Things I Did Not Photograph on my Vacation to New Zealand

I've taken a lot pictures on this trip.  Many times I’ll take pictures of the same thing from a different angle or different location.  And yet, there are things I have not photographed.  Here is a list so far.

• The expression on the Boy's face as he watched The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies while we were in Auckland.  He was riveted and delighted.
• The taste of New Zealand butter.  It is wonderful.  I guess the difference is the cows here are grass fed instead of grain fed like in the US.  The butter is yellow.
• The expression on my face as Jack nearly hits things while driving on the left side of the road.  I noted our rental car here has a scraped up front left wheel rim.  Jack probably isn't the only driver clipping the curb on the left side of the road.
• The Boy and Jack walking down a forest path.  I wonder what they were talking about.
• The sound of birds waking me up at 5:40 a.m. in Pohara.  The first bird screeched, and they all chimed in.  It was like the oboe starting to tune an orchestra.  Except they never got in tune.
• A cow mooing.
• A sheep bleeting.
• A real kiwi bird!  We saw them at the Kiwi Bird Refuge Center in Queenstown.  It is a nocturnal bird that lives in the forest, so they are almost impossible to see in the wild.
• The best BLT I've ever had was at a cafe in Glenorchy.
• My and Jack's summer allergies kicking in around Christmas.
• The sun shining at 10:10 p.m., or tin tin, as the Kiwis say.
• The ugliest corner in Queenstown.  There was a KFC, a Starbucks, and a McDonalds all within sight, plus an overripe, uncollected garbage can.  Even on this hideous corner, there were impressive mountains in the background and a great busker singing Use Somebody by Kings of Leon and I Will Wait by Mumford and Sons.
• A herd of sheep in a field (or paddock) all facing the same direction.  It was raining, and our guess was they were facing out of the direction of the rain.  
• Roasted lamb and an NZ pinot noir for dinner and pavlova for dessert on New Year's Eve.
• Dozens of snuggly young couples on vacations.
• The "Most Epic Safety Video of All Time" on Air New Zealand.

Christchurch: What Fell, What Stayed

We visited Christchurch today.  We are staying at my friend Carla's house for one night before we head off to Queenstown tomorrow.  We saw Carla and her family for a few days in Pohara.  I've known Carla for years in Seattle and her husband took a job down here.  It was good seeing her, as I imagined it would be.  It has been about a year since I've seen her.  It seemed as if almost no time had passed since I saw her last.  The hard part was thinking about when I might see her again.

Back to Christchurch.  They had a massive earthquake in 2011.  Carla's husband said it was one of the most violent earthquakes ever, even though it was only 6 on the Ritcher scale.  It was a shallow earthquake, near the surface, and caused a lot of damage.  Much has been cleaned up in the past few years, but I did see a few lots covered in rubble from broken down buildings.  One thing we did miss was watching the rebuilding.  We met a woman in Hanmer Springs who told us the tradesmen have two weeks off around Christmas and New Year's.  It was relatively easy for us to get around.

Carla told us about the container mall downtown.  Almost all of downtown was destroyed, including the shopping.  Several retailers created shops out of shipping containers, like the ones that come in on ships going back and forth from China.

After we visited the Container Mall, we went to the Christchurch Botanic Garden.  I love botanical gardens, from the Missouri Botanic Gardens in St. Louis, to Kew Gardens outside of London.  In Christchurch, the gardens are adjacent to downtown.  It was interesting to see and compared what stayed and what fell.

It struck me that so many trees and plants survived such a horrible earthquake.  I am sure some might have fallen, but many didn't.  Maybe they were lucky to be in the other side of the fault line, or maybe their roots kept them safe.  These trees have likely survived many previous earthquakes. Maybe like when a broken bone heals, trees might also get stronger after an injury.

As they are rebuilding, there is a sense of hope.  I was surprised and happy to see some energy into this devastated part of a town.  And this wasn't the outlying areas -- this was the heart of downtown.  Centers of business, hotels, restaurants, shopping--all gone.  Art brightens the disaster zone.  Like a bud on a flower, these works tell the world the city will bloom again.

