Author Archives: Roger Haston

Things have been going along swimmingly here in Oamaru and we continue to be impressed by the place. Sitting in our Airbnb and looking at the expanse of the ocean, every evening is a treat. It has become exceedingly clear that it was complete luck and quite rare that we had such a close encounterContinue reading “A Night at the Opera”

Oamaru is the steampunk capital of the world. I did not know this before coming here. Well, I didn’t even know what steampunk was, for that matter. Never heard of it. That shows you how non-hip I am. According to the dictionary: noun: steampunk; noun: steam-punk A genre of science fiction that has a historicalContinue reading “Yellow-Eyed Steampunk”

We left Waitomo, both glad we had come to see the glow worms and very apprehensive about the trip ahead. It wasn’t because the driving from Waitomo to Kaikōura was particularly difficult; it was because it involved another ferry crossing to get from the North Island to the South Island. We were both feeling aContinue reading “A Whale of a Tail”

I’ve always prided myself on having a good memory. In college I almost never took notes in my classes or if I did, they would be some obscure representation of the lecture. When people borrowed my notes, they would exclaim “What the F$%@! is that?!” “I have a mind like a steel trap” I wouldContinue reading “Mind Like a Steel Trap”

Our time in Cooks Beach has come to an end and we are making our way back to the South Island. We have spent a very lovely 5 weeks here that has allowed us to get a pretty good feel for the Coromandel Peninsula. It is lovely. We were a bit constrained in our abilityContinue reading “The Party’s Over”

Well, poor Otis is back in the shop again. We knew he needed to go back, but it is still a bummer. We seem to have gotten a lemon despite Carl’s 500,000 page report on him. Makes me wonder about Carl now. I had been invited to an event put on by a local privateContinue reading “Poor Otis”

I have fallen behind on the blog. Sorry. I think the ferry ride took the wind out of my sails, so to speak. But I’m back now. In Australia, when you are walking around everyone says “G’day.” I have always found this a bit cumbersome and it just doesn’t roll off my tongue and IContinue reading “Hiya”

The time had come to start packing up and getting ready to move on to the next phase of our adventure. We scheduled lunch with Jon and Becky again at the Moutere Inn on Sunday. It was a nice day, so I thought I would try to squeeze in one more bike ride before lunch.Continue reading “Ferry Tales”

We are still in a bit of a daze about our approval. It had just started to feel like it wouldn’t happen. We had dreamed about a lot of stuff but we couldn’t really do any of it until we knew. Now we know. Since the hippie bus got ruled out, camper van here weContinue reading “Great Taste and Less Filling”

Ok, lots to report, but let’s just cut to the chase. We got APPROVED!!!! We are now (once we fill out some paperwork) officially permanent residents of Aotearoa! We are so excited. It has been almost exactly 2 years from the time that we hired our immigration advisor, which might not seem that long, butContinue reading “GonnabeKiwi”