what now???

I feel the need to catch you up on what is happening in our lives so I am taking a bit of literary license to interrupt the SI trip saga...

Did I mention that we had moved on the Wednesday before we left for the SI (South Island) on the Friday?  Well we did.  Granted it was very simple and only took a few car trips to get our suitcases and what few things - wooden spoons, skillet, dolls - we have amassed to the new house about 5 minutes from the other house.  So we moved, we packed and off we went.  We returned.  We unpacked.  We settled in.  The girls started back to school and Adrian back to work and I began making our home homely.  When we first saw the new house there was some terrific art on the walls and it was sunny and warm outside.  The house is larger, has more yard/garden space and 3, yes, THREE, bathrooms (one even has a large bathtub!!!).  Happy family!!!  When we moved in the art had been removed and it was still sunny and warm.  OK a great reason to by some art!  (We found a great artist on the SI trip - but don't let me spoil the next chapter.)

living room

one of the patios 

We are finally really settled.  The house is continuing to come together.  I sent some of our photos to a place that will put them on canvas to fill the walls and we have bought another Gus Watson piece - there I go spoiling the next chapter ;-)  The neighbors have three children that are happy to play with the girls - they are the same ages with a younger brother AND they have lots of outdoor toys!  There are two neighborhood cats that are learning to love us!  One that looks a lot like Adrian's Oreo back home.  The other is a mouse catching lover of a boy.

roses still blooming!

We have a great yard and gardens in which to play and work.  The view from the kitchen is great and we have lots of white rose bushes.  The girls' bedrooms are upstairs and they have a room for play up there too.  This move has had a huge impact on all of us feeling more settled.

Adrian continues to walk to work.  It is quite a bit further so he has been happily listening to books on his i-phone - the walk seems to take no time at all according to him.

hydrangea by laundry line

more gardens...

The girls have started a new term of swim lessons and have joined their very first basketball teams!  What a hoot that is.  Grace is the coaches' "project" as she is scared of the ball.  She will be player of the game if she fouls twice during tonight's game!  I think she has the potential to have her Aunt Mary Love's fire and determination!  Abigail is still in the "herd" mode that we experienced in soccer.  She is also very good at practicing her dance moves on the basketball court.  Rather than fight that battle we enrolled her in a dance class!  I am taking a six week photography class beginning the end of May - just to learn to use the camera really.  Adrian has become accustomed to his work and is settled in there.  They are so pleased with the contribution he is making (of course).

We have decided to stay on another year here.  We are all happy about the decision and excited that it will give ya'll more time to come over!  We have plenty of room now!  So that is the update on our lives.  Now back to the SI saga...

Twizel, Mt. Cook

Abigail

This was the leg we might all rather not remember - emesis, emesis and more emesis.  Yes, emesis means vomit.  Abigail did not do well on this part of the trip - the road was tortuous with lots of twists and turns and ups and downs.  It rained and rained. I could not find the dramamine. The upside was the sight of the spectacular glacier lakes.  The water was the color of the Caribbean.  Gorgeous!  We were able to see some of it up close and personal as we pulled over a lot!  What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  We mastered the process of opening windows, emptying bags, and moving on...

Twizel was built as a town for construction workers on the local hydroelectric project.  From the Twizel website - Twizel is an alpine village situated in the Mackenzie District in the South Island of New Zealand. Twizel is the closest town to Aoraki/ Mount Cook and theTasman Glacier and the Lake Ohau Ski Field. Twizel is a fly fishing paradise with its countless streams, rivers and canals brimming with world record rainbow trout and salmon. Lake Pukaki, Lake Ohau, Lake Benmore the Ahuriri River and the Tekapo River are all nearby. 

Lake Pukaki in the mist

We went for a hike around the foothills near Mt. Cook.  The peak of the mountain was shrouded by clouds so we were hoping to awaken to a nice view. We did not see it until later in the trip on the leg from Queenstown to Franz Josef.  The photos speak for themselves so without further adieu...

Grace

Hooker Valley

Ahuriri River (I think)

So I found more dramamine that my friend Jan and my dear mother sent, and off we went to Queenstown.  We looked forward to being there for five days of pure tourist fun - Zip lining, luge riding and much more.  We met a new friend and find a special treat or two...

Christchurch for a few hours...

Christchurch - we did not know what to expect.  I suppose if we had been watching television we might have known but we really do not watch much any more. So we arrived at our destination with the help of our beloved TomTom.

