Things I never thought I'd do - repeat

Another early post repeat

Things I had never done...part deux

When I was looking at the first list of things I had never done and thinking about things I never thought I would ever do in my life, I realized that the list has updated a bit since that post. Welcome to my world.

• get excited to see Pepsi on the grocery store shelf
• take my phone everywhere
• bake fun treats
• play Skip-Bo on a regular basis
• consider (and actually get) our version of TiVo
• search for brand names that I recognize from the US
• never shop at Wally World
• search unsuccessfully for popcorn to pop on the stovetop
• see deer, alpaca and llama farms along the main roads
• pay $100 to fill up the gas tank
• see sea anemones
• ponder insulation
• cheer out loud when I heard Doritos are coming to NZ
• enter local photo contests
• wonder how old the tv shows are and smile to find out when one is less than two years old
• drive a big station wagon
• see lighthouses
• have a bridge built for me
• get excited to find something that tastes like hot dogs (frankfurters) and polish sausage (kranskies)
• ride a gondola up a mountain
• take an interest in the Maori language to see what town names mean
• rarely leave the house without my camera
• see ads on tv that I think are tacky and tasteless
• buy fresh veggies every payday
• make bottle rockets with vinegar and baking soda
• experiment with 'exotic' cheeses while looking for a substitute for Meunster
• have a clothes dryer hung upside down over the washer
• call orange road cones 'rabbits'
• see geysers and boiling mud up close and personal
• eat Vegemite
• see black swans, wild pukekos, waxeyes, kiwis, wild goats, fantails, tuis
• be aware when American tv shows are on--as opposed to BBC or cable stations that are mostly through Australia

Trivia - A repeat post

More NZ trivia

My first post of NZ trivia can be found here. I thought I'd give you a little more to wonder about marvel at from this strange interesting place.

• NZ has about 600 museums and art galleries.
• The first white women to arrive were escaped convicts from Australia in 1806.
• 'Cervena' is the trade name for farm-raised NZ deer.
• Prostitution was decriminalized in 2003.
• In 1898, 'old age pension' was introduced in NZ, the first of it's kind in the world. 
• The 'widow's pension' became law in 1911.
• There are 30 species of fleas here.
• NZ's first record-pressing plant opened in Wellington in 1948. The first record produced was 'Buttons and Bows' by Dinah Shore.
• Leonard Deogood was a Charlie Chaplin impersonator who starred in several NZ comedies in the 1920's.
• Color TVs came to NZ in 1973.
• 23,000 NZers worked on the Lord of the Rings movies.
• The international date line passes about 160 kilometers from Gisborne.
• Gavin McCormick formed his own political party, called "The Pull Yourself Together Party".
• New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote.
• Pygmy pines grow in the alpine regions of NZ.
• Kaimanawa horses are a feral breed that roam in the Kaimanawa mountains of the northern island.

Early post repeat

This is a repeat from 01-09.

Well, it's getting to be summer again.  It was 40C [which is 104F for my yankee friends] today. I do love the warm much more than I despise the cold and hubby has promised that we will move someplace much warmer when the kids are a bit older.    Until then, the summer pjs that I brought with me from Kansas will, most likely, stay in the drawer, since the nights are quite chilly under the mountain and I've only worn them one night since I've been here.

This, my friends, is some of the best surfing in the world--or so I am told.  This is in the southern part of Taranaki.  Personally, I will just take someone else's word for it because I have no intentions of taking up the sport.  Maybe the biggest reason is that I have never really lived close to an ocean, so I feel very insignificant when I stand on the shore and I'm pretty sure that the water wouldn't be upset if it swept me out to my doom.

There is an interesting story behind this rock.  Keeping in mind the aforementioned fact that the surfing is great here, apparently at the end of this road is one of the best places for it.  Locals, however, are reluctant to share the tides and beach with those pesky visitors that want to surf, so they would tear down the street signs to Stent Road. They did it so many times that the local sign-putter-uppers got tired of replacing the signs and just painted the name of the road on the rock.  No more worry about signs--however, the do have to repaint the name occasionally when it gets whitewashed. 

At Waverley [also in southern Taranaki], we were greeted one day with red seaweed littering the sands.  That was so very cool to see.  It seems that it is a bit rare but it has commercial potential.  Find out more by clicking here.

For those who are keeping up with the duckling situation, the total to date is 12 broods with over 70 ducklings! A brood of 7 showed up the day after Christmas and a Mom with a lone baby appeared today.  Yes, I still think they are adorable especially now that most of the others have found somewhere else to call home but we are still going to net the pond.  I'm sure the grass won't grow half as well without duck poo everywhere, but cleaning it up....