Infringing in New Zealand

We had an additional charge from the rental car company dated after we left NZ. We contacted the company and apparently we were caught speeding... I guess over there they don't have to stop you to give you a ticket.

Welcome to the Neighborhood!

So we've moved into a condo and with a condo comes the homeowner's association. Lucky for us, we moved in just in time for the annual HOA meeting. Since we had no cable or internet, we opted to attend the meeting. Only about 20% of the condos were represented and we got to hear the president get on his soapbox about the owner's who don't care about the association and what's going on in their neighborhood. A hour and a half later, we understood why they didn't show. I think we spent 20 minutes listening to our new neighbor talk about the proper mixture of sand and rock to make concrete sidewalks that won't degrade with winter salt thrown on them. They also spent another 30 minutes on whether to number the parking spaces or not and whose dog is shitting in what yard. I'm not joking.

We simply wanted to bring up the fact that we were unable to get a loan due to the HOA insurance. The president said he'd heard from a few realtors about that and then proceeded to discuss how some programs require more building insurance than others but those are basically programs for people who can't put 50% down. What? If I could've put 50% down then I wouldn't be living here!

Needless to say, we will not be in attendance at the next annual meeting. Last night was an hour and a half of my life that I'll never get back.

Oh... and I think this place always smells like the back end of a cow. Nothing better than sitting on the deck eating dinner and smelling cows. I don't belong in the country.

The 30 year commitment

Closing. Finally.

After signing/initializing over 50 pages of repeated crap and financial non-sense today, I was just ready to leave. I may have officially given away a kidney at one point. Hopefully I don't wake up in a bathtub full of ice.

So less than a week after returning from a huge trip and two days after closing, we move into the new condo Saturday. Thankfully my parents are coming out to help. That should be a fun day or so. And as a major bonus, my Mom is bringing out strawberry shortcake. I think that may make all of this worth it.

The sleep of the innocent

Well, it's about 24 hours before we may close on our condo, but it's still not a sure thing. I'm all for procrastination, but not in this type of situation. We already had one loan fall through over $10 worth of home insurance the day before, so I'm a bit nervous.

The bonus is, I'm so freaking tired from jet lag (no sleep at all last night) that I haven't really thought about it. I had to go back to work today, so I just focused on that and reading the internet. Two weeks of work backed up? Meh, that'll keep. Actually, because I have an awesome boss and great co-workers, I didn't have that much to catch up on and I was able to go into work at 7 a.m. and leave at 3. My boss doesn't much care, as long as the work gets done and I keep my hours accurate.

So I'll just spend tonight worrying about the mortgage coming through. I'm guessing that's what the sellers are doing to. I feel a little bad for them, but not much. After all, we're getting screwed in this too. This new loan includes PMI, so we'll be paying more each month. Think anybody will pay me to blog or write?

Now I just gotta stay awake until a normal bed time to try and get back to East Coast US time. Damn New Zealand and your seeing into the future. Tell me what will happen tomorrow!

More Pictures

You can use the link below for some additional pictures.


Pictures

Back home again...

but not Indiana. We're back in lovely little State College. After we each slept for about 12 hours last night (a new record for me, I think), we drove back to our apartment. A mere 9 hours, thanks to construction.

Now, we have to see if anybody will let us purchase a house in 36 hours. It's still up in the air. No big deal. And if it falls through again, we get to search for a short-term apartment since we'll be homeless as of June 30. We're hoping for a little luck on the house front for once. But after the best possible luck during our big trip, we may have earned a little bad luck. I hope not, since we've had spades of bad luck on this house thing, but we'll see.

Now I have to go back to work tomorrow. Reality is setting back in and I really don't like it. I need to score a job as a travel writer. Anybody hiring?

Exhaustion

I knew what to expect from the return trip, but man I'm still just out of whack. It's 10:30 am on Saturday in Indiana, but it still feels like I'm on NZ time. That would 2:30 am Sunday. And I've had two consecutive red eye flights. I got about 4 total hours of sleep on those two flights. Ready for that eight hour drive home tomorrow.

But we didn't exactly rest on our 11 hour layover in Los Angeles yesterday. We took the LA Metro train (yep, LA has public transportation. Who knew?) down to Hollywood and walked around for a bit. Saw the Walk of Fame, the Kodak Theatre (home of the Oscars) and Gaurmans Chinese Theatre. Mostly though, it was a chance to look at freaks and weirdos. They were every where. I almost got in a fight with a crazy man at Virgin Megastore when my bag rubbed against his bag. He informed me I needed to be more careful, that he was from Morocco, that he had a problem with me and that all of his friends do heroin. Thanks man, good to know! I walked away laughing. No idea how else to handle it.

