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May. 18th, 2011 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rogerdogerWow that was one crazy storm. 3 days so far of howling gusts, and the reports say that we are getting it easy here in the north. This is a southwesterly storm blowing straight up off the antarctic. The temps look set to really drop in the next few days too. Last night the clouds were hurtling across the sky. They really stood out against the full moon.
It's getting really close to leaving time. I still need to get down to Rotorua, but dragging my feet as the temps there are, it seems always 4 degrees less than here. I'm sorta thinking I'd like to hike the Tongariro crossing again before I leave. With this storm there should be snow on the mountain tops and maybe on the path across the creator. It looked so amazing that first year I did it and there was snow, would be good to see it again. I need to figure out my leaving plan. Hopefully they are cool about me leaving the van down in Rotorua again. K and T have been a very quiet. Not a big deal as I could actually leave the van at this campsite too, but I feel its a bit more exposed here. Thats actually probably not true. With the temps here there is more likely to be less problems with the van if I left it here and its the sulfur in the air in Rotorua that does the van so much damage when I leave it there. I'm hoping to only leave it a couple of months this time anyway. I really want to sell the van, and this one is good enough that there will be a market for it even in winter. Its also the start of the rugby world cup, so they are saying there will be a big demand for campervans, already the rentals have shot up in price and are hard to find. If I sell this one I'll either buy another in Australia, or if things don't work out there, make my final plans to head to Europe.
The first year I came to New Zealand I picked up my Dads war records from when he served in the NZAF. Every now and again I get this idea to see if there are any surviving members of his squadron here in NZ. The other day someone suggested trying the RSO clubs as they would have access to registered personal. RSO is the same as the US VFW. Yesterday I finally pulled out my Dads files and went looking in it for his squadron number. While I was doing that I came across my grandmothers maiden name. Did search online and it came up with a genealogy wesbsite that had her listed! Turns out some guy had traced a family tree that included her. I emailed the guy and he has been quick in getting back to me. Yes its my grandmother and he and I have a distant connection. But its amazing to be able to see the family tree laid out like that and go back 5 generations, and on another side of the family I can get back 7 generations.
It's getting really close to leaving time. I still need to get down to Rotorua, but dragging my feet as the temps there are, it seems always 4 degrees less than here. I'm sorta thinking I'd like to hike the Tongariro crossing again before I leave. With this storm there should be snow on the mountain tops and maybe on the path across the creator. It looked so amazing that first year I did it and there was snow, would be good to see it again. I need to figure out my leaving plan. Hopefully they are cool about me leaving the van down in Rotorua again. K and T have been a very quiet. Not a big deal as I could actually leave the van at this campsite too, but I feel its a bit more exposed here. Thats actually probably not true. With the temps here there is more likely to be less problems with the van if I left it here and its the sulfur in the air in Rotorua that does the van so much damage when I leave it there. I'm hoping to only leave it a couple of months this time anyway. I really want to sell the van, and this one is good enough that there will be a market for it even in winter. Its also the start of the rugby world cup, so they are saying there will be a big demand for campervans, already the rentals have shot up in price and are hard to find. If I sell this one I'll either buy another in Australia, or if things don't work out there, make my final plans to head to Europe.
The first year I came to New Zealand I picked up my Dads war records from when he served in the NZAF. Every now and again I get this idea to see if there are any surviving members of his squadron here in NZ. The other day someone suggested trying the RSO clubs as they would have access to registered personal. RSO is the same as the US VFW. Yesterday I finally pulled out my Dads files and went looking in it for his squadron number. While I was doing that I came across my grandmothers maiden name. Did search online and it came up with a genealogy wesbsite that had her listed! Turns out some guy had traced a family tree that included her. I emailed the guy and he has been quick in getting back to me. Yes its my grandmother and he and I have a distant connection. But its amazing to be able to see the family tree laid out like that and go back 5 generations, and on another side of the family I can get back 7 generations.
