Alone time

So here's the thing, my parents went away for a couple nights to get some alone time together. They went to the Kapiti Coast yesterday. (if you remember it's pronounced Cap-it-ee but you say it fast). And since Paul and Yo wanted a little alone time as well, I got shipped off to Hendrine's house for a night or maybe more (not quite sure yet, I'm not much of a planner.) So, right now I'm sitting in Doug's room typing on his computer, and missing home just a little.

Besides the homesickness I'm doing quite well and I'm looking forward to my birthday in 2 days. Maybe I'll get a ride in Hendrine's rally car.

Merry Christmas

Ok, so I'm late, so what. It's been hectic, and this is the only chance I had to update. Earlier today (alright yesterday since it's after midnight here right now) Mom, Dad and I got dropped off by Yolanda's flatmates downtown Wellington at Te Papa (yup we went to the free museum again!) and we met up with Hendrine, Doug, and Uncle Al and then went to the Egypt exhibit in Te Papa. It was excellent, even for the NZ$10 pricetag. After that we went all over the place in Te Papa. We got to see the tiny Precious Metals exhibit, the sculpture garden and heaps more stuff.

Anyway, I got a lot of little presents for Christmas and I'm looking forward to my birthday (dec 31st if you didn't already know).

so until next time, keep frosty.

dec 23 and Christmas Eve

This and the last 2 posts were after the fact. I've decided to try and type up a post every day whether or not I can access the internet and update the blog. This way I can tell you what happened, and not forget what it was. Like in the Bay of Islands, I forgot several days, because there was no internet that I could easily use for an extended period of time. Anyway, in the bay of Islands (which was almost a week ago now) we had gone to Waitangi (why-tang-ee) which is the birthplace of New Zealand as a whole nation. It was excellent and I have a few pictures, but I don't think it's a good idea to post them right now.

Anyway, now that we're back in Wellington, I need to talk about December 23rd. We drove all the way from the Coromandel Penninsula to Wellington. That was all we did on the 23rd.

Today, Christmas Eve, we will be going off to Hendrine's for a little get-together, and after wards possibly PRESENTS! Or maybe not.

Till tomorrow, Keep it frosty

dec 22

Today Mom, Dad, Paul, Yo and I were in The Coromandel and spent the day at the beach. Well, not just one beach but several.

First we went to the Hotwater Beach, near Hahei, just to look around and see what was going on. Hotwater Beach is really neat cause there's a hot water spring under the sand and the water at high tide. When we went there it was at high tide, so no digging in the sand for your very own hot tub in the beach, so we went off to see what else ther is.

Apparently there's a beautiful beach in Cathedral Cove which has this immense cave right on top of the beach. It actually goes right over the middle of the beach and there's two sides of it. When I get back to Wellington I'll have to upload some pictures.

Anyway it's a 45 minute walk from the carpark (what they call Parking lots in NZ) to Cathedral Cove, so we spent some time there before heading back to the car in order to get back to Hotwater Beach at low tide. But low tide wasn't until much later in the day (3:30 pm local time) so instead of going right to Hot water beach, we drove to a little town ferry and went across the way to Whitiangi (pronounced fit-ee-ang-ee). We went to Whitiangi because there is this bone carving place where you can carve your own bone sculpture necklace. Mom and Yo did that while Paul, Dad and I went off and wandered around Whitiangi. It's a nice little town, but I wouldn't want to live there. Anyway after 2 hours, we went back to the parked car by way of that Ferry, and headed back to Hotwater Beach.

As you may already know, I am an excellent digger. I like to dig in the sand, and build stuff out of the sand. So I took to making a hot tub out of the beach pretty naturally. That was a lot of fun. Even when the tide started coming back, cause then I had to dig more and more in order to keep the walls around the "tub" from falling in and to keep the cold water of the ocean from crashing into the hot water from the hole in the ground. After a few minutes of that I was sore and happy. I love using a shovel.

After all that we drove back to Whitiangi for supper and had Indian food at a place called Sangam. It was very very tasty. And after supper we drove for over an hout all the way back to Coromandel Town where we are staying.

That's it for now, keep frosty.

Dec 21

We spent today driving from the bay of Islands all the way down the motorway to Auckland, past Auckland and then up north into the Coromandel Penninsula. We're staying at a Backpacker's cabin in the Anchor Motel here in Coromandel Town.

I've since forgotten what happened before the 21st.

