Day 2, We need to remember, this is not a holiday

Just to remind our readers, and myself, we are here for Karen's sabbatical, not a four month holiday. We are living in a home, not a hotel or cruise ship, which means we have to take care of some mundane things like registering and getting insurance for our van, setting up a cellphone account, doing dishes, etc. In other words, some of today was not anything like a holiday. One highlight of our running around was that we managed to navigate to, from, and in downtown Hamilton without getting lost or driving on the wrong side of the road. In fact, no one even honked at us or gave us a rude salute. This last thing is likely the result of the friendliness of the people here rather than my skill as a new New Zealand driver. Still struggling with the windshield wiper/turn signal thing though.

We did have some fun today. In the morning we went to Karen's host office for her work here, the National Institute of Water and Atmosphere (NIWA). We were greeted by Karen's colleague, Chris Hickey, who has been incredibly helpful in getting us settled. He gave us a colourful tour of the building and then suggestions and directions about where we can find things in Hamilton, such as a pet store. One of the things that Marshall has been wondering about is whether they have different kinds of pets in NZ compared to New Brunswick/Canada. I think we will try and find the store tomorrow so that Marshall's curiosity can be satisfied. I think Chris found this to be a bit of an odd thing to be concerned on only our second day. Chris also has a university aged son who has Lego from when he was younger that Marshall can borrow during our stay. Perfect.

In case you were starting to feel bad about this not being a holiday for us, as I am sure you were, Chris also invited us to his family's beach house this coming weekend.
Things seem quiet in Hamilton and at the university right now. Lots of people are away on their summer holiday or extending their Christmas holiday, or perhaps combining the two. The university won't get busy until February, when the new semester starts.

Day 2 Marshall New Zealand observation: The milk tastes different, good but different.

Scott observation: People are the same wherever you go. Like in Canada, a big topic of conversation here is the weather. Nearly everyone we have spoken to at any length has told us this is the wettest summer they can remember in a long time.