Sparkle Toes 2

Here are my sparkling toes on the beach in NZ.

Adventure Bites

I have a friend who would make her kids trying everything she served for dinner.  They didn't have to eat a large portion, but they had to take an "adventure bite."  Our first night in Auckland, we were looking for a place for dinner.  The Boy did not want to eat in a "hole in the wall."  Small carry out places line Queen Street, and he didn't want to eat in one of those.  We found a place called Mezze, a Mediterranean tapas restaurant.  We told the Boy it was small plates, and he was reluctant until we told him that we'd order several.  He thought he would only have an appetizer for dinner.

Turns out, he loved the place.  He was up for his adventure bites.  His favorite was the shrimp baked in garlic and chili.

I think about the times I traveled when I was a kid.  Thankfully, my father was religious about taking vacations and we went someplace every year.  But I was not of the "adventure bite" crowd.  I didn't try Mexican food until I was in college, and my son is eating tapas in Auckland.  I think of this as he looks at the food with trepidation.  He is far braver than I was at the same age.

Beast of Burden Bag

When my family used to take trips when I was younger, my mom used to carry along a giant purse.  She carried everything in this bag -- books, toilet paper, sunscreen, and anything we might possibly need.  She would also find things also the ways -- souvenirs, if you will-- and put them in the bag.  By the end of the trip, the purse usually weighed ten pounds.

The peak was when we were in Washington, D.C. and my mom found a rock the size a large potato on the street.  "Oh, look! A rock!" and she put it in her bag.  It was a city rock, not some rare specimen found in some exotic mountain with wide assortment of minerals.  This was a leftover construction, concrete rock.  My brother teased her mercilessly.  He coined the phrase "Beast of Burden Bag."

Thirty years later, I have my own Beast of Burden Bag.  Contents:  wallet, passports, sunglasses, travel books, pens, note pad, and extra shopping bags, plus whatever else I find along the way.

My Beast of Burden Bag.

Sleeping Under Different Stars: Nelson and Pohara

So I am cranking through blog posts here to catch up on the trip.  Jack and the kids are at the beach while I am at our motel waiting for the laundry to finish.  I am torn between being outside and reading a book, but inside is cool and I can hear the birds.  Lots of birds.  I thought I saw a very large bird fly outside the living room window here around dusk, but it was gone before I could get a good look.  I was also a little scared to see a massive bird.

I'll have to post pictures later.  The wifi here is a little slow, and I don't want to clog it up for the other guests.  The town of Pohara is very small and out of the way.  We had to drive up and then back down a winding mountain road to get here, which is bad enough except Jack had to drive on the left side of the road.  The roads here don't have much shoulder (in some cases, almost none), and he would err on the side of not crossing the center line.  I feared the car rolling into the ditch, or worst, down a mountain.  But we survived.  He just drove slowly, which is fine by me.  His first experience was in a town called Nelson, which reminds me of a much larger version of Roslyn, Washington.  It has lots of shops -- no big boxes insight.  The streets were crowded with people getting lunch, shopping and stopping in bakeries.  Even though everyone speaks English and the food is recognizable, I felt very foreign.  Big cities are fine -- they expect tourists.  In a small town, I felt like we stuck out.  Plus, we didn't know who to drive or where to go.  Sure, Jack knows the rules of the road, but that is different than the local practices of who should go first when you come to a four way stop.  What about pedestrians?  In Seattle, the law is they have the right of way.  Here, it looks like people walk quickly and cars won't hit you.  But I will prefer to wait when I am ped.

One thing I was worried about was lack of solitude on this trip.  One day into it, I started to panic:  I will have zero alone time for the next two weeks.  But here I am, doing laundry.  Doing laundry is a break from the amazing beauty that surrounds me.  New Zealand is far better than I thought it would be, and I had pretty high expectations.  In the past few months, we've watched the Lord of the Rings movies.  Even when I couldn't follow the plot, I would just watch it for the scenery.  But New Zealand is far more diverse than what is in the movies.  The Hobbits stayed on the farm, they didn't head out to the beaches.

