Dad and I in New Plymouth

Not surprisingly, Dad wanted to see the city where we would be moving in about a month (I can't believe it's so soon). That worked out great, because I wanted to show him around a bit, and I also wanted to go and visit the kindergarten to which I was applying. We went over to New Plymouth in the middle week of his trip.

We left fairly early in the morning, as it is a bit over two hours away, and I had an appointment at the kindy (kindergarten) at 10:00. It was sunny in Whanganui, but the closer we got to New Plymouth, the rainier it got. I was not pleased with this development, for two reasons; 1) I wanted to take Dad walking on the Coastal Walkway, and 2) it was not helping me in my efforts not to believe people who told me it rained all the time in New Plymouth. Someone at work told me, "If you can see the mountain (through the clouds), it's about to rain, and if you can't see the mountain, it's raining." Yay. Not.

Anyway, I dropped Dad off at the library in torrential rain, and headed to kindy for a visit. I am determined to spare myself the internal turmoil of trying to tell you about a place at which I may never have a job, so don't ask. I picked Dad back up during more torrential rain, and after getting soaked to the bone trying to pay the damn parking meter, we found a lovely little restaurant for lunch. It was a seafood place, and we had wonderful meals.

The best part came after the meal. The nice lady who had served us gave us marshmallow chocolate fish (seafood, you know), and I told her that they were my husband's favourite, and that he would be jealous that he'd missed out. She laughed as she took our dishes away. Then, as we were heading out the door, she brought me a little bag and said, "Some fish for your husband, so he doesn't have to be jealous." How sweet is that? J and I will definitely become regulars at that restaurant!

As we finished eating, the rain slowed to just the slightest drizzle, and we decided to risk a stroll on the Coastal Walkway. I will probably post more about it sometime, but here is the short version - it is 10km (6.2mi) long, all the way across the coast of New Plymouth (which is right at the edge of downtown). As you will see in my pictures, parts of it are along the beach, and other parts are by huge rocks, but all of it is beautiful. New Plymouth has won awards for being cycle-friendly, and it is a big part of why.

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There is this crazy/amazing, HUGE piece of arty science on the walkway. For a bit of perspective, notice the person standing next to the fence (to the left) that looks like a dot. This thing is made of super strong but fairly flexible fibreglass, and is actually a "wind wand" that shows which way the wind is blowing. Apparently, New Plymouth is a very appropriate place for such a piece of art, as it is usually quite windy there. That is true of most of NZ, really.

Despite the grey skies, it was a lovely walk. I had fun hopping from rock to rock.

Dad and I were fascinated by the way the rock cliffs had been shaped and carved over the years. 

Suddenly... blue sky! The wind finally blew some of the clouds away, and out came the sun! Dad looks like a true Kiwi with his sun hat and shorts!

By the time we made it down to the beachy part of the coast, almost all the clouds were gone, and it was a stunning afternoon. We had a lovely walk. I was encouraged to see lots of dogs playing on the beach, and I am excited to take Holly when we move. There are signs that say dogs should be on leashes, but not one dog we saw was on one, so perhaps it is not very important.

I had been telling Dad before we drove to New Plymouth how cool it was that you could see Mount Taranaki from anywhere in town. Well, no such luck when it was raining, but we got an awesome view from the beach when the clouds moved a bit! Perhaps it is my Kansan experience of endless prairies, but it is still crazy to me that I can have my feet in the ocean and see a mountain. It will be even more phenomenal when it has snow on the top, as it apparently usually does.

Also, I made sure to get that tree in the picture - another one of Dad's and my favourite kind. Isn't it neat how the branches only grow at certain heights, and all the way around the truck at those particular heights? 

On the way back through town, we ended up on a hill, and got a little bit closer view of Mount Taranaki. Pretty neat, hey? It is still classified as an "active" volcano, but it hasn't done anything exciting in a very long time, so no worries.

