Back to reality….October 2009

With a job awaiting me on the Kapiti Coast, we drove through some persistent rain from Te Kuiti to Wellington, and arrived on Thursday night.

The Wellington region covers the lower part of New Zealand’s North Island from Cook Strait up to Masterton and across to the Kapiti Coast. Close to 460,000 people live in the Wellington region, in an area of 813,000 hectares with 497 kilometres of coastline.

We reached Paekakariki at about 6pm. It was raining and stormy as we drove along the esplanade. We watched a few surfers making the most of the reasonably big waves. So this is gonna be our new home, eh?

Paekakariki is a town in the Kapiti Coast District in the south-western North Island of New Zealand. It is 22 km north of Porirua and 45 km north-east of Wellington, the nation’s capital city.

Paekakariki’s population at the 2001 New Zealand census was 1731. The town’s name in Māori means “perching place of the kakariki (green parrot)”.

Paekakariki lies on a narrowing of the thin coastal plain between the Tasman Sea and the Akatarawa Ranges (a spur of the Tararua Ranges) and was an important transportation node. To the south, State Highway 1 climbs towards Porirua; to the north the plains extend inland from the Kapiti Coast; at Paekakariki the highway and North Island Main Trunk Railway run close together between the coast and hills.

We got back on the highway and continued on to Sam and Jule’s place. A catch up, dinner and a few drinks – yip, we’re back.

Me, Jules and Sam in Paradise

Friday morning was my dummy run commute and time to meet my boss in person for the first time. Nicole chilled out in the library while I chatted with my boss and met a few colleagues.

Work place located. Boss met, now time to find a place to live.

Paekakariki had been recommended for a number of reasons, primarily for its proximity to the railway as Nicole would be commuting south to Wellington. Being a small community which is anecdotally called paradise, houses are in demand here. Only two rentals on offer, and the first and only one we viewed was vacant so we signed up on the spot.

Sweet, we now had a place to move our love life to.

Te Kuiti, King Country, New Zealand

After yet another round of family catch ups, we finally set out for our old/new home of Wellington. While passing through Te Kuiti Nicole made me detour to show me the wondrous Redwoods of Te Kuiti – I was skeptical when she’d told me about TK’s Redwoods when we were checking out the “real” Redwoods in California only a week earlier.

Te Kuiti is a small town in the south of the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand. It lies at the junction of State Highways 3 and 30 and on the North Island Main Trunk Railway, 80 km south of Hamilton.

Te Kuiti is also where Nicole was born and bred.

As of the 2001 census it had a resident population of 4,374, a decrease of 5.1% since 1991. The town promotes itself as the sheep shearing capital of the world and is host to the annual New Zealand National Shearing Championships.

Te Kuiti’s massive Redwoods

JK and the Sweet-ride

Nicole grandstanding as usual

True that

That’s one big shearer

Whare’s local whare (Marae)

After a night or two of catching up with the Were whanau, it was time to load up the car (aka the “sweet-ride”) we’d managed to borrow off my sister and head south.

Back in the land of the long white cloud

After a brief stop in Auckland it was time to catch up with all the Kilbride whanau in Cambridge.

We drove down from Auckland in time to go out for dinner with Mum and Dad. What I thought was going to be a relatively quiet night ended with quite a lot of alcohol consumed. Welcome home.

The next day was glorious and Nicole even got sun burnt. The entire Kilbride whanau turned out (except for the Sydney-siders) and we had a good old catch up. And it was nice to know that the next time we saw everyone wasn’t going to be a relatively long indefinite time away.

Next stop, the King Country, for a catch up with Nicole’s whanau in the shearing capital of the world.

homeward bound

For some reason I didn’t sleep very well on the 12 or so hour flight from L.A to Auckland. After having our Caribou jerky confiscated at customs our tent was spotted in the bottom of one of my bags on the x-ray machine…. I ended up getting a WARNING from Biosecurity and a black mark by my name. No warnings next time a bring some dirt, dead mosquitos and other debris into New Zealand!

Mum, Dad and my nephew George were patiently waiting for us when we finally emerged through the gate. Breakfast time.

We hung out with my sister Sonia and her family and then went over to visit another sister Jo and my newest nephew Taylor.

I was somewhat relieved that our night of catching up with friends was toned down due to various people being away. I struggled to stay awake as Di apologised profusely for not having any Double Brown in the house – she’d even been to several supermarkets in her search! After a few Macs Gold, Di then discovered Robs secret stash of Double Brown – in the top shelf! I told Di that the top shelf should have been the first place she looked. It was probably a good thing that Rob was away as I managed to slink off to bed at a reasonable hour while Nicole and Di continued to gas bag for a while.

After a good sleep I felt a million times better on Saturday. We went for breakfast at the French Market in Parnel, and then ventured over the harbour bridge to catch up with another mate, Brett.

