Act II, Scene 3: citybound and southbound

CITYBOUND:
On Thursday, I took Carlin and Kristen to the aquarium, called Kelly Tarlton's.  First, we got to see a scuba diver hand feeding the fish in Underwater World.  She was getting mobbed by all the fish and turtles, and I'm sure it made her feel quite popular.  There was also a Stingray Encounter with a diver feeding the huge stingrays as they moved elegantly through the water.  Their wingspan was about 6 feet!  But our favourite part was the penguins.  We rode the little snow vehicle through the penguin exhibit 3 times, watching them swim and dive and twirl in the water.  There were even baby penguins recently hatched, all fluffy and cute, and you could see them hiding under their parent, occasionally sticking out a webbed foot or a grey head.  Strangely, there were about 100 girls from my school there, on a class trip with their science teachers. It seems I can't escape school even when I'm not there.

On Friday, I went to the Auckland Zoo with Carlin and Kristen ... and about 100 students from my school. Yes, there was another class trip courtesy of the science department. Yesterday, the Year 9 girls went to the aquarium, and today the Year 8 girls went to the zoo. What are the odds? Mostly, I tried to be incognito, either wearing sunglasses or hiding under an umbrella, depending on the weather at the moment. But at each place, a few girls noticed me "Look, there's the libarry lady!" or "Hey, isn't that the libarrian?" (What I want to know is: why can't they pronounce library correctly?)

Besides girls in Diocesan school uniforms, there were plenty of exotic animals at the zoo. Seals played and wrestled while sea lions whooshed through the water. The kangaroos were disappointingly lazy, but the emu came right up to us. A mama spider monkey clung onto her baby while scolding a mischievous teenage monkey who wouldn't obey. A peacock was showing off his feathers. Carlin especially like Janie, the last of the Tea Party gorillas. Apparently, back in the 1950s, the zoo used to dress up 4 gorillas in frilly dresses and they would have a tea party for the crowd. Janie is the last one alive, and she is pretty old but still entertaining as she searches for her food, hidden in various containers around her enclosure. We also saw rhinos and hippos and lions and tigers and cheetahs. Sadly, we never were able to locate the (nocturnal) kiwi bird in its dark exhibit. We learned two new Scrabble words while we were there, but I've forgotten one of them already: spronk is what the springboks do when they jump straight up in the air as if their legs were pogo sticks. And the other new word was ???

After the zoo, we went to Newmarket for lunch where - you guessed it - I saw 2 more Diocesan students and one Diocesan teacher. I think they're tailing me. Or stalking me.

Next, I dragged Carlin and Kristen to the Auckland Museum for a short visit. I really wanted them to experience the volcano exhibit, where you sit in a living room and watch a volcano erupt a few hundred metres offshore from Mission Bay. We also briefly walked through the Maori and Pacific Island exhibits, marvelling at the giant waka and the ornate marae. After seeing a few bugs (wetas) and birds (giant moa), we were exhausted. It had been a long day. I wouldn't recommend going to the zoo AND the museum in the same day. On the plus side, I didn't see a single Diocesan student while at the museum. Whew.

SOUTHBOUND:
Once we arrived home at about 4:00, we immediately started packing for a road trip to Rotorua. Unfortunately, the traffic did not cooperate and we didn't arrive in Rotorua until 9:30. During the drive, Kristen and Carlin played Scrabble in the back seat until Kristen started getting carsick, so she and I switched places and I took over her Scrabble game. I lost badly, but kept everyone entertained which was my real objective. Even Kristen forgot about feeling icky and laughed a few times.

Along the way, we stopped for coffee at a little place in the middle of nowhere and saw the most curious mail boxes. Apparently, this cafe served as the local post office, and each local resident had a post box. This in itself doesn't seem overly curious until you look closely at their numbering system. It went
like this: 1 2 3 4 5 35 38 42 44 43 11 12 31 14 15 16 17 18 19 20. Hmmm. To add further confusion, there was a small piece of tape on box #43 that said 10. We debated the possible origin of their numbering system while drinking our coffee and, unable to come up with any reasonable explanation, moved on.

