our last summer weekend...until june!

it is summer here for a few more days, but the canterbury population will tell you this was no christchurch summer-chilly and wet (pronounced 'wait') and i actually think the folks back  home in maine have had warmer temps lately!  so this weekend blossomed into a lovely summer swansong: blue skies, puffy white clouds floating lazily along the calm but constant winds.  yesterday was st pattys day and we celebrated with reubens on our deck with guinness for paul and i.   we didnt go out for any local nightlife, but sure heard it out down our road up half the night-the university of canterbury is located nearby and it truly makes me feel like an old grump as the students make their noisy way home after a night out! at least when i celebrated st pats in college, i started in the wee morning hours and was done by 9am!   before our dinner, we ventured down to new brighton beach which in every other experience had been a cold and windy whipping, but after the amazing zipline at the playground lost its appeal, we walked up and over the dunes and were met with the sweet rock of waves hitting the sand and even tiptoeing into the seafoam did not knock us back.  kogen actually asked if he could go swimming, but did not feel like stripping down to his undies for the dip.  he and mia did get wet enough going far into the water, and paul waded out into the green water that did not bite with chill. it was an unexpected gift from the pacific.

today we woke to another great summer day, and the plan was for a little adventure up to a place called  hanmer springs, an hour and a half away north.  we packed up suits and towels   and got our breakfast on the run from one of our bakeries on our street-scones, muffins, a sausage roll and coffees.  now about NZ:  statistics say there are ten sheep for every citizen here, and i am starting to feel there are at least ten cafe/coffee shops per person.   yes everyone loves their coffee, and in the states it sometimes feels like starbucks has paved every suburbia and city block with that mermaid thing, but this seems different.  the cafes are in every unexpected nook and cranny: in the town library (yes,eat and drink with your new free book!), inthe grocery store lobby, at the movie theatre, in a gas station in the middle of nowhere.  a couple weeks ago we went to a seaside town kaikoura,driving along a stretch  of road that was flat, blank and brown.  we were low on gas and the "towns" we drove through were blinks.  so when we did see a lonely gas station we stopped to stretch and refuel.  the coot pumping our gas had one eye and an accent not many kiwis could understand and we went inside the station for toilet breaks and snacks.  my coffee of choice here is something i have never heard of, ordered or really know what it is :flat white.  we asked the old man for coffee and he turns to his espresso machine and we were soon favored with just about the best barrista'd cappacino and flat white we have had!  you just never know!   of course this seems like a twilight zone episode that turned out friendly and caffeinated, but the coffee shops are plentiful, and strangest of all, always bustling with business, no matter where they are located.   it would appear everyone wants to start their grocery shopping with a latte (which runs the same price as an americano/black coffee so why not?) and a leisurely chat over a treat from the cafe  bakery.   your selection for food items with your artfully foamed creation are not limited really, its just that they are the exact same at every joint.  dont get me wrong, the dessert here are divine (pavlova, lamingtons, slices/bars in all flavors of caramel/choclate/ginger tan yumminess) and we have ordered our share, but there is one we have not gotten brave enough to try yet:the lolli slice.  it is a bar cut through the middle to reveal these garish pastel globs nestled into the cookie.  mia and i will let you know how it turns out!

school days by mia

mia is home sick today so i am going to interview her for her take on a typical school day for her.  mia is in year four at westburn school, housing ages 5-13.  her teacher is miss walker, a first time teacher who was a gymnast and an office assistant in her former life.  mia wears a uniform of dark green culottes shorts, a light blue polo and a dark green cardigan sweater with a blue "W".  the school day starts at 9am with everyone around the campus playing soccer in the grass or playing on the various playground equipment areas.  the school is constructed of several pods of brick buildings separated by pathways and canopies for shade.   when the morning bell rings they disperse to their classrooms and mia joins her class on the rug with her teacher.  every day they have fitness, running games or tag.    when they have PE, music or art it is the class teacher who conducta the lesson, either in the room or outside.  once a week they go to the library, and can check out a couple books for the week for home and their class, but there aren't library lessons like at home.  miss walker reads a book to the class everyday, right now they are reading "Blart" about dragons and knights.  a few days a week they have maori lessons, and at first mia felt at a huge disadvantage , not having had any knowledge of the language before now!  Maori is a simple language with eight  consanants k,m,n,t,p,r,w,h, and ng;  and all our vowels that get pronounced individually.  phrases she has learned so far are: how are you-kitay pai akay, i am good-kiti pai, hello-kia ora, new zealand-aotearoa (which means island of the long white cloud).  the national anthem of new zealand has a first verse in maori, and building and municipal signs are often dual language.

