Hey guys,
Just wanting to wish everyone a merry Xmas and a happy New Year. Eat lots of turkey and drink lots of wine. My parents came for Xmas and we had an awesome time, going to the beach on Christmas, and going to Rotorua on boxing day. My parents were excellent sports and even tried zorbing! We really wanna congratulate Lyle and Lisa on there engagement and Ryan and Sophia on their baby and wish them all the best. We're also very happy to hear that Uncle Boo is out of the hospital and are wishing him a speedy recovery.

Ally and Shane

Hello,
We just wanted to update you all on our lives in the last 2 weeks. I'm working in the special care baby unit (SCBU), as I just found out my license does not cover me to work in maternity... which means my time in SCBU may be limited unless I'm willing to take a 3 month course. Oh, and the course is a 3 hour drive away. On the bright side, Shane got a job at a very hip and trendy cafe in the neighbouring surf town of Ohope. It's called The Quay, and Shane is a waiter/coffee dude/beer slinger... unfortunately there is no tipping in New Zealand.
On the home front, Shane and I had found a house to live in for the month but as we got there we soon found a filthy, mouldy house. Nothing had been cleaned and their were spiders everywhere (Shane found a nest), and half the mattress of the bed was moulding. We tried to cleaned it up and make the best of it, but then a couple hours later the water shut off. So we returned to our hospital accomodations( which just so happens to be a floor above the mental hospital.).
So Shane was really upset with the realtor (as they refused to give us our money back $250), and went to the realtors office and made such a scene that the realtor threatened to call the cops on him. However, Shane then went to the cops who directed him to a lawyer (that was free... govt pays them) who sent the realtor a letter.
A few hours later we got our money back.
Speaking of realtors, We wanna wish Uncle Boo a speedy and painless recovery from his surgery. And we'll give you an address to mail my dumb hat, and your rockstar calender.

Oh, and we saw a local girl wearing a University of Manitoba Bisons t-shirt.

Ally's mom and dad are coming next week and we're so excited to see them. They leave on Sunday and will get here on Tuesday (have a safe flight). You may be staying above the mental hospital with us... or in a bus with beds in it (seriously!).
Talk to you all later,
Ally and Shane

Sorry guys, we made a mistake on the last post. Our car is a mitsubishi emeraude, not a nissan.
We also wanted to let u know that it's complicated for us to put pics on the blog because we're using public computers and the blog only allows us to put on 5 pics at a time. Shane has been busy throwing out resumes, hopefully we'll hear something soon.
Here are some more interesting facts:

You can buy a case of beer (12) for $12 NZD.

They call sandals "Jandals"

There are very few bugs out here.

Doors are all left open and windows have no screens.

There are many people walking around barefoot on the streets.

The UV index has hit 12 and we're not sure if it's gonna go higher.

People can be a lot more blunt... especially on the radio and tv. They are not fans of political correctness (ex: The interviewer was blatantly calling a girl "fat" on tv. and they don't easily let overweight americans become citizens (bmi over 35).

The kiwi dollar is 68 cents to the Canadian dollar.

Gas has dropped to $1.30/L... at this pace next year gas will be free! yeah right!

Oh and a big good luck to Keye's volleyball team who will be playing in provincials in Souris this weekend. Play hard and don't get too mad.


That's all for now,

Shane and Ally

Hey Guys,
Shane and I are now in Whakatane. It's a small town on the north island in the Bay of Plenty. I start work on Monday, and we still don't really have a place to live. Right now we're living at the hospital for pretty cheap, and we have a suite for January in Ohope. Ohope is a beach town 5 mins from Whakatane... we'll be 60 feet from the beach. We've bought a boogyboard which we will be using 3 hours from now. Cue Jealousy.
Yesterday we took surfing lessons in Ohope. It was awesome, even though we both spent a fair amount of time getting pummelled by the ocean.
I guess I should tell you all about our new roadster... it's a 94 Nissan Emeraude. It's dark green. That's about the extent of my knowledge of cars.
That's all for now,
Love,
Ally and Shane.

