Kia ora! Boone here, I've been in New Zealand for a couple weeks now and Mom asked me to make a contribution to the blog so I'll let you all know some of the highlights of my 4-week trip thus far.

I left Vancouver, BC at 1pm on August 19th and landed in Auckland, NZ at 5am on August 21st. August 20th did not happen, I flew into the future. I started off my trip with lots of touristy stuff; I hit up the aquarium, the natural history museum, the zoo,



SkyTower,

and fed a lamb at SheepWorld.

On Tuesday I caught a train into town and then a ferry out to Rangitoto Island, a dormant volcano. I hiked to the top of the volcano and down into the crater, then explored some lava caves on the east side of the island (had to use the flash on the camera to see where I was going).



On Wednesday Mom and I drove out to Piha and climbed to the top of Lion Rock. She wasn't too keen on climbing but I talked her into it. You only live once.


On Thursday I drove 4 hours north to Paihia and found a hostel. I went for a quick afternoon kayak trip down the shore and back and came back to meet my flatmate, a rather talkative Kiwi named David and his lady friend, a Chilean girl named Katie. They introduced me to a few other people at the hostel including Elena from Germany and Fernanda from Brazil. We all went out to the pub and it just so happened to be karaoke night, my favorite. I met a few nice Kiwi lads and a couple of girls from Iowa. After a few beers I ended up singing 'Born in the USA' with the two other Americans which I'm sure was an overly intoxicated performance and obnoxious to the rest of the bar patrons, but it was lots of fun on my end.

The following day David and I woke up
and went on a kayaking adventure in search of Haruru Falls. However, due to a less than helpful map, we never ended up finding them and paddled back home after 4 hours of the most intense upper body workout I've ever had. But alas, so as not to feel entirely defeated, David, Elena and I hiked to the falls (another 4 hour workout) and were victorious. When we got back David and I made some pumpkin masks for the masquerade ball at the pub (his idea). The prize for wearing a mask was a free drink, not sure if it was totally worth the effort.

I've been joining Mom and Dad at church and singing in the choir with them. Last Sunday we sang 8 or 9 songs in a concert after the worship service. Learning 8 or 9 songs from one choir practice was a bit of a stretch for me, but thankfully Dad was singing tenor as well and drowned me out on any of the notes I missed.

Later that Sunday I finally got to experience a "driveway party" that I had heard so much about. This particular driveway party was planned ahead of time, but Mom says if you stand out in the driveway on a nice day with a drink in hand, no fail, people come out and start to accumulate.
We ate sausages (which New Zealanders eat on buttered bread, not hot dog buns), pavlova, bread pudding, meatballs, and drank lots of beer.

Last night I caught a bus downtown and met up with David (from Paihia) for some drinks. We hit up a few clubs, danced a lot, drank a bit, and I ended up crashing at his place as the buses don't run that late and I had no way to get home till the morning.

Tomorrow we're all going to Rotorua for a solid dose of Maori culture and geothermal geysers, and next weekend we're flying down to Wellington for a couple days where I'll get to attend my very first rugby match.

More to come ...

May 18 = Europe Day

When the kids were growing up, we liked to invent holidays: November 1st was Annual Pumpkin Throwing Day (we'd throw the mouldy jack-o-lanterns from the deck into the wheelie bin below). We had Cookie Dough Day (guess whose idea that was) in March, and T-Bone Day in January. April 12th was Titanic Day, in honour of one son's obsession. And May 18th was Europe Day.

Most people from Washington State
(like us) would normally associate the day of May 18th with Mt. St Helens' eruption on May 18, 1980. But our family departed for an six-week trip to Europe on May 18, 1995 and preferred to commemorate that journey. So every May 18th, we would get out the photo album, watch the old home movies, or read the journals we wrote. We'd ooh and aah at Dwaad's sketches, and reminisce about the food, the sights, and the people we had encountered.