Searching for the Southern Cross

One of the things I wanted to see while here was the Southern Cross constellation, basically because it can only be seen south of the equator. At least, I think that's the case. Anyway, I'd forgotten about it most of the time. Then last night, I woke up at 5 a.m. and decided to go check. It was really clear, but no luck. Probably didn't help that I didn't really know what I was looking for or what direction it was. Oh well. Not likely I'll see it tonight, as we're in Auckland and it's hard to see the sky from the skyscrapers.

We've had a fun few days. After our rainy day, it was beautiful yesterday. We drove around an area called the Bay of Islands, which is just full of, well, islands. I guess it's great for SCUBA and snorkeling, but we didn't do any of that. Just drove around to see as much as we could. Which really worked out because we got to a kauri forest just before dark. I'd never heard of these native trees and they've largely been logged out of much of their natural growing areas. But they did preserve one large forest and we saw one of the big dudes.

The tree itself was about 5 minutes off the main highway and when we came to the viewing area for the star attraction, I heard E say "Whoa!" I hadn't seen it, so I turned and automatically let out a "Holy shit." Very understated. But then another couple came along and had the exact same reactions. I was paying attention. The tree is between 1,800 and 2,000 years old and has a circumference of over 5 meters. That's about 15 feet around. Just massive, and it was something like 100 feet tall. Really cool to see.

Today, we just drove to, then walked around Auckland. Interesting, major international city. We fly out tomorrow at 7 p.m. so we're preparing for a return to reality. Bummer on that one, that's for sure.

Rainout

After over a week of near-perfect weather (except for those cold temps), we hit a big rain day today. We were planning on a lot of driving, so it wasn't too bad. And given the choice, it was better to get it in the north than the south, where there was so much more to see.

Tonight we're in the Northlands, which is the skinny area north of Auckland if you look at a map. Getting through Auckland was a bit tough. Not an easy drive, but then we tried to go along the coast for a bit. Not so useful, as the rain and fog prevented us from seeing anything further than a few hundred feet off shore. But it's warming up a bit, with lows now in the 50s, instead of that being a high.

We're just going to drive around the Northlands tomorrow with no definite plans. Just driving and hoping for less rain. Or none, preferably.

The city of rotten eggs

We're currently in Rotorua, which is supposed to be the biggest tourist destination in the north island. There are tons of tourist shops, but the whole damn place reaks of sulphur from the various thermal vents, holes and mud bubblers. I have no idea what else to call them, but they're like a cauldron of boiling mud that stinks like crazy. Bring on the tourists!

We did some more photographing and walking around the three big volcanoes, then stopped for lunch in the city of Taupo. It's across a huge lake from the volcanoes, so then we got even more photos. Noticing a theme? We're pretty much all about pics. Our 2 gig memory card is already full. We tried to do some tourist shopping for family, but just couldn't get into it. I did get my customary shot glass, so at least that's taken care of. I was worried. Not sure where we're off to tomorrow, but we're down to 3 and a half days. Short trip, this is.

At the foot of Mount Doom

After a lovely morning waking up on the beach (even cold, that's always nice to hear the waves), we were treated to a lovely free breakfast at the hostel. I guess the manager felt bad that the kitchen was closed for repairs, so he cooked home-made porridge with kiwi, oranges, bananas and chocolate. Never had porridge, but I felt like Goldilocks. Mine was just right. Well, minus the bananas. E took the fall for me not eating those.

Then, we took a scenic drive through a river valley on the north island. Let's just say E enjoyed the curving, muddy gravel road conditions. I hung on and barely said anything in complaint. I'm sweet like that. It's odd, we're so spoiled by the scenery of the south that this, while really cool, was hard to take a lot of pictures of. Not a letdown, just not as stunning. Still took plenty, though. What did people do before digital pics? We've already taken something like 600 pics.

Tonight, we're staying in a town of around 480 called National Park. It's near the base of Mount Doom, for Lord of the Rings fans. It has a real name, but it was used for the movie. So that's what it shall be.

Sorry for teh limited number of photos yesterday. It took like 5 minutes to upload each one, so we couldn't do many. We'll definitely have a bunch when we get back.

Pictures!!!

We got the pictures to work... now it's just a matter of having the time to upload them.

Just a preview... we're running out of internet time. Enjoy!

Boat rides and drive time

Basically, all we did today was drive and ride. Kind of relaxing after so much sightseeing in such a short time. The boat was simple, just drive on, read for three hours, then drive off in Wellington. That's the capital of this here country, but not the largest city.