Auckland

Wellington was fun, but now we're in Auckland. It took us 8 hours to get here, and since we invited Uncle Al, Hendrine, and Doug, the eight of us had to go in seperate cars. I went with Hendrine, Doug and Uncle Al. When we got here Mom, Dad, Yo and Paul had already been here for a couple hours. That was on Saturday night (two days ago for me). Since it was after 9:00 pm we decided just to stay in the hotel and decide what to do the next day. We went to St. Albert's Presbyterian Church here in Auckland for a nice morning service and then later took a ferry to Devonport, walked around looking at some of the art galleries there, and then came back to Auckland in order to see Skycity. It's kind of like a cross between the CN Tower and Skylon Tower, but with a casino, hotel, and conference centre.

anyway, today's the last day in Auckland, so we're going out to Newmarket and then off to the Bay of Islands.

new update

once again I haven't updated in a while, so I've got to cover two or three days once again. It turns out that the next day, after we missed the boat trip we got to go on one to Somes Island. Which was a lot of fun. If you want to know more about Somes Island here in Wellington harbour I suggest you find out for yourself what's there cause it's been too long for me to remember everything. Anyway yesterday I went to the Chocolate Fish (one of the cafe's that the Lord of the Rings movie crews went to regularly), which was really fun cause there's a road going thru the middle of the cafe. But that was lunch, for supper we went back to Hendrine's house for the 50's themed birthday party, which was even more fun.

Today we are heading out to Auckland and the northern most point of New Zealand, 90 mile beach.

Keep Frosty,cause I may not get a good chance to update for the week I'm up north. Where it's warmer.

The only boat trip so far

We didn't get to go on the only boat trip so far. I'm on an island in the middle of the pacific ocean and I can't even ride a boat!

Oh well, instead of going on The Wellesley (a small dinner cruiser in the Wellington harbour) we went to Te Papa the large museum here in Welington. Paul and Yo had been to Te Papa (pronounced Tay PopPa) before so they waited in the cafe on the 4th floor, while Mom, Dad and I looked around on the fourth floor. We saw many exhibits, and some how I got seperated from my parents in the Made in New Zealand exhibit. When I walked over to where Paul and Yo had been sitting (our agreed upon meeting place if we got seperated) there was no one to be seen, and the remnants of coffee and cookies where on the table. I thought they had left without me. I waited for a little while, then walked0 around some more, looking for them, then I finally just sat and waited for 15 minutes. It turns out they went to a show, and hadn't told me they were going to go to one.

Anyway that was just about the end of the day, after a short car ride ( ok it was more than 5 inutes but less than an hour) we got to the other side of the Wellington harbour where there is a bunch of little bays and we stopped at the end of a little road in Eastbourne got out and searched for Paua shells. (pronounced like pow-a) then we went home to Yo and Paul's flat where we've been staying since the end of last weekend.

Maori Village

I went to a Maori village the other day, and it was cool. We saw some of the exercises and games and songs and such. It was really neat. I wish I could remember more but it's been too long between updates. Yesterday I stayed at home with Paul while my parents and Yo went shopping. So no pictures yet, but I should get a couple good ones today.

Late update

Ok, so I promised to update everyday, but you know there are some countries that don't have hotels with free internet. Here in New Zealand all internet access companies charge for bandwidth so nobody can give it away it's too expensive.

Anyway, the Peacock Family went away for a weekend in Hawke's Bay (even though some maps call it Hawke Bay), and this is where that art deco town of Napier is. We saw many sights, and took almost as many pictures. If only my camera hadn't died when it did you would have seen Napier's Centennial gardens.

Any way now it's after the weekend and we are all rushed to leave and go see something else.

bye for now and keep forsty.

The pics of Kapiti

I didn't get any pictures of me and my family at Kapiti, but on the way to Kapiti there is a neat little plaza that has a bunch of specialty stores. There was a Maori curio shop, an herb store, and a place devoted entirely to honey and honey related products. They had a working beehive behind glass inside the store, and a honey tasting area, as well as some honey wines and meads and such. Since I'm mildly allergic to honey I didn't get to taste or buy anything, but Mom found something she liked.

well I should also mention that last night I had slept at Yolanda and Paul's flat (see: http://www.paulandyolandanz.blogspot.com) While mom and dad got to sleep at Hendrina's house in her lounge (they call a rec room a lounge) The reason I mention this is because last night I slept on Paul and Yo's couch and it was comfortable enough but I woke up with a sore back and shoulder and it hasn't gone away yet. Oh well, pain just reminds you your alive.

