As of tomorrow, I am halfway done with classes at Vic. And band camp hasn’t even started at Delaware yet. Bizarre.

I had another amazing, albeit rainy, weekend in the Taranaki region, on the west coast of the North Island. The main town is New Plymouth but the main attraction is DEFINITELY Mt. Taranaki, an active volcano which peaks at 2518 metres above sea level. During the heart of winter, it is extremely difficult to reach the peak, especially with the lack of gear that I have with me in NZ. Although it was quite misty for most of the time we were there, the peak did emerge from the mist on Sunday for about 15 minutes, allowing me to snap a few pictures.

We attempted to do some short walks around the mountain on Saturday, but heavy rain and even some snow kept us at bay. Instead we checked out Puke Ariki, a museum in New Plymouth that has exhibits about the history of Mt. Taranaki, Maori culture and New Zealand ecology. It was fun to explore for the afternoon. That evening, we headed to TSB Bank field for my first rugby match! Taranaki was playing Hawkes Bay, so it was a battle between the two places I’ve visited on the North Island! I had no idea what was going on, but it was really fun regardless. I think my favorite part was when a couple from India sitting in front of us turned around and asked us who was the better team. Our response was that we didn’t even know which team was which. However, if was a great experience and only cost $5 thanks to my uni ID.

Saturday night we headed to a local pub where the team was celebrating their draw (better than a loss, and MAN what a comeback). On Sunday morning, we got an earlier start and headed around the coast, which was a beautiful drive. This was when Mt. Taranaki chose to appear through the clouds. We continued driving until we reached the guiding stone.

The story of the guiding stone is a Maori legend about two great mountains. As legend has it, Mt. Taranaki and Mt. Tongariro were fighting over Mt. Pihanga, the only female volcano. As the two volcanos fought, they spit fire and ash between the two. In the end, Tongariro was victorious and made Taranaki leave. Here’s map to help you better understand:

Taranaki used the guiding stone to find his way to his current home on the West Coast. There are still some who will not drive their car between the two because they are afraid that the mountains will begin fighting again and spit fire across the North Island.

After the guiding stone, we travelled up the mountain to see Dawson Falls. But first we got slowed down by a herd of cattle walking down the road.

Once we got to the trailhead, it was only about a 5 minute walk to get to the falls. However, it was pouring rain. Pouring. However, it was well worth it. The falls were freezing, since most of the water comes from melting snow and the water was making an incredible amount of wind when it hit the pool at the bottom.

I’m so glad I got to travel to yet another absolutely beautiful part of this country. Stay posted in the next couple days for my travel plans for the mid-semester break.

Kia Ora,

Liam

It’s been over a month since I departed from New York, but it feels like so much longer. After five weeks here, there are some things that I have become used to and some that I still find strange to adjust to. Something that I was a little concerned about prior to arriving was my living situation. It reminded me of freshman year, in that I would be living with people whom had never met, but in the environment of a house. However, after just over a month of living with Elizabeth, Kevin & Natalie, I can only hope that HKLZ house is as fun as ours here.

Elizabeth reminds me incredibly of Kathleen, with little bits of Heather & Danna mixed in. We both love to eat and I love to cook, so that works out wonderfully. We drink gross amounts of juice each week, but luckily found NZ’s version of Kool-Aid, Raro, in order to save money. Elizabeth adds cheese to EVERYTHING that we eat, and I’ve started to do the same. The cheapest cheese here is Edam, which is a Dutch style cheese. It’s surprisingly good with everything, even Chinese food. A favorite pastime of Elizabeth and I is sitting in the lounge and Skyping from across the room as the flat watches TV. Even though we’ve only known each other for a few short weeks, we already have inside jokes that can make both of us burst out laughing in an instant.

Kevin, aka DJ Whatevskies, has one of the most extensive iTunes libraries I’ve seen and is our regular DJ on Friday nights. He’s also an incredible photographer and I’m really happy I was able to steal some of his work before he added a digital watermark. Kevin is our resident “old man” since he has begun drinking scotch (Drambuie) and can’t wait to find a pipe to smoke.

