Around Ruakaka

Ruakaka has a free town map showing the local businesses, and we picked up a copy when we first arrived. Some observations about this map:

• This is pretty much all there is in Ruakaka
• It is very not to scale
• There are a strange number of real estate offices and hair dressers for such a short list

But it's been pretty helpful for getting around. Since most of these small businesses aren't lookupable online, it's really the only way to find some of them.

Yesterday I went to the local dressmaker/tailor (#28) to get some pants hemmed. It wasn't as straightforward as I expected because the business is run out of a house. The mailbox at the road had a "dressmaker" sign but the house did not, so I had to sort of wander around trying to find the right place. Luckily there was a man working in his garage (making wooden toys) who happened to be the dressmaker's husband. Hooray! But she is out golfing...aww. He gave me her card and I went back today and successfully dropped off my pants, but it was certainly a bit of an adventure :)

Last week we realized that we hadn't yet gone up to One Tree Point and the Marsden Cover Marina (on Whangarei Harbour). So we took a drive up there and discovered that there is basically nothing there, except the Mardsen Point Oil Refinery - the only oil refinery in NZ. There is a visitors center, but we figured we don't really need any extra knowledging about oil. Who knows, maybe we will check it out later :)

Anyways, there was some nice views at least, looking out over Whangarei Harbour.

Looking east over Whangarei Harbour from One Tree Point. You can see the oil refinery off in the distance

The sun was really bright...but check out my new hat! :)

Under the hood?

After some confusion, we figured out how to access the engine of our van: lift the front passenger seat

That's no place for an engine!

My mind was blown.

Cooking, baking and other mundane activities

Hi blogfans! We have been slacking off a bit on the blogging, but mostly because we haven't done anything super exciting! Don't get me wrong, we are having an awesome time still! But you can only write about going to the beach and surfing so many times before it becomes a bit repetitive. We have also been working a lot the past few days, so that's not really blogworthy.

One thing I have been doing a lot of is cooking. Back home usually I would be so hungry when I got home from work that I just wanted to eat something that was fast. Now that I have time and energy to actually make my own meals I have been resisting getting take-out as often. Also helps that there are very few takeout places here :) I'm starting small, with using packaged sauces and whatnot, but hope to become more adventurous! I have made pasta, stir frys, thai curry, butter chicken, tacos, and more! Yay me! Scott has been doing a lot of cooking too, his favourites are shake and bake pork chops or pork schnitzel, beef mince (that's what they call ground beef here), hamburgers and beef steaks. And of course veggies that I encourage him to eat :) Scott's biggest woe is that we can't buy "normal" ketchup here, as he has previously mentioned.

Mmmmm!

These tacos are too full! But delicious :)

On the topic of food, here is an awesome ice cream that I got at the store. It looks nothing at all like the picture on the package, but it is delicious! And has little chocolate kiwi birds in it, hehe.

Slightly less vibrant than the package indicated...

Yesterday it was raining (one of the first truly rainy days) so we mostly hung out at home. (Though later it did clear up and we took Dexter to the beach, don't worry :) ) Scott was into playing Batman: Arkham City (computer game) so I had to entertain myself. I made some cupcakes, though since we have like no baking supplies I lamed out and just made them from a package with medium success...

It's possible this package was intended to make 24 cupcakes instead of 12...

Rainbow!

I was too impatient to wait for one to cool, so I just iced it right away. Oops (totally worth the sticky mess)

I also decided to give myself a pedicure since my feet have been all rough and bad from wearing sandals and going to the beach so much (poor me, right?). And since I was on a roll, I did a french manicure too (there was a kit on sale at the store...)

Smooth and pretty feet!

I'm fancy

So all in all a pretty girly day. But then I coded firmware for 6 hours to make up for it :)

Sorry for the lameish post, but this is all I got right now! More excitement to come eventually, don't worry :) By the way, thanks to everyone who has been reading and commenting! It makes the blog feel more like real interaction :) We miss you guys!

