First there was that little problem of not having money which definitely puts a stopper on trying to buy things. As most intelligent people realize, having money and having a credit card are two extremely different things. Being the intelligent folk that we are we wanted to wait until we actually had the real money.

The other factor stopping us from our shopping trip was the fact that we live in such a small town that every time we want to do some actual shopping we have to drive a couple hours. When the heck do we have the time to do that being that we each have a full time job (and sometimes we even work on the weekends). Also, New Zealand seems to not want to keep their stores open very late at all compared to what I’m used to. If I even tried to leave after work I wouldn’t even get there by the time the stores closed.

Even when we do find the time to go, this costs us a great deal in gas which brings us back to problem number one. Petrol (gas) prices in NZ are about $2.20 per litre. That’s the equivalent of about $8.14 per gallon. With the currency conversion that’s $6.62 USD per gallon. You probably don’t feel so bad about paying what you pay for gas anymore, do you? Well, maybe not. I definitely feel bad for complaining about gas prices when I lived in New York.

I am slightly off topic, though. My point is that Josh and I finally did go shopping. We got some money and allotted some time and away we went. Yay for us!

I couldn’t help myself and went a bit crazy in the office supplies aisle. I got a bunch of great things for my classroom – some of which I probably didn’t need but will definitely use and some of which I truly needed.

Josh picked out these great new things for out kitchen. It was what he went there for, really, because there was a sale and this was some great cookware that we got. He also talked me into getting another knife (the man loves his knives) and got that cool metallic knife rack you see mounted above the stove. That little green one that you see there is the knife I have dubbed MY KNIFE. Josh’s mom gave it to us last Christmas and I love it so much. I use it for nearly everything even when I probably should be using a knife that is more appropriate for what I am cutting. I am not very good in the kitchen but at least I know when I feel comfortable using a certain kitchen tool. I’ll let Josh wield his big knives.

I picked out this new bedding set. We needed a winter duvet (blanket) and new sheets and pillowcases so I got tan/brown ones to match. I am extremely happy with it but I don’t think Josh likes it very much. He mentioned right away that we will need multiple sets and it is a good start. Oh well. I guess it’s a little girly but at least I didn’t get one with pink and purple flowers or hearts on it – it could have been WAY worse. The middle just has a small design with little blue birds.

What does your bed look like?

The job actually ended up turning into a disaster and took almost the entire day instead of just being a quick job (even though it was a bit out of the way) and not only was the sun going down but Josh was a bit exhausted from spending all day on a job that just decided to go wrong at every turn.

Well, we were already out of town so we took a shorter ride than we originally planned still in search of an adventure. Josh pulled up to a tiny local restaurant near the water and surprised me saying he wanted to take me out to dinner but continuing with the day’s luck it was closed for a private function.

Caity and Josh never give up, though. We were not going to come all this way and go back with nothing! That’s when we saw the sky all lit up with the most gorgeous colours. We wandered down to the water which was only a block away from where we were.

You can never go wrong with a walk along the beach.

This little gap was actually quite wide. Josh hopped across the rocks with no problem at all but I had to jump and grab his hands to get across and I almost didn’t make it without getting my sneakers all wet. It’s not warm here, guys. Remember it’s the opposite seasons and we’re going into the colder weather. As the sun is going down, it’s starting to get really cold especially because there are mountains right on the other side of us.

Oh, and on the way back, my sneaker definitely went right in and my socks got wet. Oops.

Josh loves to take artistic pictures of the patterns on the sand, so I let him.

At high tide, the water is past these rocks but it’s low tide right now so you could walk to them.

There’s Josh, admiring the sea as I admire him and take his picture. :)

These clouds are insane. The visibility is so amazing that you can actually see so far that you can see clouds disappearing over the curvature of the earth. My camera really can’t do it justice. It’s so incredible. Those are the clouds’ shadows up there.

I told you the mountains were right there!

:)

Their relationship has taught me about love and given me insight about the more delicate things in life.

Their love for each other and for me and my sister has been something I have never once in my life doubted. I’ve always believed in it and been proud of it – and proud to call them my parents.

Okay, so maybe that’s a little bit of a lie. COME ON, DAD! Why are you taking this picture here? This has nothing to do with New Zealand! We didn’t even eat here! You look like such tourists! You’re EMBARRASSING ME! GOSH!

Seriously, though. I love them to pieces. They’re great. :)

I decided that since my parents were coming to visit, I would ask them to bring me over a few bottles of nail polish in their suitcase. Hey, they asked me if I wanted anything and that’s what I wanted (as well as some girl scout cookies, of course).

My parents brought me a TRUCKLOAD of nail polish. They wouldn’t let me pay them back for any of it either and used the cheeky “it’s your birthday present” card (my birthday is in May) as well as claiming that some it was from other friends and relatives, too.