The next morning in Rotorua, we went to Te Puia, a Maori cultural centre and geothermal site. Curt and I had been there once before, a few weeks after we landed in NZ, almost two years ago.  The Maori performance was still the best part - I volunteered to do the hongi with the welcomer lady because I was the only tourist who knew what a hongi was (it's a nose-to-nose greeting). The guy doing the fierce welcome this time wasn't as fierce as the last time we were here. But the dancing and singing was great. They even invited ladies from the audience up to the stage to learn bits of the poi dance, so Kristen and I volunteered to make fools of ourselves. We twirled little white balls on their strings and tried to remember out steps at the same time, not entirely successfully. Then they invited men on to the stage to learn the haka, and Curt and Carlin gave it a go. Curt tried to be especially ferocious. After the Maori performance, we went to see the bubbling mud and the geysers. Carlin was happy when the geyser finally erupted.

Before leaving Rotorua, we had a picnic lunch at the lakefront, and walked over to an amazing church decorated with Maori carvings all over the walls and the altar and the pews. In the courtyard outside the church, we could also feel the thermal energy below our feet pushing up the pavement and discolouring the concrete.

On the way home to Auckland from Rotorua, we stopped at Hamilton Gardens and saw 4 weddings going on there! It's a popular location, obviously, for wedding pictures. Carlin and Kristen liked the Italian Garden best while I liked the Herb Garden, and Curt liked the Sustainable Garden with heaps of cool ideas.

For the last hour in the car, we played word games like G-H-O-S-T and I kept them entertained again. I kept trying to use the letter Z just because I like saying zed. We finally got home at about 8:00, and stayed up even later playing Taboo next. I haven't played Taboo in 10 years probably but I was always really good at it which infuriated Curt, who was never very good at it. That explains why we haven't played in 10 years, I guess. I have this theory that women are better at Taboo because they have more connectors in their brains from the right side to the left side. They are able to think more creatively while men tend to think linearly. In Taboo, thinking linearly is clearly a disadvantage. We played the women against the men. Need I tell you who won?

Lastly, we looked at photo albums. I had spent 6 weeks compiling 10 years' worth of memories and I needed to show them to someone so Carlin and Kristen were the lucky winners. They were good sports about it. Plus, Memory Lane is a fun place to be.

Well. It had been a busy week and an even busier weekend. But their time with us in NZ was almost over, for they were flying home to America in just 2 short days.

Act I, Scene 3: Grand Canyon

It was time for a road trip.
We were off to the Grand Canyon with Austin+Jonna, Nolan+Erica, and Boone. (Carlin+Kristen were away on their honeymoon) I said a teary goodbye to my mom and 2 brothers. At least I would be seeing my mom in January in NZ for 6 weeks!

Seven adults and 7 adults' luggage was a lot to cram into the rental mini-van. If only somebody hadn't bought so much chocolate chips and other American purchases while they were here. I tried to call Jolynn's house to see if we could leave some suitcases with her for a few days, but it turned out that the number I was dialing was Carlin's! Oops. I hung up as soon as I heard his voice message. I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to call the groom at 9 a.m. on the day after the wedding. The boys got enormous comedy mileage out of my blunder, making jokes that I can't repeat in this blog.

We're off. Saguaro cactus everywhere. Nolan was feeling carsick within the first hour. We stopped and changed places. Was he really sick or was it a ruse to get the front seat? Hmmm. Throughout the trip, there was incessant competition for who sat where. It was just like when they were littler and they'd shout "shotgun" to claim the front seat. Actually, we had assigned seats in our family van (with name tags) because I got fed up with them fighting over the seats every time we went somewhere. Some things never change.

We stopped again in Flagstaff for lunch. Nolan mocked Erica during the entire trip because her pronunciation of Flagstaff sounded more like "FLAYG-staff." She poked him frequently in retaliation. Luckily, she's good-natured about his ribbing. This was our first family vacation that included girlfriends, but Erica and Jonna have been a part of the family for so many years now, that it seemed natural. Those poor girls - I wouldn't blame them if they didn't want to be associated with our family ever again after being subjected to multiple discussions about poop. The boys seemed to bring it up in every conversation during the 5 hour drive. Who raised these kids?