A quick note that we have a routine at check-in - Adrian pulls up, I hop out and see if we can talk our way in to our room early.  I start to get an adrenaline rush as we get close to our destination, will I be able to get us in, will I be able to charm, intimidate, coerce the desk person into letting us inhabit our space prior to the stated time of allowable check-in. In case you did not know, I am a bit competitive - bless my heart.  Anyway, back to the check-in routine - so I get all jazzed and then all I have ever had to do was say our name - the room is always ready early, the people do not need coercion, intimidation, or batting of the lashes - a shame really as I like to think I am quite persuasive. So into our room we go.  We lay claim to our rooms/beds - often quite labor intensive with the children - and then lay out our plan for the day(s) of our time in whatever place.  Sometimes we have a list of things we would like to do and other times not.  This was one of the "not" times.

We had a drive around town and were prohibited from driving in certain areas because still lots of damage apparent a full year later.  We went to the Botanical gardens and had a great tour of the grounds by a very knowledgable woman.   She told us all about all the earthquakes and the damage sustained.  We saw the areas of most damage and were brought to tears by what the people of this area have gone through.

We were so amazed at the attitudes of all those we spoke with.  They are a resilient people.  A people with great ability to rebound and help their neighbor and come up with a new plan.  There is lots of work going on and lots to do in Christchurch we were only here for one night and had to head out early for another day of travel.  We hope to go back to check it out in more depth.

Christchurch from above

Off we go to Twizel...

Easter 2012, South Island

We have been to God's country!  Some of you have seen photos and made the same comment.  It is so true.  There were parts of the country that were untangled, undamaged, unchanged by man's often harsh hand.  You will see pictures, do not worry.  But let me not get ahead of myself.

We have just sent off our first visitors, sadly.  We had a wonderful visit with Cress and Gigi Whitfield and come to find out Adrian's youngest son coaches their son in soccer - what a small world!  We had a really nice time and the house is terribly quiet this morning with kids in school, Adrian at work, and only the sound of the washing machine.  So I will happily relive our latest adventure.   I was a bit overwhelmed at getting this post out so I am going to break it up into chapters.  The visit through Kaikoura being the first.

ferry ride to Picton

We left Palmy on Good Friday for Wellington - great weather and an easy drive down.

Ferry to the South Island trip was smooth and gorgeous as we entered the Picton area.  We met and visited with a Maori woman, Maata, she had flax reeds and weaved those reeds into a Maori bag during our visit.  Just before we docked she gifted us with the basket.  Through tears we exchanged hugs and the traditional Maori hug which is placing forehead and nose to the other persons forehead and nose.  It was a real highlight to meet and visit with Maata.  She spoke Maori with her grandchildren and had the traditional tattooing around her mouth and chin. The Maori call it carving and as I have learned from Grace (she learns the culture, legends, customs at school) each carving tells a story.  She certainly is a wonderful story teller and a deeply feeling and passionate woman.  A very special beginning to a very special trip, indeed!

dusky dolphins

 We drove off the ferry and on to Kaikoura on the east coast of the south island.  Kaikoura is a small touristy town that is on the migration path of whales and is home to an endangered species of very playful dolphin - the Dusky dolphin.  We went out on a beautiful Easter morning on a boat to see the dolphins - there was a pod of about 200 just off shore.  Some of the people wore wet suits and swam with them while we watched from the boat.  We also saw a seal swimming with them and a very big albatross flew by.

dancing dusky

baby seal at waterfall pool

The other wonderful thing in Kaikoura are the fur seals.  There is a great spot to pull off the road and look at the seals on the rocks.  There were so many of them.  These seals take their babies to a feeder creek so that they can safely learn to be adolescent seals.  We hiked up this path next to the creek that feeds into the Tasman Sea.  There were so many little black baby seals - hard to see against the rocks really.  At the end of the trail there was a waterfall and a pool where the babies were swimming and twirling and trying to fight like seals do - so special and something that enthralled all of us.  

On to Christchurch...

Weekends End

The girls and I had a quiet day on Sunday as Adrian went to play golf at Cape Kidnappers. He went with our neighbor, Roger. Roger is a plastic surgeon and is such a nice fellow. I think Roger was as excited as Adrian to go play. There was little sleep Saturday night as someone kept checking the weather on his phone! As it turned out it was perfect, little wind and lots of sunshine.  More pictures are at the end of this post.

We will be moving this next week - same home phone number - 06.359.3431 or if you are in the states and we are home - 615.942.0550 new address - 201 Victoria Avenue, Palmerston North 4410, NZ The new house is much more suitable for our family - girls will have their bedrooms and bathroom upstairs with a playroom. We will be downstairs with our own bathroom off the bedroom - there is even a proper laundry room and an extra bathroom with a bathtub!! We will be able to entertain our new friends and would love to entertain old friends if you are so inclined to come over! As always the door is open.