So, my friends, here is my new and amazing nail polish collection. :)

China Glaze: Aquadelic, Fuchsia Fanatic

OPI: I Don’t Give A Rotterdam, No Room For The Blues, Thanks A Windmillion, Alpine Snow, OPI Ink, Mod About You, DS Radiance

Zoya: Lotus, Meadow, Adina, Skylar

Zoya: Chloe, Faye, Opal

OPI, China Glaze, and Zoya were ones I was dying for. I couldn’t believe how many they got me! Then, they went even more crazy. They got me a whole bunch of Sinful Colors polish from Rite Aid where my sister works (20% Discount, yay!) and brought all of them for me, too!

Last but not least, don’t forget Seche Vite which was the last thing I asked for. It’s over $30 a little bottle over here in New Zealand so I begged for my mom to find it and bring it to me from the USA. It’s the most incredible top coat I’ve ever used. It is seriously the most amazing thing I’ve ever put on my nails. I’ve only used it twice and I’m already stressing over how I’m going to get my next bottle. I love it THAT much. Liquid Nail Crack should be its translation but Seche Vite is actually French for “Quick Dry.” I guess that works, too.

Here’s a shot of my entire collection! The few polishes I already owned are thrown in there, too.

I feel like I could run my own nail salon now.
What colors would you use first? :)

Right now, I’m rocking OPI – Thanks A Windmillion

My parents and sister left New Zealand today and flew back to New York.

They have been visiting for about 10 days and we had nice time while they were here. I was sad to see them go again. It can be really hard sometimes living so far away. If I could move New York and New Zealand closer together, I certainly would.

My original plan when they left was to do a bit of “retail therapy.” You know, get some shoes and maybe a nice dress for myself. I wandered around the mall by the airport before taking the long 4 hour drive home but nothing was catching my eye. I wandered in and out of three different shoe stores and not one single shoe seemed to belong on my foot. I walked through different clothing stores but everything looked ugly. One thing looked nice for a moment but when I looked at the price tag I decided that it was ugly, too.

So I decided to get a haircut instead. I am happy with my decision. Plus, I didn’t have to carry back a bunch of bags. If anything, I’m a lot lighter.

My parents brought me a bunch of nail polish over from America, too. Nail polish in New Zealand can be SO expensive. OPI nail polish is $26 a bottle (you can get it for $8 a bottle in New York) and Zoya is not even really available over here. I couldn’t believe just how much nail polish they brought me. I asked for some nail polish but my parents brought me a truckload of it! I’ll save that for another post because that will be massive!

Even my cat seems a lot more lonely without my family around. :(

We have been having a blast even despite my incredible talent to get sick pretty much right when they got here. I had to end up going to the doctor while they were here and I even had a fever on Easter. At least I’m feeling better now, though. The doctor gave me some sweet drugs.

Josh was able to do some fun things with us like eat meat pies and take sweet scenic boat rides but unfortunately he had to go back to work. A plumber’s vacation is unfortunately not as long as a teacher’s vacation. Oh well.

Hopefully now that I’m feeling a bit better I can actually enjoy the last few days a bit better instead of feeling like I want to just want to crawl up in a ball. I’ve got some fun events planned for us to do that I’m pretty excited about.

I tease my family a lot – especially my mother – but I will miss them all when they have to go back to New York.

I bet they’ll miss this place, too. Who wouldn’t?
Oh, and I guess they will miss me.

This past weekend, Josh and I took a weekend trip to visit Josh’s dad again. He is working on the apple orchards around where we recently moved away from so it was nice to go back and see everyone else, too. I even got to pop back in to my old job at the supermarket dairy and say hello to my friends who were working there.

Our little weekend trip had two main purposes, though. We had to do some shopping and we wanted applejuice.

The shopping for me was clothes. I bought a couple new outfits as well as two nice pairs of shoes which I so badly needed. For Josh, his goal was to purchase a basic set of plumbing tools being that he recently got hired by a plumbing firm here in our new town. I couldn’t believe how much tools cost but then again I suppose Josh was probably thinking the same thing about my shoes.

But this post is mainly about applejuice anyway. I’ll gloat about my pretty shoes another time.

I love going to stay with Pete (Josh’s dad) in his bus. It’s a huge bus that he converted into a house bus which he lives in and I always have such a great time. We stayed on the orchard with him for two nights and it was so peaceful there.

Oh, that’s our car by the way. It’s a Honda Ascot. I suppose it’s about time I showed it off. We’ve had it for a few months. We got it for a good deal from TradeMe which is basically the New Zealand eBay. I love it because it’s really reliable and it’s an automatic which means I can actually drive it even if I did have to get accustomed to driving on the other side of the road.

Most of the apples aren’t ready to eat yet especially the Tentation apples which are Josh’s favourite. However, most of the Eve apples are coming into season around now. If you’ve ever eaten an Eve apple, it came from this orchard or the same owner’s main orchard in the next town. They are the only places in the world that grow Eve apples. If you had one last year, there was a chance that Josh actually picked your apple. Pretty cool, huh?

There are a lot of apples on the ground right now that just aren’t going to be used for picking since they have fallen off the tree while the apple trees were thinned or they fell off naturally so they won’t ripen properly to be picked. So what better to do with them than to scoop up all the decent ones and make some applejuice? It was a beautiful day so all three of us gathered up the fallen apples and made applejuice from them!

