Thanksgiving is among us but not in New Zealand. Many people have asked if New Zealand celebrates Thanksgiving….the answer is no. So, this week actually feels like any other week but I do feel like there is something missing, the feeling of Thanksgiving. There are a few get togethers this week to mark the day […]

I went to my first rugby game a couple of weeks ago and what an experience. It was New Zealands equivalent to the Super Bowl. It was the Tri Nations, a series of test matches between Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. The All Blacks (NZ) played the Wallabies (AUS) here in Wellington. The city […]

I have recently felt frustrated communicating with New Zealanders. They all agree and own up to the fact they mumble. You truly cannot hear what they are saying most of the time. I even come from a family of mumblers, my dad being the inventor of the “mumble dialect.” So, even with my vast experience […]

I don’t know about you but there are few places outside of my house I would go barefoot, especially in a city. I first noticed something with “no shoes ” at the gym. Now, a gym is full of germs from other people’s sweat. That is one place I would not go barefoot. So of […]

My Friday started out like any other day. Sometimes on Fridays I will go to the Film Archive for the Friday Soup and a Seat. For $8 you get soup, which I love, and a viewing of a New Zealand documentary. I have learned that Wellington is also referred to as Welly-Wood and is the […]

Before Garnett and I left America we made a conscious decision to make sure we were humble upon arriving in New Zealand. We did not want to be the abrasive Americans who thought only America was perfect. I have to say, before I got here I didn’t even consider what Kiwi’s might think of Americans. […]