David is in Da' House!

*Note: This post was written over a couple of weeks, so don't mind the time lapse in-between certain parts. The title should actually be "David WAS in Da' House!", as he is already in Ontario and back to work. Oh well. I think you will still enjoy this very, very lengthy post.

You might want to grab a cup of coffee because this post will take you a while!

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Well, David has arrived and is as David as ever! I don't think we have had a peaceful moment since last Saturday when we picked him up at the airport! We have been bombarded with him retelling Herman and "Knock-Knock" jokes, while also begging for back-scratches. It has been awesome having my brother around and he definitely keeps life interesting. We've had some late nights and I don't think I have laughed so hard in a long time. Tonight, when I asked him if he had enough to eat, he responded with the following: "I am sufficiently suffonsified. Anymore would be obnoxious to my fastidious taste." HUH?! These random statements keep us in constant stitches!

I thought I might let you read something from Leah. Here she is, writing a post on her first impressions of "Super-Dave"!

"C.R.A.Z.Y. absolutely crazy. Super Dave thinks he pretty cool but he still hasn't realized that a mullet is so cliche in New Zealand. Everyone has them. One of the first things I noticed about Dave is that he is lazy. He commands us to wash the dishes, wash his clothes and so on. Of course we don't do it for him!!! Another thing that I noticed was his inability to be quiet. I don't think he even knows that word means! Honestly, he will talk about the most random things just so he has something to say... something to do. It was soon very clear on what he liked doing: annoying people. In fact this past day was a classic example. Picture this: I am walking nicely along the beach enjoying the beautiful view when a pile of sand lands at my feet. I don't have to turn around to see who it is. It doesn't take long till we are in the middle of a full fledged sand fight. Of course I am the one left with sand all in my hair, on my face,etc. and all the while he is laughing his head off!!!

Well.. I could type pages on how horrible he is but I will try to be positive. :) Alright, well he has definitely made things feel more like home for me. It's just like having one of my crazy brothers around. I was starting to miss having my siblings round to argue with and tease but not anymore. He has lame but funny jokes to tell 24/7 and is always laughing about the most random and stupid things. He does help out with keeping the house tidy sometimes (surprisingly) but he definitely doesn't keep my room tidy though!!! (neither did I :D) I suppose I should be happy about the extra male protection around the house especially since he has a knife but for some reason I'm not... maybe that's because he sleeps like a log and is not exactly careful with his knife.
Okay I'm sure you are sick of hearing from me and want a more intriguing post. Farewell from me and I'll see you all in a while!
Leah :D "


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This is Cara back now. I will take you through another "picture post" to let you know what we have been up to with David for the past two weeks!

After picking him up at the airport (and receiving lots of goodies from back home: Cadbury Mini-Eggs, Kraft Poppy-seed and Ranch dressing, Poutine gravy, Kraft Caramel Candies and Kraft Dinner), we took him around Wellington for a bit. He immediately commented on the fact that we were driving "on the wrong side of the road" and that everyone had a strange accent.

Although he had just been on a plane for 24 hours, he seemed to be on his "third wind"- in fact, he was so wired we were all able to go rock-climbing!




We also hit a museum in Wellington- Te Papa. David liked this life-size replica of a blue whale's heart.



After Dave finally began to tire, we took the long, windy road over the Rimutaka's, back to our home in the Wairarapa Valley. I never thought I was short, until I looked at this picture of both David and I together!





After a quick lunch at home, we took Dave out for a truly cultural experience- a home-town rugby game! The love for this insane game runs deep in New Zealand hearts. And, of course, what is a NZ rugby game without one of NZ's famous beers- Tui?! (Yes, we did manage to cram a lot into Dave's first day here!)





Then he had a much needed nap...



Sunday afternoon we had some friends come over for a bbq after church (Jeremy, Amber and their girls). Dave really got along with a few of the guys from our church; they took him under their wing and often asked him to come out with them. True Kiwi hospitality. It was nice for me because it kept him busy during his first week here while I tried to get all my reports done by the end of the school term.





David helped out with lots of chores around our house- cutting firewood, picking up groceries, and yes, can you believe it, cooking a full fledged meal! He made a delicious stir-fry which was a special treat for me after working at school all day!

The weather was usually quite warm during the day, but then cooled down in the evening. I always enjoy this because it means summer weather during the day and cozy autumn weather at night- cold enough to start a wood fire! We enjoyed sitting around the fire, sharing stories and jokes until very late at night!



David brought a lot of his hunting gear along and he was quite excited to show us- hence the pictures of him in all of his gear on our front lawn :).



Dave went with Sam and Jeremy for a three day hunting trip into the hills near our home. It is the "ROAR" season when everyone is apparently supposed to be able to hunt and kill a stag! However, after three days of difficult trekking and the killing of ONE POSSUM, the weary guys gave up and came home empty-handed. It was a bit disappointing, but they still enjoyed the NZ nature that surrounded them and the time spent bonding in the bush. I absolutely love some of the photos they took on this trip! David has a neat setting on his camera called "Magic" and it really enhances the colour and surrounds the pic with a soft black border.





