Hello everyong,
Shane and I have spent the last 3-4 days exploring Christchurch and area. We went to the Christchurch International Antarctic Center and got to see penguins. However, we passed on experiencing -18 degrees snowstorm in their cold area. People kept asking us if we wanted to go and experience the cold... we openly laughed at them.
After that we headed up to Hamner springs and then to Kaikoura where we wanted to go swimming with the dolphins, but were foiled by gale force winds. Now we're back in Christchurch and are booking a flight back to Auckland where we'll buy a cheap car and drive to Whakatane where I have recently gotten a job.
Thats the update... Shane has been actively looking for some work, so hopefully something will come up soon.
See you all later,
Ally

Hi Guys,

Well we spent yesterday back in the mountains. We took a hike through Mt. Cook national park, it took us 3 hours. It was absolutely beautiful... there was a glacier lake at the end of it with little icebergs in it. Here are some pics I managed to get on CD. See you all later,

Shane and Ally

Fun facts

Here are some fun differences we noticed along the way:
-Gas here is 1.53/L. but we've payed up to 1.75/L in remote areas
- The lowest grade gas you can buy is 91 octane
-You can buy a bag of horse manure by the road for $1.00 every 10 km or so
- Free range eggs does not mean "Free" range eggs
- eggs are not sold in coolers in the super market
-weather is anywhere from 13C to 25C
- Shane has taken up the local "Movember" and is growing a mustache in November for mens health.
- When you buy a something for 15.00 it's 15.00 and there's no pennies or nickels
- Minimum wage here is $12.50/hr.
-nurses make double time for night shifts
That's about all we can come up with now, talk to you later,
Shane and Ally

Hello again.
Well, we're now in Dunedin working our way back up the east coast of the south island. Queenstown was a great time, and only Shane had nerve enough to bungy as I chickened out... but I did get an awesome video of it on our camera. From Queenstown we checked out Milford Sound on a day tour which was amazing, and went river sledging down a river inhabited with eels. We also did our first Lord of the Rings tour where we went horse back riding past Isengard and the forest of Lethorian (where the wood elves live-Kate Blanchett), and where Borameer was killed. Yes we're big nerds.
Tomorrow we're going to see some penguins in the wild and check out the Cadbury Factory. Oh yah, and we went on a Speight's Beer factory tour today and got six free beer at the end. It was a good day. Hope you're all doing well and we'll post pictures when we can.

Ally and Shane

Wellington, Nelson, Wanaka

Hey guys,
Well from the sounds of it winter has arrived in Canada. I have sadly also heard that both the riders and the bombers are out of the playoffs.

I'll quickly update you on our whereabouts. From Napier we went through Hawkes Bay region to Wellington (not overly impressed with Wellington, but still a nice city). Then we crossed the Cookes Straight on a beautiful day to Nelson. We both loved Nelson (sunniest place in New Zealand) with the Abel Tasman National Park right there. We went on a 3-4 hour walk (which is lame New Zealand standards) but it just about killed us. Then went kayaking the next day and got to see a seal devour an octopus right beside us. It was very cool.

Then we moved on to Franz Josef and saw the glaciers and are currently in Wanaka. Its a small town in the mountains (our favourite so far!). We went to the coolest puzzle place ever and got lost in a 2 km maze. Tomorrow we're river sledging (boogyboarding down some rapids) then on to Queenstown to test the nerves.
Hope everyone is well,

Ally and Shane

Hello all,

So white water rafting was awesome. We were on class 5 rapids and went over a 7 meter waterfall. They said it was a complete crap-shoot as to whether or not the boat would flip. We all chanted "What have got? No Chance!" before going over the falls.

We did not flip but 3/4 of our boat went underwater and we got caught up right under the waterfall. We only lost one person in the process and it wasn't Shane or I. We believe that it was our fat asses in the back that kept the boat from flipping. The guide was shocked that we didn't flip.

Anyways, we are currently in Napier (the art-deco capital of NZ). The town was flattened by an earthquake in the 1931 and was completely rebuilt in art deco form. Today we're going wine testing and then on to Wellington.

