The Move to New Plymouth

Well, we officially live in New Plymouth, and so far it has been a positive experience. Of course, there are always difficulties when it comes to moving, but that's how it goes.

We moved all of our things on Saturday, which was quite easy with the movers coming and putting everything in the truck and then unloading it at the new house. Unfortunately, our washer did not fit into the bathroom/laundry room, so we had to get rid of it. Which means that now we have to buy a new one. Yuck. We always hate spending money, but we are particularly bothered by it right now, since we have moved into a more expensive house in a more expensive city, and there is always a cost associated with moving, even when you are lucky enough to have movers paid for. Fortunately, the people at Noel Leeming (a home appliance store) are very nice and are going to deliver the washer and even hang our dryer for us. Here you can set dryers on the floor or hang them from brackets on the wall, but if you hang them, they hang upside down, which I find hilarious. Anyway, it is all being taken care of with little inconvenience other than the loss of some money, which we are trying not to worry about.

Also, within a month, J's boss is going to take back his work car, so we will have to buy another one. I hate the idea of having two cars for two people, but I think it's unavoidable. I will be biking to work and using my car as little as possible, but I can't be in a position where I can't get to work because J has taken our only car. I try to comfort myself with the fact that I actually drive my car very infrequently, but it still feels yucky. Plus, as you can imagine, we are not going to be thrilled to spend all that money!

J keeps telling me, "You have to remember, we are now rich white people who work for the government, so we don't have to worry about spending money." Neither of us are very comfortable with that description of ourselves, but we're trying to use it to decrease stress when we can.

On the bright side, the beaches here are beautiful, and so close to our house! This afternoon, I am picking up a bicycle trailer that I bought from a guy on TradeMe (like US Craig's list or Canadian Kijiji). I am going to use it to take Holly to the beach without having to use my car, and I'm so excited! I think it will take a bit for her to get used to it, but once she does, she will love it! And I will love being more environmentally friendly in my trips to the beach. I think it will be about a 10 minute bike ride.

Another bright side - the New Plymouth library is amazing! I am in it right now, because we don't have internet set up at our house until tomorrow. I will have to post pictures of the library when I get a chance, because it is wonderful. I am particularly pleased, because I didn't like the Whanganui library, and I always thought that was a pity.

Side note: J's and my inaugural night at our new house was spent watching Frozen, for which I have been waiting with bated breath. And I just want to say, to all of you who haven't seen it - Watch it! It is so good! We definitely started off on the right foot in our new house. And just for good measure, I watched it again on Monday while J was at work. And I'll probably watch it again tomorrow.

Goodbye, Whanganui

Well, it is our last day in Whanganui. We are almost all packed, and we found a moving company that will take our things to New Plymouth tomorrow (Saturday) and drop them off. I am so thankful that we will not have to stay in a hotel or mess around with different pick-up and delivery days!

Things have worked out amazingly, actually. We got the moving company sorted, we have a great house to move into, I have an exciting new job, J's job has no night shifts, and we just keep hearing about how amazing New Plymouth is. So all is well in that direction.

Unfortunately, none of that stops me from being very sad to leave Whanganui. I have loved living here, and will miss it.

I said goodbye to all the teachers, parents, and children at Noah's Ark yesterday. I managed to get through the day without totally losing it, but I am feeling bereft at the loss of all of those relationships. I particularly lament the loss of such amazing co-teachers, because it is so special to find a group of people who work so well together and get along so well. The teachers threw me a party on Wednesday evening and gave me some lovely gifts, and some of the parents and children brought me gifts as well! People are so kind here, and I feel both blessed to have known all of them and stupid for leaving them. I told the children that I would do my best to come and visit when I can, so I will have to make that happen.

I went to my Zumba classes this week as well, and the teachers made me promise to come and visit when I can and gave me a free t-shirt! I couldn't believe it. Again, people are just so nice! There are Zumba classes in New Plymouth that I will try, but I just don't think it will be the same.

I also said goodbye to the neighbour kids today, after we played a long game of fetch with Holly. I was surprised at how much it affected them to say goodbye. Bonnie, especially, just kept coming back for hug after hug, and seemed quite sad. I was very sad as well - it has been quite special to be a part of their lives.

Tonight, we are having dinner with Harry, Jonny, Anna, and Ollie at the Spice Guru, which is my favourite restaurant in Whanganui. It will be hard to say goodbye to all of them, although I know that we will visit each other regularly. Still, they are amazing friends, and it is hard to leave amazing friends. (Also, it's is hard to leave amazing food, and I will miss the Spice Guru).

Of course, it is not new to J and I to say goodbye to amazing people and places - we've done it too much, recently. It just seemed like a perfect little spot just opened up for us in Whanganui, and we fit right into it, and are not having to pry ourselves back out, which is quite uncomfortable. However, I am continually reminding myself that things are fitting in quite nicely in New Plymouth already, so I bet we can find a lovely spot there as well.

J and I have talked about it, and we are really going to try to stay in New Plymouth for a long time. We are both tired of moving, and J is particularly desirous of not making me quit any more jobs, because he feels so bad about it. J still wants to move into an epidemiology position in MPI at some point, but that is years in the future, so we have decided to stay in New Plymouth until that opportunity presents itself.

