Kapa Haka

The term Kapa haka (kapa meaning 'rank' or 'row' and haka refers to a Māori dance) is commonly known in Aotearoa as 'Maori Performing Arts' or the 'cultural dance' of Maori people. Kapa haka is an avenue for Maori people to express their heritage and cultural identity through song and dance.

A kapa haka performance involves choral singing, dance and movements associated in the hand-to-hand combat practiced by Māori in precolonial times, presented in a synchronisation of action, timing, posture, footwork and sound. The genre evolved out of a combination of European and Māori musical principles. (Wikipedia)

This week, Chris and I were treated to bit of Maori tradition. On Thursday night, we attended the Kapa haka festival here in Hawera. I saw several of the students I have been subbing for. On Friday, one of the principals here in town let me head over to Waitara with the students to see them perform in a kapa competition. All ages and abilities attended. It was very exciting and the children were very thrilled and nervous to compete. The performance was quite unique. The females perform a graceful synchronized dance and song while the males perform more of a warrior dance and chant. It is awesome to see these kids get right into the competition and perform. There is a female leader for the girls and a male leader for the boys. Their (fake) tattoos symbolize who the leader will be for the group.

After all the kapa excitement, Chris and decided to stick around our Tarnaki area this weekend. We have been traveling for 5 weekends straight and decided sitting in the car for several hours this weekend was not what we wanted to do. And plus- the surf was up! And boy was it up! We went surfing Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. Saturday morning was a bit big for me, so I decided to go for a ride while Chris took his chances with the Large waves rolling in! He was only in the water for 30 minutes that morning before he said to himself, "What the heck am I out here for!" as he got tossed by a huge wave and almost made friends with a rock. he said that was it! But the afternoon was a bit smaller (but not much!). We met this nice Scottish girl, Caitie, and surfed with her this weekend.

I have found some teaching positions open, so I will be applying to them. Meanwhile, I have been subbing and getting to know the community. Chris is still enjoying work and has been able to ride his bike to work here and there. The weather has been improving and we haven't seen the rain much. We hear the weather is getting a bit chilly. Feel free to come visit! My friend, Becky, is coming out in February. It will be warm then too! We are also working in our garden and we think we see vegetables growing! Chris bought some sheep poo and spread it around the garden. We are hoping this will help!

That's all for the week. Thanks for all the comments! We miss everyone! Take care!

Labor day take two

Amie and I took advantage of our first three day weekend by taking a trip to the east coast. It was Labor day this week so I had Monday off. Very nice to get two Labor days in one year.
The east coast is known to have a warmer and dryer climate and it did not disappoint.
First, Friday night-One of our local spots delivered the best waves we have seen yet. Chest to a little overhead size and very clean. Amie caught her first overhead wave ever. She disappeared down the face and shot out a few moments later with a huge smile on her face.
It was a perfect Friday night. Surfing at sunset with Mt. Taranaki in the background, absolutely perfect. Shared a beer with a few Californians here on vacation and then home.
Saturday we loaded up the car for our first overnight road trip. We were able to get a mattress in the back of the van. We had made curtains during the week. Amie had rounded up food, a new cooler and some other supplies. Off we went.
We strolled lazily over to the town of Napier. On the way, we took advantage of one of the last surf spots on the west coast. I got some nice long board waves.
We pulled into Napier at a free campsite at about 7pm. The site was amazing. We backed right up to the water. No surf directly out front of us, but as we found out the next morning, there was plenty of fish. Two salty old guys, think Howie in 25yrs, saw the water start to boil with fish and got after it. Amie got some great pics of them running into the surf to get their catch. I have never seen men in their 70's so excited about fish.
While we made dinner on our first night, a little five year old came over and invited us to the camp site next to ours. The people there were great. They only lived 1km down the road, but were camping out for the weekend anyway. Jamie and Hillary were the parents. Great folks. Everyone here is so friendly. We have been welcomed very warmly everywhere we have gone.
This weekend we noticed a whole country on vacation. Everyone seemed to pick up an go somewhere. The Kiwis travel well. There are clean bathrooms everywhere. Showers provided. Information centers in every town. On our drive, there were a few road stops set up to provide free refreshments for tired drivers.
Oh and then there was the California Dreaming concert. On Sunday, we spent the morning at the beach, then hit Napier and the aquarium in the afternoon. On our way back to the campsite, we stopped at one of the many wineries. We picked the one with the California Dreamers concert. There was a group dressed like the Mamas and the Papas playing 60's music. The crowed was made up like hippies. Everyone was drinking wine, dancing and having a great time. Old and young just partying.
Monday morning was sunny and not a cloud in the sky. We had a quick dip in the ocean and then home we went. A great weekend, new friends and SUN. Oh, when we got home it was raining, again.