Brett's sweet ride

And then it was the start of our journey south. First stop Cambridge.

san francisco

After a brief stop in Edmonton we then touched down for week of chilling out and exploring San Francisco.

San Frans Golden Arches

San Francisco is a magnificent city. It just has a great vibe about it. We stayed at the Good Hotel. It was good. Well, I thought it was great actually. Nothing too flash, but again, just a good vibe. All eco-friendly and all that.

Urban meandering, jazz bar.

Cool jazz music at a random little bar

Redwoods. I’ve always had a soft spot for trees so when I was perusing a tourist type brochure in our hotel and saw a tour going to see the Redwoods I thought I’d investigate.  As relatively seasoned “freedom”/backpacker type travelers (i.e. the ones that like to experience as much as possible while spending as little as possible and scoffing at any type of “organised” tour) it was a first for us to embark on an organised tour, but it was great. With limited time and the reality that our plans of camping up (or down) the west coast of north america was not on the cards in the immediate future it seemed like a good way to check out some big trees. The bus driver was hilarious. Or maybe I’m just getting older and my sense of humour has deteriorated to a somewhat cheesey level, but I laughed at the jokes that were most likely told day in day out to the endless stream of fresh faced tourists.

Tree hugger

Alcatraz. Well, you can hardly visit San Francisco and not go to Alactraz. I’m glad I went but I wouldn’t rush back – it’s just a prison for gods sake. The audio tour (another first) made it interesting. The history was quite fascinating. We managed to escape.

I play by prison rules...

After another day or so of wandering around I was pretty keen to board the big waka in the sky and return home to the good old Aotearoa.

Our last supper in North America

Being Canadian

One of the best descriptions I’ve come across of “being Canadian” is from a novel written by Canadian Jean McNeil.

This landscape and its seasons has to do with survival: with gritting your teeth and taking yourself through whatever you have to come through. Each winter is a death which had to be accepted and negotiated, knowing that resurrection is not a matter of virtue, but of time. I am Canadian. I survive every winter, so I know I can survive anything.

To ignore the rules of survival, whether they be philosophical ones set up by our society, or the far more serious ones set up by nature, is to die. This is a land with little tolerance for mistakes.

While I may not be Canadian, I’ve survived one of the North’s harsh winters and am stronger for it. But now I’m happy to be living back in my home land, in a little slice of paradise called Paekakariki.

Paekakariki - our very own slice of paradise

Malls. I hate them

Edmonton = West Edmonton Mall. Currently 5th largest in the world.

1. South China Mall

Location: Dongguan, China

Year Opened: 2005

Gross Leasable Area: 7.1 million square feet

In the Chinese mall arms race, this facility opened a year after the Golden Resources Mall to displace it as the country’s and the world’s largest. The space includes wind mills and theme parks, plus a replica of the Arc de Triomphe.

2. Golden Resources Shopping Mall

Location: Beijing, China

Year Opened: 2004

Gross Leasable Area: 6 million square feet

Not sprawling, this is a stacked-up five-story mall. Approximately 1,000 stores, selling plenty of familiar global brands like Nike and DKNY. A truly ambitious real estate project, with new apartments and offices, surround the mall. A tough location outside the heart of the city has resulted in disappointing traffic from foreign tourists.

3. SM Mall of Asia

Location: Pasay City, Philippines

Year Opened: 2006

Gross Leasable Area: 4.2 million square feet

Includes the first Olympic-sized swimming pool and first IMAX theater in the Philippines. Spread over four buildings, customers can get around on a 20-seat tram.

4. Cevahir Istanbul

Location: Istanbul, Turkey

Year Opened: 2005

Gross Leasable Area: 3.8 million square feet

Europe’s largest shopping mall has a roller coaster, wave pool and several IMAX theaters.

5. West Edmonton Mall

Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Year Opened: 1981

Gross Leasable Area: 3.8 million square feet

The biggest in North America, the West Edmonton Mall has over 800 stores, along with attractions like a water park, skating rink, casino and rides.

6. SM Megamall

Location: Mandaluyong City, Philippines

Year Opened: 1991

Gross Leasable Area: 3.6 million square feet

Fun stuff includes bowling, ice skating and a 12-cinema movie theater, along with traditional mall fare like arcade games. Customers can also get a haircut or see a doctor at the Manila clinic.

7.  Berjaya Times Square

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Year Opened: 2005

Gross Leasable Area: 3.4 million square feet

Built with an adjacent hotel and convention center. In addition to over 1,000 retail shops, the mall includes a 12-story-high roller coaster, plus a pool, skating rink and “Cosmo’s World,” a children’s theme park.

