Christmas, Boxing Day & New Year's in NZ

It is so great to have Ross & Emmy here to celebrate the holidays! They arrived from California on Monday the 22nd, and we have been having heaps of fun together. They are in awe of this beautiful, new, place that we live. Our first afternoon, after a much needed nap, Rob, Ross, and Emmy took a walk around North Head & Cheltenham Beach. I stayed back at the house, sneaking in an extra nap. We also drove up to Albany that afternoon to pick up my custom orthotics from the podiatrist. I have been waiting for these orthotics, since early November, when my left foot flared up with a nasty,neuroma. Ever since I have had the orthotics, it has made an enormous difference in my foot. Walking with pain all the time is not any kind of picnic. So, now I am a happy camper!

Tuesday morning, we all woke up a little slow...Rob had to go off to the office, and I needed to do some grocery shopping. Ross & Emmy got settled in, and then they took our bikes out for a little tour of Devonport. We all met up in the afternoon, and took a ferry over to the big city. Auckland is only 12 minutes by Ferry from Devonport. The Christmas shoppers were bustling about, collecting their last minute gifts. We were on the lookout for the famous, Auckland, Santa figure that beckoned all with his crooked finger while one of his eyes was supposed to blink at you. His one eye bulged out unnaturally, as his other eye was slightly sunken and looking off to the side. He was fastened on the corner of Whitcoul's, a stationary store. Locals here say that this Santa has caused quite a stir in recent years as he looked a little on the perverse side. Once we saw the Santa, I would have to confer that he did indeed look a little suspicious. As we headed up Victoria Street, it began to sprinkle. We were looking to check out the famous Sky Tower. Hoping to make a reservation for dinner in one of the two restaurants at the top, but they were fully booked. When we came out of the Sky Tower, the little drizzle had turned to a torrent of rain...and we were completely unprepared for any kind of heavy rain...so we ducked & covered as best we could as we made our way back to the ferry. We were all completely soaked through by the time we walked from the ferry building to the house. Thankfully we have a little gas fire place, and soon we were being warmed by the fake, glowing coals...

Christmas Eve, and the rain was still pounding away...a good day to take a walk around our village & gather all the last minute stuff for Christmas Dinner. There is a local butcher here, and we had ordered a ham...actually the very first ham we have ever ordered. Emily was thrilled that we would be getting ham, and not missing Papa's Christmas ham at Sheila's house. Although...I think Papa & Sheila do something different with the glaze than I did. Never having made a glaze, or heated a ham in my life, I asked the lady at the butcher for a recipe, and she gave me a very simple glaze to make & baste on the ham as it heated. The ingredients were brown sugar & orange marmalade...not ham with hundreds of cloves, but it did turn out to be very tasty!

Christmas Day was a picture, perfect postcard for how beautiful it is here in NZ. The harbour was mirror like, with just the slightest breeze. We packed up a picnic & drove out to the west coast to a beach called Piha Beach. Piha Beach is on the Tasman Sea, and at times can be very rough. Christmas Day, the weather was perfect at Piha, and we were able to picnic in the dunes and walk the beach with minimal wind. There is a huge monolithe, called Lion's Rock that Rob, Ross & Emmy climbed up for a 360 degree view of the area. I stayed off this rock, as I am still having some issues with my knee that I had surgery on in September. I think this knee surgery has taken a lot longer to fully heal than I was lead to believe...We came home to Devonport in the late afternoon & decided to play Petanque, on the shell path infront of our house. Petanque is the french version of bocce ball. We decided to play individual teams, and I took the game! Yay for me! We have since played teams of two, and Rob & I won the 2 out of 3 match against the kids. All the while we are playing petanque, the sail boats, power boats, ferries, & cargo ships are passing by in front of us. Rob & Emily got Christmas dinner to the table, and we ate dinner by the lights of our little fake xmas tree that came from Rob's office party completely decorated. We sort of borrowed this little tree, as everyone was off work until January 5, 2009. It still did not feel like Christmas at all...not cold enough, and not all the family gatherings to attend. However, our Christmas was a very, quiet, reflective, and enjoyable time being together as our own little family unit.

Boxing Day is almost more of a holiday here in NZ than Christmas Day, and it follows just one day later. I still have no clue what the significance of Boxing Day is, but the whole country is on holiday, and nothing is open except restaurants & retail stores. Maybe Jenny, or Colin, can help educate me as to the significance of this day? Apparently you can get all kinds of bargains at the big stores. We took a ferry ride over to the city in the afternoon, looking for those bargains...where was Karen when we needed her? Actually, Emily found some good deals, and Rob found some binoculars that he got an extra 15% off so that when he looks at the ships coming into the port, he can read the words on the side of the ship. I think he may be looking at more than just ships...

