Merry Christmas

Christmas morning on the beach.
Tui gets a visit from Biggs.


























Tui gets a visit from her sister Speedy.

Whangamata

I got a new camera and I finally uploaded a bunch of new pictures. My new camera's first trip was in October to a place called Whangamata on the East Coast, just south of the Coromandel peninsula. My landlord has a beach house (bach in kiwi-speak) there so I invited some friends and the dogs and off we went for a long weekend.

Tui helping with some advertisement. However Tui is named after the bird. Not the beer.

The beach there is beautiful and since October is still considered off season, it was pretty much deserted. The dogs had a great time running on the endless sandy beaches.

Megan and I took a trip up to Hot Water Beach where we "borrowed" a lovely pit that someone else had dug and sat in the hot water that springs up here.

We also enjoyed a nice game of mandatory minigolf on Sunday. A moment of inattention (see photo) "landed" Urie with a bad minigolf injury including a bruised kidney as well as a bruised ego.

Christine and I stayed past the weekend and took a trip to Waihi for a train ride. Unfortunately the trip we were going to take was cancelled, but they gave us a shorter ride in the cab of the train and we had a great time.

We also visited the open pit gold mine right in the town centre at Waihi.



I also had a chance to visit the very nice public toilets. Public toilets are relatively clean and very easy to find throughout NZ. No need to look for the nearest Mcdonalds when you have to go.

This one lane bridge is the major bottleneck to the Coromandel which is a very popular weekend destination for Aucklanders. This bridge is signal controlled, but most one lane bridges in NZ just have one of the directions giving way to the opposing traffic and somehow it works. I guess it's cheaper than building two lanes on the bridge.

A Live Possum

Today we saw our first live possum in NZ. We were down at the beach and Howie caught the sent of something yummy in the grass near the sea cliff. I assumed it was a dead possum somewhere up the cliff and didn't think too much of it as Howie can't really climb the cliff to get it. But then he stuck his head deep in the grass and came out shaking a screaming possum. After some vigorous shaking (Howie) and screaming (the possum), Howie started screaming too as the possum seemed to get a hold of Howie's nose. Howie let go and I ran and grabbed him. The possum was still alive and just laid there on its back looking at us terrified. About a minute later it just ran up a tree. I'm not sure if the possum will survive, but miraculously Howie doesn't seem to have a scratch on him.

It's Movember

A strange thing happens in movember. Men get extra hairy...

Halloween - that's so American

Halloween is not a big thing in NZ. Yes there are some Halloween treats, costumes and decorations in the stores, but you're not inundated with it. Some kids do go out, and I saw a few walking around my neighbourhood. No one dresses up at work and it's not talked about too much. There seems to be an overwhelming sentiment that Halloween is an American tradition and a pretty dumb one. I've heard over and over again that parents don't like Halloween because they teach their kids not to take treats from strangers. I find this such a strange attitude because I think Halloween is really one of the better traditions. It's lots of fun for everyone and encourages people to be giving (and thanking).
I have not seen any carved pumpkins, and no wonder, pumpkins are not orange here but more greeny-yellowy-brown. Although I was invited to a Halloween party (by a Canadian) I was away and couldn't attend. And although I bought some treats, no trick or treaters came to my door. I guess I'm not really feeling like it's Halloween, so there will be no photo of Howie in his lion costume this year. And poor Tui doesn't even have a costume.

I like rugby

Well Brad has been replaced and I've found a new boyfriend.




















And look at what we have in common.

Rugby World Cup

Is anyone in North America aware that the rugby world cup is currently taking place in France? Did anyone know that Canada is in it? Canada actually quite well, not quite losing all their games and managing to tie Japan. However, the world has been in agreement that rugby is currently dominated by the southern hemisphere with NZ, Aussie and South Africa the only "real" teams in the competition.

Well that all changed this weekend when Aussie lost to England and NZ lost to France in their quarter final matches. I actually woke up early to go watch the game over breakfast in a pub. I was so nervous for the All Blacks and was completely stunned with the loss. All of NZ seems to be in mourning today. The coach is likely to be fired (or resign) and there's meant to be some sort of inquest into the loss. Rugby is a BIG deal in NZ.



The next world cup will take place in Auckland in 2011 and I'll be there supporting Canada. As for this one, SA play Argentina and England vs. France in the semi finals. My money's on SA to go all the way.




In other news... Happy Thanksgiving. And how did I spend Thanksgiving? Working. I wish I could take the Canadian holidays off. Oh well, Labour Day is coming up soon here.

