Band Together

Would you believe we are still getting aftershocks? It's been almost 2 months since the Big One on the 4th of September. We are up to something like 2,200 aftershocks since then. There was a big one (5.0) just this week. I was at work -- on the 8th floor -- when everything started shaking. Thankfully, no more real damage was done, unless you count the damage to our nerves.

The people in charge of things realise that these constant earthquakes are driving the citizenry batty. They want to make us happy and help us relax. So last month they gave away free tickets to a Canterbury rugby game.

Anyone who wanted to go could just show up and get in for free. We already had season tickets, and were planning to go anyway, so this wasn't really a windfall to us. But it was really fun to go to a game with a packed-out stadium. The Canterbury team doesn't usually bring 'em in by the thousands but it did that day. And it was Quinn's first rugby game. As you can see, he was stoked.

That was last month. Aftershocks are still happening. People need more help to relax and unwind. So yesterday the city put on "Band Together", a free concert for Canterbury. It was held in Hagley Park. It was HUGE. Really, really huge. They said there were 120,000 people there - that's about a third of the whole city. Lots and lots of people.

It was a gorgeous day to sit in the park and listen to music, so we packed up the baby and headed out there to join the crowds.

Quinn was very excited for his first bus ride.

... ok, not that excited. But he perked up when we got to the park. So much to see! There were people as far as we could see. We found a little patch of grass and made ourselves comfortable.



All of New Zealand's biggest musical acts were there, and some smaller ones too. We had heard of the Exponents - their song Why does love do this to me was the theme for All Blacks rugby last season and is quite catchy. We heard Anika Moa, a singer/songwriter and Christchurch native. We also heard something called the Swarm Dance Crew, who might have been American because they kept saying, "helloooo Canter-bare-eee!" (rather than "Canter-bree").

There was a band from Nelson (top of the south island) called Minuit who were pretty good and reminded Gareth of Catatonia, one of his faves. So that was good too.

Then the Feelers came on, apparently a popular act as many people seemed to be singing along. We were not familiar though and did not know the words.

I don't think we can be true Kiwis until we learn the local music. We really need to learn the music. Going to this concert was a good start. We should get online and find us some MP3's to download...

Stuff

As our most loyal reader (my mom) pointed out today, the blog has been quiet... there's no particular reason for this.

We had our first visitor from America recently, my little sister. Her visit was much too short, but that's what you get when your visitors come from a country where employers can legally give their staff only 2 weeks holiday per year ... . We introduced my sister to the afternoon coffee break, the flat white, and the savoury muffin. She was quick to assimilate.

In other news, we have found our running feet again! A couple years ago in the States, Gareth and I were both regular runners. Gareth completed a bunch of ultramarathons, I completed one regular marathon and a bunch of 5Ks. Gareth ran pretty fast, but I just kind of trotted along and tried not to get beaten by the speed walkers. We both liked to run.

The wheels kind of fell off when we went on our Farewell Tour last April. Actually, my left wheel had fallen off earlier than that, as I got plantar fasciitis. That sucked. It still bugs me from time to time.

But anyway, then I got pregnant and couldn't run. (Nevermind that Paula Radcliffe ran a 45-minute 10K when she was 7 months pregnant...) Gareth did some running but was not really in his prime.

And then Quinn was born, and we couldn't run then, because we were pretty insanely tired.

But now Quinn is 4 1/2 months old and things are getting back to normal. We're very excited to be back into running again.

For Gareth, motivation came from an advertisement for New Zealand's first 100-mile race, the Northburn Station 100 miler. He was stoked. He asked me if he could pretty please sign up for it, and of course I said that would be fine. And then he told me the entry fee is $300... ouch.

This could be something to put in the "It Was Better In America" column. America had more ultramarathons (and other running races), the entry fees were way more affordable, and you got more stuff for your money. Gareth did some races for half the price of the Northburn race and got great schwag like tech t-shirts, duffel bags, fleece jackets, running sleeves, and gaiters. Not to mention heaps of food and drink along the course. As far as we can tell, your entry fee here gets you... entered.

On the other hand, the scenery here probably cannot be beaten. Check out our earlier post with Gareth's photos from the Avalanche Peak race... gorgeous. The Northburn race looks like it's going to be similarly stunning.

Not to be outdone, I've entered a race too! It's not quite as exciting as a brutal ultra-distance mountain race, but I'm sure the Corporate Challenge 5K around Hagley Park next month will be off the chain in its own way.

Foiled by Customs

When we lived in America, we were members of the R.E.I. co-op. It was one of our favourite places to shop. We miss R.E.I. We have not found New Zealand's version of R.E.I., Kathmandu, to be a satisfactory substitute.

So as members of R.E.I., we get dividends. Our dividend last year was over $200. We were very excited to spend our free money on R.E.I. goodies. We ordered heaps of stuff online, exceeding our dividend budget a tiny bit...

Of course, R.E.I. does not ship to New Zealand. (No one ships to New Zealand.) Lucky for us, my little sister has a part-time job at R.E.I. in Chicago. So we had our stuff shipped to her store, and arranged for her to ship the goodies to us. She shipped it about 5 weeks ago. We waited anxiously for our box to arrive.

We waited. We waited.

Then last week we got this letter in the post from New Zealand Customs Service:

"On 01 September 2010 we wrote to you concerning a parcel or packet sent to you from overseas that has been processed by New Zealand Customs Service. The item is still being held by New Zealand Post pending Customs release."

What?! We had not received any letter.

I called the phone number on the letter. I said who I was and that I had this letter. Oddly enough, the man who answered the phone said, "Wow, you got that letter already? I just sent that to you yesterday..." Only in New Zealand can you call a government office and be recognised by the person on the other end of the phone. Seriously, when does that ever happen?

Anyway, the nice Customs Official explained that the 1st September letter was accidentally sent to the wrong address. So he sent us the second letter. It turned out, we owed money.

$114.35! That's an import duty, GST on the import duty, an import transaction fee, GST on the import transaction fee, a biosecurity levy, and (you guessed it) GST on the biosecurity levy. $114.35!!! How can this be??

Here's how it can be: When shipping our R.E.I. goodies, my sister ticked the "merchandise" box instead of the "gift" box on the customs form. Apparently, you pay import duties on merchandise, but not on gifts. Kind of a pisser, really. Adding insult to injury, we were charged duty fees not only on the value of the goods shipped (declared as US$200), but also on the cost to ship those goods (US$57.60). Something about that just doesn't seem right. But we were not about to fight The Man, even a nice one who remembered sending us a letter.