morning tea (snack!) is taken around 11, and is eaten outside on benches if not raining, then kids can run around for a recess time.   a couple hours later there is lunch in the same spots on outside benches, again with recess after they have eaten (kogen is in heaven- he went from no recess to two!).  there is no cafeteria, but twice a week kids can order sandwiches, baked goods and meat pies from a local bakery owned by one of the parents at the school.   there are 24 students in her class, and the kids say the teachers are strict.  there is very little homework, but all subjects are taught everyday. on mia's first spelling test, she got half of them wrong, which is surprising since mia is usually a good speller, but after checking in with mia and the teacher, we figured out that she was being graded on the 'new zealand' spellings: colour, flavour, centre, etc...her teacher is being more lenient with mia's words and mia has been getting better grades on her spelling now!

 once a week her teacher has a release day to work on lesson plans or further development, all first year teachers get this per ministry of education in NZ.  on those days mrs brown is a sub for the day, who is the daughter in law of the principal, and she teaches art to the class.  a new phrase learned from the teachers is "sort yourselves out" -seems synonymous with the hand clap rhythm learned at home to stop and listen.   mia has made some friends in her class-yasmine who is from malaysia and caitlyn from aukland.  daniel is from britain, and other students are from india, australia, middle east countries (just not sure which) and europe.  the student body is split into four houses : hillary, rutherford, te kanawa and sheppard named after important founders and contributing alumni (i know!  just like hogwarts!)  and there is a running count of house points, but it is unclear how they are earned!  kogen and mia are both in te kanawa (named after either maori chiefs from over a hundred years ago, or a famous maori opera singer.) and i am told families are put in the same house to avoid squabbles at home-good idea!

mia and kogen scooter to and from school, i join them in the scootering, the only scootering mom i have seen yet, but maybe i will start a new trend.  at the end of a day a kid said to kogen, "cheerio old chum!"

activities offered at the school are: chorus, orchestra, kapa haka (the maori chant dance), karate, religion, there are swimming, rugby and cricket teams as well.  mia is looking forward to netball- a version of basketball which involves passing and no dribbling, and the net has no backboard!

that is it from miss mia, and fear not, she is not too sick-as it is this took me a week to gather up and post so she is fine and dandy again!!  (the cold did sweep through the whole fam excluding me, knock on wood)

tweaks in the fabric

so we are getting into the life is normal here in new zealand phase...where our rhythm of life here resembles that of what we had in maine-school and the daily uniform are routine, kids have some activities like trombone and piano lessons for kogen, alex is on a hiking trip, and mia has spelling tests on fridays and made a friend.   paul's work is interesting to him, and flexible in scheduling to give him time to run (he is doing a 14k in march and a marathon in june) and i have blessedly found a wonderful yoga studio for practice.   still, there are little tweaks in the fabric of the daily flow that stand up to say "hey you are in NZ folks!"  like the 'mates' alex has made at school asking him to say fish and chips and also if he is a redskin-really??  kogen gets asked if we see famous people all the time-well, i think of many of my south berwickers as famous, there are lots of singers, writers, chefs, artists, comedians, cartoonists, movie makers who i see on a regular basis at home but i don't think that is what the kiwi kids mean!

 i attended an assembly at the kids' school last week, something i love to do at home to see the whole school community share what makes them special.  as the students filed in i saw so many nationalities even though everyone wore the same uniform, so much diversity!  the principal welcomed us all in maori and the kids answered back then stood to sing the NZ national anthem, which is one verse in maori and then in english.  unlike our US version it is actually easy to sing-even in another language!  two girls up on the stage introduced themselves as the heads of their houses (like hogwarts!) and the principal announced the house points!  i do have to tangent here and say thank goodness for all of us reading harry potter: so many words that could have been foreign (torch=flashlight, prefect=rule enforcer, boot=trunk,trainers=sneakers) to us were already second nature to us!  the whole school also sang lion sleeps tonight and some pop song i recognized but could not tell you now what it was...it will haunt me tonight at 3AM.  we learned the maori name for the school 'Te Kori Hereora' is a nod to the early settlers looking to a sacred stand of tall cabbage trees "kouka" that they used as a compass on the flat plains.   activities at the school border on the familiar: chorus, band, PE, library and the new:cricket played at recess, touch rugby, surfing lessons at the beach!  the first days of school brought familiar jitters of excitement and the onslaught of papers to be filled by me!  all three kids walk to school; alex 2k one way down the road, kogen and mia 1k the other.  we have all discovered that cars rule the road here, walkers have absolutely no rights, even in a crosswalk.  bikers have slightly more visibility with lanes on most roads.  to tell the truth it is a relief as a new driver to the left side to not have to worry about the peripheral walker, the cars, arrows, roundabouts and stripes on the road are enough for me.