Amie worked three days this week. A good start to her career here. Work for me is fine. I have had some very sick patients show up for office visits. The kiwis do not use the ER like Americans. They actually go to their GP's. It can be very challenging, but I like it.
So, we know the area pretty well. We have many surf spots dialed in. Amie is getting a mtn bike this week. The car is ready to go. We are now a traveling circus.
Notes from home. It looks like the surf had been good. We miss the surf shack and all who resided there.
The Yankees are going to the world series.. I know I am excited.

Keep all the emails coming. We miss everyone. Hope to start hearing about people making some flight arrangements soon.

Foiled again, sort of...

Welcome to another addition of Chris and Amie vs the weather. What a week! First, thanks to all who have been checking in. It is great to see my cousin Rick has joined up, also my aunt Carolyn along with Amie's Bakie friends. We are pleased to know so many people are keeping up with us and our travels.

This weekend headed back up at Mt. Ruapehu. With a last minute call Saturday morning to check the conditions and opening, we made the 2.5 hr journey again. We took our time. The new vehicle was in no hurry up the 3000 ft elevation climb to the base. We pulled into the parking lot to a glorious view of the 9000ft peak. Snow was limited down low, but the top was still sitting on a 6ft+ base.

Our first hint of what was to come should have been the ticket seller. We thought she was just being polite when she informed us of the money back policy if the weather was not to our liking. We could come down within one hour and get our money back. Yeah, right! It was our first and last day of the season and lots of turns to be made.

Now those of you who know me well, know I tend to be a bit impulsive, just a bit. So, no surprise that I took Miss Amie straight to the top of the active volcano. Heck, she had been Tele-skiing at least 4x now, so she was ready. At the mid station, I did not even hesitate with the increasing wind speeds. I just proceeded to the next chair. Amie came right along, never even asking about the foreboding cloud or the sharp, exposed lava rock.

At about the 6000ft mark the wind started picking up. WIND, the nemesis of my surf sessions here, was now imposing on my ski day. Within two minutes we had winds up to 70 mph, no kidding, no heatherton exaggeration. As we came out of the ski lift at the top, we were blasted with the wind and that cloud, it was right on top of us. Zero visibility, hurricane force winds and.... great snow. The night before had dumbed about 6inches and the underlying snow had warmed into a great spring corn. This may have caused me to move out a little too fast.

"Amie just follow me, there is a blue square over here." or so I thought.

There had been a Blue square(intermediate) slope. Oops! I just missed. So, as the cloud we had been consumed by, moved west, we were left at the top of an expert trail, wind blown and Steep! Did I mention the snow was good.

All I can say is thank God Amie is adventurous. As she gingerly proceeded down the slope, her body quickly remembered the moves for a successful telemark turn. By the time we were at the bottom, she was back in the groove. We charged that run, ran into a couple of friends at the bottom and sped off for another. I was determined not to let the wind ruin the day. Amie did not want a divorce! Things were good. You can imagine our disappointment when, as we got onto the chair, the ski patrol shut the mountain down. The wind had picked up force and thunderstorms were coming in. So that was it-two great runs. I found an off fall-line slope; gullies, drops. Fun snow!

In typical Kiwi fashion they gave us our money back. We tried again the next morning, but the weather was no better. New snow at top, but high winds and a closed mtn. Regardless, we had a lot of fun. We found a great bar for apre ski. Amie found some pics on the wall of the cast of The Lord of the Rings, so we found Frodo, sort of.

This week had other nice episodes. We got out to surf twice. On Thursday, Amie and I celebrated our 1yr anniversary. We had a great surf session and then went out for a great meal with some new friends. We also have met a couple from Texas, Mark and Kerri, who are two towns away. Kerri is a Doctor in the near by town. Mark is a real estate investor who used to own two surf shops. He is now surfing daily. He has become very useful giving us daily surf reports. We had a great night. We added some pictures of the waves.

Work is moving along nicely. We had an orientation this week to the differences in the New Zealand system. Included in this was a very interesting presentation by a group of Maori. The Maori people are not as marginalized as many groups of native people across the world. They are taking great strides to preserve their culture and their language. They are very proud and very spiritual- a pleasure to work with. I am hoping Amie and I will be able to sit in a traditional meal soon.