Natalie has been missing a bit in my life, but when she’s here, she always makes me smile. To describe her, I’d say she’s half Heather and half Danna. We have very similar senses of humor, leading to plenty of laughs at any time of day. Natalie has gotten almost hooked on Shortland Street, the only New Zealand soap opera. I’m not the kind of person to sit down and watch soap operas, but this one is growing on me. We’ll see. Natalie makes amazing eggless cakes, even though she doesn’t think so. Thankfully, we both have similar political views, which makes our discussions of Parliamentary much more interesting (and less heated haha). I’m ridiculously excited to visit Natalie in Blenheim, the heart of New Zealand wine country, to visit vineyards with her and her family.

Other than my living situation, Aotearoa has some cultural differences that I’ve really come to love and others that I’m still working on understanding.

New Zealand has a tradition known as the “sausage sizzle” which basically means a grilled sausage served with grilled onions on bread spread with butter and topped with tomato sauce. (Side note here…tomato sauce is NZ refers closest to ketchup…its a little less sweet and I definitely prefer it to Heinz). Sausage sizzles are absolutely amazing and are available often in the quad for free or one dollar. Healthy? No. Delicious? Yes.

I mentioned both Tim Tams and pies in my last post, so I’ll take some time now to explain them. A Tim Tam is a wonderful cookie that is extremely popular here in New Zealand. The best way to describe it is an Oreo wearing a chocolate blanket. There’s also the notorious Tim Tam Slam, which involves biting off both ends of the cookie and using it as a straw for a full glass of milk. Delicious.

Referring to a pie here means a meat pie, that is eaten as part of a meal. They come in a huge variety of flavours. My personal favourite at the moment would probably be steak and cheese. Last week I made my first traditional Kiwi dinner; Peas, Pie & Pud. I grabbed a picture of it for this blog. It was a really good and I’m sure I’ll repeat it before I leave.

As for other culinary endeavors, cooking on my own is amazing and I really am learning to cook on a budget. I don’t think I’ll have to buy meat again until October since I recently visited NZ’s version of Sam’s Club, Pak’n’Save and stocked up on chicken, steak and shrimp. Fish and chips is huge here and I’m going to have to get that again soon, because the first time I was really happy with it.

Some things I’m still getting used to here include:

* figuring out which way to look for oncoming traffic when you’re crossing the street
* the spelling of certain words. I really don’t want to lose points on a handwritten assignment because I spelled centre wrong
* the way Kiwis text. its rly hrd t0 rd a txt whn its ritn lke this
* The accent. I love it. But sometimes I have NO idea what’s going on. For instance, when Natalie says beer, it sounds like beeah and when she says bear, it sounds like beeyah. Very subtle difference. So when she told me she was going to dress up as a cute, cuddly beeyah for a Canadian themed party, I was trying to imagine how a Molson could look cuddly.
* In the choir I joined, the way that they talk about crotchets. Yes, I know a crotchet is a quarter note, but when they keep saying it, I can’t help to giggle.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a list of some Kiwi slang that I’m picking up, so you all understand me when I get back =)

* Kia Ora – Maori for hello, goodbye, how are you and basically any other kind of greeting or farewell. Similar to Ciao or Shalom
* Sweet as – Really sweet. haha by adding “as” to an adjective, you are saying its really —-
* Biscuits – as in the UK, this means cookies, but only crunchy ones. Chewy cookies are cookies. And in case anyone was wondering, explaining what an American biscuit is to someone who has no idea is so difficult, but I think Natalie got the idea eventually.
* Jandals – flip flops
* Oz – Australia, with whom New Zealand actually has quite the rivalry with.
* The Ditch – the Tasman Sea, which separates Aotearoa from Australia
* Hokey Pokey – Not the dance we all did in Kindergarten, but instead a flavour of ice cream that incorporates bits of toffee-like things. Really tasty.
* Zed – The letter Z. All of their websites end in .co.nz and every time they say a website on TV it gets me.
* Uni – University. They abbrev here a lot.

That’s all for now…I’m heading to New Plymouth this afternoon, so I’ll be blogging on that next week, which is the halfway mark for classes. (what?!) I’ll leave you with a picture I got from Kevin of the three Americans. Natalie was home for the weekend 🙁

Kia Ora,

Liam

Last week at about 4:00AM Thursday morning, I booked a car online for the weekend. My flat mate Elizabeth and our across-the-street neighbors Emily, Lauren and Aron decided it would be awesome to get out of the city for the weekend, but it wasn’t until late on Thursday that we decided on a destination – Hawkes Bay. After some car rental issues we ironed out on Friday morning (only Lauren is 21) we packed our silver Nissan sedan and I got behind the wheel and got ready to drive on the left side of the road.