i joined in a rehearsal/new member night of a chorus here.  it is another one of the constants in my world, singing with joanne connolly for the past 15 years, and interestingly enough, she did not make the trip to NZ to direct me here.  this chorus has directors for all the different aspects of its scope: one for leading warmup dances that felt like my old zumba class, a director who tests everyones voice twice a year, a choreographer, a singing warmups director, and then finally, larger than life a lovely woman virginia who commands a room like no other-i learned so much about diction,breath, movement...my mind was full and this chorus means business!  their main goal each year is to compete on local  and international levels and they sweep the awards.  did i mention it was a barbershop chorus, and little did i know the extent of the sweet adelades!!  i left at the end of the night having experienced my strongest earthquake yet, learned 2 songs i would have to audition with and gotten hugs and such extreme warmth from every single person i met, but my heart just did not think it was the right fit for me, the commitment they were looking for a bit out of my reach.

folks here think six months such a small period of time for us to be here, but we will continue to live each day fully and embrace this experience, noticing the familiar and the extraordinary with eyes open.  thanks for reading!

the one month mark

we have been on NZ soil for one month, so let's run some numbers:

3 scooters bought
2 scooter wipeouts/2 skinned knees
4 festivals attended in christchurch hagley park
3 uniforms worn fashionably
53 times kara reminds the kids to look right at crosswalks
20+ orders of "chips" consumed
1 train trip across the country
1 grateful driver the car is not a stick shift
6+ earthquakes (wee little shakes) felt
4 times alex was asked by schoolmates to say "fish and chips"
7 penguins seen in the wild
3 tubs of hokeypokey ice cream consumed
3 trips to 'the warehouse'-nz answer to target
1 bag of chicken flavor crisps eaten
1 cricket game played by kogen at school recess
2 duck feedings at jellie park from the safety of the benches
2  unexplainable geologic sites seen
1 kiwi bird named yoko ono bought by mia
1 indoor snowstorm experienced at the antarctic center
6 jars of peanut butter emptied
3/4 jar of marmite still on the counter
3 trips to the library for more books
4 videos uploaded to youtube channel "quarkstudios"
20+ different nationalities in the kids' classes
? times we thought what are we doing here?
??? times we thought how glad we are that we did this!

still alot of learning, exploring, eating, meeting, living to be done.  will do better about posting more!

food glorious food!

this week's adventure was in the grocery store.  we had done a few shopping trips at the different shops but they were smaller, just get what we need for a couple days kind of trips.  this one i wanted to plan some meals and start getting some staples for school lunches.  the first funny thing was getting the cart-or trundler they called it- and figuring out how to get in!  for some reason you go through these little gates like you are entering a turnstile at disney.   when we go grocery shopping we have the kids "run missions" to find items and they can even figure it out in a foreign store!  i did have a list but was on the lookout for some dinner-inspiring ingredients.  that is how i cook- what looks or sounds yummy and how can we put that together with what we already have at home.  mia and i were in the produce and keep discovering new names for favorite veggies-bell peppers are called capsicums, and we found some lebanese cucumbers from NZ.  that is another thing- trying to buy products locally from this country.  they actually export about 95% of tOptionsheir agriculture out and paul has remarked it is cheaper to buy NZ products at home than here!   next was the seafood department which was huge and the first thing to catch my eye was a huge display of bright green mussels in an aquarium kind of tank-mia and i scooped out a bag of these beauties(and they were dinner that night with crushed tomatoes, wine and garlic over pasta)-yum.  there are loads of local white fish varieties and we are trying dory this week (nemo?)-another we see at the fish and chips shops is gurnard which sounds like someones funny uncle...have i mentioned our oven?  we thought it did not work after pressing all combinations of buttons and dials and still no heat, until i found the manual they thoughtfully left: the clock has to be set on a time for the oven to work!  hhmmm...wonder why?

 kogen has some foods that he eats every day that we have yet to find here: peanut butter crackers and a juice box for snack at school, plus he is a vegetarian so i modify our dinner to suit him-beans with the pasta instead of mussels for example.   they do have peanut butter here but some brands (from china) are really gnarly, but the one he likes is from sanitarium, the company that makes marmite.  this is one of paul's big jobs here- the marmite factory has been closed since last february due to earthquake damage.  it is the only factory they have to make this yeasty salty paste and (gasp!) there is a world-wide marmite shortage due to the closure.  paul told us their plan is to collect all the marmite from shelves around the world to bring it back to NZ so they don't lose their local market.  god forbid these people switch over the australian made vegemite!!  we have both at our house for comparison sake and really like the marmite better! (as much as you can really like it!) mia's take on marmite is " the taste kicks like a mule!"  i did google recipes with marmite and found a rich caramel chocolate pudding made with the paste-might have to try it!  one of the foods i have been missing is bagels, and we finally found them.  also in the bread aisle a staple we have been loving is crumpets.  sorta like an english muffin, sorta sweeter they are yummy toasted and spread with nutella!