On a side note I was offered a job in Whakatane hospital, which is funny because that's the exact town my sister lived in when she was here. A big shout out to Michelle, Happy 30th Birthday! hahahahaha... I mean 29.

See you all later,

Ally and Shane

Hey guys,
I would like to dedicate part of this post the biggest stink bomb that I actually paid to see. $60 was spent to see bubbling hot 7 km of egg fart. I am reffering to Hells Gate, and it actually had a reception area, yaknow, in case u wanna get married or celebrate a special occasion while being engulfed in a hot fart.
Now that that's out. We actually had fun the rest of the day doing a swoop (a huge drop and swing), and then we went zorbing (rolling down a hill in a big bubble while getting splashed with water). We also visited a kiwi farm in the AM and Shane got "free" groceries.
Tomorrow we're white water rafting, and then on to Lake Taupo.
Hope everyone is well,
Ally and Shane

Waitomo, Coromandel, Tauranga

Hello all,
We last left u in Waitomo with the glow worms. The black water rafting was in a little inner tube and the water was freezing but we got to jump backwards off a waterfall in the caves and the glow worms were fantastic!
After that we headed north to the Coromandel and did death defying stunts (not kidding) on the high wire rope park. We walked on a high wire, leaped at the trapeze and did a mini-bungy. Kiwi's are nuts.
The next day we walked 2 hours to Cathedral Cove then dug our own hot tub at hot water beach. Then headed to Tauranga where the spaceship almost broke down.
Hence, another day of walking.
We hiked up Mount Manganui, then soaked in a thermal salt water pool while our spaceship was getting fixed. Tomorrow we're heading to Rotorua to go zorbing (for those of u that don't know, just google it) and to see hells gate, then staying overnight in Taupo.
See you all later and thanks for the comments,

Ally and Shane

Hey guys,
so we are still alive and well. We inherited the spaceship 'jetson' and are finding many quirks to it along the way. The last few days we went up the northland through the bay of islands to Cape Reinga... think raiforest... it was beautiful (if only it was warmer). On the way we saw the most northern point of New Zealand and tobaggoned down sand dunes. We only got lost once or twice and people are very friendly.
We just got out of the car after a 9 hour drive from Cape Reinga to Waitoma (think hobbiton from Lord of the Rings). Tomorrow we're going black water caving into underground caves to see the glow worms. Hope everyone is well. We'll post pics when we can.
ps... sorry we haven't called ( I can't get my phone card to work and we can't figure out how to use Shanes mobile (I was informed it's called a mobile in the southern hemisphere).

See y'all later,

Ally and Shane

Hey guys,
A quick update... Shane and I have been walking for 2 days straight and now have buns of steel. I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know that we've been drinking more in the last 48 hours than in the last 2 months... yah New Zealand beer! We've hit up the museum, a maori cultural show and attempted a tour of a brewery, but were shut down. Shane did the reverse bungy today in downtown New Zealand. We'll post pics of it as soon as we get a computer that does that. Anywho, we're off in our spaceship tomorrow so won't post in awhile.
Take care everyone,

Shane and Ally

well, just a quick update as we only have 15 mins on a computer we have to pay for. We made it after a gruelling 20 hour flight, and I was only approached as a 'sir' instead of a 'madame' twice on the flight. We ended up having an unexpected stop in Samoa for a refuel which tacked on an extra hour. We're in one piece and only missing a lock and a canadian flag.

Auckland is a really cool city and after a short 12 hour sleep we actually feel really good. As typical touristy people the first thing we did was note that the water in the sink does actually turn counter clock-wise. Hope everyone is well, and feel free to write us comments as we want to stay connected to people at home.
Love,
Ally and Shane

Shane and Ally Pre New Zealand

A little about us...
We are Ally and Shane. We just left our friends, families, jobs and possessions to explore life down under. This is a snippet of us prior to chaos.
Think of us, pray for us, but most of all be jealous of us!
See you around,

Ally and Shane

Hello people

I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again!