Well a lot has happened since Boxing Day! I still have no idea why everyone here celebrates this day...but now we are on to the future...We were invited out to the bush, to spend the night on Sunday, the 28th of December. The bush, as we were to find out was a 2 and a half hour jaunt north...except that they are still working on a faster highway north, and our trip turned into a 4 hour excursion. Thank goodness that Chris, (our friend) gave us his Garmin...otherwise it could have been a 6 or 7 hour trip. We literally went on this road that went dirt FOREVER!! When you are sitting in the back seat you notice every turn and twist..believe me...there were too many turns & twists to remember. After awhile you need to close your eyes to ward off the nauseousness settling in. Finally, we arrived at 'The Hillbilly Inn'... There really is no accurate description of this place at virtually the end of a road to no where. Apparently this was a gun club at one time, and it has since been re-furbished with thrown out furniture from the rubbish dump. Seriously!! There was not one piece of furniture that ever came to this place new...and, it is still there, and it always will be. In fact, there were so many antique containers from the 30's, 40's and 50's along the shelves up high it took me a good long time to see it all. Thankfully, we did have flush toilets, and we also had lights for a short while as a generator was needed to produce that precious electricity. There was an outdoor shower that was heated by a wood stove, and also the water to do dishes was heated by this same stove. So, Chris was busy stoking the fire...even at 4 am he woke, so Jeanette, his partner, could have a nice warm shower at 8am. What a guy! I guess I forgot to mention that as soon as we arrived at this Hillbilly Inn, it began to pour...rain started out like a gentle mist, and soon turned to a torrent of water. We had walked down from our accommodation to see the property owner's collection of Ford cars that went back to easily the 30's or 40's. This guy has so many cars, car parts, hub caps, oil can funnels...he even had a 1950's Shell Station Pump with the office to go with it! I mean...just having made a huge move half way around the world...I was forced to give up a lot of stuff. This guy had the market on stuff...and I felt horrified with how much stuff he really did have. I pity the poor relatives that come in after he passes...Back to our original thoughts...sorry, I got off on a little tangent here...but seriously,there was so much stuff in this guy's place I was boggled to bits!

Originally, we were invited to come to this 'Hillbilly Inn' to visit with our friends, Chris & Jeanette, and tramp in the bush to see the huge Kauri Tree that was on their property. However, with the rain pelting our little inn all night long...patter, patter, patter...all over the corrugated roof...all night long...it was apparent that we were not going to do any tramping through the bush in the morning unless we all wanted to be quite thoroughly covered in mud from head to toe. After a very protein-filled breakfast, we set out to our next destination which was one and a half hours north from where we were at the 'inn'. One thing to note about the main highway, called the 'Northern Motorway'...it is the windingest, twistiest, turniest Motorway that I have ever experienced...and imagine...the wrong side of the road, the wrong side of the car, and very narrow roadway. Hmmn...time to close your eyes, again! And lots of praying starts to happen especially if you are me in the back seat... I am not sure what seat would have been better...I just know that being out of the car is definitely better than being in it.

Finally, when we came to a village called Opua, we boarded a car ferry that would take us over to the Island where we were headed...to the village called Russell. It is still pounding rain, and not looking like we will see sunshine for a good long time. So...normally, you board a car ferry & get out, go above board, and ferry over to your destination. Not apparently on this ferry...you drive on, and stay in your vehicle. It seemed like 2 minutes after we boarded the ferry we were ferrying across the water...and we were! Before 10 minutes passed, we were driving off the ferry on the shore to drive to our destination. Russell, was at one time the capital of NZ.The capital has since moved to Wellington, which is in the south- eastern part of the North Island. We had reservations, thanks to Rob, at 'The Duke of Marlborough',an inn right on the waterfront looking out to the Bay of Islands. This Inn was on 'The Strand'...a tiny, one way street in this little, tiny, town. First we went the wrong way, and thought the inn was a private residence...but after a call to 'The Duke' we found that we were on the opposite end of 'The Strand'. So, off to the other end, and finally, out of the car!