the fun new food choices are not just limited to the store: one of our first walks exploring our neighborhood alex and i walked under a tree that had some pits on the sidewalk and we looked up.   there were fruits that looked like the dark summer cherries from home (we call them camp cherries because we eat them at camp rattlesnake and spit the pits in to the lake).  so we picked one and took tentative bites-they are like littel magical plums, and now we see the trees everywhere.  our neighbor brought over a bowl of apricots from a tree in her yard and we had some sliced over pavlova -a NZ confection like a huge airy meringue/angel food cake, and now i have a recipe to make it myself.  one of the problems with food here also is translation: a woman was telling me about a dessert she was making with pias...i had no idea until she repeated it several times and then said you know like apples and pias---oh PEARS!  yes i have heard of them-oops.  we have some fun food choices just down the block form us: sushi, fish and chips/burgers, kebabs and felafels, two bakeries (one gluten free) which have sweets plus meat pies and sandwiches, chinese grocery, a dairy (for staples) and...dominoes pizza.  we have yet to try this here but tuesday is their special day and we might be hankering for some good old american style pizza!  at the festival we went to this week we had all  sorts of good food tent choices: noodles and satay,  roasted candied pecans, and crepes.  no fried dough to be found!

so yes we are eating well here, although i am a bit tired of the ubiquitous fish and chips, and glad to have this opportunity to share different food choices with our already experimental kids.

land of the lost

Land of the lost:  this past weekend we took an amazing train journey to the west coast of New Zealand.   Researching what our first big adventure would be gave me some purpose to my days as the weekend grew nearer.  The country is big and diverse and has so much to offer it was hard to know where to begin to explore, and I kept coming back to “one of the world’s most beautiful train trips” on the Tranzalpine  from Christchurch to Greymouth on the west coast.  Like I mentioned earlier, we were all a bit out of sorts and felt like we deserved a little vaca (from our vacation life!) –sorry that sounds so funny now-here we are in New Zealand and we are feeling like we are in need of a respite!!   Everyone was packed up and ready early Saturday morning for the trip; except for the fact that I thought Paul knew where the train station was and vice versa (I knew the general direction of it…)  but crisis averted we made it to the train station and there was our train waiting for us.  It really brought back such great travel memories from all my jaunting around Europe on the rails with my backpack and my well worn copy of Let’s go!   Over 20 years later and a few extra mates along  we are good to go.  We wished there was a platform 9 ¾ as it felt as if we were boarding for Hogwarts.  One of the questions that came up as harry potter trivia was “how long do you think it took for the train to reach Hogwarts?”-and also “does everyone who goes to Hogwarts have to ride the Hogwarts express-what about those not from London?”  I digress…

 We found our compartment and seats with big wide windows and a shared table between us, plus a menu from the dining car, offering all sorts of yummy sounding treats from hot chocolate and ANZAC biscuits to Canterbury beef and cheddar pies…we did try all these mentioned plus Mia discovered a new favorite soda-L&P-lemony and tangy.  As soon as the train set off we were mesmorized- where we live here is called the Canterbury plains and it is a very wide flat plain known mainly for its agriculture but heading west the mountains that become the Southern Alps rise up without warning.  It is summer so we saw just a bit of snow caps, and the winding Waimakariri River was low but a crazy teal blue.  Alex took lots of film footage on the flip and Mia grabbed the camera before long to shoot some shots out the train.  Every once in awhile one of the female crew would mention and describe a point of interest but really we could not understand her!  The only bit I got was when we crossed the alps to the west through a long tunnel she mentioned how different the foliage was on the western side of the mountains and how “wet” it was- but this came out to us as “wait”, which I got into conversation anytime after that to the chagrine of the kids!*   There is an open car also but it was so crowded we had better vantage from our seats.   The beautiful scenery and lulling of the train travel made a quick trip of it and we were in Greymouth-a mining town on the west coast.  We got a car and to our hotel which ended up being a bit out of town, and also did not have the advertised pool we looked forward to, but the woman running it was so amazingly sweet and accommodating we did not think twice about going anywhere else.  We really wanted to do some hiking/tramping while here and she sent us down the road to a hike to coal river falls, also nearby a public pool!   The hike started just off a culdesac of houses but as soon as we stepped on the trail it was like we were transported to another world- it was green, lush and loud!  Birds that sounded like phone ringtones and buzzing and clicking from the treetops filled out the space!  (later learned these were Tui birds and cicadas respectively)  More filming and photos and general marveling at out surroundings until we heard the roar of the falls-what a reward-and all sat on these huge boulder perches on top of a chilly stream.  Kogen went rock hopping downstream and we all found our spots to rest and cool our feet.  (it was a “wait* wait” as said in my best NZ accent)  The little hamlet we were staying in could not be more than 2 streets long, and the major sign we saw was for a landfill, but it was so crazy beautiful surrounded by knife point ridged mountains and had this amazing pool center in the middle of it!  Very happy family that night-all our travel needs met (well, Mia was still missing REAL TV, but…we did see night 2 of Idol!).