Two more things.  Jack noticed that the sun stays in the northern sky.  In the northern hemisphere, a room with a southern exposure gets more sunlight.  Here, it is the opposite.  And last night, I stayed up late enough to see the night sky poking through the curtains.  Here I was, sleeping under different stars.

Waiheke Island

Auckland is not considered one of the highlights of New Zealand, mainly because everything else is so nice.  It is small compared to Chicago or San Francisco, but it has nice views.  I was looking in a book on what to do on our second day in Auckland.  The day before, we watched the ferries leave the harbor, so I decided to look into in.  At worst, we'd get a nice view of the harbor and see some of the scenery.  I figured a trip to Waiheke Island would be like going to Bainbridge, except I have never been to Bainbridge even after living in Seattle for ten years.  (Oh well.)

Downtown Auckland from the ferry.

View from the ferry.

View from the ferry.

The Boy said "Fox would love it here.  He would think this is paradise."  Translating things into what Fox would think is one way the Boy says what he is thinking.   Here we are, on a random trip, and we see a beach that is just as nice as ones in Hawaii, in a city similar to Vancouver, B.C..  We found a restaurant that had a great view of the Oneroa Beach.  People would drive their boats into the cove, take a little boat to shore, and hang out for the afternoon.  "I want to live here," said the Boy.  And this was a 35 minute ferry ride to downtown Auckland.  It would have been a reasonable commute.

Oneroa Beach

 We hung out at the beach, and then took a bus to another part of the island.  We ate in a restaurant that overlooked the beach.  On the bus ride back to the ferry, the Boy said,  "I am just so happy and I don't know why."

Auckland is a working port.  While natural views are often amazing, sometimes industrial scenery can be beautiful.  See West Seattle.

Auckland -- Day 1

We survived our first day in New Zealand, which is good.  I wasn't worried about New Zealand being hard or difficult, but rather the aftereffects of a twenty-one hour day of travel.  We left Friday at 6:00 a.m. Seattle time, and arrived at our hotel in Auckland around midnight.  The next morning, everyone was up bright and early at 7:00 a.m.  Jack went out and got pastries for breakfast, and we spent the morning poking around downtown Auckland.  We continued to eat pastries down Queens Street and shop.  Shopping is not one of my favorite vacation activities, but my neighbor recommended buying something I need on vacation.  I told him I needed a rain coat and he said, "Get one on your trip!"  So I did.  Jack said this guarantees that it will not rain for the rest of the trip.  Fine by me.

Second or third breakfast.

Here we are lounging on some very comfortable chairs by the harbor.  It was good to rest.  I nearly fell asleep.  I wish airplane seats were as comfy.

Claire Adele taking a selfie, her favorite hobby.

In the afternoon, we saw "The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies."  This was The Boy's geek out moment, watching a movie about Middle Earth in Middle Earth.  Peter Jackson, the director, made a little thank you video to the people of New Zealand which was shown before the main feature.  The man has a lot of pride in his country, as he should.  My sense is these movies are a source of national pride, although I am sure there are some folks who are sick of hobbits, dwarves, elves and orcs.

The poster at the top says something like "See it here first."  This movie opened in NZ before it opened anywhere else.

Inside the theater.

Our first day in NZ was also the summer solstice.  I was asleep by 8:30 p.m. and the sun was still up. It was strange to see so many Christmas decorations and a busker singing "Let It Snow" at the beginning of summer.  Christmas and Hannukah are clearly northern hemisphere holidays.

Here are some pictures of downtown Auckland.

Here are some pictures of Albert Park.

A silly picture of a tree, a building and a flower nearly the same size.

A beautiful, old, massive tree.  There are lots like this around Auckland.

Sky Tower

A statue of Queen Victoria reminds me of British Columbia.

Layover

We had a stop in Honolulu before we got on the nine hour flight to Auckland.

Best.  Layover.  Ever.

We didn't get to leave the airport, but we were able to go outside and enjoy the fantastic weather.  Much appreciated between long flights.