Skype

I'm on Skype as kiwidogs so please skype me if you know how.

My New Boyfriend Brad

I think this picture says it all:

Trip to Rotorua

Last week I went to Rotorua for a conference. I drove down Thursday morning (about a 2.5 hour drive from Auckland) went to the conference Thursday and Friday, then stayed on for the weekend to check out the tourist sites.

The conference was the 2nd Annual Traffic Simulation Conference and I presented my research "Incident Modelling with Paramics and FUSE". The idea of my research is to investigate the use of SCATS (adaptive signal control) to handle the change in demand due to incidents. This is exciting because I get to use microsimulation liked directly to SCATS. I've also been lucky enough to work in the Auckland traffic control room as a SCATS operator which has a great way to learn SCATS as well as see how incidents are managed.

Now, on to the fun stuff. I stayed at a backpacker, nothing flash, but it was cheap, had it's own restaurant, thermal pool, bar and lounge (to watch rugby). I went to a spa where I had a soak in the thermal pools in a beautiful setting, followed by a mud wrap and a massage. It was absolutely heavenly. Then I headed over to the agrodome for the sheep show and farm tour.

The place was packed full of people from tour buses, even though it was an overcast wintry day. They brought out all the different breeds of sheep, did a shearing demo and then came the dogs. They had a NZ heading dog (like Tui) herding some ducks, and then she did a sheep trialing demo outside. The NZ huntaways (who use their bark instead of their eyes to herd the sheep) barked their heads off and literally ran all over the sheep. It was very cute.

The farm tour was interesting as it's actually a working farm with all sorts of interesting animals. We kept stopping to hand feed the sheep, lamas and pigs. We also saw kiwi fruit trees and had some kiwifruit wine.

The next day I went to a Maori exhibit at Te Puia. There is a large Maori community in Rotorua as well as extensive geothermal activity. I learned about the Maori history and culture, which is really quite fascinating. The geysers and mud pools are beautiful.

I had a fun weekend, but am actually keen to return to Rotorua to see some more when my friends come to visit NZ (hint hint).

First Day of Spring

For some reason Kiwis insist that Sept 1st is the first day of spring. It sure feels like spring and I'm sick of debating this issue. So it's spring! Bring it on.

Lunar Eclipse

There was a lunar eclipse over NZ tonight and the clouds cleared just in time to watch. Megan and I watched from our porch. Here's a pic from NZ Herald.

The Telephone

Sometimes I find it takes people a little while to figure out my accent. This is more of a problem on the phone. People are expecting to talk to a Kiwi (or maybe a Britt) but not a Canadian. So often I make my first sentence longer than it needs to be. Like my name is Susan McMillan and I was just calling to speak with ****, or something like that. Well, unless the person knows me, in which case I don't have to introduce myself at all cause they know who it is as soon as they hear my accent. I am getting MUCH better at understanding Kiwis on the phone and rarely have to ask them to repeat themselves.
I did run into a problem on the phone the other day when I called Telecom because I was having a problem with my home phone. Their help line is automated with voice recognition. They ask you what your problem is and then to answer a few short questions to automatically direct you to the correct person. I was doing pretty good until they asked me if I had tried a certain test on my phone, to which I replied "no".
"I'm sorry your answer was not understood. Have you tried this test?"
"No."
"I'm sorry your answer was not understood. Have you tried this test?"
"No."
"I'm sorry your answer was not understood. Have you tried this test?"
At which point I figured out that it couldn't understand my accent. Kiwis say "no" like it's a two syllable word, something that I can't manage to do. I started to laugh, which apparently was good enough to get my transferred directly to a real person.
Oh, it can be rough being a foreigner.

Kiwi Pharmacy

I'm sick. It's winter (although the leaves and flowers are out) and everyone at work is sick and I managed to pick up a cold. I'm home from work today feeling sorry for myself. Yes, people actually take sick days here when they are sick, unlike in the states where people come to work sick and infect everyone else. So I went to the pharmacy to get some medicine and the experience was so nice I thought I'd share.
Kiwi's can be a little mixed up with language. Some things are said the British way, some things the Canadian way and some things the Kiwi way. Usually any of the above will do and they like to mix things up just to keep you on your toes. But more on that another day. This post is about the pharmacy, or the chemist (but not the drug store). Pharmacies here are generally quite small (no Shoppers Drug Mart) and generally only have pharmacy type things, plus some cosmetics. They don't have pharmacies in grocery stores (I can't remember what they call grocery stores) but just a small section of medicine.
OK, back to the pharmacy. As soon as you walk in some friendly person (the pharmacist usually) asks if they can help you and instead of just hunting through the shelves on my own I tell them what I'm looking for. Often you have to ask because more things are behind the counter here (I have an interesting story about "thrush"). But you can get more things over the counter here (like codeine, which is prescription only in the states). They ask about your medication and symptoms and find just the thing for you. It's great service, but often quite expensive. Worth it though, I'd say.

