the unofficial guide of bex, eric and smurf

24th december: eric returns to auckland, albeit more tanned, fit and tired of the smell and taste of mandarins.
25th december: christmas is spent at rachel and regan's new house with my family and regan's family.
26th december: we head south to hamilton to spend boxing day with dad's side of the family.
28th december - onwards: eric and i head north to camp and walk the cape reinga coastal walkway for 4 days before continuing around northland.
january 15th: i return to auckland to go to the wedding of a good family friend.
onwards: we head to east cape, tongario, waitomo and then across to raglan.
february 4th-6th: waitangi weekend soundsplash reggae fest in raglan
onwards: head south to wellington then jump the fence into the south island.

i think this is the longest i have gone without writing on here. this causes quite the catch-22 (which, i might add in a timely aside, is a superb book that i thoroughly recommend to you all to read one day) because on the one hand i don't want to write because it seems so long since i last wrote and this means that lots has happened and how do i brilliantly conduct such excerpts of life into paragraphs that will be entertaining to you all, and then on the other hand, if i don't write, then that will continue to lengthen the amount of time i haven't written and hence increase the amount of interesting snippets of things that have been and gone and hence make the dilema to write in the future even bigger than it is already.

already the whole situation feels so big and grandious and out of hand that i'm almost compelled to quit while i'm ahead. but am i ahead? this is the real question, though the catch-22 is most certainly a valid question as well. though maybe an even more real (if such a statement can exist) question should be, am i a quitter? well no. quite frankly, i am not.

so here i am. and hurrah - two paragraphs have appeared and i suddenly feel like i am winning the race. for the moment. until i actually have to start chatting about the last couple of months and life and what is happening. but when all else fails i have the perfect remedy and that is known as "the list theory". i have often fallen on this in the past, and now comes the time to once more revert back to the classic bullet point style...

bullet point one: the job. i finished my job on the 17th of november, and despite warning my boss of this 3 months in advance, i was busy training a new replacement as of half an hour before i left. leaving things to the last minute is my secret motto for the place. since then i have been rung on several occasions to discover that those whom i had trained had departed without warning, and i was needed urgently to train new people. i was not back in auckland until yesterday when i kindly offered my services (for a generous hourly rate) and returned to work for two days to do training. this complete, i resume my holiday.

bullet point two: the boy. eric arrived in auckland (much to his surprise that my country did in fact exist) on the 18th of november and has been enjoying such kiwi luxuries as drinking l&p, buying fish and chips for $2, lounging on deserted beaches, listening to live kiwi reggae, catching fish off the rocks and being overwhelmed by such wonderful sports as rugby, league and cricket. currently he has headed north without me to work for ten days thinning mandarin trees.

bullet point three: the trip. so far we have travelled just north of auckland, and then south along the coromandel pensinsula and through to rotorua. this brought with it highlights of beaches and coastlines, volcanic activity bubbling up from geysers and mud pools and throughout parks randomly strewn through town, and hanging out with a school group all night as the southern cross slowly came up over the horizon - all of which stunned someone who comes from a land-locked, volcanco-inactive town that will never see some of the stars we have on offer.

bullet point four: the car. smurf (my toyota starlett) has been doing fantastically and is officially a well loved and well driven car. eric has yet to take the drivers seat, but i'm sure this will be changing in the new year. the sad news is that smurf had a run-in with some villains who broke his window and proceeded to take $1200 of cds... this saga is still in the process of being sorted but it put a dent in our plans as i returned to auckland to try and get things fixed up.

now i will separately post our unofficial camping guide.

yes. i know. it looks different.
it is not just your computer screen.
it is the real thing.


my webpage is two now after all.
and two year olds look a lot different from one year olds.
so it is time to grow up a little in appearances.


more changes will be occuring.
but as we all know.
that takes time.

soooo.

i am now 25.

as of yesterday.

happy birthday to me!

:)

hi folks.
for those with sharp vision, you will notice that my website is looking just a tad bit different at the moment.
all those comments you left for me have disappeared!!
this is due to the fact that the commenting system i was using is finishing up at the end of the month.
and so ive changed over and onto a different commenting system now.
a big thanks to rachel for doing this for me and for exporting all the old comments so i have them all saved and on record.

so - to answer your question aunty sue (you are officially the last person to leave me a message before we closed down that comments system!) - my website is definitely still up and running and a new commenting system is in place...

so feel free to test it out!

thanks!!