It is, however, the largest city I've driven in here. It wasn't bad, but this is the first time we've seen stoplights since our first night. The south is rather sparsley populated. So off the boat and into a city of over 200,000. Fun times. Luckily, I'm used to the whole drive on the left, shift with teh left hand. I just hope I stop turing on the wind shield wipers when I want to turn. I think the turn signal dealy on the right is the most confusing thing. It just doesn't belong there!

Tomorrow, I think we're going to go for a (likely chilly) walk on the beach in the morning, then head into the northern volcano region. No rest for the weary (except for the walking on the beach part.)

Push starting the Sirloin

That's not a euphemism, by the way. We stopped and had our normal lunch "picnic" of a sandwich, cheese, coke and chocolate in the car. There are roadside picnic tables all over the country and it's much cheaper to buy stuff at a grocery store. Anyway, it was raining, so we stayed in teh car and ate today right along the coast. Watched the waves role in and kept the radio on. But I forgot the headlights of our mighty rental car, a Daihatsu Sirion (nicknamed "the Sirloin" by E due to it's name and the fact that's its the size of a steak). So, when E went to start it up, no go. She avoided panicking, which was good. We were several KMs from civilization.

So we pushed the mighty Sirloin back a ways, then she got in and I went behind and started pushing. That sucked. But she popped the clutch and we got the old girl going. Woo! Little trust in the Sirloin at the moment.

We did see the Franz Joseph glacier (pronounced GLASS-ee-uh if you're refined and stuff), which was so cool. I'd never seen a glacier before and we got to get pretty close to it's terminus. That's where it ends and turns into a freezing river. I'm so scientific with my names.

Then after a few hours of left-side driving up the west coast, we stopped at the pancake rocks. Sadly, we missed high tide, when the waves turn the rocks into a massive blow-hole. Who wouldn't want to see a massive blow-hole? I'm holding comment w/the wife around.

Anyway, tomorrow we're off for the the inter-island ferry and crossing to the north island. More (or actually, some) civilization there. Kinda makes me sad.

Oh, and pics will probably have to wait until we return. Sorry.

Just another day of mountains

We ran into another American tourist/traveller yesterday and he said "I hate this country. Every time I think I can't see anything more awesome, I see something else. I'm always stopping for photos." Uh, yep. That seems to be how it works.

We drove from Queenstown through a mountain pass yesterday to the west coast of the south island. All day, just stunning mountains and turquoise colored lakes and rivers. It didn't seem natural. Then, all of a sudden, we come around a corner and we could see for a good distance. After being surrounded by mountains for two days, it was odd to see a lot of sky. Just like that, we were at the coast. It's a little warmer, but not much.

Today, we're off to see a couple of glaciers. I've never seen one, but I'm sure it'll be cool.

We've been staying in hostels, which is always interesting. But last night, for the wrong reasons. To save some time today, we stayed in a place close to what we wanted to see today. Bad move. This place is shoddy, a little smelly and, as E said, "gross." I don't know that it's gross, but not the finest establishment ever. We'll have to step back up to "decent" hostels from now on. Lesson learned: Always ask to see the rooms before you pay for it.

Chilly boxes and invisible penguins

We went in search of at least one of New Zealand's native penguin species. No luck. They were apparently out to sea eating while we were there. Oh well. Saw some great coastlines and drove along the very southern edge of the country, which is about as far south as you can get w/out hitting Antarctica.

But on the way back north, we hit the nature jackpot. On our way to Queenstown, where we're staying tonight, we saw some of the most amazing snow-capped mountains seemingly rising strait out of a long, finger-like lake. Unreal. We tried to load at least one of the probably 100 photos we took, but couldn't' get this computer to work. We'll try at the next stop, but that feature may have to wait until our return. Suffice it to say, we felt like were in a movie set or something. It looked fake. Can't wait to see what we'll do tomorrow. This whole no-planning thing is exciting, but stressful. Hopefully we'll figure out our plans at least a day ahead of time.

Oh, and a chilly box is just a cooler. I just love the name.

Cheers!

Ah, we made it. Exhausted, but excited. The wedding in Seattle was beautiful, with snow-capped mountains in the background and near perfect weather. Then we became the adopted children of Larry and Deb, which was nice. A trip to the Museum of Flight and I can now say I've been on a Concorde and an old Air Force One. So that's cool.