So weird.

Once we got out of the city and onto the highway, it was a much less stressful drive. The most difficult part of driving was keeping my eyes on the road because the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. We saw the sunset on the Kapiti coastline, which is just north of Wellington and then continued the rest of the drive in darkness. After stopping in Palmerston North for dinner at a Subway (where they do NOT have American cheese and the turkey has no preservatives), Aron took the wheel and drove the remaining two hours north to Hastings, a small city just south of Hawkes Bay. We had “booked” a hostel just before we left Wellington and at about 9:45, we located the Sleeping Giant. Apparently, though, this hostel is not frequented by backpackers. Instead, it is a hub for migrant workers. After we saw one of these workers polishing his gun in the lounge, we decided it would be best to find another place. Luckily, there were a few to choose from and by 11:00 we had settled into our home for the night, opened a bottle of wine and planned our weekend.

Saturday morning we headed towards Napier, a centre of this region. However, when we saw a sign for Cape Kidnappers, our plans changed and we turned off the main highway to see what many guidebooks have referred to as a must see for this region. These coastal cliffs are home to the largest gannet colony in the world. What’s a gannet? I didn’t know either…but here’s a picture:

Unfortunately, I didn’t take that picture. The hike out to the gannett colony takes about 5 hours round trip and since it’s the middle of winter, the colony is rather sparsely populated. However, we did get some gorgeous pictures of the scenery.

We then loaded back into the car and finally arrived in Napier. After exploring the city and finding a new hostel to stay in, we drove out to two vineyards on the outskirts of town. Hawkes Bay is one of the largest wine producing regions and is the oldest in the country. We visited Mission Estate, the oldest vineyard in Aotearoa and Church Road, a sister vineyard that was the first in New Zealand to produce a red wine, Cabernet Sauvignon. We took a tour and dd several tastings at Church Road and then headed over to Mission for more free tastings. I bought a few bottles of white that I hope to bring home without having to pay a customs fee. Mission also had a sweet bottle of Syrah, which typically I don’t even like but would consider shipping a case to the US. With the Hawkes Bay vineyards under my belt, its Malborough next. This is the true heart of New Zealand wine country and luckily where Natalie (my kiwi-mate) lives. Her parents have offered to drive us around the vineyards there and I can’t wait for that. This is a cuvee from Church Road Winery

One litre of wine a day for 60 years.

These large fermenting tank holds enough wine for you to have one litre a day for 60 years. I want one.

Following the tastings, we went grocery shopping and returned to the waterfront lodge, where I made steak, corn, potatoes and a blue cheese sauce for dinner. The best part of this? $6 each.

Sunday morning we headed south again to the small town of Havelock North which is at the foot of Te Mata Peak, a 399 metre tall hill. We tramped to the top and saw spectacular views of all of Hawkes Bay as well as the Mt. Ruapehu, the tallest mountain on the North Island and featured as Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The views were absolutely incredible and the landscape we tramped through was just a beautiful.

Following the top of the mountain, we headed down to the redwood forest at the base of the mountain. On our way, we found a sweet cave on the side of the hill, where you could see so many shell fossils that showed how this mountain had originally been part of the sea bed. We sat in the cave overlooking a valley, eating steak sandwiches and drinking the Syrah that I had bought the day before. What an incredible day.

We followed this amazing mountain with a trip to Ocean Beach to watch the sunset. It was cold, but totally worth it. It really reminded me of spring break in Myrtle this year. A bunch of friends on the beach having a good time.

We conserved money that night by eating ramen noodles with eggs for dinner. Add on the cookies (Tim Tams…more about these later), milk & bread and dinner cost us each $2.50. And that’s NZ$.

We had to leave Havelock North early Monday morning to make sure that we were back in time for classes at noon. Leaving at 6:30, we saw the sunrise over the mountains while driving, stopped for pies in Palmerston North (more about pies later too) and arrived safe home in Wellington at 11.

