New Zealand Flag

After watching the America’s Cup, I got interested in the NZ flag, which was on the NZ yacht. I haven’t seen it much around here – not like in Kansas, where many people have a flag displayed somewhere around their house. But I thought it would be nice to learn a bit about it, so here is what I found out.

The background is blue to signify the blue sea and sky, which are prominent in the views here. The four stars are apparently in the shape of the Southern Cross, because that constellation is over the South Pacific. And, of course, the Union Jack in the corner is because NZ was a British colony. That all seems nice and simple to me, and it makes for a pretty flag.

Manawatu Gorge Pictures

Despite the rain, we decided to explore Manawatu Gorge today. It's about an hour away from Whanganui, near Palmerston North, where the Becker-Harris family lived. We don't have a car yet, but J's colleague Lionel very kindly invited us to come along with him, which was great. He is pleasant company, and we wouldn't have been able to go without him. 

This is the view driving into the gorge.

On the outside top of the high edges of the gorge are a multitude of wind turbines. 

Across the gorge from the highway are the railroad tracks. Just as we were debating whether or not they were still in use, this little train came chugging along the tracks.

After driving through the gorge, we came back to the start, parked the car, and got out to walk. The rain that had been a mild distraction in the car was a bit of a problem once we were outside, but we decided to ignore it and get going on our hike.

This is right after we walked into the gorge, looking back out towards the entrance. I liked the plant up at the frond, because it made me think of Kansas wheat, juxtaposed onto a very lush, green, NZ scene.

We picked a trail up through the forest on one side of the gorge. It leads up to a scenic lookout. The following pictures are of our hike.

This is the lookout at the end of our trail. Definitely worth the hike!

Moving is Hard

Our plan for this weekend, which was to go hiking about an hour away from Whaganui with one of J’s colleagues, has been ruined (so far) by the weather. Rude. It has been rather unbelievably windy, with occasional torrential downpours, which only last about five minutes, but are pretty impressive.

We decided to take advantage of the weekend in town by going shopping for the rest of the household items we needed (towels, dishes, sheets, etc.). We spent a lot of time trying to find the best deals, the most ethical brands, and things that are not made in China. We were happy to find that quite a large proportion of items are Made in NZ (compared to American-made products in America), but it seems like anywhere you go in the world, everything comes from China. So we searched and searched, and finally ended up with almost everything we needed from stores/brands/places that we felt good about. But it was way more work that we wanted it to be. Sometimes it was exciting, to find something we knew we would enjoy in our new house, or a really good deal. But mostly it was frustrating, going through things that were wrong for one reason or another, and not being able to find the right stuff. And the worst part of it all, for me, was that I HATE buying things! I hate spending money, I hate the fact that we need to own so much stuff, and I hate seeing all the unethical options that are out there. We got through the day, with me getting increasingly appalled at our bags of stuff. But then we got back to the hotel and brought everything in, and it really isn’t that much stuff, considering that it is all the essentials for our house, and it fits in one little corner of the hotel room. I feel better about it, although I have similar useless guilt about these things as I do about the furniture. But I can no more go without plates than I can without a bed, so I will have to deal with it.

On a separate note, things are extremely expensive here. Not everything, but many things. Sheets, for example, are usually around $100.00 for a set, and $15.00 to $30.00 for ONE pillowcase! I have a hard time understanding that. Tools are also quite expensive, but that is true in the States as well.

Throughout this whole process, J and I comforted ourselves and each other by reaffirming that we are never going to move again.  Not exactly something we can promise, but we are both tired of the whole process, and ready to settle in for the long term. We both felt that we had barely finished the moving and settling in process in Canada when we moved out and started all over again, and then we spent so very long in transition before we came here. All of this, plus the overwhelmingly positive experience we have had in Whanganui so far, makes us eager to grow roots.

In conclusion, after hours of home-stuff shopping, J and I were utterly exhausted and fed up, but also quite satisfied with our purchases. We are also happy that we have everything ready to move into our house, so that when the day finally comes, it will actually feel like moving in, rather than just putting our suitcases in yet another bedroom. So we came back to the hotel and are watching movies and relaxing together. Which is nice, and makes me really look forward to lots of quiet evenings in our new house.

Jade Necklaces

J and I have a long history with these necklaces. I had a lovely bone necklace that I got when I was in Hawaii. While I was there, I also learned a Native Hawaiian tradition that you buy a necklace for a loved one, and you wear it for a while before you give it to them. If the necklace is bone, the colour will change slightly as you wear it, and this is seen as a part of the person’s soul entering the necklace. Then, when it is given as a gift, it is very intimate. Eventually my bone necklace broke, and so I got rid of it.

Then, several summer’s ago, I was away in Connecticut for a summer, working at a YMCA camp. Since we were going to be apart, we decided that it would be nice to buy each other necklaces, wear the other person’s over the summer, and then exchange them when I came back. We did so, (choosing jade over bone for the durability) and that’s how we ended up with these necklaces, which we wear all the time. In Kansas and in Ottawa, we got lots of comments on them, given that they are unique and noticeable. I liked that, because we got to tell the story often.