Keep Frosty.

First night in NZ

Well, I've just spent my first night in New Zealand, and I still can't believe I'm here.

Yesterday we landed at 7:00 wed dec 6, in auckland, and then had to take a second "domestic" flight in order to get to Wellington.

We also went to a really tasty restaurant called Fisherman's Table. I had a rib eye steak and it was excellent.

Today we are going to Kapiti Coast (pronounce cap-i-tee), I will try to get pictures.

Leaving L.A.

That's right my time in Los Angeles has come to an end. I'm actually writing this in the JohnnyPark building by LAX, because it was the first available free wireless access since we left Comfort Suites this morning. This is also where we are returning the PT Cruiser we had to rent, because the only HHR left (which mom had requested) wasn't available. But that was when we got here, I'm over it now. Sort of. Any way, tonight we'll be shipping out, well OK, flying out of LAX to New Zealand, and It'll be the first time I've ever crossed an ocean. I'm looking forward to seeing my sister in NZ.

Any way no more updates until I'm in New Zealand, so keep frosty!

The Crystal Cathedral

If you've ever watched "The Hour of Power" on TV you've heard of the Crystal Cathedral. I new it was big, and it sure did look big, but for some reason or other it felt like my own home church in many ways. The order of worship is quite familiar, and hearing about the programs they have going on really made it feel more like a every week kind of church than a tourist attraction and TV show.

When we got out from the morning service we went on a tour of the Crystal Cathedral grounds which was very cool. We found out that they started with a Drive-In, and slowly moved to the way it is now. The coolest thing is that they still offer Drive-In services, where you can pull up tune the radio and watch the service on a screen in the parking lot.

Well that was a lot of fun, but when we got home the ceiling in the bathroom of our suite started leaking. After my Mom called down to the front desk, they moved us from a simple one floor suite to a two storey number with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a couch and chair and such. This was the type of room Mom was expecting originally, so she seems happier now, even though we're leaving tonight and have to be out of the suite this morning.

Any how, after we moved all our stuff upstairs to the second floor (having been on the first floor to begin with), we had to go right back out to Garden Grove and the Crystal Cathedral to see the free concert of Handel's Messiah. It was excellent, and even Mom liked it. (she's not big on classical music, or any music really).

Hollywood and Vine

Well, it's update time again, and boy do I have very little to say. We went to the corner of Hollywood and Vine, and found out there isn't very much but a tourist trap there.

This was the second star I saw on the Walk of Fame

My hands are exactly the same as Ron Howard's hands right down to the pinky.

My hands also fit along with Johnny Depp's, but I think he feet might be bigger.

And that was Grauman's Chinese Theatre.


And this one's for Christina!

LEGOLAND revisited

Well, I promised pictures, and here they are!

LEGOLAND!

I have seen heaven on earth and it's built out of LEGO!

All our camera batteries went dead at the best possible time, as we were leaving the park. That means the photos will be uploaded at a later time. I took a lot of pictures of just about everything, so I'll have to pick out the best ones and post them here.

My first transcontinental flight

I am currently sitting in room 109 of the Comfort Suites in Garden California, and since this is the first post, I am going to have to explain how I got here from my hometown of St. Catharines Ontario Canada.

Oma drove my mother, my father and I down to the buffalo airport, where we checked our luggage in record time using the curbside luggage check. While we waited for our flight to arrive we found out that instead of leaving Buffalo for Chicago at around noon we now had to wait until 1:00 pm for the plane to board in Buffalo. The flight itself was pretty uneventful, except that our flight to LA was boarding in Chicago at 3:00 pm (local time) that didn't really leave a whole lot of time between flights. Which meant that instead of being able to see the O'Hare International Airport, I had to run all the way through the concourse and it's light show to get the the connecting flight on time

On the flight from Chicago to LA, I got to see 2 movies, "The Lady in the Water" and "My Super Ex-Girlfriend". You can guess which I liked better. Anyway, since this flight was later on in the day, and over 3 hours long I didn't get to see the rockies in the daylight, but I still got to see them at dusk, which is pretty cool, since I saw them from above.

Anyway, now that my parents and I are in L.A. and it's getting rather late, I'm being told to turn in, so good night, and stay frosty.