Christmas, Kiwi style

Christmas in the southern hemisphere is hot, of course.  Some of the people I've talked to who grew up in the Northern hemisphere have said Christmas just doesn't feel right here.  While I'll admit that it has certainly been different, it has also been really fun.  Christmas trees are not quite the too-doo they are at home, so I found a live one a few days before Christmas at the Kiwi version of the Home Depot, which was decorated with ornaments very graciously donated by a coworker who no longer wanted silver on her tree at home.

 

We didn't have Christmas stockings here, so it was a good thing that I had already knit some felted slippers for the kids for Christmas.  I used a work sock.  Santa was good to us.  We must have been really good throughout the year.

Christmas morning we went to Ross and Elizabeth Marshall's house for breakfast, then back for desert after dinner.  Three of their four sons were there with partners (a word kiwis use for any partnership between any gender, including marriage) and Ross's sister, Jane, was there with her husband.  Breakfast was delicious.

Ross, Elizabeth, and their oldest son, Sam

On the 26th (Boxing Day), we made our way northeast to the Marshall's "bach" (pronounced "batch", vacation home).  The kids made friends with some neighbor kittens, who they have named Purr (striped one) and Cantelope (black kitty).

Yesterday, we went up the Driving Creek Railway, to the Eyefull Tower, which gives you a great view of Coromandel.  It was rainy, but fun anyways.

We're not on this one, but this is like the one we rode.

The view from the train

Rural work and fun

One of the women I work with owns a dairy farm and invited us to come by last weekend during milking time.  We jumped at this opportunity and it was both educational and very interesting.  She and her husband own 390 cows, 7 bulls and about 80 calves.  The cows are milked twice a day and the goal is for all of them to be pregnant every year.  They sell all of the bulls and most of the cows that are born in the spring (Sep-Oct), keeping about 80 per year.  The calves will start their milking career at age 2 and will do this until they're about 12.

So we each got dressed up in overalls, gumboots and hats.  Below is the view overlooking one of their paddocks.  Blake was a very good herder.

This is the group we helped to heard in to be milked.

 The cows line up with their business ends towards the middle where they are hooked up to a suction machine.  When they are empty, their udders are sprayed with an iodine mixture to keep them from getting infections.  They were very generous in allowing all of us to try each of these steps though we mostly just got in the way!  I managed to get several different cow bodily fluids on me while the kids kept relatively clean.

 After the milking, Kay took us down the road a bit to see their calves.  They are about 8 weeks old and very cute.  We hopped into the paddock and though they were all intensely curious about us, they were also too scared to come very close. 

Last night was the town Christmas Parade.  It was fun to see everyone gathered on the main street (Maniopoto Street).  It started with sprints down Maniopoto which were done barefoot by about half of the racers.  The woman in the Georgetown shirt behind Liza is the other American doctor I work with.

Santa arrives on a cart pulled by clydesdales. 

 Lots of fancy new tractors in the parade.  The guy on the side helped keep the crowds safely back with his cane.

Blake walked behind the Otorohanga South School float.  Can you spot him? 

Water Slides and Red Meringues

Another week gone.  I feel like time is flying so quickly.  We're past the halfway point now.  Work was pretty uneventful this week, but it has been HOT outside, up to 27-28 degrees (~83 degrees fahrenheit) and muggy.  Apparently, this is about 5 degrees hotter than usual at this time of year here.  Thankfully the little heaters that we have in individual offices at work and in our house double as air conditioners so I can stay pretty cool until I venture outside.  Liza has transitioned to a walking hard-soled shoe, which has made life much easier for her.  It took all week for her to get used to walking on that foot again since it was pretty weak and felt like jello at first.

I worked the Saturday morning clinic and Liza went to an all-day birthday party of one of her friends.  After work, Blake and I decided to invite one of his friends to the indoor pool in a local town.  We picked Ryan up from his house and I recorded the below on the way (completely safely).

We spent a couple hours up there, me knitting and reading and they and sliding on the "hydroslide" and wrestling in the water.

Today, Liza's friend Ashley came over and the girls decided to make meringues, which they dyed red with food coloring.

Now that they are in the oven, they have gone into town to buy popsicles or ice cream and I am in charge of the meringues.  They look a little flat, so we'll have to see how they turn out when we taste them.  