This year, I sent the boys a digital photo presentation about Europe Day which you can view by clicking 'PLAY' below.
Happy Memories.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sir Ed and me

Sir Edmund Hillary has died.
In this small country, where there seems to be 3 degrees of separation instead of 6, everyone has a connection to Sir Ed, as he is affectionately called. Here are mine:
• I can't claim to have ever met him, but he lived about 2 miles away and I drive by his house every day on my way to work, if that counts.
• His casket was driven to the cemetery at the end of my street.
• His wife was an Old Girl (alumni) of my school, and their daughter attended my school until age 16 when both perished in a plane crash in Nepal on a visit to see Ed. That was 30 years ago. There is still a Nepalese painting hanging in the school library, donated in honour of Louise and Belinda Hillary.
• My next-door neighbour was acquainted with Sir Ed and more specifically his (second) wife, June: June's sister worked for my neighbour, so they would all get together for a BBQ or whatever. Imagine, Sir Ed has been next door for a sausage sizzle.

Besides admitting to having only the slightest connection between Sir Ed and me, I can also admit to a dearth of similarities between Sir Ed and me.
Ed climbed Mt. Everest, the highest mountain in the world.

I climbed Rangitoto, a volcanic island in Auckland's harbour.




After conquering Everest, he said "We knocked the bastard off"
After huffing and puffing to the top of Rangitoto, I said "Who's idea was this?"

It must have taken Ed days/weeks/months to

travel by ship to India, then over land to Nepal, then walked to Base Camp, Camp 1, etc. until he got to the top.

I had a pleasurable forty-five minute ferry ride from Auckland, and hiked for a few hours.

Ed wore crampons on his boots.

I wore Teva sandals.

The temperature was below zero when Ed climbed Mt. Everest.

It was about 15ºC/60ºF when I hiked Rangitoto.

During his climb, Ed probably said encouraging things like, "Keep going, we can do it!"

During my hike I complained and belly-ached and said things like, "I'm too old for this!"

Ed was 33.

I was 50.

Ed had trouble breathing because of the altitude.

I had trouble breathing because I was out of shape.

From the top of Everest, Ed had a view of everything on Earth.

From the top of Rangitoto, I had a gorgeous view of Auckland and the Hauraki Gulf.

Back at Camp 4, Ed and Tenzig probably had a cuppa tea.

On Rangitoto, I drank bottled water. It was ice cold, and very refreshing.

Afterwards, part of the mountain was named after him: the Hillary Step.

I got nothing.

Here's what I like about Sir Ed: It's not that he was the first to reach the top of Mt. Everest, or raced to the South Pole, or gave all his money to the needy in Nepal. No, it's that he went to palaces and mansions, met royalty and millionaires and - as he described it - never saw much to envy, let alone emulate. I like that he's called Sir Ed. Most of all, I am impressed that his name is listed in the phone book under "Hillary, Sir Edmund." That says everything about him and about this country.

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.

Mueseum/ Mother's Day

We had another busy weekend with Nolan and Erica. Saturday we went to the Auckland Museum. Sunday was Mother's Day. Then my birthday was 2 days after that. Busy week.

1. We went to the Auckland Museum, a huge building with a brand new dome addition. I always get lost in there. The museum's displays include nature, culture and history, but Erica liked the nature stuff the best (naturally). There were all sorts of plants and animals, including fish. There were also plenty of gross-looking bugs. Nolan liked the wetas the best (naturally). There was even a giant stuffed moa - an ostrich-sized flightless bird that was hunted to extinction once humans arrived. We all liked the Maori display, especially the giant waka (canoe) and the elaborately carved marae (meeting house) that you could walk into (if you take your shoes off first). I liked the historical displays (naturally) about WWI, Gallipoli, and WWII. It was only 2.5 weeks since ANZAC Day, and there were still wreaths on the memorials and red poppies affixed to the marble wall listing lost soldiers' names.

Everyone's favourite, however, was the volcano exhibit. Curt and I are from Washington, the home state of Mt St Helens, so we have a long history with volcanoes. In 1980, we heard the BOOM, even though we were 200 miles away from the big blast. Then from 2001-2005, we had a great view of Mt St Helens out the picture window of our house in Portland where we could watch the mountain every time it decided to wake up and spew some more, which happened every 6-12 months.

In the museum's exhibit, we sat in a fake living room while watching fake news of an impending eruption in Auckland's bay. The news showed people evacuating the city, and experts evaluating the latest seismograph. There was footage of steam coming out of the bay, and then there was a huge KABOOM! The fake living room shook and nearly scared the pants off me. The lights went out and the TV screen went black. Looking out the living room's fake window, you could see the eruption, the destruction, and the ash. It was quite realistic and rather sobering. Auckland is built on 50 volcanic cones, after all.