I don’t think that I can pick a favorite part of the weekend, but it was so awesome to get out of the city and explore this country a little bit. It was a completely spontaneous weekend full of good friends, good food, good wine and good times. In two weeks I’ll be heading north again with a bigger group of people and I can’t wait.

This country is slightly smaller than Colorado, and it seems like I’ll never be able to see it all. Which is making me realize how big the world is, and how much of it I’ll probably never see. But I’ve got enough trips planned before I leave the country and then I’ll be adding Australia and Fiji to the list, so I guess I can’t complain too much.

I’ll put up the rest of my pictures this weekend, so stay tuned for them.

Kia Ora,

Liam

After 5 days of near perfect weather, Mother Nature remembered its winter here and sent gale force winds and spitting rain. And so, on little sleep and no coffee (I’m still not sure how I’m able to survive that one…) I walked all the way to the Beehive for my first exploration into New Zealand’s government. I was hoping to sit in the Defence committee’s meeting which turned out to be in a completely different building. The woman described it as “the pink building” which I assumed would be easy to find. Turns out there are three pink buildings in sight of the Beehive. I got it right on the second try and got the necessary sticker that I need to prove to my professor that I attended. Finally found the right meeting room, just as all of the MP’s were leaving. So far, a great start to my day.

Since I was already down in that section of town, I decided to wait until the general session of Parliament started that afternoon. I hunted for a decent place to eat and stumbled across this great little dive down an alley next to Parliament. I had my first Fish & Chips in New Zealand and found out that this place sells its entire left over stock for one dollar each. Daily. So when money starts to run out…

After lunch, I headed back to the Beehive for the Question period that opened the General Session of Parliament, receiving yet another sticker:

There was a short opening ceremony involving the Speaker of the House, a huge scepter and a prayer. Then questions began. Oh my god. If there is this much yelling and disorder in the US Congress, its obvious why nothing gets done. I expected some hostility between the government (National Party) and the opposition (Labour Party), but not nearly to the extent that it existed. There is a loose sense of order that only results in complete silence when the Speaker demands it. Quite often, members of the opposite party are mumbling about the “rubbish” that they are hearing. One MP read a newspaper and a book before leaving when the debate got too loud. There were plenty of times when I thought I was in a high school cafeteria, not the Gallery of the New Zealand Parliament. But such is politics.

My experience today in Parliament has left me anxious to see more. I’m definitely excited to head uptown again to see different aspects of the governing structure. However, it has also left me a bit confused since I know next to nothing about New Zealand government and an equal amount about the political history of this country. Google has been my friend this afternoon, helping me to learn a little more about the key players in this game as well as some of the recent history of politics. Hopefully next time, I’ll be a little more clued into some of what the MP’s were shouting about.

Bed now, but more again soon.

– Liam

This week, an earthquake on the South Island that registered 7.8 on the richter scale and both of my american roommates came down with swine flu.

I, however, successfully survived the first week of class.

My classes are good so far and I think I’m going to enjoy them…with the exception of Pacific History. This was unfortunately not what I was hoping it would be and I have replaced it with World Religions. This class looks to be awesome since it has 6 professors teaching it. Each of these professors (or lecturers as they are called here) is an expert on a major religion so I think that this class will be very interesting and a lot easier than Pacific History looked like it was going to be. Speaking of religion, here’s a sweet church I saw downtown last week.

New Zealand Politics is probably my favorite class so far. The professor is British and our biggest project for the semester is going to be actually going to Parliament to watch the action unfold. This should be pretty interesting…I hope 🙂 Speaking of Parliament, here’s a picture of the Beehive, which is the name of NZ’s Parliament Building.

International Relations is great. The professor is an American from Boston who makes a ton of jokes about the States. This gives the class of mostly Kiwis a good laugh, but since most of them are true (albeit quite liberal), I usually laugh right along with them. Sometimes I think they don’t think actually get the joke…but then I don’t understand half of their slang so I guess its a fair tradeoff. I don’t have a picture of anything related to this…so here’s a picture of Victoria University’s campus!

My education class is not what I expected it to be. Instead of a survey of different educational systems in the South Pacific, this class will focus on how education must be altered when dealing with students from impoverished or minority backgrounds. Definitely a class that will come in handy in the future (that is…if my hands-on experience in Newburgh fails me).