The next day we planned on venturing north along the coast to a site called pancake rocks, also known as Punakaiki surrounded by a national park.  The drive was both knuckle-whitening and goose bump raising with curving, cliff hugging, hairpin turns and breathtaking views of rocky crags sticking up out of the Tasman Sea.   There is a perfect pancake café across from the rocks where we fueled up on…pancakes and other yummy café food, then made our way to see the rocks.  Kogen was disappointed they were not for climbing but they were interesting!  The cause of the formations is still unknown but it is a dolomite limestone rock that has gotten compressed in to these stacks that do look like—pancakes.  Every wave changes these rocks, and there are blowholes and caves and bridges etched out by the pounding surf over time.  We then headed to a hiking path shown to us that followed the Pororari River and ended at a swing bridge.  All the while we are trying to put this area into some kind of context-“it’s just like…” but we can’t.  Along the hike through dense rainforest and a swift river, Paul finally comes up with “land of the lost”.  Of course this leads to discussions of sleestacks and rafting trips gone wrong but mostly trying to focus on how the vines and moss growing on every tree and rock make it seem as if you stood still for five minutes, you would be covered too!   We finally saw our first wild animal (we are NOT counting sheep!) with a little waddling bird coming up the path towards us pecking away at the ground-“oh my gosh it is a KIWI bird?” we wonder but had read they are both rare and nocturnal so thought not.   Along the trail were some crazy plant formations and in one cave of a tree trunk someone had placed a large plastic frog with huge eyes gazing out at us-I think Alex is the only one who didn’t scream!   Beautiful stone stairs and careful wooden bridges got us to our destination- the swing bridge-crossing the river and looking down on a bed of round stones that some had set in cairns and we taught the kids to skip with.   The bird we had seen turned out to be a Weka or wood hen, which is a protected bird now but the Maori used to eat and it is said it tastes like chicken!

By the end of our weekend, we were rejuvenated and loving this side of New Zealand-there is so much we did not even see but felt good about our priorities. "This is the new zealand in the coffee table books!" Mia asked if we can come back sometime, and we actually talked of looking forward to going “home”.  We are trying to come up with a name for the house here-“kiwi kastle” was one, but it really is NOT a castle!  I am feeling that as comfortable we are feeling and looking forward to returning to, it still is not HOME.

heading west

Going on an adventure within an adventure…this has been a loooonggg week with lots of nit picky stuff to do and all of us feeling a wee bit out of place.   Tonight we all watched American Idol which was a touch of home and nice in a funny way, I believe a day behind the rest of you fans, and although the sun still has not set so very late, we wake early tomorrow morning to get to the train station in Christchurch and take a legendary train trip across the country to the west coast.  It is called the Tranzalpine and we will be crossing through the southern alps of the south island.  We had asked Kogen to find some LOTR sights to get us started but most of them are in these desolate spaces hours away you need to helicopter in to see, so this trip takes care of all our wants: we will pass by some film locations for Narnia and the LOTR trilogy movies and when we are west we will have some tramping to do and see some cool geologic sights at panakoiki (?) rocks.  When we were at the school meeting the other day, the principal asked the kids if they had any questions about school, and Kogen asked “do you teach elvish here?”  I think he had some pretty big expectations of New Zealand and the role of Peter Jackson and Tolkien’s influence…

Alex got the film crew together again for some footage this week, and he was in his element.  For the most part he has been the most easygoing about this trip from day one to the whole transition, and I have probably taken that for granted.  If anything when he has felt out of sorts he just gets quieter (possible?), but when Kogen and Mia finally agreed to film some of their old roles on the flip here it was nice to see the energy and excitement that he had for the project.  Check out their whole catalog of films on youtube: quarkstudios is their channel and they would love comments!!!  Paul has worked a good bit this week and I think the bridge back to that part of his world was good for him-he loves doing new and challenging work and is thrilled that it brought us all here.   Have a good weekend!  Cheers mates