After getting our thrills at the museum, we went to Devonport for fish and chips, with a slight detour to Devonport Chocolates (naturally). And another detour for crappuccinos (naturally).

2. Sunday was Mother's Day, which (naturally) is not a very big deal around our house because Curt doesn't want to make any holiday a big deal. He doesn't get me a present or a card or anything. (This explains why I was determined to make my 50th birthday a bigger deal by buying tickets to Fiddler on the Roof and by planning a party for myself.) Happily, this year Mother's Day was a little more special than usual because Nolan and Erica were here. I made them come to church because it was Mother's Day. Lots of people wanted to talk with them afterwards. Everyone at church always makes them feel special. That evening, Erica made salmon for dinner and it was excellent (naturally). And they got me a card. Then we watched Heavenly Creatures, which is a great NZ film, but probably not a good choice for Mother's Day because the characters in the movie kill their mother. I just hope Nolan doesn't get any ideas.

Our 2nd Son is our 1st Houseguest!

TUESDAY:
Our #2 son, Nolan (a.k.a. Best Bud), and his girlfriend, Erica (a.k.a. Buckwheat), arrived in NZ this morning and will stay for two months. Nolan just graduated with a degree in Philosophy and French, and Erica graduated with a degree in Environmental Science. The trip to NZ is their graduation present from us.

Curt and I took the morning off so we could pick them up at the airport. On the way home from the airport, Curt decided to try a "shortcut" which quickly became an "adventure." We still get lost in this city, which seems to have an aversion to a normal parallel grid street system, preferring their streets to be meandering and illogically organised.

Nolan and Erica had been flying for the last 18 hours, so they took showers and naps while Curt and I returned to work. Except Curt hopped on his bike and rode off with my car keys AGAIN so I couldn't return to work right away. I had to wait for him to bring the keys back home 30 minutes later. Brother. Both of our cars were sitting in the driveway, but both sets of keys were in Curt's pocket. WHY DOES HE NEED SO MANY KEYS WHEN HE'S RIDING A BIKE?!?

Later, when Nolan and Erica woke up, they called me at work 3 times to find out 1. where the nail clippers were (in the jewellery box), 2. where the nearest cash machine was (turn right at the end of our street) , and 3. whether we locked our door (yes). I like getting lots of calls at work. It makes me feel needed. But I kept wishing I was home with them instead of at work.

Curt and I both got home at 5:30 and we took them for a walk along St. Heliers beach while our dinner was cooking in the oven. It was a nice way to introduce NZ to them.

WEDNESDAY:
I took Nolan driving after work today, his first time driving on the "wrong" side of the road. He did pretty well, and just needs more practice getting used to the gearshift on the left, and figuring out the roundabouts. We drove a few circles around the neighbourhood, which also helped them learn their way around. I made Erica mapigate us back home.


THURSDAY:
Nolan and Erica drove the car to the nearby train station and took the train downtown. Driving and parking downtown is NOT a good idea for beginner drivers. They found a nice market and had a good time even though it was raining most of the day. That evening, we took them to a new shopping mall and looked at wool sweaters for Nolan and rain jackets for Erica. Nolan really wants a wool sweater from New Zealand, where wool is our biggest export. After all, this country has 4 million people and 40 million sheep!


SATURDAY:
Today we decided to go on a little day trip to Rangitoto Island, a dormant volcano in Auckland's Hauraki Bay. It's the youngest of about 50 volcanic cones and craters in the Auckland area. We drove and parked downtown, which turned out to be a bad idea even for us experienced drivers (we had a few Adventures looking for a car park). We also wandered through another market, looking at wool sweaters for Nolan. Then we caught a ferry out to Rangitoto and enjoyed the 45-minute ride, the view and the sunshine. At least it wasn't raining today.

There's a variety of trails on the island and we'd chosen the 1-hour (2 km) hike to the summit so we could be back at the dock in time for the return ferry. The hike was harder/longer than I thought ... maybe because I'm turning 50 in a few weeks? Or maybe because we gained 259 meters (850 ft) in elevation? But I charged ahead - with a lot of complaining on the way such as, "I'm too old for this!" - and made it to the top. We were all really sweaty and got a good workout! Erica especially likes the scientific and nature stuff like black volcanic rocks all around and exotic birds & plants. She even takes pictures of lichen.

