Christmas in the summer

Nice that Christmas brought some snow to Colorado, far from snow down here in New Zealand. Christmas in the southern hemisphere is filled with BBQ and days on the beach and nice weather, even though Santa still insists on a heavy winter coat. On Christmas Eve I had to work until our pub closed then I joined a few Irish kids for midnight mass. I was amazed that the entire church was packed with all types of people enjoying a Christmas service. Many of the people didn’t even speak English, but I guess that’s no bother because I barely understood anything that the priest said. Maybe I just did not listen. For some crazy reason I didn’t understand I did enjoy it though.

On Christmas day I joined my flat-mates and their family for a Christmas lunch at their aunt and uncles house. It was an amazing house filled with LCD TVs and Italian sports cars in the garage. More impressively was how much I appreciated being around a good family dynamic on Christmas day. They have a large family that was so welcoming to me and provided a very comfortable feeling. They even got me some presents! I learned some New Zealand traditions and played a bit of backyard cricket. They also had me over for a bbq where we got to enjoy some venison steaks from the deer John shoot on my earlier trip to D’urville. I never had venison until I moved to NZ and I think I have been missing out. Even though I could have never predicted how much I would miss home around the holidays, the people down here have done a great job to make me feel at home.

Two of my flat-mates moved out today so last night we went out to one of only few Mexican restaurants then bowling after. The food was good, but still a far cry from some good dirty Colorado Mexican food. What I would give for some good green chili.

I only have a month left in wellington before I move north and start teaching. I am so excited to start teaching. I got both the textbooks I will be teaching out of and have started to learn a bit myself. I am not that excited to leave Wellington though. After being in NZ for three months I am starting to feel at home and have good group of friends. I not too stoked to move away from what I know again. I still have these friends and I realize that its not that far of a drive down here if I want to visit. Napier will be good for fishing and surfing, and I guess teaching.

Where am I?

Like most 25 year olds I have not yet given up on the fact that I need to get the most out of life. So after 24 years of playing life by the books I decided to close the book and buy a one-way plane ticket to New Zealand. Since my mom first told me that she did here student teaching in England I have always wanted to teach somewhere abroad and different. After a year of teaching in white suburbia Denver, the place I have known my whole life I decided to leave. Limited to English speaking countries I decided to go somewhere I could do something I have always wanted to do…SURF! but not give up what I have always loved… snowboarding. Turns out that there are these two volcanic islands in the south pacific that could provide me both and… oh yeah, turns out that they were in desperate need of physics teachers.

After enjoying a long summer of constant fun and bad decisions I got on a plane in mid September bound for Auckland. With out a place to stay or really anything figured out, I literally started from square one and walked off the plane. I had no idea what to do. I rented a car for the first day and spent the next two weeks staying in a camper van and random backpackers trying to figure out how the hell to start a new life. I knew my limited funding was going to run out quick so I got flat and a bartending job in Wellington and thought I could figure it out from there. Not being the sharpest knife, along with the laid back atmosphere down here I took me a while but I finally started to put stuff together. Got my teaching license, visa, tax number, drivers license and most importantly a teaching job for next year. Working in hospitality in a nontipping culture blows, but it will do for the summer.

My teaching job is in Napier, a costal town about four hours north of Wellington and doesn’t start until the end of January. I plan on keeping my job bartending at the Irish pub and living in Wellington throughout the summer and will move up north before school starts. I am enjoying Wellington and have made some good friends here and expect my second summer this year to also be full of fun and bad decisions. Wellington is the capital and has two of the countries eight universities that leads to a fairly young population and some good night life.

Back to one of the main reason I came down here, Surfing, I have looked into it but without a car or a surfboard it is hard and expensive to do, plus the water is still freezing. I was going to go rent a surfboard on my birthday and give it a go, but the lack of waves that day made it pointless. I hope to save up money and buy both a car and a surfboard this summer. Napier is close to some better surf breaks, so I am hoping for some weekend surf trips through the school year. Snowboarding doesn’t start until July. I have a school holiday from the 2^nd-19^th July and am planning a trip to the south island if any of you Americans would like to join. They also have a few ski fields on the North Island that will be close enough for weekends and sick days.