schools and pools

Yesterday we had an appointment with a principal at one of the schools down our road that Kogen and Mia could attend.  The schools here are more like little campuses, with disconnected buildings around central courtyards.  This school has students in years one-eight, which translates for us grades kindergarten-seventh.  Mia of course was not sure she wanted to share a school with Kogen, having her autonomy back at home at central, Kogen being at the middle school and Alex being up at the high school.  Having juggled all those schools and all their activities and schedules, the thought of 2 of the kids sharing a school sounded great to me!  The secretary and principal at Westburn school met us in their casual summer clothes and were warm and welcoming.  It was an easy going meeting, despite the fact that I had no idea what I was doing and had to keep reminding myself I was an adult capable of such an interview.   Mia had also seen a website for a different primary school she was set on, so at first was uninterested, but by the end of the meeting she called it “her school.”  There is a large international community here, part due to University of Canterbury being in town, and part due to New Zealand being a melting pot of Asian and other cultures and immigrants.  If the kids want to join, there is a haka (maori dance) group, lots of sports and swimming opportunities and a huge focus on music-chorus and orchestra!  The setting and structure did bring to mind a typical british primary and intermediate setting, complete with uniforms.  At this, Mia’s eyes swelled with tears-she did not want to wear a uniform!  We had talked of this possibility, and here it was.  The principal explained that Christchurch was historically a british settlement and the schools reflected that in their standards and customs.  Being a sensitive principal, he did remark at how much he liked Mia’s tie-dyed beatles t shirt and was she a fan?  Yes-we all are she said.  He was super impressed and admitted being a huge fan himself, then launched into the questions usually reserved for Kogen to badger on about- what is your favorite album??  Well, little did he know that discussion could go on for days…we left there soon after with a great feeling for the school and the principal, and went to play on the playground.  Mia insisted that she would not wear a uniform, and that she dresses the way she does because she likes standing out and looking unique, and her custom made converse would have to stay at home…

From here we ventured to find a park nearby I had seen on a map, but that we couldn’t find the night before.  We had bought scooters for the kids the day before and they were a godsend for getting outside and moving around.  Our new favorite park, jellie park, is beautiful: windy paths, playground areas, a small pond surrounded by willows and flowering bushes and lots of ducks.  We passed an Asian family with little boys getting excited to feed the birds, but the next time we saw them the whole family had climbed up onto a bench to escape the squawking masses that had flocked to them!!  Hilarious!  Part of this park is a rec center with an outdoor pool with waterslides-kids and families filled the place, and it being one of the first really warm and not too windy days since we have been here it was packed-put it on the list for another day for us.  I realized today one of the reasons I enjoy listening to kiwi’s talk- it is almost as if they are singing in their speech- from the check out girl to the librarian, there is a lilt and cadence that reminds me of song!

 Part of our finding the familiar here was getting to the library and checking out books, and one of the quietest afternoons we have had so far was after completing this task, everyone happily soaking in their new books.    Later this led to them finally collaborating on a quarkstudios film they have been bickering about, but were able to join forces to get some good footage before dinner-look for stink lock dope to return!

Dessert tonight got us into our second tub of hokey pokey ice cream- trying different brands for variety sake!  They are not created equal!   Mia’s reaction to Paul when we got home from the school meeting: “I have to wear a uniform to my new school”-her turn around time is getting shorter! 

kiwi lingo

getting into the lingo.  tonight mia started calling me "mummy" instead of the usual "mama"-which got the rest of us into the whole how do the kiwi talk different thinking.  we had to explain to paul what a dipthong was, and how the NZ folks use them in their words.  the vowels are stretched out in fun interesting ways-"yes" becomes " yayes"  the cart at the grocery is a "trundler" and surprisingly you park your car in the "car park".   Yesterday we had a co-worker of paul's over for sunday roast and he brought his NZ roommate joanne who was quite lovely and helpful.  she called mia the "wee little one" which we love to say but probably not around mia!   paul's helpful banker cathy called the earthquakes "a wee bit of a shake"-thank goodness that is all we have felt so far, and we are told we live on good solid ground-the beach area is much quakier.  joanne explained that for most kiwi's, their impression of americans is that we all live like we live on  jersey shore...really regretting not keeping up with my orange spray tan to disappoint...and are involved in drive-by shootings and our towns are run like the show COPS.  oh dear-i had already been feeling that we are not the typical americans by not shopping at walmart and eating at mcdonalds, and now this!