"happy birthday"

today my webpage turns two!

exactly two years ago i wrote my very first entry and announced my webpage to the world - check it out under archives on the right!

i just remembered i was going to tell a funny story but then i forgot to. so the title for todays entry shall be "a fun story i forgot to tell you about".

"a fun story that i forgot to tell you about"

a few weeks ago dad and i decided to go and catch a fish or two. a catch was made. but it wasnt by us. the tide caught us and we found ourselves surrounded by water on a little island. of course it wasnt an island when we walked onto it. but it quickly became one without us realising. maybe the title should be "the big catch" instead? i dont know. that might be more catchy. hahaha. okay, have obviously inherited dads humour. oops. anyway that was the story. pretty short really. but a fun story all the same and one i had wanted to share. and no real need to elaborate further unless there are questions.

the end

and so i have a job!

because i only wanted to work until eric arrives around the middle-ish of november, i finally realised the best way to get a job was to join the temping world... so i signed up with a temp agency (drake) in west auckland, did a few tests to see how fast i can type, whether i know how to use word and excel and had an interview... and the very next day i woke to the phone ringing at 8am - did i want to start that morning on an assignment?!

im working as a receptionist for a printing business - only a ten minute drive from home - thats two sets of traffic lights, and one roundabout, no traffic, and free parking right outside on the street... so its perfect. the job is straightforward - answering phones, sorting out couriers and mail, and helping out wherever else im needed. im working 45 hours a week - and after finishing my first week, im a little tired! still, i enjoy it, its good to be earning again and getting together the funds i need for a new car. and time is ticking along a bit faster now which is good too.

so for those of you out there that are thinking about the temping business - i say, go for it! drake was founded in canada but now is a large-scale international organisation and i have been very impressed! i suppose it helped that i have nearly 5 years of secretarial skills from when i worked at auckland university, but just the professionalism and quick response has been brilliant. and money has already been deposited into my bank account!

hi.

two things.

1) i added a few more photos over there on the right of your screen...

2) i was just wondering who actually read this these days... so, if you are reading this, would you mind leaving me a comment?

thanks!

hello.

todays entry shall be named "today i have a cold".

why? because (duhnduhnduhnnn) today i have a cold. sad but true. not a bad cold mind you, but bad enough to make me want to wear my bathrobe over my clothes for extra warmth and comfort.

i love my bathrobe. rachel and i were given them as christmas presents years ago... fluffy and white and made of thick towelling. its an item of clothing i wear every single day when im at home, and the only item of clothing i cant take with me overseas because it would take up half my suitcase! so its lucky i didnt have a cold when i was overseas or i would have felt decidedly homesick for my robe.

auckland continues to impress me with its "four seasons in one day" attitude. lets take today for example. there i am, lying on my bed, and i look out my window and its raining and grey as far as my window lets me see. then i happen to glance up and look out my skylight above me - and its all bright blue sky. an interesting phenomena indeed.

the job hunt has so far been unsuccessful. i suppose its a bit tricky when i only want to have work until the end of the year. so ive decided to try going through a temp agency. that way i can get contract and temporary work instead of trying to get a fulltime permanent position - that i know i will have to leave. so tomorrow im having an interview and doing some tests (word and excel) for an agency. then hopefully they can find me work. this is the plan. hopefully i wont have to blow my nose too many times during the typing test as this will slow me down. heh heh.

its odd being home and having some of my closest friends scattered across the globe instead of on the same street as me, like when i was a kid... naomi is in london, frank is in turkey, sandra and eric are in ottawa, karin is in peru, benn is in melbourne, brenda is in nelson, stella and aashish are in wellington... and i miss you guys a lot! but i am going to make a huge statement that i plan to see all of you at some point within the next two years.

have run out of tissues so must go in search of another box. from stephens room perhaps. heh heh heh.

in retrospect i suppose this entry should in fact be called "today i have a cold and other stories".

so here i am. back in auckland and last night i was finally able to watch the all blacks win over the lions in the last test, despite the linesman making bad judgement calls...

but lets return to canada for a moment:

friday 24th june: alex, jackie, eric and i begin our roadtrip out east (see map). highlight - making up a camping song to "i will survive" on the streets of quebec city.

saturday 25th june: to gaspe peninsula we drove, the last 40km being on a gravel road that allowed for a 5 moose and 1 white-tail deer spotting within half an hour of each other. we are higher up in the mountains here so its colder in the evenings.