Dad in Whanganui

Well, all good things must come to an end. Dad went home on Tuesday after an amazing three weeks that went by WAY too fast. I believe I can safely say that he had a wonderful time. Dad has the amazing ability to see the positive of every situation, so it's pretty safe to say that he usually has a wonderful time. But still. It was a good trip. He got to see some very beautiful bits of NZ, and I got to spend wonderful time with him. Dad always sees the best in me, and always thinks my qualities outshine my flaws, no matter how much of a fight my flaws put up. And that feels pretty nice. I am so lucky to have been raised by such a kind person, and privileged to have him as a confidant and friend as an adult. I am also lucky that he is now a professional at using Skype, and so I don't have to miss him too terribly much. 

On a less mushy note, I thought I'd share some pictures of last Thursday, which we spent exploring some pretty places around Whanganui. It was a great day - we only planned a few things, so we walked slowly and enjoyed taking our time to have great conversations and absorb all the beauty around us.

The first thing we did was visit a local apiary (I just learned that that means "a place where you keep bees"). It is called Canaan Honey, and it is in a very beautiful area full of flowers. Actually, they have hives all over town and out in the country that they travel around to take care of. Anyway, I didn't take any pictures, because they were actually closed when we went because they were extracting. It turned out to be a blessing, because they let us come in, and Dad and John (the beekeeper) had a wonderful conversation about beekeeping in different parts of the world, and all the things they love about bees. We are so glad we went.

Next, we went to the Kai-Iwi Beach and the Botanic Gardens, both of which were lovely. I did take plenty of pictures, so here they are.

This is the entrance to the Botanic Gardens.

These stairs are part of the "Friendship Garden" through which we walked. I love the bright, smooth pottery.

When we got to the bottom of the stairs and walked around the bottom of the hill a bit, this was the view of the side of it.

This is a bit of a side note, but bear with me - I think that this is the kind of tree that we found the centre of on the beach. I know I already include a picture, but I actually took this one myself, so it's better.

This is what you see if you go underneath it and look up. I think that the top part of the trunk already looks like what we saw on the beach, and that's probably because it used to have fronds growing out of it, but they've fallen off.

This is what I would call a "moss garden," although there is probably a better word for it. It's definitely beautiful, though.

Dad and I were impressed by the dazzling white of this tree. I find it less impressive in the picture, so you'll have to imagine it a brighter white!

As for Kai-Iwi Beach, I've been there lots of times (and am shocked and delighted every time that I live that close to the beach), but I noticed new things walking with Dad, which was very fun. Dad is good at seeing the beauty in everything, and there is plenty of beauty at the beach.

One of the cool things about Kai-Iwi is the cliffs. I have noticed them before, but Dad pointed out all the beautiful layers in the rock. We even figured out that some of the layers are clay, and it's no wonder they are eroding away, because they're not strong at all. I took a "rock" of clay home, and I'm going to bring it to Noah's Ark for the children to explore. They will be surprised to find out what happens when they rub it with wet fingers!

We also noticed several springs of clear water flowing down from the side of the cliffs. And at the very bottom, tidy little holes in the sand that the drops of water had created. We thought this was very neat, but then...

... we discovered this! We're not sure, but it looks like those little drops of water may have carved out holes right into this huge rock! (Hard to get perspective, but it is half as tall as I am.) 

Dad also noticed this canyon/landslide area, which he explored a bit. I love this picture of him - you can so clearly see the wonder he feels towards the magnificence of nature. And you can understand why!

Dad's Noah's Ark Visit

Dad's visit continues to be pleasant and fun. We have done quite a bit of exploring this beautiful country, as well as spending time with friends and enjoying all the nice things in Whanganui.

At this point, if you were to ask Dad what his favourite part of his trip has been, he would tell you that the best "event" was visiting Noah's Ark with me. We have gone twice, once just for about half an hour with Holly (which was great), and then again the next week to read some books with the children and stay for several hours to play. We read two "Elephant and Piggie" books by Mo Willems. They are funny and charming, and perfect because Dad could read Elephant and I could read Piggie. Both children and teachers loved the books, and we had a lot of fun doing it. (Note: Please go to the library and check out an Elephant and Piggie book. They are wonderful.)

