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7 Months (almost)

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7 months and more of that stepping away from the honeymoon phase.  First politically,  The NZ government has switched over  to a group called National which has had to align with a more right group called ACT and some policies are a bit in direct opposition to why we moved to New Zealand. They halted lots of public transportation and bike path projects and are now on a new thing of building more highways which goes against our love of biking and not using our car. They also started taxing ecofriendly vehicles more than you would tax a ute. They're also reversing all of the lovely things they've done to honor Te Reo Māori which I find an absolute shame. I genuinely do love that New Zealand acknowledges the Māori people and that they were here first. For example, the transportation department formerly known as Waka Kotahi, is now going back to the NZTA which is so boring. Kiwis have assured me they are also a bit shocked and people who voted for them had no idea this is the...
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5 Months and then some

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I have a wise and more experienced coworker, Katie the American, who assessed at our Christmas Party that "yep, [we're] still in our honeymoon phase" I would say it's been true. We had a weirdly warm combo Christmas/ summer break where we spent all our time mountain biking and hiking on blissfully uncrowded trails. We had a brief Welsh roommate, Edryd, whose actual roomies had covid. He was delightful but we're still not sure we can handle roommate life.  January hits hard with some realities.  Sadly there's still no hockey as it's summer and people are still not getting back to Sean about work. A lot of my coworkers have covid. The face of chargeability rears its ugly head too at my job and it seems like unless you've had a front row seat to a recent disaster as a geotech, there isn't much work to be had. It makes us look back at Colorado a little longingly sometimes with its jobs in the space industry, ample hockey, the job I left behind and the ...
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Translations- A growing compilation of Kiwi phrases

Rocket=Arugula Swede=Rutabaga Coriander= Cilantro Kumara= Sweet Potato Crisps= Chips Chips= Fries Chilly Bin= Cooler (personally love this one) Togs= swimsuit (the british call it the more formal "bathing costume" which brings to mind the 1920s) Fancy Dress= costume Jandals= Sandals Singlet= Tank top "The road"= apparently the only directions you  need.  Snag= sausage Capiscum= pepper Sultana (more british really)= raisin Arvo=afternoon... Wtf? 
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Twoish Months In!

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 Time flies when you have to actually work.  It's getting onto summer here and it's been bike to work season. It's super nice now that I only live 5ish miles away even if the path is really just a road shoulder. It's also nice it's not sweltering and you get that crisp, need-a-sweater air at night fall. The days are long now and the sun doesn't set till 9 PM. Sean has tested NZ healthcare and has been thoroughly impressed at the efficiency of it all. He's finally getting super cured! Ruby is also on the mend and getting her old lady arthritis managed so hopefully when my two roommates get it together we can go on some real out of town adventures.  Some other neatish things -Seeing the Clyde Dam which is actually built on top of a fault so it's actually a dam built in two pieces that can slide past each other if there's any seismic activity (not tested but it's a cool idea and hopefully it works).  -Planting native trees for work on Community Day....
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Healthcare- the first encounter

 Sean's had a nasty cough the last 4 weeks and finally agreed to see a doctor i.e our first foray into subsidized healthcare. Note this is a man who has had two major surgeries in the last three years so we are well versed in doctor interaction.  Step 1: Sign up for the Queenstown Medical Center and get approved. This takes 1 day. Step 2: Schedule an appointment. It was the weekend so we decided on Monday. This was also pretty effortless- this was on Sunday.  Step 3: Go to appointment. It was slated for 15 minutes but that's all it took to get Sean diagnosed as probably bronchitis and get some meds. Since we have my company's additional insurance (comparably priced to American insurance) it was free but otherwise it would've been $65.  Step 4: Get antibiotics. This was completely free and you pick them up at a grocery store like you do in the USA.  If Sean's not better by Thursday he can shoot the doctor an email to get a chest x-ray, no ping-ponging back and fo...
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One Month In

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It's not big moments but the country is slowly getting under my skin. I'm pretty sure I really like it here. Everyone is kind and very chill. Views are idyllic and it's just been peaceful. Life wise, it's certainly been a juxtaposition of super busy and also umm what am I doing? Sean's had a nasty cold and has been out for a bit so we've been less social than usual. We've still managed a board game meetup, Parkruns, and I've climbed a little of the local crag with my coworkers. Sean and I are finally biked up so I'm excited to check out the famous mountain bike scene. Hopefully I don't completely eat it on my new enduro bike.  The only not-peaceful thing is the natural disaster potential. Geologically, New Zealand is a playground for geotechs with its earthquakes, volcanoes, rockfall, landslides and typhoons. I guess I have to counter that Colorado wasn't immune to these things and we had our fair share of wildfires, floods, debris flows, lan...
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Setting Up House

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 We finally ended out nomadic ways this week and have settled into our new rental! Ruby was not only the most expensive thing about moving but really put as at a disadvantage in the housing market. Despite the fact that dogs are welcome almost anywhere in New Zealand people really don't want pups in their rental homes so you have to get what you can. Good thing Ruby is the best dog in the universe and absolutely worth it.  That's how we ended up snapping up my coworker Maddi's place since she was moving north to rekindle the geotech group in Gisborne. It is entirely too much house with its 3 bedrooms and an office but it's not a bad place to land. After our many years of bouncing around less than ideal rentals in Boulder, CO there's something to be said about moving into a shiny, almost new house with well thought out conveniences. I don't think I've ever lived in a place in Boulder with a two-car garage, or a sun room, or a big walk-in pantry. In other word...
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