Honey hiving it 

Huka falls 

Super Loo! 

Us on Mt. Ruepehu (with Mt. Doom in the back) 

Mt. Ngauruhoe (aka Mount Doom) 

Lull in the storm

Things are slowly leveling out here in NZ. The excitement of being in another country with new people and new things has become normal. While it's not 'normal' NZ is begining to feel more comfortable... like driving on the other side of the road, understanding the kiwi accent, the new strange fatty foods, and reruns of reality TV shows that we've already seen (reality TV is really not that fun when you what's going to happen). But there are some changes, it's getting frigid here. It was 1 degree C two nights ago, rugby is begining to be an overload (HSR see's rugby 24-7 all weekend long while TAL plays rugby and then watches it too), and now that we're mobile, we're seeing much more of NZ. This weekend we plan on going to Hamiliton to see a hot air balloon show. We all went luging last weekend. These tiny little plastic carts that go racing down a hill at top speed. Can be dangerous but also very fun. But overall there's a lull in the storm, soon friends will be visiting and things will picking up. And by the time we sit back to look at it, we'll be sitting on a jet plane coming back home. The only thing we still do is miss our doggie. We wish she was here frolicking in the grass with us too.

Ready, set, shear! 

Only in New Zealand 

How many? 

A prize to the first who names her 

Finally after months of waiting and whinning...

Finally after months of waiting and whinning we got a car! One of the coaches at the acadmey works with a guy who was trying to sell his car. So one thing lead to another and we test drove it, took it into the mechanic, and bought it... finally! The funny thing is that neither Heather or Tim really liked the car or 'got a good feeling from it' but a car is car right. It has four wheels, it uses gas and not much of it, can go 100 kms/hr, can turn left and right, has reverse, but only has four gears. It's a 1989 Mitsubishi Mirage 2-door hatchback with a torquiose racing stripe! Don't laugh... it drives. Heather isn't too thrilled about it and has been picking to bits. No working radio, air leaking from somewhere, a loose tailend, a noise from here and a shake from there. We've decided its sex is definately a girl or a femine guy. Any suggestion of names???

Sheep-o-rama

Running of the sheeps.. sound scary? This past weekend HSR went to the New Zealand sheep shearing championships in Tikoiti. Imagine 2,500 sheep running down the center of a small town. The funny thing was the sheep liked being on the inside of the pack. So the sheep would run ahead, or hop, or push, or jump to the middle of the group. After watching a million sheep wander by, we (Steve, Julian, and HSR) went to the sheep shearing championship semi-final contest. Six competitors battled it out on the stage shearing 8 sheep in less than eight minutes. They are rated on time and on technique. Wool, baaing and sheeps everywhere. Pictures to come...