Notice our appropriately coloured clothing!

Dad is naturally good with children, and they were thrilled to play with him. He was particularly impressed with their carpentry skills. We have hammers, nails, and saws available to the children every day, and we have several 3- and 4-year-olds who can independently nail two pieces of wood together, and hit the nail almost every time when they are hammering. Quite a feat, we think!

On a related note, I thought I would share this article that was in this week's paper. If you click on the picture, I believe it will be big enough to read the print. It is hilarious to me that there is such a long section about my feelings about moving to NZ, which is not related to Noah's Ark's celebration. When the reporter asked me about it, I thought that he was just being friendly. Oops. At least I didn't say anything derogatory about NZ or the USA!

 On a less related note, Dad and I supported the NZ Dairy industry several times this week. This particular time, he got boysenberry and I got raspberry lemon (a deviation from my very consistent trend of passionfruit). Delicious!

Note: Dairy here has two meanings; 1) our ice cream, being created from milk, and 2) the convenience store, or "Dairy" in Kiwi.

Tomorrow, we are going to do a day of tramping (hiking) and canoeing to experience Whanganui's own "Bridge to Nowhere" (more on that later). Then, we are headed to Wellington for two days, until Dad flies out of the Wellington airport on Tuesday. 

I will keep posting pictures from our trip every couple days for a while after he leaves, as we have lots and lots of them and rather little time left.

At the Beach with Dad and Holly

Sorry for the long gap between posts. Dad and I have been very busy doing all kinds of fun stuff, and I have continued to be positively busy at work. I have taken some days off while Dad is here, but am still working several days a week. Added to all of this, I have applied for a job in New Plymouth, which is exciting, but also took up a lot of time getting my application ready. So I definitely feel that I have had a full plate lately. Full of good things, but very full.

Last week, (I can't even hazard a guess what day, considering that it feels like years ago), Dad and I went to South Beach. It was a beautiful day, and although it was windy on the beach, it was much less so than usual, which I enjoyed. Dad has been very lucky weather-wise, with lots of sun and not too much wind.

Dad and Holly enjoying the beach. They have become great friends, which is no surprise, since they are both so easy to get along with.

This is a bluebottle jellyfish. They are little and pretty, but I have heard that they can sting if you touch them, and I have not tested that.

Dad found a tiny shell that looks like paua (NZ abalone), and this beautiful starfish. He was surprised to find that a starfish could have 9 legs, but then the next day, we saw a similar one in the museum that had 11!

Can you guess what this is? We thought that it looked like the world's largest pine cone, but we eventually ruled that out.

We think that it is the centre of the top of a palm tree, like the ones in this picture. We see palm trees like this all around NZ (which I love, because they look like fireworks exploding at the top). 

We think that the large centre at the top would look like this if all the branches were gone, because you can still see where all of those huge palm fronds connected. Pretty cool, hey?

This is a freshwater stream that connects to the ocean a ways down the beach. Last time I was there, it was less than half that size, which I think is interesting, because we're in what Kiwis call a drought. 

On the way back, we veered away from the beach and walked among the dunes and scrubby grass, which was also fun. Despite all evidence to the contrary, this picture was taken 20 yards from the ocean. Hard to imagine, but that's how NZ seems to work.

This seems to me to be the Kiwi version of tumbleweed. We saw hundreds of this stiff puffballs in the dunes. They blew easily in the wind, so it seems to be effective. And they are very pretty.

Stay tuned for more of our adventures, coming soon!

More of Dad's Visit

Dad very kindly brought a cool balloon pump and some sculpting balloons. Unfortunately, since they had been "resting" in his cupboard for many years, most of them tended to pop when we blew them up, but we persevered, and had a lovely time.