sunday 26th june: we climbed mount Jacques Cartier (1268m) which was an incredible climb leading to an incredible view! a bus dropped us off about 800m up and we hiked the rest of the way, up out of the treeline and into a tundra environment with patches of snow still left from the winter. didnt see any caribou (there are only about 160 left in the park) but did see their tracks and droppings.

monday 27th june: drove to perce rock for a wander out to the famous stack and arch and then onwards to forillon national park right on the edge of the gulf of the st laurence. such a luxurious feeling at the ocean - the crashing of the waves, the breath of the wind, the galaxy looking down upon us.

tuesday 28th june: eric and i spent the day exploring the beach, and making seal figures out of stones. it was very hot but the water was so frigidly ridiculously cold that my foot automatically started getting hypothermia once submerged.

wednesday 29th june: spent the morning sea kayaking with seals, and the afternoon hiking the forests. saw whales out at sea, braved the ocean for a very very quick splash and then as eric and i ate fish and chips, alex and jackie proceeded to amuse us with the delicacies of eating lobster...

thursday 30th june: awoke at 4am to see the sunrise over the ocean, the lobster boat the only other soul up and about at such an hour. and then the 14.5 hour drive back to ottawa commenced, with me driving for over 4 hours! :) yay! and now i feel comfortable being on that side of the car and road!! highlight - stopping in montreal for dinner at this giant orange ball that served us burgers and fries. a place where girls get dressed up, guys show off their cars, and the music is pumping... reminded me of scenes from grease!

the rest of my time in canada was spent in ottawa and up at erics cottage. then i boarded a plane and came home, via atlanta, los angeles and tahiti.

eeeek, much to say and no time to write. i leave tomorrow for the big trek home to auckland. so the recap of my last week or so will have to happen once i land back on southern soil (soggy soil from the sounds of it too!)... but for those too eager and wanting a little insight into the happenings, heres a v quick list of some things:

- saw five moose on one road within half an hour of each other.
- saw three different types of whales from the shore.
- got up at 4am to see the sunrise over the gulf of the st laurence.
- hiked kilometres across gapse bay penisula including going up a v tall mountain that goes up past the treeline into tundra.
- i drove for about four hours on the other side of the road and now feel v comfortable doing this.
- saw biggest daddy black bear ive ever seen, towering above me with a curious demeanour.
- watched fireworks here in ottawa for canada day.
- sunny sunny sunny everywhere here!

see you in auckland!!

tomorrow (friday) eric, alex, jackie and i are heading eastward for a week... to gaspe peninsula and to the atlantic coast... no doubt i shall bring back stories, that hopefully include whale and caribou spotting, sea-kayaking and hiking across one of the most beautiful peninsulas in canada.

and then we arrive home to ottawa to celebrate canada day on the 1st of july (friday) - apparantly a huge affair for the capital city.

then, the very next day, eric and i are driving back through moose territory, westward, to his cottage for a big family reunion.

back to ottawa on the monday and then i begin the flying trek southward home on wednesday.

so thats all but one compass direction in the next week or so. not sure why north didnt get a chance. next time i guess.

question: what do you get when you cross an american, a kiwi and a moose?
answer: a surprise attack of the black flies and mosquitoes.

ok, so my punchline might not be very "punchy" or seem very funny, and truth be told, it isnt funny... but its true.

since i last wrote, much has been going on, including two camping trips, two good friends visiting, much macgyver watching and a roll of film dedicated to animals.

i shall once again use the "list" format to structure this entry. it is easier. it is lazier. and it hopefully will make for a more interesting read.

- canoe camping: me, eric, alex and jackie headed to the gatineaus just across the river in quebec, parked the cars, loaded up the two canoes, and headed off across a lake for our campsite... our site overlooked a beaver lodge and an island filled with nesting loons that proceeded to echo their haunting quavering calls across the lake. mosquitoes swarmed but my bug net* seemed to do the trick well.

* netting draped over a cap that has elastic at the end and tucks into a shirt. makes it a problem to snack on potato chips, but saved the day from inhaling mosquitoes.

- jen and karin arrived from the states to the delight of those of us who originally met them in leuven a year or so ago, and those who met them when they last visited in september when i was last in ottawa. we talked to the extent that my voice has been hoarse for about 5 days now, we travelled to montreal on a daytrip, we did a tour of parliament (where i readily boasted about my heritage) and we literally shopped til we dropped for 8 hours straight. and after the days were over, we settled down to watch macgyver* (i now have season two on dvd in my possession!).