Then a mamoth trip from Seattle to San Francsico, followed by a 12.5 hour trip to Auckland. Whoa. But it wasn't too bad, since they had over 80 on-demand movies with each having their own screen. Nothing like Will Smith as a comic hero and Jim Carrey remaking "Liar, Liar" to turn the brain off. Best possible thing, really. Finally, we had a two hour flight to the South Island adn landed in Christchurch.

Such a beautiful country so far and we've really only seen it from teh sky and from a 6-hour drive in our rental down to Dunedin. That's our destination and we're done for teh night. Turning in at 7 p.m. Yes, I'm old.

Beauty and rage

Ah, Seattle. Beautiful city, amazing weather. Great day for an outdoor wedding. We drove out to little Enumclaw yesterday from the big, scary city and were amazed at the scenery. Well, E and I were. The groom, who was driving us around, grew up in this town and didn't understand why E broke her camera out to shoot about 3 dozen pics of towering Mt. Rainier. Seriously, it looks like a freaking Bob Ross painting.

The bummer was, we got an email from the previously blogged about mortgage broker. Yep, our mortgage fell through. Did we get rejected for not making enough? Nope. Bad credit? Nah. Bank going under? No again.

No, we get the weakest excuse in the history of time. The Condo Association doesn't have good enough "master insurance" coverage. So even though we purchased insurance to cover the difference (already paid for, of course) Chase bank decided that wasn't acceptable. So, no loan. Buh-bye.

Allow me to rant for a few seconds. There will be swearing and vulgarity, so don't read the next paragraph if you have sensitivities.

Hey, Chase? Yeah, screw you. I hope you go under and the feds end all bailout programs just for you. May Obama never give you another cent, you assbags. May economic vultures rip every cent from your rotting carcass. Burn in flames and die. (This has been edited upon request. I was much more...colorful.)

I feel better now. Ready for a beautiful wedding!

UPDATE: Our mortgage broker thinks he's found another good loan for us that will be ready by the time we get back. So hopefully we won't be homeless. Yeah

Our mortgage broker shall die...

So today I call the broker guy to see exactly how much our check needs to be at closing. He nonchalantly mentions that he had to have a few more papers completed for the lender and that closing may be pushed back. I so kindly informed him that we are leaving Thursday afternoon for 2 1/2 weeks and will be out of the country. I can't tell you how upsetting it is to be let down like this less than 24 hours before we were scheduled to close. So because our broker underestimated the process, we will be closing when we return from our trip. Financially it makes more sense for us and fortunately the broker is going to cover extension fees as well as any requests from the sellers. As long as we purchase the place in June I won't have a emotional breakdown or be homeless.

Purchasing a home is supposed leave you excited and a little nervous, not incredibly disappointed and upset.

~The Better Half

Stupid Legos

It's never fun to spend National Cookout Day at work, but much worse when working by yourself after two hours of sleep.

I can't complain much, given that my boss let me work today so I can take Friday off instead. But the lack of sleep is killing me. I guess all the stuff going on in the next few weeks is starting to set in.

I just don't understand why I wasn't thinking about that last night when I was laying in bed and eventually on the sofa till 5 a.m.? No I wasn't thinking about closing on the house Wednesday, driving to Indiana Thursday or flying to Seattle on Friday. I was thinking about the Lego Batman video game I've been playing, The Reader, which we watched last night, and a steady stream of Springsteen songs.

Yep, we're about to become homeowners and then fly halfway around the world to New Zealand and I couldn't shut my brain off from Lego Robin throwing Batarangs at bad guys dressed as psychotic clowns. Well, and Kate Winslet naked. That one made more sense and helped me feel a little more normal.

$86 sentimentality

So it's less than a week before we close and got an email from our realtor. The sellers want to take their "chandelier" (a standard looking Lowe's light fixture) with them, but conveniently forgot to mention that till now. I love that it's for sentimental reasons. The house was built in 2003 and they redid the kitchen in 2005 or so. Perhaps they brought it from their last place, but who does that?

They offered to buy and install a replacement originally, which we're fine with. It's just a freaking light. But then they said they'd only give us $86 because that's what they paid for the one their taking. So some cheap-ass light fixture from a big-box hardware store has sentimental value? So strange.

Hopefully that's the last hiccup till we close. I think Tom Hanks was right, never buy a house.

Time Travel

I've heard all about the strange time differences when traveling and experienced them myself on other trips. But I've never actually lost a day. June 1 will not exist in my life. We fly out of San Francisco at like 8 p.m. May 31. We land in Auckland at around 5 a.m. June 2. So it's basically a red eye, 12 hour flight. It actually sounds easier to handle than the 8 hour difference you get going to Europe.