Fun in the sun

The waves have not been great lately, so unfortunately we haven't been able to do much surfing. Instead we have started going for short runs along the beach - usually around 5-10km. I wear runners but Scott prefers to go barefoot. Dexter loves it because he doesn't have to be on a leash like he usually does when we go running :)

Today was the first super sunny day in awhile, so we took advantage of the weather and spent the afternoon at the beach! Went for a short run and then read in the sun. Although it was sunny and warm it was also very windy, so it wasn't super ideal for lounging. We got very covered in sand :) Luckily our kindles were in ziplocks so they were safe!

Dexter did some fetching (he gets to fetch at the beach every day!) and then we swam a bit. Dexter swam with us (this video is for my mom especially because I know she misses him)! But not too close because otherwise he scratches with his nails (as Scott found out the hard way...). What a great day!

Perfect day for the beach (well, a little windy...)

Sand destruction of our lounging area

At least the kindles are safe!

Fetch!

Self-shot while waiting for Dexter to swim back with the ball (hehe you can see him in the background!)

Shadow people

Scott gives Dexter a break from swimming 

This break was less appreciated...

Baylys Beach and West Coast of Northland

The surf forecast has not been looking good for our beach. I don't really mind the small waves because I'm a wuss, but Scott was craving bigger surf :) Also there's a point when it's really not worth going out, which is how it's been for the past few days. 0.1m = not worth putting on a wetsuit for

So last friday we went on an adventure to Baylys Beach on the west coast of northland, near Dargaville. The surf forcast was predicting some 3 star waves and Scott was eager to give them a try. We hadn't been over to that side of the island yet, so it seemed like a good excuse to go and check it out.

Google maps sent us on a route across the island that included a non-state highway, but we didn't realize how non-main the road actually was until we got stuck behind a herd of cattle. "Just drive slowly and they'll move" said the farmer...so we did, and they did. If only they had been sheep, then this would have been a classic NZ moment :)

There's cows on the road!

Moooooooove

We stopped for a bite to eat in Dargaville before going to Baylys Beach. I got kumara wedges with bacon, cheese and sour cream. Delicious AND healthy!!! Uh....

By the way, kumara is sweet potato but here they call it kumara. Don't know why! Also Dargaville is apparently the Kumara Capital of NZ, so appropriate that I had this here :)

NZ's answer to The Big Cheese Poutinerie

 Finally we got to the beach! Baylys Beach is the gateway to Ripiro Beach, New Zealand's longest driveable beach. We were surprised to find this out, since we thought the longest drivable beach was 90 Mile Beach (since it is much more famous), but I guess this is not the case.

On the topic of "drivable beach", you are allowed to drive on many of the beaches here in NZ. It's a bit weird to be walking alone the shore and have a Jeep cruise by, but it happens (not really that often though). However we found out that just because a beach is drivable doesn't mean you should assume your vehicle
can manage...we foolishly parked on a softer area and got ourselves a bit stuck =\ Rather embarrassing, though we were able to get free with a small push. Even more embarrassing, a friendly couple saw that we were having problems and came over to help (though that was very nice of them).

Anyways, the surfing. Upon arrival I immediately decided that I would not be surfing, since the waves were big and scary! Scott suited up and braved the surf though. Unfortunately the current was so strong that he couldn't really get out past the break (the surf report had the 3 star waves in the morning, and we were there in the afternoon when the ranking was suddenly 0 stars...I suspect this was the reason why). So not much surfing happened, but at least we tried!

Baylys Beach! I am not surfing...

Brave Scott is ready to go! Also, Binney is stuck but we don't know it yet... 

Big waves! Eep!

Paddle paddle paddle paddle paddle

Dexter is very concerned

A valiant effort, but today is not for us

 Since we had come all the way over to the west coast we thought we should check out the area a bit more before heading home. So we drove north along the coast and saw some sites along the way, including the largest kuari tree in New Zealand. The Tane Mahuta is something like 2000 years old and it is huge!!