8. Beijing Mall

Location: Beijing, China

Year Opened: 2005

Gross Leasable Area: 3.4 million square feet

The first real suburban mall in China, located about an hour from downtown Beijing, this center has four levels with parking for 8,000 cars, plus a man-made beach. Bootlegged DVDs of American movies are a top seller.

9. Zhengjia Plaza

Location: Guangzhou, China

Year Opened: 2005

Gross Leasable Area: 3 million square feet

Has been known to attract over half a million shoppers on a good day. Another mixed-use space, the mall has a hotel and office tower in addition to retail stores.

10. SM City North Edsa

Location: Quezon City, Philippines

Year Opened: 1985

Gross Leasable Area: 3 million square feet

The first major “mega mall” built by SM Prime Holdings, which now claims three of the largest 10 in the world. It’s a five-story complex that boasts over 100 retail outlets and restaurants, along with 12 cinemas, a bowling alley and skating rink. An IMAX theater could be added soon.

Farewell Yellowknife…

After a relatively short 10 months (which amazingly felt like a long time and a very short time), our time in Yellowknife came to an end.

And so it was with mixed emotions that we packed up our worldly belongings once again, and set off for a new life.

It was quite surreal leaving as it didn’t even feel real, even though we’d pack up and sold or sent home everything we’d owned in Yellowknife. First stop Edmonton, for a one night stop over and a trip to the infamous Edmonton Mall.

Won't be seeing many of these in Aotearoa

The countdown continues… last days in the Knife

The first of the five boxes we ended up posting home was full of books we’d collected and wanted to keep (obviously), so I lugged the 25kg box to the post office one Saturday morning. Luckily it was “summer” in the Knife.

It was very fortunate timing that my friend Wenyan was going away the weekend before we left, as we managed to borrow her boyfriend’s truck which made our last few days a million times easier.

Jean-Michel's sweet ride

A few trips to the Salvation Army, the Post Office and the Women’s Refuge Centre and we’d pretty much got rid of everything. I even dropped of the guy that bought all our kitchen stuff – he’d paid me the $100 I was asking a week earlier, and when he turned up on foot I offered to drive him home with the four big boxes of all our kitchen stuff plus a few extras. He seemed like a nice guy.

Empty as bro

It all felt rather surreal to say the least. It all seemed so smooth that I was sure that there’d be some major calamity at some point. I’d picked Wenyan up from the airport on Sunday night, but as it happened, Jean-Michel fly back into Yellowknife at the same time as we departed! So we picked Wenyan up from work, drove to the airport in JM’s truck and flew off to Edmonton.

Farewell Yellowknife. You were good to us, and my memories will be of warm hearted people in a fricken cold place.

What an experience.

With the relatively sudden nature of our departure we elected for a rather low key farewell ie. none. Well, we had a pretty hectic last few weeks of dining with the good friends we’d met in our relatively short time in the Knife.

Back to “reality” and the countdown begins….

After a great holiday in Quebec it was back to reality in Yellowknife with the daunting task of preparing to move back to New Zealand approaching all too quickly.

After arriving in Vancouver a little over a year earlier with four backpacks between us, we moved to Yellowknife with about 10 extra boxes of house hold stuff and now it was time to start the thinning down process.

A few quick sales on Yellowknife’s version of TradeMe/Ebay (YKTrader) and things were looking good. But the anxiety of that last day of packing and not being able to fit everything in was continually hanging over me…..

Looking back now, it seems like an eternity ago, so it’s amazing to think that it’s only been a little over 6 weeks since we departed Yellowknife.

I listed a few random items on YKTrader and of the several items that sold like hot cakes was our iron. When the guy called about it (within a few hours of listing it), we madly ironed everything in site – the iron was still hot when the guy came to pick it up!

Of the few “big ticket” items we had on offer, the sale of Nicole’s Canada Goose Parka was pretty funny. Nicole had bought it off a work mate who’d bought it new at the end of winter, worn it only a few times and then ended up moving back down south. So Nicole bought this near new parka for $500 (rrp about $750), hadn’t worn it once and now wanted to sell it (not much use for a jacket designed for -40 temperatures in NZ).

Nicole in her not a Canada Goose Parka

A young girl (late teens) came around with her mum (?), was dead keen but tried the old hmmm, I’ll think about it trick (after offering $300 for it). About a dozen texts later and some serious bargaining later, Nicole gave in to her persistence and sold it for $450.

The airbed we’d bought upon moving into our apartment finally gave up the ghost, so we had moved into the lounge to sleep on the “hide-a-bed” couch. It was pretty comfy actually, but as our second “big ticket” item, we were a tad nervous about not selling it before we left (i.e. we obviously didn’t want to sell it too soon).

But, along with all our kitchen stuff we managed to sell it (and our kitchen table) but organise for the pick-up to not be until just before we left – sweet.