Sound of the Islands

Living in New Zealand has opened my eyes to many new things. One of my favorites has been discovering new music. I’m lucky enough to work with a group of people who are on to the scene and are very excited to share their music with me.
The New Zealand music scene has an island flavor; much of their music is of a genre called dub. It’s a bit of reggae mixed with hip hop, instrumental and soul.
One of my favorite groups so far is the Black Seeds; we brought their CD home with us over the 4th of July and it received high marks from our family (we made them listen to it!). Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Concords fame was a former member of The Black Seeds and they have now 5 albums in total.
I hope this blog will serve as a way for me to share my new discoveries and hopefully help you at home find a new favorite or two. Please find that I have started to add links to New Zealand bands on the left side bar of the blog, you can click to get more information and have a listen.

"Bomb" hits NZ

A large area of low pressure that rapidly developed in the Tasman is now ravaging Auckland- this phenomenon is affectionately called a "bomb". The storm is not technically a hurricane, cyclone or typhoon but packs a similar punch. The NZ Herald has called it a once in a decade storm with high winds and pounding rain.

So far the storm has caused wide ranging power outages and uprooted boats from their mooring in the harbor. You can actually feel our apartment building sway with the wind and the howling from the windows is so loud it can not be drowned out.

This has left me questioning once again why homes in NZ are built without insulation, double siding or central heating. The concept of being as cold inside as outside is very foreign to me and perhaps one of the hardest things to adjust to as an expat.
As a native Chicagoan, I’m well versed in cold weather and bad storms. However, I have never been as cold during the winter as I have been here. It is because I am cold all day at work and practically sit on the space heater that I have next to my desk. Yes, instead of central heating everyone has space heaters that crate a 3 foot radius of warm air around their desk. At least a few times a week the power is tripped and our computers shut off because the system is overloaded with space heaters!

Despite the raging storm and cold indoor climate NZ winters are shorter than those in Chicago which gives us hope for warmer weather and longer days to come soon.

Love me some Phil Collins

Cadbury Gorilla was named most popular TV UK advert of the year at tellyads.com and has gone on to be a sensation here in New Zealand. The popularity of "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins has sky rocketed and become the number one Itunes download. Is the US in on this madness?

Stateside

After approximately 1o months in New Zealand; Mat and I were more than excited to take a trip back to the states to celebrate the 4th of July, enjoy summertime weather (its winter here in NZ) and spend time with our family and friends.
Its hard to put into words how wonderful our trip home was. There are many things we miss about the states and for two weeks we relished every oportunity to soak in the feeling of being home. Here are a few pics that I had of our bonfire on the beach in Northern Michigan- so fun!

Cooper and the gang

Roasting the famous pleva hotdogs
our set up

beautiful Michigan sunset (taken at approx 10:30 pm)

More to come...