Arrived at Grand Canyon. WOW. Took many photos. Walked along the rim and hiked down a little bit. Took many pictures. Here's one of Boone looking over the edge. Don't lean too far! Watched the sunset. Took many pictures. Bought many souvenirs. Went to a pizza place for dinner, then back to the lodge to play cards. I lost many times, but always seemed to have a pair of fours. Why? Carlin called during an airport layover on their way to the honeymoon resort in Fiji. He sounded a little sad that he was missing a big card game on a big family vacation. I tried to convince him that no, we're not really having any fun. Alas, the hoopla from the beer-drinking brothers in the background exposed the truth.

The next morning, Nolan accused Austin of plugging up the toilet in Nolan's room. Austin denied it, saying he saw it go down successfully. Why was he using Nolan's toilet anyway? (probably because he didn't want to stink up his own room) Will this never end?

Explored the Grand Canyon some more. Took more pictures. Drove to Flaygstaff for lunch provisions, then on to Walnut Canyon, to see some Indian cliff dwellings, holes in a sheer cliff wall. How did the Sinagua Indians get from their houses/caves down to the creek for water? And how did they get up the cliff to their crops above? It was all pretty cool, but going up 204 steps back to the top of the canyon (at this altitude) was tiring. I wouldn't last a week in this tribe.

Since we were in the neighborhood, we drove to Meteor Crater next. It's a big crater in the middle of the desert, and it's been used in a few movies. We thought it might be kinda cool to see it, but upon arrival, we discovered that they charge $15/person (guess who would have to pay). So we turned around and left. We're just not interested in paying $105 to see a hole in the ground.

Our next destination was Sedona, an artsy town that claims to have vortexes of positive energy. I guess it's quite a mecca for the New Age, crystal-worshipping type of people. One of our favorite pastimes was to argue about the correct way to pluralize vortex: shouldn't it be vortices? But the Sedona information all said vortexes. The most vocal advocate for the proper plural (vortices) was the same boy who used to insist that, since the plural of octopus was octopi, the plural of bus was bi. MmmHmm. Being the English teacher in the car, I'd like to think that my opinion would be the last word on the subject, and my verdict was: isn't there anything else to talk about?

Besides arguing about grammar rules, Curt and I liked the galleries and artsy shops, and we finally found a bomb! As I've explained before, we have a collection of black pottery that we call our bomb collection due to the shape and color. We like to buy a bomb on every trip, and had been in America for 10 days so far without any success ... until we got to Sedona. Once we'd found a bomb, our trip seemed complete, so we went next door to a chocolate shop to celebrate. Hooray!

That evening, we went to a Mexican restaurant for one last family dinner. The food was excellent and the portions were HUGE! Curt and I ordered a Margarita to share, but I drank most of it. I only drink once or twice a year, so it was really out of character for me. The boys, however, drink a lot more than me. After dinner, we went back to our condo for another card game and more drinking. Eventually, they ran out of beer. Curt and I refused to drive them across the street to buy more, and they were too lazy to walk so they had to do without. Poor boys. Curt and I went to bed at 10:30 but the card game was still going on for quite a while. See, they CAN have fun without beer.

The next morning, Curt made tates, eggies, and snausage for breakfast, a family tradition. But before we left, there had to be one final climactic plunger episode: Boone plugged the upstairs toilet, and was plunging vigorously. Jonna came running out of the downstairs bathroom, screaming that there was water pouring from above. (The upstairs bathroom was located directly above the downstairs bathroom.) Hmmm. Did Boone's plunging rupture a pipe? Poor Jonna was (justifiably) not amused that water was dripping onto her toothbrush, hairbrush, shampoo, etc. Eww. We checked out of the hotel, reported the "leak" and hit the road.

