Tolaga Bay

Carson reporting,

Today us lads (Dad, Steven, and I) went North about a half an hour to Tolaga Bay, home to the longest wharf in NZ. 600 m long. (See picture at the top)

When we got there, there was some commotion about something going on with a fisherman fishing off the wharf. Turns out there was a dolphin caught in his line!

Moko the dolphin has made a bit of a name for himself in the area. He was staying in Gizzy mostly, but then moved up to Tolaga Bay recently, where we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of him.

Moko was fine after making his way out of the fishing line, and he stuck around for awhile.

Well, that's my exciting news of the day.

Stay Sweet,

~ Carson

Two Weeks

It's already been two weeks since we arrived in Gisborne, but to me (Carson) it feels longer than that.

Today we went to a Baptist church and got two social invites for the afternoon from two very friendly families.

For lunch we went to some folks' house which is situated on a river- a really amazing spot. The house itself was very nice; a 'nook and cranny' sort of place. It is the sort of house that makes me want to curl up with a book and lounge in the sun on the beautifully green lawn for an hour or two. They had children too- the youngest son is in Steven's class, and they have three daughters [at least I think that's the number of daughters; they had several other relates and friends over as well, so it was hard to keep track who was in what family]

The second house we visited was situated on a beautiful, sprawling farm. We drove in a land master-type vehicle up steep, sheep-ridden hills, and the view from the top was incredible. We were given grapefruit and oranges picked fresh from the tree, so that was quite exciting.

To put it in Dad's words, I feel we've actually done something today and have earned ourselves an evening in front of the telly.

Peace,

Carson

Surf's Up

Carson and Steven's first surf lesson! It was a cold day, but these Canadians are tough. The boys tell me the wet suits keep them warm. They both got up on their boards, and they'll have lots of time to practise.

Regina

Holiday!

Carson here,

We've just finished Term 3 at school, which means a 2 week break until the 4th Term, which begins on Oct. 12.

Steven and I are probably going to get surfing lessons on Saturday - providing the weather's good - so I'm pretty excited for that. I'll have the two week break to work hard at polishing up my surfing, which is handy considering that if I got my lesson during school I wouldn't have near as much time to practice. Plus, my mates reckon the surf' will be pumping all through the holiday. (but I'll bet that's mostly wishful thinking)

When I return you can expect me to have long hair, a tan, and a frown due to the fact that there's no surfing in Smithers.

Cheers,

~CT

The Tworows drive a Camry! We're so excited to have found a good car, reasonable price (we think) . . . and aside from the little mishap that Mark had with the key that didn't work -- had to take taxi back to the house to pick up the hospital car -- no troubles so far. The cars are different here, though. It seems the 2002 Camry is more like a Corolla back home -- smaller car, smaller engine. Will suit us fine, I think, for our travels around NZ. Now we just hope we don't have a pranger. I'd have an absolute wobbly!!

Carson's List of Kiwi Slang

All right, after almost a week of being at school I've picked up some of the Kiwi slang that people use. Here are some of the main ones I've noticed.

Breather: Brother, bro, mate

Skux (SP?): Slick, cool (ie: I've got a skux shirt)

Op: verb or adjective, short for option (girl related) For example, "I've been opping this girl" or "I've got op clothes," (Meaning clothes that would get girls)


"____ as": The equivalent of "so ___" in North America (ie Steven was called "fast as," in gym class)

Young Nick's Head

My first real day of work. I travelled with Lyn (my supervisor) to Nuhaka, a small community south of Gisborne. This was one of the pull-outs she thought I might want to see. Spectacular!! The winding roads are worth the views from the top. So thankful for all this beauty.

Regina

Steven's school uniform. First day of action week. A whole week of activities like trampolining, mini golf, judo, archery, badminton, and more!! This does not sound like school.

Tonight we're watching the All Blacks and the Wallabies! (on the telly)
Mark

Life in Gizzy

Carson here,

I'm beginning to settle into the Gizzy life. I've been at school for about three days and I'm not too bad at the card-flicking game. (Although I always end up losing all the cards I win).