Tane Mahuta - largest kuari tree in NZ

Kai Iwi Lakes

Basically what I used to think of when I pictured NZ :) There aren't as many of these as you would expect!

At Hokianga Harbour we turned east and drove back across to the east coast and down to Ruakaka. It was  a lot of driving (we definitely did not take the direct route home), but we saw lots so it was fun! 

Panoramic shot of the entrance to Hokianga Harbour

Looking over at the sand dunes of Hokianga Harbour's north shore by Opononi

There's a trailer full of sheep ahead of us! Haha

Skydiving Video!

I uploaded my skydiving video! I'll have to edit it later to remove the soundtrack as it's banned in Germany due to Copyright claims on the music... Blah!

Anyways, enjoy. Here's the video of me Skydiving at Bay of Islands a couple days ago!

Free Meat!

I won meat!

There's this Butcher in Ruakaka that (of course) I shop at a bit, and every time you spend more than $10 in the store you can enter a contest for free meat. I was drawn this week! $20 of meat was all mine! muahhaha...

Thanks to Kabir for this sweet related picture ↑ :D

I have a blue guitar!

I bought a guitar! Since I couldn't bring my piano to NZ I have decided to take up playing the guitar. I played a bit back in 2005/2006 in Switzerland, but I remember very little so I'm basically starting from scratch.

Got a cheapish guitar that came with a "learn to play" DVD, bag, tuning pipe, string winder and a little foot stool . I went with a nylon string guitar because that's what I played before, and it's a little nicer on the fingers. 

The sales guy actually suggested that they might have it in a different colour...no way, blue is awesome!!!

Wish me luck! Pointers are welcomed (the instructional DVD is ok but leaves a lot to be desired...)

It's blue!

Skydiving Bay of Islands from 4.8km up!

Wowoweee... So much fun!

A few days ago it occurred to me that New Zealand might have one or more of those daily deal sites, like Groupon and what not... So I went a searching. Found one called GrabOne that was offering skydiving (the highest in New Zealand @ 16000 feet) for only $225 instead of the regular $420. Must. Do. Booked it up and Jacqui and I headed up to Bay of Islands yesterday so I could dive today! What a blast. I wish Jax had've done it too, but she didn't really have any interest in it other than to say she'd done it, which probably wasn't enough. This way Dexter had some ground company too!

I'd skydived once before, in 2000, but we were static-lined to the plane and I was solo, didn't get any free-fall time at all. This time I went tandem and it was a definite step up in thrills. I had no idea how strong the wind would feel on free-fall. Awesome.

Pretty sweet view to jump out of a plane to! Bay of Islands near Kerikeri.

All dressed up and no where to go... Except up!

These Goggles were really not super fun. Also, they didn't work super well. Ouch.

Getting off right here, kthx.

Bye plane, we'll race you down!

4.8km high! The bay is up in the top right I think. So pretty!

Wooooooooooooo

Almost chute time!

Touchdown!

What a rush!

I got a video I want to upload to YouTube as well, but don't have the bandwidth for it at the moment. Hopefully in a couple weeks!

Bay of Islands

Yesterday we went for an overnight trip to check out the Bay of Islands, which is a couple hours north of where we are living. It is a really pretty area, but I think the Lonely Planet description is accurate:

Undeniably pretty, the Bay of Islands ranks as one of NZ’s top tourist drawcards. The footage that made you want to come to NZ in the first place no doubt featured lingering shots of lazy, sun-filled days on a yacht floating atop these turquoise waters punctuated by around 150 undeveloped islands. The reality is that NZ has many beautiful spots and this bay, while wonderful, could be a teensy bit overhyped.