I have never tasted anything more incredible than 100% fresh same day pure applejuice. It is so amazing. The only problem is that having one glass is like eating five apples which can actually give you quite a sore stomach or make you keep running to the toilet if you’re not careful.

We had so many apples that we got 8 huge bottles of applejuice!
What is something you’ve had that is so much better fresh?

Little Reirei has been getting quite big lately. It seems like every day she doubles in size. However, she has been doing some naughty kitten thing like doing poos and wees in places that are not her litterbox. I won’t bore you or gross you out with the details, but basically little Reirei is still a baby and still has a lot of growing up to do.

Today, she acquired some new toys from someone we met here in town who had a cat who didn’t play with them anymore. Reirei was very pleased to get new toys and loves to play with them. While we were playing with her today, hilarity and giggle fits ensued. It was also a rare occasion where one of us had the brains to grab the video. Who knows – maybe someone else will find Reirei’s commando rolls and silly kitten antics as hilarious as we did. Excuse our ridiculous giggle fits, please.

Last weekend, the weather was actually really nice after quite a drizzly week so Josh and I figured we may as well venture out and check out the surrounding area while we had a nice day on a weekend. Who knows when it was ever going to happen again anytime soon, right? We figured after all of the crappy weather that maybe all of these people really did have a point about buying some gumboots.

We headed to a place not too far out of town – it’s only about a 10 minute drive. It was beautiful by the water although Josh reckons it’s not as beautiful as where we were living before we moved and that the visibility isn’t as good as it should be. He really did love that place and I don’t blame him. I loved it too.

I told him that we have become a bit spoiled lately with all of this beautiful New Zealand scenery. I bet most people would give quite a lot to see all the things we see on a regular basis and even though he liked where we moved from a tad bit better, this place isn’t too shabby either.

Josh agrees, of course.

Plus, we’ve got our whole lives ahead of us. Who knows what will happen?

When we were back at the parking lot, there was this little weka (a flightless bird) who started following us. They are usually quite wary of humans but this one came right up to us and it was the cutest thing ever. I started to worry that he was hurt or something but I think perhaps he was just hungry. We had nothing to feed it, though.

Wekas are my favourite bird. I get so excited whenever I see them!

I wish I wasn’t so excited because then maybe I would have gotten a better photograph! He was just sitting there posing for me and I was just freaking out instead of taking a really good picture. Oh well. There’s always next time.

I got here a day before Josh. I brought as much as I could carry in my car and then he and his dad brought the trailer and the rest of our things.

They were running late that day, but everything had seemed to be going well by the texts that I had been getting from Josh. I was still at work, though, so I couldn’t keep in full contact. Plus, they were driving in and out of cell phone reception on their way here.

Finally, they got here. I was so excited to see them. Josh stepped out of the truck and I gave him a big hug.

“I have some bad news,” he said.

I backed away from him. I probably shouldn’t have but I guess it’s just instinct to go in the opposite direction of bad news. Also, I suppose it didn’t feel right to be hugging the bearer of bad news even if it wasn’t his fault.

That’s when I started looking for Reirei.

“Reirei ran away when we were packing up. It was in the last five minutes. She ran out the door. There was nothing we could do. We looked for her for a half hour and we just had to leave.”

He looked really upset and I knew he was probably just as upset as I was but I didn’t care. I ran away and hid behind the curtains in my house since that’s all there existed so far to hide behind – there was no furniture in the house yet – and I cried.

I cried all night.

Josh told me that he had all of our old neighbors looking for Reirei and that they would send him a text if they found her and he’d drive right back to get her.

We didn’t get a text that night. I was really upset because I knew that her chances of surviving would get lower and lower as time went on since she was so small. I was hoping that one of the neighbors who didn’t know us had found her and taken her in not knowing and that when Josh’s dad went back the next day he could somehow sort everything out and find her. Our chances seemed slimmer and slimmer, though.

The next day I went back to my second day at work, downtrodden and heartbroken. All my new coworkers were so nice and supportive about it and hoped that she would turn up. Some offered me cat carriers for when Josh would go back to get Reirei because they were confident he would have to because she’d be found.

Later that day, Josh texted me to let me know that Reirei was indeed safe and sound. I couldn’t believe it! Apparently she had NEVER left our little cottage. She was hidden behind the stove – the only thing left there. Josh didn’t think she was small enough to hide behind it but apparently she had wedged herself behind it and our other neighbor found her in there when he looked for her. Josh was true to his word and drove right back and got her. Over three hours each way. He opened up the cottage door and Reirei was sitting there on some blankets that our next door neighbor had brought over from their cat. She looked at him calmly as if nothing had happened and came up to him and started purring.

There’s never a dull moment. I’m glad she’s safe now. Well, she was actually always safe but I’m glad that we have her here with us now where she belongs. I don’t think my heart could have handled losing Reirei after moving and starting a new job this week as well as having to leave Moko in New York too. Maybe one day I’ll finally be able to get Moko over here too and the four of us can be one happy family!