On our way out of town, we were determined to experience some of the alleged positive energy Sedona promoted. So we followed a map to a vortex and climbed to the top of the hill as indicated. There was a curious collection of stones part way up, as if someone had constructed a mini altar to Fred Flintstone. At the top, there was an exquisite view of the Red Rocks surrounding Sedona... and a few people meditating in the lotus position... and a sign asking everyone to respect the integrity of the site ... but no positive energy that I could feel. No doubt my cynicism was preventing me from experiencing the full power of the vortex. What a crock.

After a few more hours on the road and a picnic lunch, it was time to deliver our charges to the Mesa airport. Not surprisingly, I cried. Not surprisingly, Curt consoled me by saying " As much as I love them, they really are a pain in the ass." Which made me laugh.

Curt and I had one more day to spend in Phoenix before our flight to NZ, so we decided to go see a few more Frank Lloyd Wright buildings: we admired the Biltmore Hotel and lingered there for hours, marveling once again at his genius for design motifs and his attention to detail, then we stopped at ASU campus to see his round auditorium which was also magnificient.

Finally, we re-packed our suitcases (too many chocolate chips in one bag made it overweight), caught a plane and spent the next 18 hours in various stages of discomfort or boredom.

It was a great trip. Obviously the best part was being able to see the boys and my mom and my brothers. Plus the wedding festivities were special. Curt and I had exactly the right amount of time together just the two of us vs. being surrounded by relatives. As a bonus, we had two weeks off work to spend in sunny weather with a lot of time at the pool. It doesn't get much better than that. The only downside is that we had to go back to work Monday morning.

Act I, Scene 2: Phoenix

Wedding Day minus 5: Flew from Las Vegas to Phoenix.
• First, stopped one more time at Mrs. Fields Cookies in the Las Vegas Airport. MmmMmm.
• My mom booked condos for the week for all of us. It would be fun to have the whole fam damily staying at the same place, even if it would get a little crowded. At that moment, we were just happy to have laundry facilities, kitchen, and a pool! Had to try out the pool right away.
• First night – went to (future daughter-in-law) Kristen’s parents’ house for dinner. Excellent opportunity to meet her folks before the rest of the clan started arriving. Yummy enchiladas for dinner. Kristen and her mom were up to their eyeballs with wedding preparations. In this instance, I am exceedingly thankful I only had sons.
• Carlin played piano for a while at their house – I hadn’t realized how much I missed having him around to pound out a few songs. I even played a duet with him ... and got perhaps half of my notes right. Kristen’s mom, Jolynn, said he looked so happy playing with me. I beamed.
• Back at the condo, I stayed up late talking with my mom, who I hadn’t seen in 10 months. She’s doing fine (of course) since my dad’s death, but I still miss her. At least I'll see her lots when she arrives in January to stay with us for 6 weeks!

Wedding Day minus 4:
• Went shopping at large warehouse retailer to stock up on American things that we can’t get in NZ, or are too expensive in NZ. At the top of my list are Nestles chocolate chips. Chocolate chips in NZ just don’t taste the same (not semi-sweet enough?), so whenever we’re in the US, we buy large quantities to take back with us. We eat them by the handful, sprinkled on ice cream, and in Toll House cookies. Today, we buy 5 industrial-sized bags, a total of 22.5 pounds. It will last us a few months. (The customs man later questioned my suitcase loaded with 10kg of an obscure substance. I pleaded chocoholic.)
• Took my mom, Carlin, and Kristen to Taliesin West, the architecture school complex built by Frank Lloyd Wright, who lived in Phoenix for many years and designed many of the buildings around town. Carlin remembers going to Falling Water, Wright’s famous house cantilevering over a creek in the woods in Pennsylvania. We’ve also been to Wright’s home and studio in Chicago, but Carlin must have been too young to remember it. Our poor kids – with an engineer for a father and an art history teacher for a mother – have been forced to see architecture and art all over the world. They may not have been too happy about it at the time, but they appreciate it now. I think.
• That evening, we made one of Carlin’s favorite meals at the condo, fettuccini alfredo. Then we decided to have the happy couple open our wedding presents to them. My mom had made them two quilted wall hangings: one was a white-on-white silk wedding pattern of a never-ending chain. The other was black and red for their new kitchen. I'd made them a photo album of Carlin’s first 24 years so Kristen could see what he looked like as a cute little kid, and so she would know a bit more what it was like growing up in our family. We all had a good time reminiscing and looking through the pictures. I love Memory Lane.
• Later, we had to drive all the way out to the Mesa airport to pick up Austin+Jonna, Nolan+Erica, and Boone. I was so excited to see the rest of my boys that I was skipping around the airport. I wasted no time getting started hugging them and patting their scruffy cheeks. And talking a mile a minute.
• For added entertainment, we used the GPS system my mom got with her rental car to guide us to the airport and back. I named the GPS voice Jeanette because she sounded like a Jeanette to me. Whenever we missed a turn, she’d say, “Recalculating,” with contempt and tell us to make a U-turn. Jeanette wasn’t always helpful because she sent us the wrong way at times, but we laughed and imitated her voice.