We have our trip to the South Island sorted. We will be spending the night in Wellington Good Friday and then boarding the Interislander Ferry to cross the Cook Strait.  The trip is about three hours and we hear is beautiful as you come in to Picton.

We decided to drive in our car rather than rent an RV.  We think eating, sleeping and traveling in the same vehicle might have been too much.  We will stay in Kaikoura on the east coast for three days.  This is on the migratory path of a number of different species of whales and home to many species of dolphin including some rare ones.  We have booked a boat trip to check that out.

Then we will head to Christchurch for a day and then on to Twizel for a day.  We will be spending several days in Queenstown as everyone around here loves it.  It is a bit touristy but sometimes that can be lots of fun!  We will go to Franz Josef glacier and stay on the path as we have been advised!  Then to Westport (Cape Foulwind) and to Napier for several days before heading home.  We will be gone about two weeks during the kids' fall break.  We are all ready for a break and I am really excited that the dramamine seems to work for Abigail's motion sickness!

You can bet we will have a big blog post upon our return.

As an update about us - Adrian is settling in well, knocking that list down!, enjoying the pace here. He loves that he has a couple of half days each week to golf or do whatever suits him at the time.  His weekends on call have been somewhat busy but not overly so and they do not come around often.  The group with whom he works is very dynamic in that there are more docs doing locums than not. There is now a German, a Swede, an Asian, and the American Brit that we all know and love.  There are three Kiwi docs that are there - one full time, two part time.  It is interesting for him to get to meet all the docs coming through.    He has an office that is centrally located within the department so is able to keep in the loop during the day.  People stop by and he likes that.  He took us to the hospital for a tour - very different from the states - looks a bit older and more sterile - I did see some blue lead that made me long for my intervention docs!

I am still at the gym most days and have started a knitting class - why not with all this wool around! - I registered for a sock knitting class.  For those of you who know knitting, you know that there are four, yes four, needles involved in making a sock - well, I found that out about five minutes into the class and opted for a scarf instead.  The instructor - sweet Mya with a wonderfully foul mouth - was kind enough to help me get two needles and some fun wool and I was off and laughing!  I have neither the drive or skill as my mother and Aunt Gardner when it comes to knitting but I am very pleased with my new shawl/scarf/table runner!  Who knows what it is but it is the first of hopefully more knitting projects to come.  I may just treat some of my readers to a knitted treat!  I am laughing out loud at that one...


The girls have been to friends' houses for play.  That is huge for them to have people to spend time with.  They are both trying out for basketball and are coming right along at the swimming lessons.  They both moved up in their classes at the last assessment.  They are learning at school - lots about spreadsheets, website setup, etc.  We are doing math and spelling and reading at home daily - mostly because I miss a worksheet!  The school is really big on technology which is great - the girls will benefit in the long run I think.  They are looking forward to getting moved as they have not been able to have friends to play here (too small! and no yard on a busy street).  They are really starting to love the adventures that we find in town and during our time traveling.  I love that they are getting to broaden their scopes!  They both are starting to sound like Kiwi girls - particularly Abigail, who ends lots of sentences with Aye and/or mate with the New Zealand lilt at the end of the sentence...

cape kidnappers

cape kidnappers

cape kidnappers

Adrian and Roger

Weekend in Wellington

We had a perfect day in Wellington on Saturday!  Sunny, virtually no wind and compared to the prior weekend's "weather bomb" unbeatable!   We are all so happy that we postponed our trip one week.  The weather was greatly improved and a friend here gave me dramamine!  It worked beautifully and Abigail had a nice ride!  We did a tour on a bus - John's Hop on, Hop off Tour, to see the major attractions in Wellington.  We were able to be at each stop for as few as 10 minutes or as much as an hour - plenty of time to identify what we wanted to see more of the following day and during future trips.  The drivers - we were on two separate buses after stops - were knowledgeable and told us a lot that we would not have known otherwise.  They were happy to be interviewed so Mama would be proud - I am a chip off the old block, as is Abigail by the way.

                     Wellington Harbor and St Paul's Cathedral                          

So our - Adrian's - new obsession is a personal cable car.  In Wellington, there is the bay and there is a cliff.  If you are a property owner of a piece of the cliff you own the upper portion and the lower portion - so the garage and the cable car garage are either above or below the home so one MUST have a personal cable car to get to the other end.  Really amazing.  One of our drivers told us a friend of his just had one installed to the tune of $60,000.  We also learned that the low end, bad neighborhood real estate goes for $400,000 and the average real estate price is $500-600,000.  We figure the cable car is peanuts really...