Taupo

Another weekend of travel and fun filled adventure.  This one was a regular 2 day weekend, so we headed Southeast to Taupo, which is a tourist town set along a large lake.  There were lots of bicycle riders on the highways and signs about giving them enough room when you pass.  There is a bicycle ride coming up going around Lake Taupo.  It reminded me of a more country version of Lake Union.

On Saturday, after we checked into the hotel, we headed out to Lilliput Farms where we were able to pet and feed lots of different animals.  I took lots of videos of this experience because the sounds of the animals up close were just as new and interesting as the look and feel of them.

 

We ate lunch at the Taupo "Macca" where you can sit in a real converted airplane to eat.

 

Lake Taupo was a short walk down a path from our motel, but some of the dearly departed in Taupo also have beach views.

To end Saturday, the kids were almost lost amidst bubbles and jets.  The Cottage Mews Motel was very nice and quite reasonably priced.  Our room was two-storied with a full kitchen, chairs, a TV, 2 twin beds, a table, a bathroom and a private outdoor patio on the first floor and upstairs held a queen bed, patio with chairs, TV, bathroom and the loveliness that is pictured below.

Today (Sunday), we viewed Huka Falls, a waterfall, which is reported to be so fast and long that it can fill 2 Olympic sized swimming pools each second.

Then, we went prawn fishing at the Huka Prawn Park, where the restaurant cooked out prawns for us free.  The kids took a tiny bite each (under duress) and proclaimed they did NOT like prawns and as a vegetarian, this benefit was a little lost on us.  However, the park had a lot of other kid and family friendly things to do also. 

On Sunday, we also went to Puzzle World where we saw a really large and interesting Lego display and a collection of holographic pictures as well as trying out several puzzles and games laid out on the tables.  Among the activities there that we didn't try were remote control boats, a maze, a drum set, shooting gallery, and mini-golf.

Our last stop in Taupo was a Honey Mill where the kids had honey ice cream and I had a square of latte fudge (yum) and brought home a jar of apricot honey and plain honey to make peanut butter and honey sandwiches.

As always, the views are amazing on these long drives and I suspect that part of my motivation for doing these trips is to take in the scenery.

 

Happy Halloween!

Unfortunately, there's not a lot of Trick Or Treating here, so despite Blake's insistence that he need a costume, we ended up dressed as Americans in a public hospital for the evening. 

Okay, back up.  Today started as a very slow day with laundry and not much else when Liza stubbed her toe.  Fast forward 5 hours later and she has a broken L big toe (Type 3 Salter Harris fracture of the L 1st DIP for my medical friends).  She was in the most pain I think I've ever seen her in when it first happened, but she is doing okay now.  She'll have the cast for 4 weeks and if the X-Ray in 2 weeks shows that the bone has not moved out of place, she can go into a stiff-soled shoe.  Hopefully her time at camp won't be affected too much in one month.

Friday was South School's Flower Show.  The kids are all required to participate and make very interesting flower arrangements.

A vaseline saucer is a regular saucer that is decorated with flower petals and leaves using vaseline to stick them to the saucer and together.  Liza and Blake both placed for their effort.

I also had a chance to see the kids' classrooms and work and get pictures of them with their teachers.

 Liza and Ms. Gillian Dampney

 Blake and Ms. Raewyn Hunter

Happy Birthday Liza!

Liza is 13 today!  She woke up to find a present I had wrapped for her of underwear and earrings.  Weird, I know.  Anyways, she seemed happy.  Today is 3 months since getting her braces off also, so she now only has to wear her retainers at night.

 
She got a birthday welcome and balloons at my clinic, then went to school.

At lunch, I had to go home to meet the electrician so we could figure out why we had no hot water this morning.  When I got there, the problem was already fixed, so I watched an episode of The Soprano's and baked some M&M brownies for Liza's birthday dinner.

After school, at Kid's Club, both kids had a little bit of a meltdown because they miss their dad, but were doing okay once I picked them up.  We bought brie and crackers (Liza's choice) to add to the mince and cheese pies I cooked for dinner.

Now, while Blake takes an overdue hot shower, Liza and I are going to watch a TV show together.

Waihi Beach

Monday 10/25 is Labor Day here, so it's a 3 day weekend!  I had planned on taking the kids to a new beach for a couple days, but Liza asked for a sleepover with 2 of her friends on Sunday night, and because I am such a nice mom, I cut the beach trip to an overnighter and now I have 3 rowdy girls in my house. 

