Concerning hobbits, thanksgiving and visas...

Wow, i have much to write about in this entry. I guess i'll start at the beginning (which is a very good place to start). Saturday morning we picked Chonos up bright and early from the airport. Not long after returning the phone rang. Thankfully unlike most Saturday's i was awake and it was only 9am! On the phone was my case worker, Gerald. Gerald (or Gerry as i'm going to call him for the moment) had a chat to me about when i met Matt, how long we'd been living together etc, and then told me that my birth certifcate wasn't being accepted due to a small detail but if i sent another one things should be ok. Well a mere 2 hours later he calls me back again to tell me...I'M ACCEPTED (in principal). I'm going to be a NZ resident! I received my paperwork in the mail the other day. More money, my passport and new birth certificate and i'm sorted. All will be done when we return from Oz.

As previously mentioned Chonos arrived. We took him to the beach.

Murawai Beach



Here's some pictures of Matt out with his big kite. It really gives you a sense of just how big it is.




We also went to Matt's Australian Rules football game.

Grr go Matt


During the week we also had lunch up the sky tower. I took Thursday and friday off from work. Thursday of course being Thanksgiving. Matt and i went and bought a new deck set to solve our chair problem. Amy and i started cooking bright and early.

Our new deck set


Yet another picture of Amy and a turkey



To account for all the people i convinced Matt to let me take a door of the table and use that to fit everyone together - all 8 people.

My door/table


We had 8 people over including Osh and Caitlin, Amy and Chonos, my mates from work Nicole and Conrad and later Michael came around.

Everyone at the table


For our menu we had (courtsey of cooks Lindsay, Amy and Caitlin): Salad, Corn bread, home made bread, green bean salad, baked carrots, corn cassarole, mash potatoes, stuffing, turkey, homemade cranberry relish and of course, pumpkin pie and walnut pie!

Yum Yum!


More of all of us


Me!


PIES!


After dinner we all had drinks and played Cranium


Night time view from the table


Friday Matt, Chonos and i rented a car and drove south for the town of Rotorua which is about 3 hours south of Auckland. It has a population of about 65,000 (according to wikipedia) and a very large Maori one. Mostly it's know for it's smell. It's full of sulfur and made me spend the whole time feeling as though i was reminiscing getting my hair permed. It's all on yet another volcano which in the 1800's much like Pompeii erupted and buried a village.

Giant iron sheepdog on the way down to Rotorua


Maori face


Matt and i in front of Lake Rotorua


Steamy wouldn't want to bathe in it.


Vents - boiling hot water and smells


More vents in B&W


Rotorua museum


Matt and i in front of a giant steam vent


Matt looking scared - DANGER!


More Maori bits


While in Rotorua we went to the museums, the main park, saw the vents, and also went to rainbow springs just outside the city where we saw Kiwis! No good pics to show you all tho!

Saturday afternoon after we left Rotorua we headed up to Matamata. Matamata is a tiny town of up to 15000 people which has one sole claim to fame - it is the location for Hobbiton in Lord of the Rings (and is apparently New Zealand's largest horse training town). We took the tour and headed out to the location which is just out of town. It's on a sheep farm with a population of up to 14000 sheep!! Our tour guide Benji told us loads of interesting facts about the movie and although i'm usually not a fan of guided tours did a good job.

The rolling hills of the shire


The location was especially selected because of the rolling hills, the fact that you can't see anything man made (other than a shed which they made into a tree in the movie), and a giant tree by a lake. Yes the party tree is real. The tree over bag end in the movie however wasn't.

The party tree in the movie and how it all looks now


Matt and I


Where the mill was and the bridge (in B&W)


Me and Bag End


Me and my hobbit feet


Matt and i in Samwise Gamgee's house


Houses


Us


Me, Matt and Chonos in Bag Eng


Well so that's about it for the moment. Matt's Australian Rules team has made it to the grand final this Sunday. As you'll notice in the picture he's growing a moustache at the moment for Movember. I have to say i'm looking forward to December coming!

I will leave you with a photo of a New Zealand Christmas tree. The potakawa trees are now in bloom.

I need to get something off my chest. Thus far in my experience New Zealand is shockingly racist. Now I suppose I should preface that with something like “of those I’ve encountered but not everyone” but I’m not going to. I initially encountered it when Matt and I first moved here back in January. At the time I chalked it up the ages of the people involved (not that it makes it any more acceptable). But going on my 11th month here I’m finding it everywhere I turn. Primarily I find it’s against Asians; Stereotyping them as bad drivers. Complaining that they’re a noticeable presence in the communities. Blah, blah, blah. The Maori’s seem to get their fare share too although it’s far more subtle in their case. Perhaps coming from a background so diverse and a community so by and large accepting I find it odd. I just don’t like it one bit and it really makes me uncomfortable.

Another thing that I’m finding odd is targeted advertising towards racial groups. Really it’s just towards Maori but it seems like every few commercials on TV is one encouraging Maori women to get breast screenings done. Or some other women’s health issue. Usually it’s a group of Maori women sitting around and saying “oh I didn’t want to do this and never understood why I should” but I’m glad I went. We don’t have that in the states. Can you imagine ads geared towards American Indian’s or some other ethnic minority?
It creates a stereotype, however valid it may be (especially given that they’re advertising on TV), that just seems unfair.

That’s enough of my musings. On to the good stuff. Work is going well. This week is particularly stressful and is a primarily of the culmination of what I’ve been working on the last 6 weeks, which fingers crossed it all goes smoothly. Either way I’ve been consistently praised for my work. It’s a nice feeling. Matt’s job has been going well and he’s finished a big project as well (check it out at http://www.cupspace.co.nz – he did all the back end forms for when you create your own cup and enter the competition).

The exciting bit of lately was meeting my personal travel hero: This guy (click the play button over the video here to watch it), Matt Harding.



We initially heard about him through Matt’s aunt Jenny who sent him the link as a fun poke in regards to the fact he wasn’t too chatty about where he was and what he was up to (his website’s name is wherethehellismatt). He’s been to over 70 countries and basically just does that silly dance. He’s since gained sponsorship and basically is paid to travel to all these places. The above video has made him something of a web celebrity as well.

In any event he came to Auckland last weekend as part of his new video which isn’t so much about the places but rather the people. For this new concept he’s inviting people to do that silly dance with him and Matt and I went and danced with him. We met up at Albert Park with about 3 other people and had a nice chat. Turns out he’s from Westport, Connecticut and upon mentioning that I used to live in Trumbull he said “Oh yes, I’ve been to the Trumbull Mall” which made me smile. His main video of him dancing with everyone all over the world (including us) will be released in June but for the meantime here’s us dancing with him in the park.



He stole my idea of passport stamps as a website background (well ok I was going to make them into links to photosets from those countries). But other than that he was pretty cool.

My friend from university, Chonos (aka Peter) is coming out to visit this weekend which should be nice. We’ve got a big Thanksgiving dinner planned which I’m quite excited about especially since I didn’t really do anything for the holiday last year.

Other than that Christmas is on its way. Matt and I head off to Australia the 14th of December for my first Christmas down under and away from any of my family. I’m excited but a bit nervous. I’m sure many of you think I’m away from the states without a care or a glance back. But I do miss everyone. It can be hard to be away from a lot of the people who I love and care about.

With that I leave you all. I probably will not update before next week so I wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving. I’m so thankful that I’m blessed to have some spectacular people in my life.