David came to school one day and visited my classes. The kids adored him, especially after he cooked up some Kraft Dinner for them :)! He also played some volleyball with my P.E. class. Every day after that the students were asking me how "Super-Dave" was doing!

On the last day of school, I was given permission to leave early so that we could all go to the airport and pick up Rachel! I feel spoiled having so many family members over here. It was awesome to see Rachel again. David hadn't conquered one of the walls at the rock climbing place so we stopped in there again to let him have another go at it.

Together we all went for a day-trip to Castle Point. It was a bit rainy/windy, but we were still able to appreciate the beauty of the sea, beach and hillside. It still remains one of my favourite spots in NZ! I think Rachel fell in love as well.

You will begin to notice a few pictures of David with bulging eyes and his tongue hanging out. This is his white-man imitation of the Maori's cultural "haka".


































As evident in the pictures above, David graced into NZ with both a mullet and mustache. Of his own accord, he decided that the mustache "wasn't really that classy was it Cara?" Phew! A few days after his arrival he shaved it off.

All we needed to do was work on that straggly mullet. First we tried straightening it to see if that would make it look a little less "mullety?" Didn't work. Then we thought maybe we would sneak into his room in the middle of the night and cut it off. He caught wind of this plan, however, and promised that he would also cut our hair if we ever touched his mullet. We knew he would probably keep his word.

So finally, after a lot of persuasion, we managed to actually get David to agree to getting his mullet cut off. But it came at a great cost: Leah had to pay for the hair-dresser, I had to give him 10 full minutes of back-scratches and Rachel had to buy him a pack of smokes. And in the end we got a RAT-TAIL instead of a mullet :)! Not sure its the greatest improvement, but at least rat-tails are actually in style here in NZ so he looked like a typical Kiwi. We couldn't stop laughing when we were at the barber's. An old Maori man sitting beside me commented that it "looked real, real good. Much better!" We thought Mom might be really impressed when she picked him up at the airport- no long strands of hair flowing out beside his ears. We also knew it wouldn't take long for her to go into shock though- all Dave needed to do was turn around and she would quickly see that a rather long piece of his mullet managed to escape the scissors.






On the Monday after Rachel came, we took off to travel the North Island together. We had an awesome time! Here are some pics of the things we did:

Bungee Jumping: We went to a beautiful spot near Rotorura, and the boys signed up for the highest bungee jump above water in NZ. Of course, they were all talk before the actual jump. They were so excited and meticulously planned how they were going to fall and what they were going to say in the air. David's plan was to yell "Remember the Alamo!!!" as he jumped off the platform.

It was so funny for us girls to watch him shaking as he looked over the edge. His plan was also to jump himself. It soon became evident it would take a while before he could actually manage to get the nerve to do this, so he finally asked the guy to just push him. Sam actually jumped on his own, but they both shrieked like girls the entire way down (until they were dipped deep into the water which quickly shut them up) and David completely forgot to "Remember the Alamo!!!"













The Squeeze: Sam and I had done this already and absolutely loved it. We took a Jet-boat down a beautiful river (one of the only two that actually run towards the equator) and then were dropped off by a stream that flowed into it. Although the river was cold, we 'squeezed' through the narrow cavern walls and the water became warmer and warmer. It was a cooler day so the natural warm stream felt wonderful! It's called the "Squeeze" because you have to literally squeeze through high rock walls while also trying to keep your balance in the deeper parts of the stream. Eventually you end up by warm waterfalls. We soaked there for a while! On our way back, the Jet-boat spun and wildly swerved around the river edge.



























The Swing: We girls didn't do the bungee jump, so the guys said we had to do the Swing. I was terrified and it made me so sure that I made the right choice by opting out of bungee jumping! The Swing pulls you high into the air and then lets you fly out over Rotorura City.






The Luge: Yup, I wrote about this in a previous post. Only have to add one detail- David and Sam at the Luge together is bad news. Whenever I raced around a corner, I usually caught sight of David somewhere off the track in his cart, grinning ear to ear, rat-tail blowing in the breeze. Sam hit David so hard one time that he flew out of his cart and ended up with bloody arms!











Our cozy cabin at Hot Water Beach. We stayed here for three nights.





Trip to Cathedral Cove:




















Here are some pics of Leah, Sam, Rach and Dave digging their hot tubs on the beach at 3 a.m. when the tide was low (I decided to sleep instead :). This specific place is called Hot Water Beach because natural hot water springs up when you dig into the sand.








Of course, Dave couldn't come to NZ without trying to surf! Unfortunately, there were hardly any waves, so the ocean didn't provide too much excitement. Dave did a great job though and managed to get up and surf for a bit!











Unfortunately, David's time in NZ had to come to an end. We already miss him. It is much quieter, which reminds us that someone special is absent. We are looking forward to coming home (IN 56 MORE DAYS :) and being able to be bombarded with his jokes and huge smiles again. It was such a treat having him here and we are so grateful that he took the time off of work to visit us!

Thankfully, we still have Rachel for a while longer :). Right now, she is sitting with me beside a cozy wood fire while the rain patters our tin roof. We had such a relaxing day together: reading, baking, chatting and relaxing.

This post has taken a long time, and I am happy to bring it to a close! Hope you enjoyed it and stay tuned for more updates.

Love the Kiwis.