Wedding Day minus 3:
• Boone plugged up the toilet in the condo first thing this morning and needed a plunger. Austin needed the plunger again 30 minutes later after he plugged it up, too. Good grief. I am reminded of when we had 4 teenage boys in the house, and plunging was a daily occurrence. Why are they all such big poopers?
• Boone and I went to a mall this morning and got haircuts (he was shaggy!). I've been wearing my hair in a "bob" for at least 10 years and it's become stylish again, thanks to Victoria Beckham. Lots of students at my school have recently been getting their hair cut in bobs. Curiously, when I mentioned Victoria Beckham to Boone, he looked puzzled and inquired, "Who's that? Oh, I know - you mean Posh Spice?" Like him, I barely knew who Victoria Beckham was when I lived in America, and wouldn't have recognized David Beckham's face on a billboard. But living in New Zealand, there are strong ties to England and to English "football" (soccer) teams. A day doesn't go by without a Beckham in the news. The British (and Kiwi) obsession with athlete's wives is curious to me because in America nobody cares who's married to Peyton Manning (football) or Alex Rodriguez (baseball). Anyway, the stylist made my hair look like Victoria Beckham's, but only for a few hours. I was never able to replicate it, so I went back to looking like me by the next day. While at the mall however, I managed to find a Mrs. Fields Cookies store near the haircut place. Score.
• Then we took all the boys to pick up their tuxes. They looked quite handsome all dressed up. But there was lots of complaining: one’s jacket was totally too big and needed to be exchanged; one’s tux had a different threadcount than the others (who cares?); and one’s alterations weren’t done at the same time as the others’. Sheesh.
• Time to go back to the condo and jump in the pool.
• That evening, we all went to Kristen’s parents’ house again for a BBQ including ALL her relatives. We met Kristen’s grandma, 3 aunts, 3 uncles, unknown quantity of cousins, and 5 bridesmaids. Curt happily took over the barbecuing, and avoided as much social interaction as he could. Boone was hoping to charm a bridesmaid, but didn't have any success.
• Back at the condo, we stayed up late laughing and playing cards. I lost many times, but always had a pair of fours. Not good.

Wedding Day minus 2:
• Ditched everyone to go shopping all alone for jeans and shorts. Having family around is heavenly, but it was equally heavenly to escape the close quarters and obtain a bit of solitude. Plus we needed groceries. Also went to the post office to mail postcards to my work colleagues and my students. I’ll probably be back to work before the postcards get there. Oh well.
• When I returned to the condo at 3:00, the men were all at the pool drinking tequila as a prelude to the bachelor party t that night. Brother.
• Tonight while the young people were all at the bachelor or bachelorette parties (in NZ, they'd call it a hen party), Curt and my mom and I stayed home for a nice quiet evening. I opened one of the bags of chocolate chips and made 65 Black Bottom Cupcakes (Carlin’s favorite) to be the Groom’s Cake. I’ve never heard of the "Groom's Cake" tradition before. But it was a good excuse to a) eat handfuls of chocolate chips; b) lick the spoon, the beaters, and the bowl; and c) eat multiple cupcakes. Did 2 loads of dishes and 2 loads of towels. Unrelenting shortage of towels around here due to 7 people swimming, showers, etc.