Okay, it looks slightly like a posh minimum security prison.  If I had to go prison, I'd want to be in Hawaii.

Feeling Tookish

Off to Middle Earth.  Feeling a little Tookish.

Sparkle!

I should listen to the women who sell makeup at Sephora, but it is hard to seriously take the advice of a woman 20 years (or more) younger than me wearing red eye shadow.  (And I mean red.  As in stop sign red, red tape red.)

I was in the shop last week as I was out of makeup.  I am going on a trip, so I thought I'd refresh.  Every middle-aged woman in northeast Seattle had the same idea, as the place was full of women over forty on a Tuesday morning.

A year or two ago, one of the makeup artists recommended I try this new brand of base.  I was skeptical at first.  I brought it home, and it was magical.  My skin felt soft and smooth.  I went back last week to buy another tube of the same stuff.  They three colors: beige, tan and "illuminating."  Given this is winter in Seattle, I thought I'd need something to brighten my skin.  The illuminating hue was also a paler shade, which better matched my skin that seen sunlight since, oh, September.

I tried a dab on my hand, and I thought it was fine.  The sale girl took a look and said, "No, get the beige."

"But I like this one," I said.

"Really, get the beige," she said.  "The illuminating one has crushed pearls in it to help your skin glow."

Crushed pearls for glowing skin?  "Sounds good to me," I said.

"We don't have the illuminating in stock.  If you really want it, I can order it and have it shipped to you with free shipping.  If you need it now, you should get the beige..."

I thought she was trying to secure a purchase, but maybe not.  "I have time.  You can ship it to me," I said, and she did.

In the shop, I was wearing my glasses.  I have a hard time seeing things up close while I am wearing my glasses.  The little dab of makeup on my hand looked fine.

When the makeup came, I tried it on my whole face.  "Crushed pearls" is a euphemism for "glitter."  I skin sparkled, and not in a good way.  This poor woman couldn't spill the truth in the store:  "Middle aged woman shouldn't wear glitter makeup."

Before I left, I got to pick out a few samples, so I got some nail polish.  I didn't see the sales girl sigh when I picked this one out.  She must have figured I was helpless.

Nail polish for a six year old girl or hooker?  It is sad there is such a fine line between the two.  (No offense to working girls.)

Sick

Jack has planned a ginormous trip for us coming up soon.  He hasn't taken a two week vacation since 1998, and this one will span three weekends.  Not one.  Not two.  Three.

Okay, I know I not supposed to tell the internet where I am going or when.  Our home will be protected by a vicious lap dog and his keeper while we are gone.

Actually, small dogs like Fox can be kind of snarly.  My daughter, Claire Adele, told me small dogs bite people more often than larger dogs.  Who knew?

The goals of this trip are

a)  Jack will disengage from work and rejoin the family, and then 

b)  I will decide to stay married to Jack.

I will also get to visit my friend Carla in her new home.  Yay!

We will have a long flight, and change a few time zones.  (Okay, we are going to New Zealand.  OMG!  Seriously, New Zealand.  We are going to see lots of sheep and beautiful countryside and hopefully no Orcs.)  

What has got me worried about visiting a land that has super friendly people and no predatory animals?  Yes, they drive on the wrong side of the road.  That is a little spooky.  I am mostly worried that there are lots of nasty and tenacious germs floating around Seattle.  My daughter's high school has 40 cases of whooping cough.  I know three families that have had pneumonia.  I've heard of kids having fevers for a week. 

All of this is not cool as we are prepping for a trip of a lifetime.  I do not want anyone in my family to get before we go or while we are there.  I've taken enough vitamins to strengthen my immunity that my pee is a flourescent shade of yellow that glows in the dark.

I am torn between wishing I was sick so I could get it over with (5% of me), and wanting to avoid all contact with humanity until we depart (95% of me).  Okay, I am not torn.  I just don't want to get sick.  If I have to, I want it to be clean and swift and over as soon as possible.

Pray for me.  Or pray for the ill and suffering.  That is probably a nicer thing to do.