Tui's Family

Megan and I went to the Pukekohe agility trial today to meet some of Tui's family. They are all lovely dogs. We also watched Roy run and he is beautiful. He runs so smoothly that you don't realize just how fast he's moving. Although the grounds were muddy from all of the rain we've had lately, the sun came out for us today.
From left to right: Speedy (sister), Roy (father), Finn (brother), Tui












Winter in Auckland.



















The grass is green and the sheep don't need a barn.


















In fact everything is green.


















And although Howie's not a reliable source on water temperature, he says it's actually not too bad and has seen people swimming in the sea without wet suits.

Things I Hate About Winter

1) Soggy, muddy lawns
2) Cold, damp house
3) Mould everywhere in the house
4) High electric bills
5) Expensive fresh veggies
6) No snow
7) Towels that never dry
8) Wet muddy dogs

Things I Like About Winter

1) Flowers
2) Green trees
3) Green grass
4) Sitting on a patio enjoying the sun
5) Barefoot kids
6) No Christmas music
7) No shoveling
8) No digging out the car
9) Skiing
10) No need for chapstick and moisturizer
11) Dogs allowed on the beach anytime
12) Not so short days

Random Update

Second morning of frost today 5C last night. But it's beautiful when the sun comes out and you see people walking around in their bare feet.

Tui turned 1 last week and starts her formal agility training next week.

I found rootbeer (imported from Singapore).

It feels like Christmas (without the snow).

There was a huge windstorm last week and the front gate bent. Howie and Tui managed to escape yesterday. Megan found Tui not far from home. After an hour of recruiting everyone I know to look for Howie someone called to say they had him. He crossed a busy street and was terrorising cats.

I've become addicted to Facebook. It compliments my TradeMe addiction.

For All You Transport Geeks

I spent the past two days on a ramp metering training course. Auckland is planning on installing over 90 signals on the ramps to it's motorway system. A few signals have already been installed, to mixed reviews from the public, but overall traffic flow on the network has been improved.
Auckland is using a SCATS based system developed by RTA in Sydney. The training was given by Peter Lowrie, one of the orginal inventors of SCATS.

The Weekend

I had a full but nice weekend. On Friday I took the ferry from Half Moon Bay to the CBD to go out at the Viaduct with some friends and co-workers. Half Moon Bay is about a 10 min drive from my house and the ferry to the CBD takes about 30 minutes. This is generally faster than driving and you don't have to worry about parking. The sea was rough and there were a few sick looking people on the boat. It was a very nice evening with some nice friends.

On Saturday Robyn and I took our 5 dogs to Port Waikato to celebrate Robyn's dog's Switch's 5th birthday with a run on the beach. Port Waikato is just over an hours drive and is on the West coast. We walked on the sand dunes along the Waikato River towards the sea. It was wet and windy but the dogs had a great time running around and finding fish parts to eat.

Saturday night I went out to a pub to watch NZ play Aussie in rugby. We didn't stay to watch the end by the All Blacks lost. In other NZ sporting news, the NZ sailing team has made it to the final round of the America's Cup against the Swiss team. Unfortunately they also lost their race on Saturday night and are now just one loss away from being eliminated.

Sunday was Canada Day and I went to join the Auckland Canadian Club for a Canada Day breakfast. I met some nice Canadians and even won 1.5 Litres of maple syrup. There were about 40 Canadians there and it was nice to know that there are other Canadians in Auckland.

It's quite rare for me to meet other Canadians. This means that for the people who know me, I'm generally the only Canadian I know. This comes in handy when I call people I don't have to tell them who it is as they recognize my voice immediately. This can also be a problem when I call people and they recognize my voice immediately. The Canadian with the one eyed Labrador are not easily forgotten, so I can't pretend it was someone else's dog when Howie's bad (not that Howie's ever bad). Did I mention that he ate another possum? Thanks to Trish and the hydrogen peroxide trick I later found the possum in my front yard, and in my backyard and in my kitchen.