There's a few kids from my school who live close to me, so that's really nice. The kids are just as nice as the adults here.

Jules, a real nice guy down the street from me, has a drum kit stowed away in his garage which he never uses and says that I might be able to use it, so I'm really stoked for that. Feels like I haven't played for ages.

Today (our Saturday,) is the first rainy day I've seen in Gizzy. The weather's been beautiful up to today.

In short, the Kiwi life is a good one.

Peace out,

~ Carson

this is the sort of tree that is every where on the streets. you can see all sort of tropical plantation by just driving downtown. I find it sureal that we are in New Zealand still. I think it won't be once I get into school, because I will be hanging out with people all day so then it will be different.

peace to the world

-Steven

Boys' High

I had my (Carson) first day of school today at Gisborne Boys' High. School is different here. The "hallways" are mostly outside and the school is divided up into different blocks.

On break one of the kids comes up to me and pulls out a bunch of Yu-Gi-Oh cards. (For those who don't know what those are, Yu-Gi-Oh is a trading card game which young kids in Canada play. And by young I mean maybe up to grade 5.) He asks me if people play Yu-Gi-Oh in Canada and I say that young kids do. He then says that they don't actually play the real Yu-Gi-Oh game, they just chuck cards at the wall and see who can get theirs closest.

He tells me he'll take me to the "Yu-Gi-Oh arena," which turned out to be a little clearing absolutely loaded with people playing cards. All along the walls there are people chucking cards at the wall trying to get closest. The winner gets how many cards were agreed on at the start of the match. (i.e: "10 down chuck 1" means that they'll each throw one card and the winner gets 10 cards of the opponents) It seems to be the biggest craze at school, flicking cards, and actually seems pretty interesting. I'll have to get me some cards and begin flicking away.

Classrooms are a little chaotic compared to home. I think mostly because it's an all boys school there's an all-encompassing sense of rambunctiousness. (SP?)

A guy from my neighborhood showed me around the school in the morning. He's in most of my classes and his name is Jacob. Nice guy.

Anyhoo, I think school won't be too bad at all.

Peace out,

~ Carson

First One In . . .

It was only a 1/2 hour after we arrived at the house that the boys headed to the beach. Too cold for me, but what a sight.

Auckland Airport

We made it!! And so did all of the luggage. Amazing! Customs was a breeze. We especially enjoyed the little beagles that sniffed our luggage.

About half way across the Pacific, I suddenly had an overwhelming sense that we had just left everyone and everything we know. It was a very lonely feeling. It didn't help that I was sooo tired and so nauseous. But, all was well in the end.

A long day in Vancouver airport

To Vancouver

Taking Off

Here we are at the Smithers Airport. OK, I know I was really keen on an adventure. But by this time I'm realizing that I'm not much of an adventurer. The antici --- pation was too much for me. I couldn't sleep for days before the trip . . . a combination of excitement and sheer terror -- and I was not looking forward to the flight. But really, what were the options at this point. Step off the cliff.

Getting Here

Well, the thing that will always stand out in my memory is the packing ordeal. We had to pack up all our personal belongings in the house, which added to the organizational challenge. Every item we picked up, we needed to decide: pack it? store it? give it away? Then we had to decide what was absolutely essential to take with us. 2 suitcases and 2 carryons each. Here is the packing station -- in the basement, on the ping pong table. The first time through I packed 9 suitcases instead of 8. Redo. . .

Murphy Rd.

Kia Ora. (Welcome/Hello)

I believe there's been some sort of mistake. It seems as though we've been shipped to Florida instead of our original destination. There's palm trees growing in the yard next door and all along the roads, the beach is just steps away from our house, and it's sunny as all get out.

Kiwis are probably the friendliest people I've ever met. People are happy to give a friendly hello and seem to actually care about each other.