 mia is our tv watcher at home, and the lack of any real programming aimed at her demographic killed her for the first couple of days, but today marked the first day here she did not even ask about it, and we are psyched.  kogen is loving the little bit of tramping/hiking we have done up in the port hills and we are exploring the many parks around our house with playgrounds and lovely fields for running and watching cricket.  tomorrow we have a meeting at a primary/intermediate school for kogen and mia, and talked to the secondary school for alex today-they will head back to school early feb.  also getting our library cards tomorrow-we are all missing that bi weekly fix!  there are many local library branches closed due to the quake damage, and i can't imagine all the other ways the locals have been displaced or inconvenienced.  we are in a bit of a limbo here, not quite tourists, not quite residents, so trying to make a blend of both with adventures and finding the familiar.  it is the little things-like watching the tub drain counterclockwise-that hit home we are really somewhere else!

tried to upload pics but achingly slow-sorry will post to fbook instead...maybe there are two of the windy beach and our beloved hokey pokey ice cream!

sights and delights

Some sobering sights and some delights found.  Yesterday we went into the red zone of Christchurch-where the most damage has happened and the central business district.   Paul showed us empty lots where buildings once stood, and fenced off areas around buildings not safe for anyone to go in that were in question what to do next.  A whole heart of a city cut off from itself, and we learned today the week after the quake last February about 75,000 people fled the city not to return.   We headed to the beach area to see the shore, driving through some very empty neighborhoods-the ground has liquefied around some of these areas making the houses inhabitable.  Christchurch was built on a swamp that you can see on the tidal inlets so this ground has made it impossible for the rebuilding to happen quickly for the city.  Some rockslides near the beach cliffs have left some houses dangling or ripped in half, and shipping containers have been stacked three high to act as retaining walls.  The beaches here are so different from home: extreme wind and chilly waters, but some kite surfers braved it in the distance.  We did get our fish and chips in one of these beachside towns, and found an ice cream shop that offered TWO kinds of hokey pokey flavor-we went for the deluxe version, and also tried the local kiwi/pavlova flavor.  Yum!-so hokey-pokey is a national favorite something like dulce de leche/caramel/buttercruch (we bought a whole container for the house the next day!)    Did I mention that I had been driving all this time??  Being a passenger for a day helped me get a passive perspective on the whole left side driving thing and I finally braved it-left is right and vice versa!!  (at home I hate making left hand turns, now it will be right ones)   Paul took the wheel and brought us up to the hills again-Kogen was itching to hike more.  There are amazing views on the bay of crazy blue-green waters with mountains of the Banks Peninsula all around.  We will spend more time here…

Today brought us to the amazing city park not far from us-Hagley Park.  We spent the day in the botanical gardens marveling at the ginormous trees (some conquered by Kogen) and followed the paths that meandered through garden and river.  After lunch at paul’s first residence here (YMCA with the best cappacino!) we found the Antiqua boathouse along the Avon River where we went punting-a bit like a gondola with rows of cushioned seats and our “driver” in the back punting us along with a 20 foot stick.  This was really the first time we felt like tourists here.  All this while of exploring our area both close to home and afar, we have been exchanging phone calls with the very nice but not too efficient folks tracking down Kogen’s bag.  Happy to say it was waiting at our doorstep this evening as we returned from a walk!!  He had handled it all so well-borrowing from both Alex and Mia depending on what he needed and we did buy some NZ clothes too.  First to emerge from the suitcase was his stuffed Frodo-poor guy-we can only guess where he has been!!!  Such is the fate of a Baggins.

what is the flavor of hokey pokey and other observations

Back to school shopping and hokey pokey ice cream

As it is summer here, the atmosphere is of that vacation/gearing up for school/activity mode which is such a mind bender from where we came from- mid school year /winter/ just got past Christmas mode.  Ads abound for back to school sales on clothes and supplies, and I am easily swayed to join in.  Yesterday we went to the mall-something we never do at home!-for lunch (dumplings at Paul’s fave place auntie dai’s) and some things needed for the house and poor Kogen who still has no suitcase.   Just like at home, there were the teens, families and general shoppers to people watch as we ate.  Watching a gang of teen boys about Alex’s age we wondered about the high school atmosphere he would encounter (purple skinny pants for boys?) and you could see that the same social strata existed here. 

Earlier in the day Paul drove us to the hills to the south of us for perspective on the area.  First of all it is a surreal feeling for me to get into passenger seat where the driver formerly sat in our previous life.  It reminded me of the feeling I always have when snorkeling- that is against my better judgement to breathe underwater; hence I should not be on the left side of the road while driving.  At one point I tried putting on the brake under my foot to stop us, but I was operating with invisible steering wheel and pedals on my side.  The hills were gorgeous and rose up steadily above the city, resembling at first the mountains of Acadia in Maine, then curvy roads in San Francisco, then the guardrail-less inclines of Colorado at my sister’s house.  Hiking, or tramping, trails sprung off from every corner and at the top we got out of the car to look around and followed a path to get closer to our first NZ sheep who calmly gazed back at us.  Looking down we could see the city of Christchurch and the ocean beyond with craggy mountains behind us.   While we walked around we practiced another one of the new aspects of getting around here: “Look right” is my new mantra for walking along the streets since traffic travels so different here.