Happy Canada Day!!! This is the Canadian Flag on Auckland's Harbour Bridge on Canada Day last year. After some squable about what flag's the can and cannot fly, Transit NZ (who operates the bridge) has decided that they will now only fly the NZ flag on the bridge.

Kiwi Mechanic

My car's been making a strange squealing noise when I turn at low speeds and I finally took it in to get fixed. It turned out to be a loose belt. The mechanic told me that it only took him 5 minutes to fix and didn't charge me. Unbelievable. Last time I took my car in it took them half the day to diagnose the problem (my previous mechanic had installed the wrong water pump) but they didn't charge me the labour for diagnosing the problem. Kiwis' are great!!

Used cars in NZ are relatively cheap as used cars are imported from Japan (where they have much stricter vehicle emissions and safety laws). This means that the NZ fleet is rather old. If you car is over 5 years old, you must have it checked by a mechanic every six months to make sure it's safe to drive (but emissions are not checked). This check is called a warrant of fitness (or WOF). New cars need to get a WOF every year.

With high car ownership levels, no emissions standards and an older vehicle fleet, pollution is becoming more of a problem in NZ. I've seen bad smog in Auckland - but not everyday. The other big polluter is fires used for heating in the winter. I live in a bit of a valley and on a cold night the air gets pretty thick down here due to all of the fires.

Overall, NZ is still a very clean country, but I think this has a lot to do with the low population, rather than the environmental policies.

Winter?

The South Island has been hit hard by the first winter storm . Schools have been closed, roads have been closed, power has been out, flights cancelled. Yes a few centimetres of snow has caused all this.

As funny as I find it that the South Islanders are struggling with a dusting of snow, I'm quite enjoying "winter" in Auckland where it never snows. I took the dogs to the beach this morning and the sun was actually warm and I had to unzip my fleece jacket. Some die hard swimmers are still in the water. Auckland is also the first place I've ever lived where on Winter Solstice I can arrive at work in the daylight and just leave before the sun sets.

Sunrise: 7:34 AM
Sunset: 5:12 PM

Total daylight: 9h 37m

Dali Lama in Auckland

On Sunday I went to see the Dali Lama speak on Compassion and Kindness. He was warm and funny, but I kept thinking that he sounds just like Kermit The Frog. Here's what the NZ Herald thought. The NZ PM has come under fire for not meeting with the Dali Lama, though apparently they did speak while they were in Australia.

The nice thing about living in Auckland is that if someone famous comes to only one place in NZ, it's usually Auckland. Pink was in town last week, The Red Hot Chili Peppers last month and Guns 'n Roses are coming soon.

Canadian Rugby?

Last night I drove to Hamilton (about 1.5 hours South of Auckland) to watch NZ's national rugby team The All Blacks play Canada.

Rugby is NZ's national sport and kiwis are pretty serious about rugby. The All Blacks are one of the best teams in the world and are real contenders to win the world cup in France later in the year. The All Blacks have celebrity status in NZ and get recognized where ever they go (well, by everyone except me).

I didn't know that Canada even had a national rugby team. Half of the Canadian players are amateur and half play pro rugby in Europe. I thought there were only about 3 Canadians in NZ, as that's all that I've met here, but I was wrong. On the way down to Hamilton we passed 2 bus loads of Canadians on their way to the game. At the game there were quite a few Canadian flags scattered throughout the crowd.

The headlines in NZ before the game were "By How Much Will The All Blacks Beat Canada". We didn't have a prayer. The Canadians put up a good game for the first half, but things went downhill in the second half. This was my first time to see the All Blacks play and it was a great game with a great atmosphere with 25,000 fans in the sold-out Waikato Stadium. Before the game starts, the All Blacks have a tradition of doing The Haka, which is a Maori dance intended to intimidate their opponents. It's pretty impressive to watch. At one point during the game, there was a good wave going - Kiwi style - which involves throwing beer/wine bottles in the air as you stand. The bottles are made of plastic, but some were going onto the field where the play was taking place. There was an announcement to stop throwing bottles on the field and the fans immediately obliged. How civilized!