Yesterday, we took a road trip to Waihi Beach, which is a 9km long beautiful beach that has been described as "the safest beach in New Zealand" and is in the Coromandel peninsula of New Zealand.  That is the Northestern jut of land from the north island.  We arrived at about 1pm and headed straight for the beach, where the kids made friends with a cute kiwi boy.

We then headed for town and booked a room at the Waihi Beach Hotel, which was very cute, but attached to a bar.  I should have realized when I booked the room at the pub that we would be hearing loud pub traffic into the wee hours of the morning.  Surprisingly, this only woke me up once and we all did okay with sleep.  AND, there was a bonus.  The band stayed in the motel also and hung out shirtless in front in the morning (something Liza noticed first), which made packing up the car a joy. 

Yesterday evening, after dinner, we headed out for more beach time and again when we woke up this morning, there was a local market going on across the street from the hotel.  The kids had ice cream cones for breakfast (hey, that's calcium and protein) and we bought a bunch of fresh tomatoes that the kids both thought were great and rock salted macadamia nuts.  We then fit in one more beach trip before heading back to our Otorohanga-home.

 

After a nap, we picked up a couple of Liza's friends for a sleepover.

   

Pictures!

I am going to try to upload all of my pictures from each of our different adventures.  See link on the right.  Keep checking back as I get more and more of them uploaded.

Sheep and Speed and Sulfur

So we ended day 1 in Rotorua at the motel pool.  I watched and knit until it was too dark and the kids swam with a Fijian family, who were very tolerant of a rambunctious 8 year old boy!  The motel had private indoor natural thermal pools, but the smell of sulfur (which permeates Rotorua) was too strong in an enclosed space for me.  Instead, we went to the park in town, where there were several shallow thermal pools we dipped our feet in.  It was delicious.

Natural bubbling hot mud pools (just to look at)

Natural thermal foot baths in Kuirau Park, Rotorua

Rotorua Day 2

We started the day with a trip to up the Skyline Gondolas to the Luge!  I only crashed once and that was when I was trying to film the ride with my camera at the same time.  Smart, I know, but it sounded like a great idea at the time.

Skyline gondola and beautiful Rotorua in the background

Chair ride after the luge, which are hanging off of the chair.  The tracks we luged down below.

Then, we went to the Agrodome, where we saw a show about sheep, etc.  We were introduced to all of the different types of sheep.  Who knew there were so many.

Romney, Merino, Suffolk, oh my

One was sheared for us and gave us all a little piece of raw wool.  The kids were both picked as volunteers to go up on stage and Blake got to milk a cow and Liza bottle fed a lamb.

Blurry because he was very fast

Blurry again, sorry.  All of Blake's milking pictures were

The little guy in front bolted off the stage when the little lambs ran on.  It was very cute

They demonstrated how sheepdogs work, ones that bark and ones that just stare at the sheep to make them move.  We then got to go on stage and take pictures and touch the sheep, lambs and cow.  Pretty fun for us city folk. 

He looks worried, but it was all very safe

No fear here.  No one prompted Blake to do this, he just ran right in and picked one up.

We ended the day at a circular shrub maze, which was fun, then had a wonderful Thai dinner that everyone thoroughly enjoyed.

Zorbing

Last weekend was another long one and the kids are still on holiday from school, so we went to Rotorua.  Rotorua is a tourist destination and the weather was beautiful, so we went non-stop.

Day 1.  When we arrived, our motel room was not quite ready, so we headed to the Zorb.  Liza and Blake rode together in the Hydro-Zorb, with water inside so they sloshed around on the way down.

Inside the Zorb

Well, it's my turn to do a Saturday morning shift, so I have to go.  More about Rotorua later...
 

Auckland Zoo and the Beach (Auckland Day 2)

Another fun-filled day in New Zealand's biggest city. 

We started the day with a great continental breakfast at the hotel, then head out to the zoo.  Today was the first dry and sunny day we've seen in a very long time and it being a Sunday, I think everyone in Auckland and the surrounding area decided to join us at the zoo.  It was crowded, but not anywhere near as crowded as the Woodland Park Zoo gets.  Right when we got there, we saw one of the stars of a Kiwi evening soap opera that we all watch each weeknight.  Blake walked up to him and confirmed it. 

After the zoo, we headed out to a nearby beach, where the kids collected shells.

Then, we came back to the hotel and cleaned off and walked back into the downtown area for a Mexican dinner.  I'm exhausted.

Tomorrow, should we head under water?