Wedding Day minus 1: Rehearsal
• The male members of the family watched a football game on TV while the females went to the pool. My younger brother Ross had arrived from Hawaii and wanted to watch his alma mater, Air Force play Notre Dame. (I think they won)
• Piled everyone into 2 cars to go to the rehearsal at 3:30. Jeanette guided us there. I got weepy during the rehearsal, as the reality of "losing" my little boy hit me. : ( There's a ceremonial "giving away the bride", but no equivalent to giving away the groom. What's up with that? Overall, the groom's mother is supposed to be pretty invisible. Kristen's grandma informed me of a funny saying last night: that the mother of the groom's job is to wear beige and keep quiet. Sadly, I'm not very good at either of those things.
• Piled back into the cars to head to the rehearsal dinner. In the car, Boone announced that he needed to poop. Big poop. He hoped there would be a plunger at the house we're going to. The rest of the boys added their suggestions for plunger substitutes: chop sticks, plastic knife, even bare hands. These guys are all twenty-something, but I swear they act like they're six years old with their obsessive bathroom humor.
• Rehearsal dinner was a Santa Maria style BBQ in someone's back yard. Not sure what makes it Santa Maria style. LOTS of people there (55?), mostly Kristen's relatives. I wrote the check. My mantra: wear beige and keep quiet.
• Carlin presented gifts to his groomsmen: beer mugs engraved with their nicknames: Worsty (Austin), Best Bud (Nolan), and Big Blinga (Boone). These will be put to good use, I'm sure.
• Dinner was over by 8:30 so we all went back to the condo for a pool party, including the groomsmen. My older brother Scott, wife Diana, and their two daughters arrived that night too, after driving for 3 days from Bellingham. Gwen (10) is on the local swim team and she raced Curt (53) one length of the pool and won. Poor Curt. Boone and Sasha (9) played in the pool, but mostly we sat around the hot tub and had a mini-family reunion that night. Good times.

Wedding Day:
• The 3 boys had to go for a photo shoot at the restaurant where the reception would be held later that night, a really cool location with fountains and archways and bridges and lights. Carlin had chosen all 3 of his brothers to be his Best Men, plus he had 3 other groomsmen. Before the wedding, the photographer took lots of artsy photos of the wedding party. Everyone looked spiffy. My boys clean up nice.
• Tried to get semi-spiffy myself, and we all went to the church for the wedding. Curt looked enviably spiffy in his tux. Nolan escorted me down the aisle, then Jolynn and I lit the unity candles. I didn't trip over my dress. This is good. Then there was a slideshow comprised of pictures of Carlin as a little boy, Kristen as a little girl, and finally pictures of them together. The slideshow was the moment when I started crying. This is bad. But totally expected. I had a wad of tissues stashed in Curt's pocket.
• The wedding was beautiful, of course.
• Then we posed for family pictures - the Davidsons were represented by 14 of us; Kristen had about 75 people from her side of the family. Quality over quantity?
• Next it was off to the reception. All 3 of the Best Men/brothers gave little speeches about Carlin, but the microphone kept flicking on and off, so people could only hear every other word like this: "I'd like xxx that Carlin xxxx really xxxx and I xxxx he and xxxx ..." Meanwhile, Austin & Nolan had smuggled in some vodka and tequila. (the reception was supposed to be dry) They had an especially good time. Poor Boone never did charm any of the bridesmaids. At the end, we all farewelled the bride and groom and blew bubbles as they got into their limo after the reception.
• Then we headed back to the condo for one last pool party, and to say goodbye to my 2 brothers who would be leaving the next morning. It was good of them to come all the way to Phoenix for the wedding/family reunion.

