How cool is your letter-box?

Mail-box, Letter-box...whatever, they are everywhere, even in the most remote places or in the middle of nowhere. On top of a hill, down the hill, after the tunnel, past the river...you might not see any house around, but you'll surely find one of these. Does the postman get here everyday? No idea, but sure they get mail, otherwise they wouldn't have put them there!

In the cities...well, that's a different story. Sometimes it is as if they were competing to see who's got the coolest letter-box. Some of them are miniature copies of the house they belong to, others are extravagant, funny or just very colourful, like the one on the picture. Oh God, I've just realised how boring my letterbox is! We should talk to our landlady about it...

Kiwi Winter Home Survival Kit

ok, we know this is not the Antarctic (although we are not that far away) and that we hardly ever reach the 0º, but most houses here are so poorly insolated, that the temperature inside the home doesn't differ much from that outside. If we had known this before coming here, we would have added an extra pair of socks to our luggage (and we would probably have sneaked another blanket from the plane as well)... We have strong cold southerlies today, which means: it is cold. The MetService website recommends two or three layers of clothing to remain comfortable in these conditions (but, do they mean inside your home? I wonder...)

Bernd's Graduation Ceremony

We attended Bernd's graduation ceremony today at The Regent theatre in Palmerston North. After being told how important their degrees are going to be in these times of crisis, the students were capped by the vice-chancellor of the university and got their diploma. After that, there was a parade with all the graduating students (and families) to the square (where else...) with the Town Crier leading the way. We had never seen the Town Crier from Palmy before: she is like an ambassador for the city and her job consits on opening festivals and leading welcoming ceremonies and parades (among other things, we guess). Here is a picture of her:

Bruno's farewell. Muac Hut

We spent last weekend at the Muac Hut, below Torua skifield on Mount Ruapehu, around two hours away from Palmy. The hut can accommodate around 30 people in hut style bunks. It's got flush toilets, hot showers, kitchen, coal fire, and lighting...luxury!!

Together with other 25 people we celebrated Bruno's farewell party with a pot-luck (which included an awesome Swiss fondue), slacklining and other ready-made crazy indoor sports...

On Sunday, Phil went up to the summit of Mount Ruapehu (2,797m) together with Erich, and I joined most of the others on a day walk to lake Surprise, a 4 hours walk which is part of the Round the Mountain track.

Van Project

Our art project on the van is finally finished!! Here you have some pictures of the process, which included projecting the image and drawing, sanding and painting. We are quite happy with the results; however, and contrary to what some of us thought, the flames do not make the van go faster... Anyway, we would like to thank Bruno, Alex and Jackson for their help with the project. As you can guess, our van is easily recognizable on the roads of New Zealand now...