Now we have moved to NZ, which is where the necklaces are made. I didn’t even realize this until several days after we arrived, when I noticed that I had seen quite a lot of necklaces like ours. Then it hit me; they are a part of the culture here, and people wear them to express their Kiwi heritage! Which is wonderful, but makes me a bit uncomfortable. Here I am, no Kiwi heritage at all – I’ve only been in the country for a couple weeks – wearing their necklace. It makes me feel like I’m pretending, or like I’m a rather insensitive tourist. Neither of which is really what I’d like, especially because they have such a special meaning to us. No one has commented on our necklaces (which is reasonable, since they look just like everyone else’s), and I think that if they did, they would be happy for our story behind them, and not be bothered at all. But it still makes me a bit nervous. Plus, I liked the fact that they were unique before, and it’s a bit of a pity to lose that. I have to confess that I did not foresee this particular issues. Who’d have thought that we would blend in better with mainstream style in NZ than in Kansas or Ottawa?

What is your name again?

This week, I have spent time in several preschools/child care centres around Whanganui. I have had a wonderful time, and have treasured every moment with the children here. But I have had one big problem: names.

There are four major things that are preventing me from learning and remembering the children’s names.

1)   Child Pronunciation – Often children do not fully pronounce some sounds or replace them with other sounds. Because I spend so much time with time with children, this is not usually much of a problem for me. But it can definitely throw me off sometimes.

2)   Kiwi Accent – As I mentioned before, names are one of the hardest things to figure out in a new accent, because there is no context, and names can be anything. What is fascinating, though, is that the children want me to say it with my accent. For example, a girl told me her name was “Tylah” (which sounds like some Maori names). After several rejected attempts at repeating it back, I got to “Taylah,” but she was still not satisfied. Finally, I realized that she meant “Taylor,” and she was thrilled. But me saying “Taylor,” with the hard American ‘a’ and the heavy ‘r’ at the end sounds NOTHING like the way she says it. So how does she know that that’s how I need to say it?

The ‘r’ (or not) at the end of names has caused me endless problems. In addition to Taylor, I met “Rivah,” which I assumed was “River,” but no, it’s “Riva.” But if it was “River,” they would have said it the same way. Same story with a girl whose name I thought was “Pepper,” but it is actually “Pippa.” It is crazy to me that those are homonyms in Kiwi.

3)   Maori Names – I am so excited to learn Maori, and I want so badly to start out on the right foot and to be culturally sensitive, and it KILLS me to not be able to understand and use Maori names. But they’re so hard. There are names like “Ihia” which sounds like all vowels to me, and most of them have more vowels than I am used to. They have a sort of tongue-clicking sound for ‘r’s sometimes, and I think that’s why it comes across as a ‘d’ to someone who isn’t used to it.  I am trying so hard with them, but it will take time.

4)   Numbers – In the centres I have visited so far, there are 20 or more children in each classroom, with several classrooms per centre. So the sheer number of names to remember is a big overwhelming right at the beginning.

So the overall message is that I ask children to repeat their names for me a LOT. And if they can spell them, that’s extra nice. Fortunately, children love spelling their names to show of that they know how, so I have been capitalizing on that lately. I am determined to keep working on learning and using children’s names as quickly as possible, but it is definitely a struggle.

The America's Cup

From the very first day we arrived in NZ, the buzz about town has been the America’s Cup. I thought this was a bit odd, given that I am, in fact, from America and had never heard of its Cup. A bit of investigation revealed that said Cup – a yachting trophy – got its name from a boat called the America, which was the first boat to ever win it. Seems like it would have been neater if that hadn’t also been the name of a country, but no one consulted me at the time. Actually, it is the oldest international sporting trophy, which is cool.

Apparently, each year one yacht club challenges the previous year’s champion. The first team to get to nine wins takes home the cup. This year, Emirates Team NZ challenged Oracle Team USA (both named for their biggest sponsors, of course). When we got here, NZ was trouncing Oracle (this is how the announcers refer to them – NZ and Oracle. Not very consistent, but again, no one consulted me). So everyone was all jazzed up and excited for NZ to bring it home. But then Oracle hired an Olympic goal medalist as their new tactician (a bit shady, in my opinion, to change in the middle), and things changed. Oracle won six races in a row, which made it a tie – eight wins on both teams. Then, this morning, Oracle won the match point and took home the Cup again. Quite a let down, actually, for those of us who have already embraced our Kiwi-dom (a.k.a. J and I).

So, in addition to learning that yacht racing is a sport, I actually watched quite a few races. They’re on first thing in the morning here, so I can watch them as I’m getting ready. I was surprised at how interesting they were, and how quickly I was sucked in. Of course, I think a lot of my motivation to watch was so that I would have something moderately intelligent to say about the races, because almost everyone was talking about it. People in all the shops, J’s colleagues at work, people at the hotel. Apparently, lots of people were late to work so that they could watch, and that was pretty much accepted as a good reason.

So then I am left wondering… do lots of Americans care about yacht racing, and I am just oblivious? Or is it, perhaps, more popular closer to where it happens (these races were in San Francisco)? Or is it just not a big deal in the States? It’s funny to have all these questions about home, now that I’m so far away.