Amie's turn-School is back in session, so I will be subbing in a couple of schools this week. Should be fun! Thanks to all my Bakie friends for contacting me! It is so good to hear from everyone. The students here have about 9 more weeks of school and then 6 weeks of summer holiday (they call it). We are still waiting for the summer to come. The daily rain slowed down, so that has been nice! We get a glimpse of Mt Taranaki every once on a while. We will miss the snow this winter, but it will be nice to get a bit of sunshine in Dec, jan, Feb, March!

This week, on Thursday, we are to have Tea with the mayor of our town. Yes, we will sit for Tea. The mayor likes to meet all the new Docs in town. The community is very invested in keeping Doctors in this area, so Tea with the Mayor it is! We are looking forward to it.

I found a connection to watch the Baseball playoffs here, so I saw the Yankee's win Game 2 of their series. I was looking for the Red Sox game, but could not find it. HMMMM.

Ok all, have a great week. Next weekend we are up to Auckland to pick up a new Mtn. Bike for Amie.

I am out for now.

No skiing, Mt. Doom and The Ride

Hello from New Zealand. The Sunday night tradition is to wrap up the weekend with a review of pictures and a new post on the blog. I hope everyone has had a great week. We miss all our friends and family. Being away always reminds one how much they are loved and how important friends and family are.

OK, enough of that! Back to the week's events. Work is going well for me. I am having to find my place among my colleagues and figure out the system here in New Zealand. The general practitioner has less autonomy in some respects, such as tests they can order, but needs to deal with a very wide array of illness and trauma. I sutured the largest laceration of my life this week. Wonderful older woman, but I made her very ill with antibiotics.

Amie will be able to get started again this week with the job search. The kids are back from their 2wk holiday. There are some offers, but nothing too exciting yet. I think she should just continue to cater to my every need. She is not too keen on this idea.

On Thursday we had our second Tsunami warning. In typical cautious fashion, Amie and I went for a walk on the beach. No big waves there. I don't know what all the hype was about.

Friday rolled around and I could not be happier. We planned to go surfing after work, but a huge wind storm came in across the north island. Gusts up to 50-60mph with sustained winds of 20mph for the better part of the night rattled throughout the house. Surf was washed out. However, I was greeted by a supreme meal that Amie prepared. That and some wine made the night OK.

So, Friday night's plans got a little washed out, but we made the best of it. We were set to get up early Saturday morning and drive 2.5hrs to the center of the island to catch some spring skiing. All this rain that we have been complaining of has the mountains at record snow levels (2 meters of snow- that's over 6 feet!). We planned to ski Saturday and then head down to Wellington to pick up the new Ride on Sunday. As you can probably tell, plans here in New Zealand are often changed

Saturday morning we realized we had not picked up a Bank check for the car. We had to drive 1hr out of the way to a bank Saturday and pick up a check. We then we headed up to the mountain ( better known as Mt Doom in The Lord of the Rings).

Now, it is hard to explain the how beautiful this drive was. Hopefully the pics will tell the story a little. We drove 2hrs north and then set eyes on Mt. Ruapehu. This is a 9000ft peak, and active volcano. As we set up the mountain road, the weather was still clear with 55 degree temps and partly cloudy skies. 20 minutes later, we were at 4000 feet staring at a closed road sign. AUGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! It is now 12 o'clock and were already dealing with only a half day of skiing. Now we had gone all this way for nothing....or so we thought!

As we parked the car, we decided to wander up the axis road. The snow level increased with every step. All the Kiwis and tourists were making the best of the closed mountain by setting up snowboard parks on the side of the road, having snow ball fights, sledding and generally just enjoying themselves.

As we continued up the road, we ran into a young couple that informed us there was a great hike with a beautiful waterfall just up the road. That was all we needed. With only a pair of tennis shoes on my feet and no socks and Amie only slightly more prepared, we headed off on a 4mile hike, and it was worth it! You should be able to see the pics. The air was 40degrees, but there was snow falling. The sun was ducking in and out of the clouds and we would steel a glimpse of the peak from time to time. We tramped through an alpine field, over a river and back. It was awesome!

New Zealand keeps handing us diversions. I would call them road blocks, but they are not. We are constantly being shown wonders, not the ones we were looking for, but who cares.

The rest of the weekend was great. We found Mt. Doom, from the Lord of the Rings, actually turns out we were in Mordor. Who knew it could be so nice with a little snow.