* karin has never seen macgyver. however she has heard much about him since we became good friends. so there we were, sitting outside the backdoor, looking out at this old broken down very macgyver style jeep. and i mention that its a macgyver style jeep. karin is confused. i then say i should dress up like macgyver and get a photo taken by it. she looks more confused and asks what i would wear. i suggest the casual clothing macgyver wears. karin sits bemused. she thought macgyver wore a suit. i look puzzled. then it dawns on her. this entire time she had been picturing matlock, not macgyver! matlock - the old lawyer/detective with white hair and a grey suit who drives stylish old cars. for the entire year and a half that we have known each other, every time i mentioned macgyver - she was picturing matlock. im glad this is cleared up. and am pleased to say she is a huge fan of macgyver.

- after farewelling jen, sandro, eric, karin and i headed for algonquin park to meet alex and jackie and to begin the moose expedition. four moose, four deer, two racoons, two chipmunks, two snakes, one red squirrel, one leech* and one ground hog later - i do believe we were successful. however, also successful were the black flies and mosquitoes that tricked us into jumping out of the car without our bugnets at a moose-look-alike tree stump - and they hit in swarms. my neck now feels like i have some weird type of alien style gills forming beneath the surface. karins hands were covered in bites from swatting at mosquitoes that were good at penetrating jeans and thick socks. our new favourite friends are the mosquito eating dragonflies whom i am determined to lassoo and use on my next trip. eric is now known as "he who sees tracks" as we hiked along paths that were adorned with animals footprints such as moose, wolf, racoon and deer. the sun shone brightly and we feasted like kings thanks to alex's cooking finesse

* i have never seen a leech before and commend jackie on her bravery when she discovered one on her toe. i would never have been so calm. unfortunately we had no salt, but we still managed to burn it off, thankfully.

- karins now gone and my voice is returning. heh heh. and we are more adament than ever that within the next year or so we shall be flatting together, somewhere on this vast planet of ours... though who knows, ive heard mars might be inhabited soon.

ottawa is a city of extremes.
apparantly it is the second coldest capital city in the world (mongolia has the coldest...).
when i arrived in ottawa it was as cold as auckland ever gets in winter.
a week later it was as hot as auckland ever gets in summer.
currently we are back to the coldness.

on friday alex drove his sister, eric and i down to toronto where we spent the day before being picked up by erics parents and driven back to mount forest - erics hometown. friday was meghans (erics sister) birthday and on saturday his aunt and grandma arrived and we went to see meghans dance recital. watched the video "eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" which was brilliant (thanks to rachel for mentioning it) and exactly my kind of movie with bizarre time editing like memento, and real characters that showed that everyone has both good and bad sides with a real ending as opposed to a happily ever after ending.

have decided that groundhogs are most definitely cute.
have also decided that i prefer grey and red squirrels to the black ones but am not going to be picky.

have been watching macgyver season one on dvd. season two comes out in june.

reporting from canada:

yesterday i saw five groundhogs. i think it must have been their dinnertime and they were up out of the ground and running about in search of food. well, the bit about searching for food and it being their dinnertime is made up on my half. i just couldnt think of another reason why they were all milling about.

groundhogs are cute! they are sort of like a beaver but without that big flat tail. and are light brown and not black. and you dont see them swimming and carrying wood. i suppose they are not very like a beaver at all. but they are furry and have whiskers. and beavers are furry and have whiskers too.

may and june is the best time of year to see moose. it says so in the algonquin newspaper which i have been reading. this is because the moose come to the edge of the road to drink the salty water that has been left behind after the salt machines have been used all winter to help melt the snow on the roads. so when karin and jen arrive from america at the end of this month, we are going to go camping and looking for moose.

i went with eric and his parents to see the hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy at the movies. really, this deserves a separate entry all to itself, but im too lazy to do that. here are my thoughts on the matter:

if you have read the book, and you liked the book - then you will love the movie. it is hilarious and captures the whole spirit of the book perfectly. it captures the crazyiness, the bizareness, the uniqueness and weirdness and is the funniest movie i have seen in a long time!! i was laughing out loud from the very beginning.

