Living the dream: March 2014

Hi guys,
SO! We moved to Dunedin! Most of you probably know, we met in this beautiful country and spent a lot of time traveling it. You may not know much about New Zealand, so I'll give you the 101. NZ is pretty small at around 2.5 times the size of Newfoundland Island, it has got a population of less than 4.5 million, a little less than 1.5 million of which reside in Auckland. That doesn't leave much in the way of populace for the remaining 3 large-ish cities (Wellington [the capital], Christchurch [the earthquake] and Dunedin [ta-da!]). Dunedin is a similar town to that which Matt grew up in, Kingston Ontario, with a few major differences. Firstly and most obvious, it's a coastal city (Lake Ontario, you're not the ocean -Gord Downey), secondly, it doesn't get nearly as cold, nor as humid. One thing that really correlates with Kingston is the fact that without the University of Otago, Dunedin would fall off the economic map. Have no fear though, it was founded in 1869 making it the oldest higher education institution in NZ; she's here to stay. Thirdly Dunedin is near as south as you can go! It's closest neighbouring city is 360 km north, doesn't leave much room for traffic between cities like Kingstonians enjoy.

A tea towel of New Zealand specialties.

Many people are misled into believing that New Zealand and it's neighbour across "the Ditch" (the Tasman Sea [I'm talking about Australia here, for those who slept through Geography]) are very much alike. In fact, New Zealand doesn't have much in common with Australia at all! There are no poisonous snakes, creepy crawlies (except the white tail spider which hunts other spiders and doesn't make a web, whose nasty bite is normally not dangerous, although it can lead to....complications) or jellyfish! Okay, occassionally you might see a shark here or there, but nothing like in Aussie. It's not just the critters in Australia, but climate is much more harsh than here in NZ too. New Zealand isn't called "The Land of the Long White Cloud" (the translation for the native Maori name for the country Aotearoa) for nothing. When the sun shines through though, it can be very intense indeed. It becomes a daily routine to smear on gobs of SPF30 to keep from getting burned. Even though the wind is generally nippy and can lull you into a false sense of security, that sun is there to crisp you up good! Most of the time though you know you are getting burned because the sun is just so hot on the skin.
NZ has all sorts of cool stuff that you can find all over the world for sure, but there are also heaps of things here that are only found on these islands including native lizards, birds and plants. We've always thought of New Zealand being a mini Canada. If you took the mountains, the tundra, the west coast, the maritimes, the glaciers, the lakes and zipped them up to a fraction of the size you'd have NZ! Though you'd have to add a few more things like rainforests, massive dunes, fiordlands, sub-tropical climate, volcanoes(!), penguins and and and, while never being farther than an hour and a half drive to the ocean.
So as you can see New Zealand is a huge collage of neat and interesting stuffs! We like it here :)

Up to this point, this was less about us and what the heck we are doing here and more about letting you guys know why this crazy country has bewitched us so. Next time around we'll get into what it really is that we are doing here!

Well I'm sure all of you have experienced those days, where you actually have time to do things you want to do. Believe it or not, we have those days as well. Here is what we choose to do :)