Our new Car is "bad". Drives nice and has lots of room. We can now start the real road trips. Back at home tonight, we found most of our newly planted veggies still alive, so we have that going for us.

This week may have some surf, if I can just figure out the wind.

Work will be my first one with a full schedule. Should be busy.

I love having all the followers. I am glad folks are commenting on the blog. Thanks for not making fun of my writing. I hope to improve with time.

Oh, in other news, How about those Yankee's. I have to watch highlights, but I am keeping up. I hope the Sox can get their ship right. The world series will not mean as much if we don't beat the Sox first.

Take care all. I think Amie will have something to add to this.

Hi everyone! Hope you enjoyed Chris' entry. Well, I just proofed it ( can't help it! It's the teacher in me) and what he said covered about everything! The hike was very unexpected and great! It was true Heatherton style. As we started down the trail, I was laughing at Chris because he had no socks and tennis shoes on. I had just my hiking shoes on, but a pair of winter boots would have kept the feet a little drier. We also had no food or water on our hike, so we just ate snow! Delicious! We were wet and starving when we got back to the car! Luckily, we had packed some food, so we just sat in the car barefoot and chowed down while the heated was blasting on our soaked shoes.

After we dried up and fed our bellies, the axis road was now open, so we drove to the ski area. Lots of snow and the drive was crazy! As we drove down, I took some pictures that we added. Near the top was just covered with snow, but as you drove about 5 minute down the road, you were is a tropical forest.

I have been driving Chris a little crazy with all these Lord of the Rings sightings we must do. After we spotted Mt Doom, there was another Ring sighting I told him we must do. It was near the bottom of Mt. Doom. Another hike! About 5 minutes into our 2nd hike to seek Frodo, Chris was having about enough of my Frodo seeking! But, we ended up finding the trail that Gandof rode in on when he went into the Shire.

It was a fun-filled weekend and it was also great to get a touch of winter since we are going into summer soon! Hope you enjoy the blog and pictures!

Wellington and a new Ride

It is definitely still spring here in New Zealand. It is cold and Wet. As if our spring was not enough, Amie and I have been welcomed by many centimeters, no make that meters of rain. Our garden has flooded. Our house is cold and we have started to rethink our decision....No just kidding, but it is raining a lot. So, to escape we headed to Wellington this weekend.

About 3hrs south, the city sits in the mountains of the southern most part of the North Island. It is the windiest city I have ever been in. It gets 174 days of wind and can experience winds around 30-40mph on an average day and has even had a day in 1960 where winds reached 150mph(rough conversion from KM's).

So as our pics will reflect that we ran into some wind.

We first stopped on our way down and bought a vehicle. It is a Mitsubishi Delica. A 8 passenger van. Diesl, 4wd, Turbo. Pics will be included if I can remember the Flickr password. I do believe Uncle Jimmy will enjoy touring around in this wagon.

We then hit Wellington. As most of you know the lord of the rings films were filmed in New Zealand with many scenes being done in and around Wellington. The maps of Wellington show a Ring to indicate where scenes were filmed. So, we went in search of Frodo.

Our first stop was the highest peak in Wellington, Mt. Victoria Lookout. At this location the scene where Mr. Frodo is first almost caught by those raiders, where he ducks off the trail with those other two hobbits, you know what I mean. Well at least I think that is what we found. Amie is more of a Lord of the rings buff, she disagrees. Regardless, more importantly, in typical Kiwi fashion, the town park which is the highest point in Wellington, is also a Mtn. Bike park. As we roamed for a sign that would signify which scene was shot here we saw Mountain bikers diving down these steep trails. Turns out there are many kilometers of trails, right in the city.

A very cool place. We also had an amazing Italian meal. Great food, with gluten free options. A trio of musicians playing and a wonderful Italian hosts. We stayed in town for cheap. A great get away all in all.

So today I was surprised by a call from the Flanagan family. Great to hear from them. There is rumor that Mr. Umile may be heading to Cincinnati for a visit. Thank you to Phish for that.

Big hello to my aunt Lynnie, our prayers are for you.

OK, we are ready for visitors. Will put up details soon. The calender idea from earlier entries is not working out. SO far the our place is wide open. (Becky, we only have you penciled in until you buy the ticket.)

Hello to all in the clinic I hope Yellow pod is well. I miss my place of work. The nurses here are good to me, but they function on their own most of the time. I have to do a lot of my own work. Amie thinks this is good for me.

Oh and one BIG go Mr. Sophronas........

by all.

Amie and Chris