aldiskaza.com | nz blog

Hi peoples!

I am Aldi’s little brother, Karl. I am also here in New Zealand. It is great and fun. The people here are very generous and friendly. There is a lot of sheep and farmland and animals. They have a lot of things here that they don’t have in the USA, such as luging, Zorbing and some other stuff.  I am not sure if they have any of these in the US but I am pretty sure, if they do, there is not very many places to do Zorbing or luging. If somehow you get the chance to go to New Zealand, DO IT! DO NOT pass it up like I almost did! YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Hi everyone! The beginning of the ninth day of our stay in NZ and it is pouring outside. We’re leaving New Plymouth, which is on the west coast of the north island and heading back to Wellington for a one night stay. Tomorrow early we take the Interislander ferry to the south island– a three-hour trip. (Nelson, the western-most northern city on the south island had a snow storm last Thursday which left many homes without power.) We hope to stay on the sunny side of things . . . The forecast is sunny for the west side.

We hope to stay in Christchurch (a popular city, not a physical building) for a day or two and then attempt to get to Wanaka and Queenstown, which are two of the most spectacular NZ cities, touted by every New Zealander. I cannot imagine what could be more spectacular than what we’ve already witnessed.

While in New Plymouth we spent one morning at a contemporary art gallery, and then part of the afternoon in the museum of natural history, where we learned a bit about the disputes among the early Dutch and British settlers and the local Maori people. We also took a long walk along a paved (or “sealed” as they say here) walkway, bordered on both sides by large rocks. A 7 km walkway buffers the ocean on one side and is a terrific “playground” for the young, full of driftwood pieces and spiderwebs.

Miss you all and wish you could be here. (Property values run from $150,000 nz to $275,000nz, btw.)

After a very long, long flight, we’ve finally made it and our bags made it a day later. Packing one set of emergency clothes helped ease the transition. We arrived on a cold, rainy day, which eventually became sunny, but brisk. Tired, frustrated, but excited, we spent 10 minutes sitting in the rental car, becoming used to seeing the steering wheel on the right side of the car, until I got the courage together to head into the city. Karl was a great navigator and kept reminding me to “Stay left, mom! Stay left!” Driving on the opposite side of the road is weird, and takes some focus until you get the hang of following the person in front of you. (Only once did I almost turn into the wrong lane, and with Karl gesturing wildly beside me, the person heading toward me suspected we were from out of town.)

It is great to see Aldi, to meet his flatmates and generally see Wellington, which is quite the cosmopolitan city. Our drive up north to Hamilton revealed a beautiful country– every bit as spectacular as everyone has stated! The landscape is as variable as the weather is changeable. We experienced rolling green hills and white peaked mountains; dark sand ocean beaches and seemingly desert-like scrub with 11ft. tall yucca plants. Rhododendrons grow like trees, not bushes. Ferns are huge shrub-like plants. The landscape, the vegetation is lush and rich. Sheep and farms abound! All this within a four-hour drive from Wellington to Hamilton– from sunny patches to rainy clouds and finally some snow, too.

Evidence of the trilogy are present in the nooks and crannies of these hills, forests, rivers and mountain crevices. We keep wondering if we’ll run into any orcs or hobbits. (Ok, well, I do: I’m the trilogy geek.)
I wish you could all be here with us. It is a spectacular country, not very populated. It is just too bad that it is so removed from everything else in the world.

The workshop I taught in Hamilton at the Waikato Institute of Technology or Wintec as it is known, went well. The students reminded me of the students at MassArt and were very cooperative, eager to learn and gracious hosts. I learned a great deal about the love they have for their homeland. They are proud to be Kiwis and are looking forward to becoming working professionals, although, like all seniors, suffer from the same fears and anxieties in preparation for the oncoming transition.
Well, more later. (Internet is expensive here!)

New Zealand is great.
There is a lot to see and do.
If you like to jump like a kangaroo, this is certainly not the place for you…

Try Australia.