Road Trip, Day 4 - Easter Monday

7:30 a.m: The B&B chimed a series of sing-song bells and announced that breakfast was served. Apparently this building used to be a frat house and they used the bells to get their frat boys out of bed or to declare Lights Out. Personally, I would have preferred to sleep longer (of course) and skip breakfast, but once the bells woke me up, I figured I might as well partake of their fine food. They offered the usual hot brekkies plus a few unusual breakfast menu items such as creamed corn, baked beans or spaghetti. I'd never heard of baked beans for breakfast before I moved to NZ, but evidently beans on toast is standard fare. No thanks. We never did understand about serving spaghetti for breakfast, and don't know if it was served with marinara sauce, or if it was just noodles. We mainly stuck with the traditional eggs or bacon-type selections. Miss Winnie, the tubby resident dachshund particularly liked the lamb sausage; Erica didn't.

Today we mostly wandered around Christchurch: the park, 2 museums, and the main square.
1. In the park, we saw a man punting on the Avon River (a punt is a flat-bottomed boat). The punter wore a fancy waistcoat and a jaunty straw hat and pushed the boat along with a long pole, just like in Cambridge, England. In fact, Christchurch is reminiscent of a proper British city with its cathedral, formal garden, cloisters, and Christ College. Conversely, the accent in Christchurch is LESS British than in Auckland. The people here on the South Island over-pronounce the letter R according to the North Islanders. In Auckland (and in England) they say purple as "puh-ple," and they find it humorous that the hicks on the South Islanders pronounce it "pur-ple." Of course, I say "pur-ple" too so it sounds pur-fectly fine to me.

2. We went to Christchurch's art museum (of course) and were pleasantly impressed with their collection. There was some weirdo modern art at the beginning, but lovely New Zealand and international art further on. Plus, the museum cafe had good coffee (for Curt, Nolan, and Erica) and a muffin for me (chocolate of course). After the museum, we headed toward Cathedral Square, the town centre, and stopped to buy some shoes for the Shoeless One! Yipee! We also had to get a new journal for me, since I was on the last page. I've always kept a journal during vacations, but for the last 1.5 years since we moved to NZ I have kept it up every day because let's face it, living here is like being on a never-ending vacation! Every day is full of new things to explore and learn, and that's why we like it.

3. In Cathedral Square there were a dozen spectators watching a giant chess game, in addition to a handful of smaller, regular-sized chess games. I think it's a pretty cool initiative to offer chess to the public in the town centre. The 2 men who were playing weren't your stereotypical chess players, either; they had numerous tattoos, multiple piercings, baggy saggy pants, and hoodie up the whole time. I'm not exactly sure what a stereotypical chess player would look like, they these guys looked more like stereotypical unemployed druggies.

4. The day wasn't over yet so we decided to go to the Canterbury museum which also turned out to be better than we expected. Erica especially liked the display of bugs. Nolan liked the stuffed NZ birds because you could push a button and hear their birdcall. He always liked pushing buttons. I liked the Antarctic exhibit. Most of all, Nolan liked the weta. He'd been wanting to see a weta ever since he arrived. It's a wood-eating bug about as big as a cockroach, and it's really gross and disgusting-looking. It became "famous" when NZ's Weta Workshop (named after the bug) won a bunch of Oscars for special effects for The Lord of the Rings movies. So Nolan's been dying to see a real weta. Ick.

5. That night, we went out to dinner and had an excellent chocolate decadent dessert (of course). After dinner, we went back to the B & B for another game of Hearts. Nolan and Erica were tired of losing to Curt so they ganged up on him (and won).

Overall, we had to admit that we liked Christchurch immensely. I remember when Curt and I were first immigrating to New Zealand, we didn't think we wanted to live in Christchurch because it was too small, too far out in the wop-wops, too provincial, too far south, or too cold. We were wrong (of course). It turns out it would have been a great place to live.

Plus, Christchurch is a magnificent word: Chch is the accepted abbreviation for Christchurch, since it begins and ends with ch. Actually, there's another ch in the middle! I seriously can't think of any other words that have ch 3 times. Now, THAT's a fantastic word.

Road Trip, Day 2

It's April 8th, which is Austin's birthday. He'll be 27. Wow. But since it's only yesterday in the States, I'll call him tomorrow on his birthday. Got that?