Wainui beach is quite incredible. Nothing but white sand and surfers. From what I've heard it's the best surfing beach in town, so it gets a little busy at times, but it's not been too bad yet. (Probably because it's still "early spring," [aka summer,] and no Kiwis will touch the water without a wetsuit and a surfboard.)

"You Canadians are thick," ~ our house manager, Ivan, after hearing that Steven and I went into the water in just our "Togs" ( swimsuits)

You can email carsontworow@gmail.com (Carson,) for our phone number if you want it, but we still haven't really figured out how long distane phoning works here. If you phone us, though, that shouldn't be a problem.

We do have Skype, and again, you can email us for our username.

Auckland

[the following was written by your friend Carson]

Criminy.

We're here. Auckland airport (domestic terminal), waiting to head out to Gisborne, which will be in an hour or so.

The fourteen hour flight didn't seem to long at all to me, (mostly because I was watching TV for most of it). 

It's strange here. People drive on the wrong side of the road and have cool accents.

Anyhow, I suppose we'll send a Gisborne report once arrived.

Stay Sweet,

Carson

almost there

we are waiting in Vancouver airport and it is 4:30, flight leaves at 8:30. I am very anxious to get on the Boeing 747 i can see it outside and it is huge. anyway i hope to remember to blog more often

Steven

Departure

It's half past 6 a.m. I'm not nearly as awake as I would like to be. My stomach is in a bit of a knot due to the anticipation/nervousness of moving. I really can't believe that tonight we're going to hop on a plane to Auckland.
I've heard good things about Air NZ, though. Apparently it's one of the best air lines in the world. I hope this is true. If I'm spending fourteen hours with them they'd better be among the best.
It'll be a bit of a boring day waiting in the Vancouver Airport from 11 to 9, but we'll be visited by friends and relatives in Vancouver, so that'll make the time go by faster.
Anyways, I'm stoked.

Yabadabadoo,
~ Carson

3 Days

This is becoming extremely surreal. Three days till we hop on a fourteen-hour plane ride to New Zealand.

The packing is getting intense. I find myself avoiding Mom and Dad just because I know they'll have a chore in mind for me if I approach them.

For the plane ride, I've got ye olde iPod Touch and a book or two. I plan on sleeping for most of the fourteen hours between Vancouver and Auckland, but I always plan to sleep on trips and it never really happens. I'll be lucky to get two hours of catching Z's in.

From what I've heard, we'll all be totally disorentated and mucked up when we arrive in NZ. I really don't doubt it. twenty-four hours of being in airports and in the air can't be good for one's well-being.

In short, I'm stoked and pretty much ready to fly. (Pardon the pun)

Stay Sweet,

~Carson

Wainui Beach

This is mostly a test. Thanks to the lovely photo-editing program we just downloaded, we can put our freshly-edited photos straight onto our blog! This discovery makes me pleased.

~CT

5 days and all we need to do is pack up the big stuff, like kitchen table ,beds, etc. i am really excited

Steven

Carson here,

Wow-- only six days till departure. In a week we'll be chilling on Wainui beach (weather permitting,) and having an overall grand time in sunny Gisborne, NZ.

Mind you, there are ways that life there could be less than desirable. Maybe we won't be able to understand a word they say for the entirety of our stay there. This would put a damper on my schooling. Maybe Kiwis hate Canadians for some reason, and we're constantly bombarded by hate mail and nasty remarks. This would make making friends very difficult.

I'm joking, of course. I expect our time there to be totally and completely awesome and I'm really looking forward to leaving this town for awhile. No offense, fellow Smithereens- it's not the people, it's the weather. A year of warmth will be an extremely nice break from the frigid temperatures we deal with up here.

Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to it and hope to keep in touch with some of you guys back home.

Stay Sweet,
CT

Mark's Art Opening

The opening night for Mark's Landscapes and Abstracts show was a smashing success. What fun to share his work with so many friends! Thanks to all who made it out. And, if you weren't able to get there, you can still see the show at the Gallery throughout September (noon to 4:00, Tues through Sat). Well that was our last major undertaking before takeoff. 6 days and counting.

Regina