It was a fun game, but unfortunately, Canada really got spanked:

Winter Is On The Way

Yesterday morning I woke up to the first day of frost for the year. It was about 5C overnight and there was a tiny bit of frost on the car. But then things warmed up and I had lunch outside in my t-shirt. This is winter in Auckland.
This morning I woke up again quite cold. My house is very poorly insulated. I have some heaters on timers that come on before I wake up but it was still freezing inside this morning. I bundled up and took the dogs down to the beach where the sun was shining and it was actually pretty warm. I'm sure it was much warmer outside than in - this is winter in my house.
I met a man on the beach who swims (without a wetsuit) year round in the sea. He said the beach I take my dogs to is one of the best swimming beaches and he swims there almost everyday. He also told me that the very decayed carcass that Howie found on the beach last week and ate about half of, was not a cat as I thought, but a possum. Apparently they live on top of the cliffs by the sea and this one must have fallen off the cliff onto the beach. Howie's first taste of possum - and he liked it.

NZ News Today

"Possum knocks out entire region's power" - NZ Herald

Possums are an unwanted pest in NZ. They found their way over to NZ from Aussie and have been destroying the NZ forests. Since the only native mammals in NZ are bats, they have no predators in NZ. The Department of Conservation has been trying to eradicate them and lay possum bait in the forests to try to kill them. This makes it difficult to take the dogs into some areas as the possum bait would kill the dogs. Oh and the endangered flightless birds also mean that there are a lot of areas that are strictly off limits to dogs.

With the lack of mammals in NZ, the only road kill you see are birds and of course, possums. In fact, the only possums I've seen in NZ have been dead on the side of the road.

Trip to the Dentist

Well I thought I put it off for long enough so I finally made a dentist appointment last week. My neighbour recommended a nearby dentist, so I called to make an appointment. After giving me very detailed directions, I asked what the address was, but the reply I got was "we don't actually have an address, but we're right in the village just after the roundabout. If you get lost, we're right beside the diary, and there's only one dairy". Oh, by the way, a dairy is basically a corner store.

My appointment was for a check up and a cleaning. I met with the dentist right away and he had a look and then took some X-rays. He asked if I was having any problems and I told him I was having trouble chewing on one side, but I didn't think it was a big deal. He determined that I had a loose filling and said he would replace it right away. I was just not mentally prepared for him to start drilling right away, so it was a bit traumatic, but I got through. He then asked me to make an appointment for the following week for the cleaning and to have another filling on the other side.

I had my second appointment today and the dentist greets me and starts prodding around. He said he wouldn't have to do much drilling and said I wouldn't need any anesthetic, at which point I almost choked on his instruments. Kids in NZ get free dental care in school and my co-worker told me that when she was a child (she's about my age) they got fillings with no anesthetic because "kiwi kids are tough". Well, I'm not nearly so tough so I was terrified at the thought of a filling with no freezing. Oh yes, apparently kiwis have no idea what you mean when you say "freezing" at a dentist. I think it's because they've never a snow ball thrown in their face so have no idea what an actual frozen face would feel like. The dentist proceeded with the cleaning (yes the dentist - not his assistant). He didn't use any of the awful tasting polish that dentists in Canada use. After the cleaning he asked me if it was OK for him to do the filling without the anesthetic, to which I agreed. And he was right - it was fine and I didn't have wait the rest of the day for the freezing to come out so I could eat properly.

I don't have any dental insurance as it's not very common here. I could purchase some through work, but it's quite expensive and doesn't cover very much. But even though the dentist did all of the work himself, my total cost for 2 visits including 2 fillings, checkup with x-rays and cleaning was $300NZ. I thought that wasn't too bad. Oh and the other nice thing is that they recommend a cleaning only once a year so I have a whole 12 months to forget about the whole ordeal.

Camping with the dogs in Tauranga

My friend Robyn and I went camping with our 5 dogs in Tauranga this weekend. It was Tui's first camping trip and she and Howie had a great time. This was also my first camping trip in NZ and it was nice to explore a new part of NZ. Tauranga is on the East cost of the North Island, about 2.5 hours from Auckland. It was nice to get out of the city and see lots and lots of sheep. The beaches in NZ are beautiful and I still can't get over how uncrowded they are.

Here's Howie and my new tent (yes we went CAR camping)


I still can't believe that it's warm enough to go camping in May. I was even wearing a t-shirt at one point.










There was plenty of swimming and romps on the beach.


























We had great weather until it was time to pack up and leave, which we did in the rain.


I'm going to try to link to the all of the pictures on Flickr. Please be patient as I try to figure Flickr out. In the future I'll try to keep most of the pictures on Flickr, which will leave more room for actualy writing on the blog.