if you have not read the book and are thinking about seeing the movie - i recommend that you read the book first... sometimes its better to see a movie first, and then read the book, but i dont think so in this situation. in order to really appreciate the humour and understand all the funny things happening in the background... read the book first. its not very long (the movie is only about the first book of the five (i think?) in the set) and will make the movie way better!

very funny movie. opens with dolphins leaping through the air and singing a song called "so long, and thanks for all the fish".

a new entry.
oh yes - that's right. i am once more writing on here.
the problem is that of inspiration. once i had inspiration. now i do not. at least not as much.
heh heh heh.
i think living overseas with cobbled streets and fluffy snow and freak lightning storms that stopped the big clocktower from working just like off back to the future and having an owl in my backyard and all of these other things made it easy to write on here.
now its not so easy.
and i read back over some of the past entries and have to laugh at the things i saw, the places i visited, and the life i had the chance to experience. and also have to laugh because i later discoverd my owl was not an owl at all but some weird oversized type greyish whiteish pigeon that cooed like an owl in the daytime.
fun times. funny times.
but despite this small pause in my musings online, never fear - because by the end of this month i will be back in the land of wild bears and moose and shall look forward to detailing their activites.

home is nice because home of course is home. but i'm excited to travel again. and of course i'm excited to be returning to a country that welcomed me with doughnuts and bagels and milk in plastic bags. a country that well supplied my love for the outdoors and wilderness with camping trips, moose and bear excursions, hiking and canoeing. and a country that has some very fine hosts, including my boyfriend eric!

i will no longer be going back to auckland university in second semester to do a one year post graduate diploma in environmental management. only because i discovered i am all ready to jump into that phd! quite incredible really because a phd sounds so big and scary and long and quite grown up for me. still, it seems i have all the requirements covered and once i have my topic good and ready to go (mentioned in an earlier entry about rainwater harvesting in the near east) - then i'm set! so at the moment i am browsing universities and browsing articles to understand exactly the path i wish to take.
as to where and when. who knows! no need to rush these things as it would be a big commitment of three or so years... and at the moment i am very happy taking my time and thinking everything through.

hello!

i have just uploaded a bunch of photos from my trip down in wellington which you can view by clicking on the link on the right...

today i also completed my booking for travelling back to canada at the end of april. i leave new zealand on the 26th april and arrive home on the 8th of july.

there is a reason for me taking so long to write. heh heh. there is always a reason huh? and even if there was no reason, i would create a reason anyway. heh heh. here is the reason:

i have been in wellington for the last month working with a team of archaeologists on a historic site dating back to the 1860s. i had a great time and found heaps of interesting things*.


*clay pipes used to smoke tobacco, glass bottles (medicine, beer, gin...), ceramics, small dolls, a lot of bone, military buttons, and huge quantities of bricks) etc etc etc...


the project has been on the news - on tv, the radio and in newspapers - and will also be shown as part of a 6 part documentary on new zealand archaeology.

i loved wellington a lot, apart from the small issue of earthquakes... there were two fairly large quakes while i was there (the first i have ever felt) and plenty of other smaller ones - enough to create headline news around the country and have the civil defence issuing out warnings on the radios... and while wellingtonians may be used to such events, the shake was indeed shaky and i have no desire to feel another one any time in the future...

and now i am back in auckland and having a short break before starting work again.

i sit here and struggle for words, for while it came naturally for 2005 to begin the new year, it is not coming quite so naturally to write...

2004 was an incredible year for me - and those of you who have kept track of my comings and goings should have some insight into why. i survived living and studying in a foreign country - and obtained a masters degree with great distinction in archaeology. i managed to somehow travel extensively around europe and yet never fall into debt (its called hard work and much saving!). i made wonderful friends, including my canadian boyfriend eric, from all over the world, especially belgium, canada and america (you all know who you are). and i made it safely back to new zealand in time for christmas!! the hardest part of the year was my grandad passing away in march. but one of the best parts of the year was being able to spend heaps of time with my grandma since being back in the country.

in this last week ive spent most of my time with my aunty ("the aunt" often found in the comments section!), uncle, and cousins alister, stuart and brenda ("cuzzie b") who have all been up from the south island. i was also able to travel a few hours south to see some of my dads side of the family including another comment-writer aunty "kiwi". and ive had a great time being on holiday but its back to the early mornings when i start work again on the 6th...

i wish everyone a wonderful new year and hope that 2005 brings you much happiness. i can assure you that i shall do my best at adventuring enough to keep this site going!