The return, however, is going to mess me up. I hope my boss won't expect much my first day back. We leave Auckland at 7 p.m. or so June 12. We get into L.A. the next day around noon. Then, after an 11 hour layover at LAX, another red eye back home. Also on June 12. Does anybody have any experience dealing with back-to-back red eye's? I just want to survive.

Oh, and don't take this as whining. I know I'm tremendously lucky to be doing this. But holy crap I won't want to pack and move the next week.

Packin'

People pack and move in two very different ways. You may collect boxes a few months in advance, slowly putting things away over that time and carefully labeling the boxes for which room they go in, so that most of your stuff is ready to go a week or two before you actually move.

Or you can run to a liquor store a few days before you move, beg for boxes and just load all your crap as quickly as you can the day before your lease expires. I'm a fan of this method, with some degree of experience.

The house will be the 9th place I've lived since 2000. It will be the fifth place I've lived in with my lovely wife since 2004. We may not be geographically stable, but we do have our familiar patterns.

I have no desire to pack anything until a maximum of a week before we move. She's already got several boxes filled, ready and waiting to go. I'm looking forward to the next three years without moving. That'll be nice.

Questions and time killing

Perhaps some people have a few questions as to what and why E and I are doing all of this now. I'll try to be pre-emtive, so here goes.

Why New Zealand?

Why not? Basically, I've wanted to go there since elementary school (no, it's not some Lord of the Rings obsession).

Did you win the lottery to afford all this?

Well, no. E and I have been saving for a few years for a big trip and it was this or Australia. Given the short time frame, and New Zealand is only the size of Colorado, that won. We've also been saving for a down payment on a house and costs are much cheaper here than elsewhere. Plus, we wanted to do our part to re-start the global economy. We're just do-gooders like that.

Why buy a house now, since you won't be in this town for more than 3-4 more years, at most?

Good question. Basically, this is why. So if we can sell it for what we paid, it's like living rent free for a few years. Thanks Congress!

Who's in Seattle and why are you both going?

Well, one of my best friends is from the Grungeville (or a small town with a glorious history nearby). I'm happy for him and incredibly curious as to what woman could tolerate his yetti-like appearance and collection of ironic t-shirts. Plus I love Seattle and will take any excuse to visit.

What are you going to do in NZ?

Not really sure. We've got the Lonely Planet guide and we'll have a car. It's going to be early winter there, so I've heard there won't be too many other travellers. So finding a hostel every night will hopefully be easy.

David Baldacci and other crap

I'm going to be on an airplane for a minimum of 36 hours over the course of two weeks, so I need something easy to kill time. Thankfully, some local organization had their annual used book fundraiser this weekend. Four easy-to-digest paperbacks for like seven bucks. But the weird thing is, the sale was in the Ag Arena.

I wish I made that up. In this town, everybody knows the Ag Arena on campus. The floor was about the size of two basketball courts. Tables were everywhere and all were covered in books of every kind. You've never seen so many John Grisham paperbacks.

Anyway, the most fun was the people. Young kids, old people and college-age kids staring down and slowly shuffling sideways through the aisles. One poor schlub looking for a few titles his wife/girlfriend/controller asked him to search for. Then her plastic bag ripped open from too much weight and he got to pick everything up. I'm sure he'd be considered sweet by some. I probably would have laughed at the bag ripping and books tumbling around.

The Cheapo

I'm searching for car rental places in New Zealand and have no idea what I'm doing. How do I know what's a good deal? Can I trust backpacker message board advice? Will the vehicle smell like hobbits and fuzzy fruit?

One site I've looked at specializes in "discount" rentals, which is terrifying. They have one level of cars called "El Cheapo" for only $20 NZ a day. But all the cars are vintage 1998-2000 with a minimum of 200,000 KM. I have no idea how much that is, but it sounds high. Sitting on the left side of the road halfway between Christcurch and Queenstown with a blown radiator would likely be a bad thing. So we'll probably avoid "the cheapo". Still, that's a great name. Maybe I'll start calling my truck that.

Coffee, Kiwi and closing

May and June 2009 will likely be among the most memorable of my life, either good or bad. Hopefully good. But I wanted to write about what is going on, most of it in the span of two and a half weeks.

Not to get too detailed, but my wife (E) and I bought a house, I'll be in a wedding in Seattle, then we'll spend 10 days traveling in New Zealand. And then come back and to move into said house. All within 3 weeks. If you need me in July, I'll be asleep.

So my goal is to write short snippets of humor, struggles and experiences over the next few months. If you want to follow along, feel free to come back. I plan to update at least every few days. But laziness may win out.