In reality I have not done much. I haven’t surfed, I haven’t snowboarded, I don’t know if I am getting the most out of life but, I sure am enjoying myself and learning heaps. Out of all the things that I have learned on this adventure the most important is that no matter what I do or what situation I place myself in, life seams to work out. Life is kind of simple that way. Happiness comes from my attitude towards new situations and if I try to learn from new thing I become happier. I have also learned some funny lingo like “Sweet As!”, “Heaps” and other weird kiwi word. I’m sure the surfing culture will add to my immature vocabulary.

Traditional New Zealand Fence Party

No mater what stage of life you are at weather it be college, after college or a crazy journey to New Zealand it is always important to have some good friends to share a reflect on your current voyage. When I moved to Wellington I found a flat on “trade me”, New Zealand’s form of Craig’s List, with a flat-mate that enjoy snowboarding and skateboarding and various other activities that I also have been known to like. In turn all of his friends had similar interest and have seamed to be extremely easy to get along with.

The first night I hung out with this new group of kids was at a party for a local boxing match showing on TV. Most of the group, composed of Wellington’s finest tradesmen, found it necessary to construct a grandstand of coaches to allow maximum viewing of the fight, along with a spinning wheel that would allow destiny to choose your next drink or simply condone you to taping you hand to your face for a half hour. Needless to say I enjoyed this groups creativity and dedication towards partying. There is nothing like watching someone with a hand duck taped to their face work so hard to continue to drink. I new that it would be easy for me to get along with such a light hearted group.

I think the things New Zealanders find most interesting about me is how I assume that everything I see down here is large part of the New Zealand customs. When in reality it is usually just a simple part of the 20 something culture enjoying life and would be similar in lots of places in the world. I just notice any small difference and think that I have discovered some cultural phenomenon when in reality it is miniscule or nothing at all. In reality the most fascinating thing is how culturally similar we are and I would hopefully find a group of friends like this anywhere I lived. Due to the fact that I assume that everything is some huge cultural difference between NZ and the USA most the kids I hang out with like to poke fun at my ignorance by saying that everything is traditional New Zealand… whatever. So at a spring BBQ I attended all of the guys climbed up and sat on the fence to catch the last of the sun as it dropped over the horizon and drink some beers. Trying my best to fit in, I joined them and was informed that this was a “Traditional New Zealand fence Party”. I assumed that they were telling the truth but they were just exploiting my lack of knowledge and poking fun. In my defense we were roasting a full baby lamb at the bbq, which I have never done in the states. Since then there have been many Traditional NZ things: barrel fires, skate sessions, and rooftop parties.

On the 14^th of November the New Zealand All Whites had there first opportunity to make it to the soccer world cup since 1982. My flat mates had an extra ticket and invited me to enjoy the intense energy of Westpac stadium. After a header goal and a saved P.K. the All Whites beat Bahrain in a 1-0 victory and won a ticket to the 2010 world cup in South Africa. The atmosphere in the stadium made this one of the most enjoyable sporting events I have ever been to.

You know you are on an adventure when you hope in a old Toyota van that has been converted into a camper, with a 20 year old kid you met that morning, in a country you have no idea about. Not a big deal though at the time the kid, "Vinnie," told me that he was 24 like me. A great adventure that gave me a understanding of this island I could never get from a book, especially because I don't read. I wish I was a good writer and could tell you all the stories of this trip including Vinnie paying for companionship on our last night, while I almost got a beating from some local Maori kids at a bar. I did however point my camera at some things that are probably not a entertaining.

Auckland

Auckland was the lucky city I called home, for what seemed like a very long few days, when I arrived in New Zealand. Before I got to this country it the place I thought I would end up. After a week driving around the North Island in a camper van, with a random guy I met at a backpackers, I realized only that I wanted to live somewhere other than Auckland. Although I found out that New Zealand had a lot more to offer outside the largest city, I still wanted to capture a few pictures.

More pics from Surf Hwy

Andrew Huntsman

On my resent trip down from Auckland we drove the famous Surf Highway around Mt. Taranaki and found this rustic half pipe with the beautiful volcanic backdrop. Naturally we had to pull over the camper van and hop the fence into a sheep farm to get a few shots.