We visited the Weta Cave.  Apparently Weta is second only to Pixar in terms of being the leader in animation for film and tv.  They did the Hobbit movies, Lord of the Rings, Avatar, to name just a few. from the weta cave website  In our mini-museum, you come face to face with some of the characters, props and displays from your favourite movies. Read the stories of how they were brought to life and learn about the artists who created them.
We really enjoyed that.

 

We also walked through the Botanical Gardens - lovely and witnessed the arrival of bride and party for an afternoon wedding - perfect day for that. We spent lots of time on Saturday and Sunday at Te Papa - the museum that is really one of the best any of us have seen.  We saw the City Choir perform in a sort of impromptu gathering with ukelele's and xylophones - we were very lucky with that!  We will go back to Te Papa!

Grace is going off to camp where she will do some caving, rock climbing and lots of water fun!  All of this is a part of school so learning is happening on lots of levels here.  I am trying to get used to not having homework but am having a bit of trouble so have started doing some home schooling in math and grammar.  I am liking the time together and they are not seeming to mind too much.

We went for an after dinner walk on the beach at Foxton last night.  It was very nice and the drive there is about 20 minutes.

We are so excited to move to a larger home - better neighborhood, more bathrooms, playroom - in the early part of April before we go to the South Island for a few weeks.  We have felt like we were in a campground and have not been quite settled here as it is a bit small without the necessary accoutrements for our family.  We will get moved and then head out for our South Island adventure.  We are still making the arrangements for accommodations.  We are very excited to have company coming when we get back. Life long friends are coming and we cannot wait!  Whether you are lifelong friends or new friends we would welcome your visit - we want to share the lovely land with all the folks we know.  Come on if you can!

Esplanade Day and Wellington

Finally, we have recovered from the hike.  It took us about two days to get over it which, frankly, I think is pretty incredible given our state of fitness or lack thereof and our preference for sitting.  We are slowly changing our preferences - Adrian is walking to work more and finds walking our golf course easier with each go.  This place is really made for walking/biking/hiking.  The weather is mild and even though we have had lots of rain it usually does not last long here.  There have been reports of some really intense weather north of us but we have not seen that.  We have had some really strong wind - I was walking to pick up children and really had to lean in to get there.  It is exciting weather and the forecasters have quite a time keeping up so we pay them little mind.  When it is sunny I do laundry and walk and when it rains we drive.  Quite simple really...

We attended a free event at the Esplanade - a park here - you may remember the rose photos from early on that were taken there.  We rode the little train around the park and saw a lady dressed in a balloon dress - yes, a dress made of balloons - quite a lot of work I would think.  We played carnival games and watched belly dancers - Adrian quite enjoyed that!

Adrian had his first weekend on call.  The referring physicians (surgeons,  ER doctors, general practitioners) call him directly and request the study to be done.  There is discussion about the necessity of the scan (mostly CT requests) and then usually an ok is given by the radiologist.  An X-ray tech works full time in the ER but any other study requires a tech to be called in.  There was a registrar on call with Adrian so he did the leg work of calling in the tech and getting the patients scanned.  Adrian then went to the hospital to report out the exam.  It was not very busy until Sunday evening when several exams were ordered as a trauma had arrived.  He did not get called in the middle of the night (Friday, Saturday or Sunday) so it was a relatively easy first.  He might argue that but getting sleep is always good.

We are planning a couple of trips during school holidays.  In April we will go to the south island for two weeks.  We will ride the ferry over and then travel around the perimeter of the island staying in cabins.  There are campsites that have a variety of types of accommodation ranging from motel to tent sites.  We will opt for the cabin and see how that goes.  Abigail and her carsickness is an issue but we are on the hunt for dramamine!  We keep ginger cookies in the car now as someone recommended that and we have not really had any incidents to speak of lately.

Check out the sites where we will be staying - this will be the first one after the ferry ride.

 The other trip will be to a Radiology Continuing Education conference in Spain.  We will stay over for a bit and visit France.  We are all very excited about this trip - we will be going in September so the weather will still be nice.  We are trying to learn a bit of Spanish and French so that we can at least ask for the bathroom!  I can speak a little Spanish and Adrian speaks a bit of French so we should be ok.  I do not think that my Spanish for "take a deep breath and hold it" will come in handy though.  Adrian gets an allowance for CME and the time away is not considered vacation so this will really be a great opportunity for all of us!  Yet another trip of a lifetime.  I do have to pinch myself to make sure this is not a dream.

We are off to Wellington this next weekend so will update with pics, etc. then.  Have a great week!