Of course, it’s not just been class here. I saw a whole different side of town last week. The business/government district of Wellington have a much more “big city” feel than the downtown section I’m a little more familiar with. More chic shops and expensive restaurants as well as Mrs. Higgin’s Cookies. Hopefully next time I visit this shop I’ll have my camera. They make huge “American style” cookies. Most other cookies, or biscuits, are crunchy and I had been missing warm, melty cookies. I naturally got chocolate chip and also tried a local favorite, the ANZAC. ANZAC stands for the Australian-New Zealand Army Corp. who fought in Turkey in World War I. These soldiers are remembered by a Memorial Day and by this cookie, which was a popular way to feed the troops since they travelled well. The ANZAC Biscuit is a simple cookie similar to an oatmeal cookie, made with coconut. It was so good. Luckily, Mrs. Higgin’s prices weren’t too bad, since I don’t think I’ll be able to help myself when I make my weekly trips to Parliament.

I also passed by the railway station that I (apparently) came into almost two weeks ago. However, I was picked up right at the outdoor platform, so I never saw the building until a few days ago.
The train station also has a small dry cleaners inside known as Platform 9 3/4. With Harry Potter only a few days away, this really got me excited for the sixth film.

With that, I’ll leave you with a link to more photos and a picture of a sweet bird I saw down at the harbour.

Cheers,

Liam

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=287318&id=713885494&l=577bfa7418

I seriously cannot believe how slow time is going. It feels like so long ago that I was working crazy hours between Washingtonville and Torches and hoping that the sun would finally show its face! Only a week later, I’m still hoping the sun will come out. The weather here is very similar to what we’ve been experiencing in New York. I hope for all your sakes that the sun is shining a little more now than it was before I left. Somehow, the on and off rain is much more bearable when I’m overlooking the Wellington Harbour or watching the mist roll off of Mt. Victoria.

I think I’ve finally worked myself not only onto the correct sleep cycle but the more important eating cycle. Today was probably the first day when I was hungry at the right time of day. Food has been delicious so far. I’ve eaten at some places in town while exploring with the other internationals (although this will stop once classes start, to the great enjoyment of my wallet). Wellington has a huge mix of cuisine options, similar to the city. My two favorites are a Malaysian place that not only has good food, but CHEAP food & a crepe stand that makes both sweet and savory crepes. Shopping at the supermarket yesterday was eye-opening. Partially due to the exchange rate and partially due to getting used to what is cheaper here, I was a little surprised to see some of the prices. Staples like orange juice and yogurt were crazy expensive. However, the biggest bargain came when I found a bag of about 10 kiwifruit for $1.69 (and that’s New Zealand Dollars!). Which reminds me, kiwifruit here is SO much better than in the states. Apparently, we eat kiwifruit mostly from Chile. The kiwifruit here is a much more vibrant green and a little more tart. And that’s the rundown on kiwi food.

Classes start on Monday so I’m getting myself all setup for that. I am taking Introduction to International Relations, New Zealand Politics, Pacific History & Pacific Nations Education. The best part of my schedule is that I only have lecture on Monday & Tuesday. I will have tutorials too, which are like discussion sections in the states. Typically these are on the same day as the lecture so with any luck I’ll keep all classes to the first three days of the week, leaving a 4-day weekend for exploration =).

Flat life is awesome, which makes me even more excited for HKLZ house in the spring (although the rates here are much cheaper…). My kiwimate, Natalie, is from Blenheim, which is on the South Island and basically the center of wine culture in New Zealand. She has already offered to drive us around to all the vineyards during the midsemester break in August. Hopefully then I’ll be able to see more of the south island while using weekend getaways to explore up north. Kevin is from Maryland but goes to school at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Elizabeth is from Ohio and goes to school at Wooster University. Our flat is awesome and I know we’re going to have a great trimester together. The best part about the housing is that we are surrounded by other international students from all over the world. I have met people from Italy, Germany, Denmark, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Great Britain and of course, the States. There are also Kiwis that live here, but most of them aren’t here yet.

Victoria University is home to the New Zealand School of Music so I am hoping to get involved with something here since I won’t have music classes, UDMB, MelUDees or Phi Mu Alpha to keep me busy over the next semester. Luckily, I have scored an audition with the Chief Executive of the New Zealand Symphony who directs Varsity Voices. It only meets once a week so it won’t overwhelm my schedule, but still allow me to take advantage of performing.

