. The house is owned by Mike Keefe, who is a private detective, he is a really nice and welcoming man. He gives us free rein over the food and TV (yes we have TV with 20 channels including the rugby channel with non-stop rugby action 24-7). The other 'guests' are Steve (a kiwi), Julianna (a Welshman), David (his Moari son), Harlin (an older man who is a child psychologist on sabadical from NY), and us. Steve is a kiwi fellow from Palmerston North (about 3 hours from us near Wellington) and works at the Forest Services doing computer work. We get along really well with him. Last night we went to a hot spring about 30 mins away. SOOOO awesome. Sitting in a huge pictureque hot tub in the middle of the 'bush' (aka the forest). The spring is up river so you can sit close for warmer water (HOT like 90 degrees) or sit further down stream and have a cool 50-60 degree hot tub. It was awesome. Pictures will be coming. Next, Jullian is a Welshman who seems to be an outdoorsy type. He is out-going and talkative but pretty busy with work. Next Harlin is an older gent who just arrived too. He is a child pyscologist who enjoys a good bootle of wine. He is slightly older and kinda wierd at times. Anywho, we all get along and have had dinners together. Mike is a good cook. He cooks up BBQ and lots of salad. The meat is good for TAL and the salad is good for HSR. SO its been a great situation. More to come. TAL and HSR signing out.

Stinky screwdriver

Kia Ora! We arrived with minimal trouble and harm. The only things that were in our way was the airport security and really smelly woman. After our folks dropped us off, we were immediately faced with a predictament. Little did we know that I had a screwdriver in my bag (a screwdriver that screws my removavle cleats into my boots). So after a long investigation and a few security men asking me many questions, they let me go. And off we went... Our seats were the second to last pair of seats on the plane (which was nice because they were 3 of 60 seats that had only two seats next to one another). BUT as we walked back we were hit with a stinky smell of B.O. NASTY this old woman had the WORST B.O. ever. We had to deal with that for 13 hours. HSR was pretty disguised. It was way worst than Rotorua.

And they're off!

7:02 PM PST. 14 hours later. 5:14 AM NZ time.

One small step for mankind. One giant leap for Heather and Tim. The stage is set and show is about to begin. Wish us luck.

Aloha, bonvoyage, cheers, later, goodbye and take care.

In 24 hours...

In 24 short hours, we will be cramped into a 2 economy Air New Zealand plane seats complaining about our backs hurting. Perhaps a movie will be playing or perhaps everyone will be sound asleep except me (Tim) who is plague by insomnia. The bright spots are twofold: 1- We are going to New Zealand, and 2- I have a good book to read. Reality is definitely settling in now... I think buying the traveler's checks and the currency exchange gave me shark a realization that "we are going." All that's left is breakfast at the Robertsons, packing EVERYTHING up except for the clothes we have on, a glimpse of the Super Bowl, and a car ride to the SF airport.
.....
We had a 'last supper' tonight. Anyone and everyone of who's who's was there. Big Ben Wenter, Short-stack A. Larner, Sky-baby!, Cristan, John and Pat R., Robby-rat, Arianna-rat, May and Robert, and (of course) Heat-her and Timmy Lew. The only one missing was Amour Ja-baby (sniff sniff...). Dinner was fun with good conversation and good foodies. The highlight of the night (for me) was Skylar crawling! By the time we get back, she'll be running and jumpingeverywhere.

Standing (L2R): Pat, John, Robert. Sitting (L2R): Skylar, Kristan, Heather, Tim, Arianna, May, Robby.

Pack it up! Ship it out! Move it in!

Log 0002-262005...

Today we are packing and getting ready to depart. We have the dilemma of too much stuff. From toothbrushes to rugby boots to sleeping bags to boots and bras there is just too much stuff. I guess we will be gone for 8 months and have to pack for two different seasons (fall and winter). On the other hand, we've heard much about the Rotorua 'stench'. I heard from one mate that Rotorua smells like farts. While the unpleasant smell of sulfer permeates the air like a room clearing fart, the good thing is you can pass gas without the blink of an eye. Although others have said you'll need to ditch your clothes after Rotorua cause they stink thereafter.

So we get two bags at 70 lbs. and two carry-ons. I hope we get it all in. I have a feeling we'll also be coming back with more than we went with! I can't wait to start rippin those farts all over town!

Rugby (Amour) 'Ja Baby' & Harlie-ballernia.

Tim (in blue shirt) & Heather (in striped shirt)

Tim's getting ready too!

So the long adventure is finally starting. After months of figuring out what and when and how we'd get to New Zealand (NZ) we (Heather and I) leave on Sunday. As I've told many, I'm more nervous now than excited. Perhaps the thought of going is scary or the dread of a new place, but I think it's more leaving such a quant and great place in Santa Barbara. Although the biggest heartache is leaving my beloved doggy, Amour Ja Baby Lew-Robertson-Weisberg- Trijillo-Kuhn. She has no idea the length of time I'll be gone but I promised her I'd be back and would never leave her again... but that is for another blog. All is ready and packed, the only thing left to do is to say my good-byes. More to come from the both of us. N-ZED get ready