Driving through Taihape for the first time is an odd and surreal experience if you’re new to New Zealand. If you’re driving South, you’ll pass by a Taihape city sign in front of a huge sculpture of a gumboot. And if you’re driving North, you’ll pass by a Taihape city sign that says “Taihape Welcomes…
The year before I moved to New Zealand, we spent Christmas with my family in Texas. We drove through the world’s greatest outdoor Christmas light display at the Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area as my family does every year. Part of this fantastic light display is a section focused on all of the scenes of…
One of the things that I latched onto when I first started looking for work in New Zealand was vacation time. NZ is 8th of OECD countries for paid vacation and holidays – the highest outside of continental Europe with 30 days off per year. There are 10 public holidays in NZ.
If you head about two and a half hours North of Auckland on Highway 1, you will likely be confused and at a loss for words upon seeing a brown sign with the words “Hundertwasser Toilets” and an arrow pointing to the exit.
In January of this year, the owner of a section of beach in the heart of Abel Tasman National Park was put up for sale. The owner listed the beach as “rare and stunning location offers a once in a life time opportunity for private ownership of your very own beach and land package in idyllic…
Our new apartment comes with a refrigerator that is awesome — it’s one of those hidden fridges that looks like a cabinet but isn’t. The kitchen cabinets are showing some wear and tear but we don’t mind as the cool factor is definitely there. And the day we moved in, my partner and step-daughter were…
There was an article in Stuff (a Kiwi online news site) today about Kiwi Treason. It talks about Kiwis who admit to not liking things that they are expected to like if they are loyal Kiwis. It’s tongue and cheek of course, but funny since my blog yesterday was about Marmite and Vegemite and one of…
New Zealand has some of the best and some of the worst advertisements I’ve ever seen. Some I just don’t get at all and others that I just love. NZ also has some truly awesome beer. And sometimes good beer and good advertisements go together. Tui is a beer that was born and bred in New…
There has been a bit in the news lately about a new government campaign to make NZ predator free by 2050. It’s a bit of an odd concept for me since predators are just part of life in the U.S. In NZ though, predators such as rats, possums, and stoats are not native and were…
Jandals are flip flops. They are the national footwear of New Zealand. Second only behind bare feet in popularity, you’ll see them pretty much everywhere you go – at the beach as well as in nice restaurants. The rest of the world may think that flip flops are casual attire but to many kiwis there…