Bay of Islands

The main attraction to the area is exploring the islands on some type of boat trip, but since we were there with Dexter we just stayed on land (also saved some money...the touristy boat trips aren't really cheap). Yesterday we got off to a late start because we had to pack up the van and also arrange somebody to mow our lawn. Unfortunately our rental place leaves us with the responsibility to mow the lawn, but we have no lawnmower. Instead of buying one for 2 months we figured we would just hire the guy the mows our neighbours lawn. We also had to stop in Whangarei for a couple errands - first we got materials so that we could put screens over the windows of our van. Last camping trip we were stifling hot but when we opened the windows we were attacked by mosquito! We also finally purchased a power voltage converter, for our one item that can not take duel voltage (soldering iron). It cost a pretty penny...really should have bought this in Canada, but in our rush we didn't know that we needed it! 

We got up to the Bay of Islands area in the afternoon, and debated if it was worthwhile to take the ferry over to Russell. It's also possible to drive there, but since it's such a big detour the most common way is to take a short ferry ride. We ended up deciding that there was nothing in particular that we wanted to do in Russell, so we just spent a few hours wandering around Paihia instead. Dexter had to stay on leash, but we explored some rocky areas near the water and walked along the shore.

Panoramic picture of Bay of Islands from Paihia

Scott taking the panorama picture :)

A gull that Dexter wanted to chase

Weird creatures in a crack on a rock - don't know what they are!

The sad thing about the Northland region of New Zealand (and only this region we hope...) is that because of the wildlife protection dogs are banned from a lot of areas. This means that most of the nice walks and hikes we can't even bring Dexter on a leash! It sucks...I understand that the kiwis are endangered and need protection, but if we had him on a leash and under control it should be fine! But no :( So we have had to miss out on a lot of the nice wilderness walks because we don't want to leave Dexter in the car for that long. Oh well...hopefully it is better in other parts of NZ!

This bench is the only place I'm allowed to go :(

After a quick stop at Haruru Falls (since Dexter once again had to stay in the car) we checked into the campground (Holiday Park) that we were staying at. It was not very busy, so we had our choice of spots and picked one way on the end next to the river. It was very private, so we had a bit of space to play with Dexter a bit since he didn't get as much running around yet that day.

Haruru Falls - before the giant tour of people arrived

Our camp site!

Dexter loves camping!

Then it was time to put our handiness skills to the test and attach our screens to the windows. We had bought some silicone rubber stuff that worked pretty well, and only slightly made a mess. I'm actually pretty impressed at how well it turned out! Looks decent, kept the bugs out and didn't fall off on our drive home today! Yay us!

Scott carefully glues in the screen

It looks pretty good!

We cooked up some dinner (in the kitchen, this isn't open fire style camping :) ) and set up our bed and Dexter's bed in the front seat. This worked well because a) he hogs the bed when he sleeps with us, b) we have an air mattress and I'm would worry about him puncturing it and c) in such a small enclosed space it's probably better if he has his own space, since we can't just kick him off the bed easily :) Dexter seemed fine with this too, he had his cushion and blanket and seemed quite cozy!

Our camper!

Our bed

Dexter's bed

Ready to sleep! (Dexter is happier than he looks...)

Sleepy puppy

This morning we packed up and went to the sky diving place for Scott to jump out of a plane, ahhhh!!!! More info in a separate post :)

After the excitement of sky diving we got our culture on, and visited a historical site in Kerikeri - Mission House and Stone Store. It was pretty late in the day so we just looked around a bit (the tours were all over). Also walked up the hill to Kororipo Pa. We also finally figured out that the word "Pa" means settlement in Maori - we had seen the word all over but didn't know what it meant. Then we grabbed some food in Kerikeri and headed home!

Me (and some ladies that decided to walk into the picture [and stand around gabbing - scott]) at Stone Store

Hi!

Walk up to Kororipo Pa

View of Stone Store and Mission House from Kororipo Pa

These are neat trees that have no bark. Wonder what they are...

I made a wish! It's a secret :)

Fun trip! Warm weather too...I managed to sunburn my nose, even though we didn't spend any time "hanging out" in the sun really. Gotta get a hat or something to prevent this in the future (I have a beach hat, but it looks so silly that I only wear it at the beach, haha). We missed a few things so we will have to come back to the Bay of Islands again sometime.