Today we would be taking a ferry from the North Island to the South Island, which would take about 3 hours. We knew we would have to wake up early to get to the ferry on time, and last night we were worried about getting lost and missing the boat. We seem to have a propensity for that sort of Adventure. So we scouted out the ferry terminal location while we were driving around last night during our Adventure. Not surprisingly, we took a wrong turn and missed it, but we did see where it was and we did see where we should have turned. So this morning when we drove there, we did it right! No Adventures. Hurray! Oddly, we also got stopped at a police checkpoint, looking for drunk drivers ... at 7:00 in the morning!

This morning as I was getting dressed, I made an unfortunate discovery: I had forgotten to bring a hairbrush. Honestly, I must be getting Alzheimers. The last time I had forgotten to pack a brush was when I flew to America for my dad's funeral, but at least I had a good excuse that time. This time I was just plain dumb. I would have borrowed a brush from Erica but she doesn't brush her hair; it's really curly and she finger-dries it. Curt and Nolan don't use combs or brushes or anything. So I was pretty much S.O.L for the time being. Not to mention the fact that Nolan would now have 2 things to tease me about - forgetting shoes and forgetting a hairbrush. I've been making this WAY too easy for him to make fun of me.

Meanwhile, it was a sunshiney day and a beautiful sailing from the North Island to the South Island. Actually, the Cook Strait could be a treacherous crossing at times. There was a famous ferry that sunk about 40 years ago and 51 people died. It's not exactly the Titanic, but nonetheless it is New Zealand's great maritime disaster (#4 Son would like it; he was obsessed with the Titanic for years). I tried not to think about the capsized "Wahine" as I looked out at the innocent blue water sparkling in the morning sun.

On the ferry, we'd scored 2 nice soft couches and since we had 3 hours to kill, we decided to play a game of Scrabble. I ended up winning which is a little unusual but not totally surprising. However Curt came in 4th place out of 4 people and that's NEVER happened. Perhaps he's getting Alzheimers now, too. After Scrabble, Curt, Nolan, and Erica wanted to play Hearts. But Nolan and Erica had forgotten to bring the deck of cards. Hah. I'm not the only one who forgets things. Anyway, Curt bought a deck of genuine InterIslander Ferry cards so they could play Hearts. Strangely, there seemed to be a marked card and it was - of all things - the Queen of Spades. Anyway, Erica led for 90% of the game, then lost dramatically at the end to Curt. I think he was trying to reestablish his gaming superiority after being Buck-Naked-Last in Scrabble earlier.

Once we got back on the mainland, we drove an hour or so to a winery called Forrest Estates. The area outside Blenheim is one of New Zealand's premier wine countries, so there were wineries everywhere. I picked this winery because Nolan's middle name is Forrest, and because they had a sculpture garden and a resident artist! We sat at a patio table in the sunshine and Curt, Nolan, and Erica tasted all 15 varieties. Eventually we bought 6 bottles between us. And we walked around their property, admiring the sculptures and soaking up the surroundings. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

The Designated Driver (me) drove the next 1.5 hours along a picturesque coastal road. Nobody was carsick yet, knock on wood. We managed to stop at Ohau Point to look at a seal colony. Most of the older seals were really fat and lazy, but a few young ones were goofing around. They sure looked like they had a pretty good life laying there on the rocks, mostly sleeping away the day. I could get used to a life like that. Except for the part about getting eaten by orcas.

I drove on to our destination, Kaikoura, and found the hotel without getting lost, which is always worth mentioning. Kaikoura is a little seaside town famous for its dolphins and its crayfish. We walked around a bit, bought a hairbrush for The Forgetful One, sat on a beach, and listened to the surf. The surf sounded quite different here because it was a rocky, pebbly beach and water has a different sound when tumbling over rocks. Curt and Nolan threw rocks into the ocean and tried to skip rocks until they each threw their shoulders out. Later, we found a little seafood place to go for dinner. Mmmm. They served huge portions and we all ate too much. It was great.

After dinner we had another Adventure, scoping out tomorrow's dolphin destination. We drove all over Kaikoura before we finally found it, only a few hundred meters from our hotel. Nolan and Erica were beginning to tire of all these Adventures, I think.