We get a little free paper at our house and there was an article in it about the favorite flavors of ice cream of New Zealanders-boysenberry topped the list this year right above vanilla, but right after those was hokey pokey flavor.  What the heck is that?  Today we are food-centered in our activity: Mia wants fish and chips and I am going to get to the bottom of this mystery!   Stay tuned…

good day mates, kia ora

Hello from New Zealand!  We are here and settled in our sweet little bungalow and out of the sleep deprived fog that any 30-hour trip will induce!   We left our house in Maine early Monday morning and got a nice ride to the bus from our helpful friend adam.  He remarked how everyone was so chatty at such an early hour, and I must admit that the kids had transformed into travel mode-the excitement of global travel was in the air.  Two flights later found us in LA in the international terminal with some hours on our hands.  I usually enjoy these terminals  due to all the amazing people watching and different languages spoken, but this one was old and a bit lacking on amenities-I couldn’t help imagining that this was where the Kardashians and the Jolie-Pitts  waited to board their planes to Dubai and beyond?? I  think not…we did have a lovely encounter with a NZ woman who we kept crossing paths with-she was quite visible in the crowd in a long white kaftan dress and funky jewelry and we kept exchanges glances and smiles until she noticed Mia’s ukulele in her hand.  She then started a conversation with Mia that I had to translate!  Her words to Mia were those that she  will probably need to hear often in her life at different stages, but her message was “keep doing what you want to do no matter what others might say”.   I hoped this encouragement and stress on individuality was going to be  the norm for kiwi culture. 

I have to say that if you can fly Air New Zealand airlines, DO!  This had to be the most friendly, lovely flying experience I can remember,  and unfortunately I slept through some of the best parts!  At that point it was 2am our time and I was starting to feel that effects of the time, and fell into a bit of a haze.  I remember smells of a lovely dinner served, drinks offered and wine course to follow.  Alex and Paul assure the rest of us that dinner was tasty, but we missed it.  Breakfast was served a couple of hours before landing with mimosas and coffee, and the general mood of the flight staff was so friendly and helpful in such contrast to the way we were treated by the American staff.   Everything was  either “lovely” or “ brilliant”, and the safety videos were hilarious!  After a 13 hour flight landing in auckland, we were still one flight away from done, and the added not-bonus that kogen’s suitcase got lost, we still enjoyed walking in a very florida-feeling air to the domestic terminal.  A short hop of a flight along the length of the country offered amazing views of snowcapped mountains and coastline, and we made it to Christchurch!   Our house is wonderful-paul did a great job finding a perfect place for us to call “temporary home”-a cozy ranch with sunny airy rooms, a deck looking on a small but lush  garden, a piano that Kogen cannot stop banging away on, great running routes for paul and alex.   Did I mention the food shops down the street?  Sushi, greek  kebabs, both gluten-free and regular bakeries, pizza and Chinese.  What a difference from our neighborhood in the Maine woods!  Figuring out what day and time it is has also been a challenge-we lost a day in transit so arrived on Wednesday here, and mia still has Maine time on her watch and informs us constantly of the time back home.

I asked the kids their first impressions after our first day here, and the general consensus is “it isn’t home”.  It does feel like a vacation so far, with such a long trip to get here and discoveries of our surrounding’s to be made, and it really doesn’t feel like a foreign country yet.  I think the more we dive into the area and make the most of our time here we can maybe look at this place as our temporary home away from home.  More to come soon of our first days here in New Zealand- know that we miss everything and everyone!

good-byes...or "see you soon"

today is our kids' last day of school for the school year here in maine, and as i told mia as she hopped on the bus- "next week is summer vacation!!"  we are leaving monday for our 30 hour airplane/airport trip traveling west to dallas, LA, auckland then christchurch.  we will "lose" one day and skip winter and spring!  the kids are saying goodbyes today to friends and teachers, and i am so moved by the support and well wishes from the community.   alex and i had a meeting with administration and some of his teachers at the high school yesterday and their flexibility with handling his finishing up the semester via satellite was refreshing.  Mia will be leaving her beloved central elementary this year and this ends 10 straight years i have had children there, the teachers and principal are magical.  kogen is having some friends over tonight to just hang out and be their goofy tween selves, i am glad he has such good friends.   i have seen friends by chance this week and been able to have normal conversations about our lives at this moment and receive hugs- a good combination!  i think six months away is more daunting for the kiddos and what they might be missing, relationships changing-i am only hoping they will return with open perspectives on  the world and themselves.