I will have to concede that after we unpacked our car & got a little settled, our hike out to Long Beach was very refreshing. One thing about the Kiwi's...they make walking a priority, and their paths are very well thought out, and very well kept. By the time we started walking over to Long Beach, the clouds were finally parting, and blue sky's & sunshine looked to be the new wave of weather. Thank goodness...Rain gets very tiresome after a while. It was as calm as ever @ Long Beach, and we noticed a cove to the left of us with a tree full of birds. So, we had to figure out how to get over to that cove, which we did, and then we saw the birds. They looked a lot like our Cormorants, except that they were black & white, and these birds were kind of skinnier, with very long necks. We think they were called Gannets, as everyone here always talks about the Gannets..especially on the west coast. I have since figured out that these birds we saw were not gannets...so I will need to ask my friend, Margaret what they are, as she is quite a birder. On our walk back to our inn, the sun was just setting...and the colors were supreme! Sunset was around 8:30...hard to imagine when back in the states darkness falls sometime close to 5:30pm. Still, I am messed up with Winter/Summer...my brain has not accepted that this is Summertime here!

Tuesday morning we awoke to a perfect, calm harbour. Tui birds were singing in the Puhutakowa trees that lined 'The Strand', and all was well with the world. We sat out on the deck of 'The Duke', and had our continental breakfast trying to decide what activity we would participate in...would it be a charter boat to swim with the dolphins?, a charter boat to sail around the Bay of Islands?, a charter boat that was a Pirate Ship, that taught youngsters about the sea?, a day at the beach?, or a tramp in the bush? The final decision was a tramp in the bush, so we set off to go tramping. For all of you who are scratching your heads and wondering what I have been smoking...a tramp in the bush, means in our language, a hike in the woods. Our tramp in the bush turned out to be so spectacular...I have never been in such a fern forest!! There were Ferns, of course, and tea trees, and manuka bush/trees, and all kinds of shrubs & flowers that I recognized, and that I have never seen...pictures will follow this link. The entire time we began our tramp, we were serenaded by cicada bugs. Have you ever heard millions of cicada bugs? At first it is kind of neat, but after a time, you begin to wonder if the bugs are in your ears! Then, they begin to irritate you completely, and make you feel like you have gone mad! They are so loud! We tramped down, down, down to a beautiful cove on the shore. Which meant we had to tramp back up, up, up...the view at the top was amazing! A 360 degree view of gorgeous islands and ocean. Another moment to be pinching oneself! The beauty is quite astounding.

Wednesday morning found us surrounded in thick, dense, fog. It was our day to check out of 'The Duke', and make our way back to our little village of Devonport. Checked out right around 10am and started our journey south, once again on the 'Southern Motorway'. More twists and turns, once again, but thankfully, the traffic was on our side & we were back home in record time. It was, by the way, New Year's Eve, and we did not want to spend our entire day in the car. We had a nice, quiet, re-introduction back to the house...naps, checking in with e-mail & Skype, and lots of laundry.

Then, it was time to make dinner because the kids were planning to go to the city to celebrate with the young crowd. Rob & I were quite happy to stay home, watching the fire works from our front patio @ midnight. About 10 minutes after the kids left for the city, another torrent of rain poured down, just soaking everything. Both kids had left with no excess...and that meant that they left with no jackets/umbrellas, etc...As soon as it poured...it stopped, and once again we could see the Sky Tower in the distance.It seems like even though it is 'Summer' here...we tend to get 4 seasons in one day...and, all Aucklander's will tell you that that is the norm. Rain, certainly does not slow them down...it is just us whimpy, Yanks! They even sail in the rain!! Ross & Emily arrived home just before midnight because they had been turned away at the pubs & clubs in Auckland due to the fact they they only had their Ca. Driver's licenses,not their passports, and Ross was not wearing long pants. Every establishment they tried to get in to turned them away. :( . So, they came home to watch the fireworks with old mom & dad. Our neighbors, Paul & Margaret also came out to view the show at midnight. So we rang in 2009 with fireworks, although, Rob thinks Sonoma's 4th of July fireworks were a better show! It was pretty, and clear at the moment...so a good time was had by all. About 3am, and here came more rain...much more rain, so it made it easy to sleep in on New Year's Day.

January 1, 2009...can it already be a whole month since we left Sonoma? A lot of changes have taken place. If you saw me before we left, you would have known that I was quite wound up over all of this moving stuff. Especially those of you that came over the day before we left...I apologize for my intensity...I was just trying to seal everything up, and I was definitely running out of time. Since we have arrived here, and received our shipment...and even put things away...I have realized how easy it is to operate without all that stuff we have packed away, stored in our garage. The trip to 'The Hillbilly Inn' was a lesson in excess, and it gave me much food for thought. Better to go out in life, experiencing adventure, than to have stuff weigh you down! These are my profound thoughts for the moment. Happy New Year!! I hope this year brings you all a lightness that brightens your path! Cheers!

PS...Photos will post soon...just have to go through the best ones to post a link on Picasa web albums. Could take me a few days...or longer...