This is Dad's mystery animal - the first one the we got all the way to a sculpture. We were very proud!

And here is my little dachshund! Isn't she cute?

This is Dad's and my favourite tree in Whanganui. Also, he is just as entertained by the "Give Way" signs as I was, so we included one of those in the picture. 

When Dad went for a walk in the park while I was at work, he noticed this sunscreen dispenser next to the Nursery Rhyme park (of which I have posted pictures). He was impressed (as am I) at this positive way of encouraging people to be sun safe.

Slightly off topic, but isn't my dog pretty? Yes.

We have also been enjoying noticing how beautifully yellow the conifer trees are here. It looks to us like the sun is hitting them just right to light them up like that, but they really grow that vivid yellow. Jan says that some of them are changing because it is starting to be autumn, but some of them are yellow all year round.

Speaking of Jan, we went to visit her at her house in the country today, and had a delightful time. This is us and her dog, Buddy, who is very nice as well.

Jan has seven pet sheep, and she taught us today that sheep love lemons! We went and picked a bunch of them (some that were so big that they looked more like oranges), and fed some of them to the sheep. You can see them all coming up, hoping for a treat.

They would eat right out of Jan's hand, and one came up to Dad for lemons, but they were not impressed with me. Oh well.

Hoping for some more! After they ate them, they licked their lips for a while, which I have never seen a sheep do, ever!

This is Jan's green house (hot house, as they call them here). She has lovely, big tomato plants, so she gives me tomatoes sometimes.

Train to Taihape & Gumboot Festival

On Saturday, Dad, Lionel, and I took a trip on an old coal/steam train to Taihape, which is north of Whanganui. Every year, they have a Gumboot Festival there, and so the train organization scheduled a train trip to take people to it on Saturday, March 8th this year.

This is me and Dad on the train.

Much as we enjoyed our trip, I can't say that I appreciate coal trains in general. Look at that nasty smoke!!

This is the Rangatikei River (remember I wrote about that name awhile ago). Lionel mentioned that it must have been a much bigger river at some point to have carved out those amazing cliffs!

We're not sure where the water is coming from that is flowing slowly down the cliffs, but it is very intriguing looking.

As you may have noticed, the countryside is much less green than it was in my spring (October) pictures. The grass/vegetation gets much more dried out, despite what I still consider ample amounts of rainfall. I have noticed that things are quite dry again very soon after it stops raining, due to the intensity of the sun, so that may have something to do with it.

When we got to Taihape after 2 hours in the train, we headed over to the Gumboot Festival, where the main event is a gumboot throwing competition. If you look, you can spot the gumboot in each picture, and in one of them (which Lionel kindly sent me), you can spot Dad and I as well.

We were amazed at how high and far the gumboots were thrown, even by passersby who just decided to give it a go. Apparently, every year they try to break the world gumboot throwing record, but I don't think they managed to this year.

Before we got back on the train, we walked over to Taihape's famous gumboot statue. It is made of corrugated steel of various colours, and is pretty interesting.

Of course, Dad and I climbed up to the top/heel, which was quite fun. The treads worked pretty well as a ladder, so it wasn't hard.

Lionel opted for a more dignified portrait at the bottom of the gumboot.

We also noticed that sunflowers, despite popular opinion, are not exclusively located in Kansas.

In fact, we saw two beautiful types of sunflowers, and a little girl walking by announced that she was going to take some seeds and grow some at home. Good idea!

I was very amused by all the gumboot related signs and names, but this one was my favourite! I don't know how effective a quilted gumboot would be, but that's okay.

We were pretty tired by the time we got back on the train, but we still had a very nice trip back. We even got to get off the train and explore out in the country. While we were doing this, the train backed up, and then chugged past us so that we could see it in action. Then it backed up again and we were able to get back on.

This is Dad, stretching his legs on a walk up the hilly land as we waited for the train to come back.

We will post more pictures soon.