Sorry for such a long one, but there’s so much that’s been happening. Email me your address for a postcard OR send me a letter =)

6A Landcross Street
Kelburn, Wellington, New Zealand 6201

More soon…

– Liam

Its been almost 4 days since I left New York and yet it feels so much longer. I had a great flight to LAX sitting next to a Lebanese Business man who turned out to be a great seat partner. Layover in LA was full of expensive food and some good phone converstations. Finally, I boarded my 13-hour Air New Zealand Flight direct to Auckland. It. Was. So. Long.

I made it through customs successfully and took a shuttle to my hotel getting there just in time to make it to my harbour-side room for the sunrise. =)

Auckland is an incredible city, the “big” city of New Zealand (1.2 million people). I spent the morning on the waterfront before climbing to the top of the Auckland Harbour Bridge. I hate heights, but I had a blast. The view could only have been better if there was sunny. I was the only one on the walk/tour while everyone else there was bungy jumping, which simply terrifies me. After the bridge climb, I got a coupon for a restaurant on the harbour where I had a server from Galway, Ireland. She’s on a work visa from the University of Galway and was excited to hear that I’ll be travelling there in December. I explored all over the city until it began to rain.

Was it really necessary for NY’s weather to follow me halfway around the world??

I went back to the hotel and watched the sunset. I then had dinner 190 metres above the city in the SkyTower, the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. The food was INCREDIBLE and came with a paired glass of wine. Full, I headed back to the Hotel for a short night’s sleep, watched the sunrise in the morning, and boarded my train by 7:30.

This train ride has been one of my best decisions so far. The seats were really comfortable and the views were incredible. Food was reasonably priced at the dining car and attached to the front of the train was an outdoor viewing car which was not that popular during the trip thanks to the rain and cold temperatures. I arrived in Wellington at 8:30 Sunday night and after checking in, headed down to the city with my roommates and some other Americans. The first place we went to didn’t accept a NYS driver’s license as an acceptable form of identification, so we had to leave. After we found another place, we hung out for a few hours, getting to know each other. I then had the best night’s sleep I’ve had since Spring Break.

Today, I got a cell phone for my time here, had coffee in a cafe, explored Wellington’s Harbour and visited the Te Papa National Museum. Which reminds me: there is no coffee as we know it hear. What am I going to do?! I’m trying to adjust to the Long Black, but its very heavy so we’ll see. They also don’t put cream in their coffee, only milk, which I’m also adjusting to. Wellington is my kind of city. It’s not too big and not too small with a lot of variety. I could never move this far away from NY forever (don’t worry mom) but know I will enjoy living here for the next five months.

That’s all so far from New Zealand. Orientation tomorrow and enrolment on Wednesday so I’ll update again later this week. I’m glad to be settled in a permanent place and look forward to exploring the area more.

Talk to you all soon,

Liam

Pictures from Auckland: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=281466&id=713885494&l=27d5385327

Pictures from the train and Wellington: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=282624&id=713885494&l=4148bc852f

Wow. I can’t believe that after over a year of planning, I am FINALLY about to travel halfway around the world. I knew I wanted to study abroad before I took the SATs in high school. I became even more excited after I heard about Ellen’s adventures in South Africa. And now, I have less than 48 hours left in NY.

For those of you that don’t know, I will be taking off on 2 July at noon from JFK and after two flights and a long layover in L.A., I will arrive in Auckland at 5:25AM on 4 July. Due to the time difference, I end up losing a day! Please don’t do anything exciting on the 3rd. I’ll be spending the day in Auckland, most likely climbing the harbour bridge and visiting the SkyTower, New Zealand’s tallest building. After a night in a hotel, I’ll take a 13-hour scenic train ride to Wellington, where I will settle into my house and get ready for orientation & classes.

I’m not sure of the internet situation in Wellington, but will try my hardest to update this page at least once a week. Pictures will be posted on Facebook and I will put public links to those albums on this page. PLEASE download Skype, as it will be the best way to get in touch with me (AIM works too…)

I love you all and I can’t wait to share stories and pictures over the next 5 months.

Noho ora mai

– Liam

P.S. That’s Maori for Goodbye!