After the ferry ride back to the city, we drove home and stopped on the way at Fishmonger for authentic fish-n-chips take-away wrapped in paper. Mmmm.

The last thing to do that evening was read the paper while Curt gave me a foot rub. Ahhh.




SUNDAY:
Nolan and Erica went to church with us. I made Erica drive us there while I mapigated. It was her first time on the motorway. They're both getting the hang of it fine.

Everyone in the choir was excited to meet them, and during the service the choir director went up to the microphone and introduced them to the whole congregation. Nolan doesn't really like church very much, but kept busy doing an Easter word search that was on the children's page. They both enjoyed talking to people after church during tea. They said afterwards that it was the most they'd talked to Kiwis since they'd been here.

After church, our neighbour came over hurriedly to ask me to watch their two little boys while he took his wife to hospital for x-rays. She'd fallen off her bike when their dog darted in front to chase ducks. I had fun hanging out with their kids while Curt, Nolan, and Erica went grocery shopping. Nolan predicted that he'd be able to get Curt to buy all sorts of crap since I wouldn't be there. Just like old times. They also went to the top of One Tree Hill to see a nice view of Auckland and how it's laid out. Eventually everyone came home successfully - Annette's arm wasn't broken but in a sling anyway. Nolan didn't talk Curt into buying too much crap.

Nolan and Erica are leaving tomorrow for 4 days in Rotorua. They'll get to see geysers, hot thermal springs, Maori performances, etc. And I'm sure they'll have lots of "adventures."

Rotorua: geysers, woodcarvers, kiwi birds, & Maori performance

It was time for another vacation. Hey, it's summer! And I don't have to go to work until Feb 2 so the way I see it, this is my chance to see the rest of the country. :)

This time we decided to drive down the center of the island on our way to Wellington, the capital city.

Our first stop was Rotorua, also known as RotoVegas or Rottenrua. It's a geothermal area with lots of geysers and boiling mud pools and dormant (we hope) volcanoes. But it's a little stinky with a sulfur smell. It's also been infested with tons of other touristy things to do. Here in NZ, thrill-seeking adventures are very popular, so many of the activities involve speedboats, sky diving, ziplines, zorb ball, and of course bungy jumping, which was invented by the Kiwis. Curt and I elected to pass on all the thrill rides and went for something far more educational: geothermal activity with a touch of Maori culture.




We went to a complex called Te Puia and saw bubbling oozing mud ...










... and geysers shooting 100 feet into the air. You could feel the heat radiating up from the ground through your shoes!










Te Puia is also the home of the national woodcarving school, a skill much-prized in the Maori culture. We got to see some of the students working on large totem-pole-sized carvings, and smaller ones that were about the size of a shoebox.

There's also a kiwi bird exhibit at this complex. The kiwi is the (unofficial?) national bird. It's nocturnal, and endangered so you don't see them very often. Like many birds in NZ, they're flightless. Since there were no mammals anywhere in NZ there were no predators, so over the centuries many birds lost their ability to fly. They don't even have wings anymore. Kiwis have just a body with feet. It's funny. But cute. I was excited that we finally got to see a real live kiwi!



The highlight of our visit was the Maori performance. First, a warrior comes out to "greet" our leader. (Our leader was a visiting Australian serviceman dressed in camoflage fatigues.) The warrior's greeting isn't meant to be hospitable - it's meant to intimidate the visitor. Our leader is instructed NOT to flinch, not to smile and not to laugh while the warrior tries to scare him, even when he sticks out his tongue and bulges his eyes. A few weeks ago, a Dutch tourist smirked and the warrior got upset that he wasn't taking his ceremony seriously enough so he head-butted him! He broke his nose and gave him 2 black eyes. He lost his job and was recently sentenced to community service. Even though this happened at a different location, we were VERY careful to be respectful and not to laugh.

After the welcome ceremony, we took off our shoes and went inside an intricately carved marae (meeting house) for the cultural performance. They sang Maori songs and did dances and the men performed the haka, a famous war dance that NZ's national rugby team (the All Blacks) does before every game to try to intimidate the opposing team.

Overall, we spent 4 hours at Te Puia and it was worth it!