Wish us luck with the move tomorrow. It will be good to officially be moved, so that I can stop all this crazy anticipation and maybe stop feeling pulled in two different directions.

Māori Neighborhood

In less than a week, we will be moving out of our current house, which is in a low-income neighbourhood populated mostly by Māori families. We will be moving into an upperclass neighbourhood, the demographics of which I know nothing about, other than the rather stereotypic assumption that upperclass probably means mostly white.

As we prepare to leave our current neighbourhood, I thought I would share some of our experiences living here.

When we picked this house, lots of people told us that it was an unsafe place to live, because the Māori gangs operated on the street right next to it. In addition, they said it was an undesirable place to live because all of our neighbours would be Māori. We were shocked that they would say such a thing - I guess we thought that even if they were thinking it, they would be too afraid of being labeled racist to actually say it out loud. But they said it, without seeming to think that it was inappropriate at all.

Obviously, we chose to live here anyway. Pretty quickly, the neighbour kids, Bonnie (7), Misana (7), Kiaroa (7), and Shakira (11), started coming over and talking with me, asking to play with Holly, and just generally being friendly. They are always outside playing, between each other's houses and in back yards, with minimal adult supervision, but I think with enough to keep them safe.

I was happy to become friends with them, but a little bit nervous at their seeming lack of understanding of personal space. Early on, they climbed over our fence, came up on the porch, and peered into our lounge through the windows. Needless to say, I was not particularly comfortable with this. However, I talked to them about it, and made sure that they understood that they needed to wait for an invitation from me to come into my space. I felt a bit uncomfortable communicating this to them, because I think that their understanding of this neighbourhood is that everyone is family (and they do seem to all be at least loosely related) and that pretty much everywhere is communal space. I think that that is great, but I am not really ready to have my private space be added to the community. The kids needed some reminders, which I tried to provide in a very culturally sensitive way, but they did learn to wait for my permission, and that has worked out great. They now very frequently run over when I get home from work and ask to play fetch with Holly, and I say yes if I have time, and if not, they run back to their yards to play. They love Holly, but they love just chatting about things with me even more. When I walk to the local dairy to pick up some food, I am usually accompanied by two or three of them, which they consider quite a fun adventure. Some days I find it a bit much to have excited children jumping on me after a long day of work, but most days I like the sense of community, and appreciate that the children are fun, interesting, and kind. Although I know that their experience of neighbours is different than mine, I also know that they respect and appreciate me and my values, and will not go against them.

That has been my person experience of living in a Māori neighbourhood, and I consider it to be a positive experience.

On the other hand, I have been considerably less pleased with the conversations I have had about it. Early on, I voiced my concern to a few people about trying to set appropriate boundaries with these children, but I was not prepared for the response. One person said, "Just stay away if you can. You never want to get involved with Māori. It's not worth it." Another said, "They'll never understand the idea of other people's property. That's why they steal and break things and they don't even get it." As if those comments are not upsetting enough, what got to me is that they came from well-educated people who I had never experienced to be anything but kind. It seemed clear, however, that they had been brought up to believe those things, and had never questioned them.

I DO NOT believe that everyone here feels that way, nor do I believe that the people who do feel that way would actually be unkind to any Māori with whom they interacted. In fact, Kiwis seem to be kind to everyone pretty much all the time. But it bothers me that such things can be said nonchalantly, as if they are not racist. I think that there is a lot of misunderstanding between Māori and Pākehā (European Kiwi), and that that has lead to a lot of resentment.

I plan to post soon about a Professional Development course that I took on The Treaty of Waitaingi and the history between Māori and Pākehā, so I will go into more detail on the broader context then.

Awesome News!

Not surprisingly, after posting so infrequently and all about Dad's visit for so long, I have quite a few updates on other aspects of J's and my life at the moment. It is nothing if not busy.

Update #1 - I HAVE A JOB IN NEW PLYMOUTH! I had an interview yesterday, and they called me today and said that they had chosen to offer me the job! YAY!! I am thrilled. It is at Puketapu Kindergarten, which is part of the Taranaki Kindergarten Association. In case I have neglected to tell you, kindergarten here is for 3- and 4-year-olds, and is public Early Childhood Education, which I love. I was really wanting to get a kindergarten job, but had heard from lots of people that they are in high demand and hard to get, so I was dubious as to my ability to get one, but I did! It is a temporary position, because it is only while someone is on maternity leave, which is usually a year, but can be shortened to as little as six months. However, I have been assured that it is the foot in the door that I need to get into the Kindergarten Association, and that after this, it will be much easier to get other jobs. Many kindergarten teachers I met said that they got into kindergarten through a maternity leave position. There are 17 kindergartens in New Plymouth, so hopefully something will come up by the time I'm done at Puketapu. But I am not worried about that at all right now, I'm just so excited to have a job waiting for me! And a year, or even six months, is a long time. I start on May 5th, which is the start of the second term of the school year. It's going to be great! I will devote a whole post to raving about it soon enough, I'm sure.

Update #2 - J starts his new job on the 28th of April, which is less than two short weeks away! I can't believe how fast the time has gone! He will have to travel back to Whanganui quite often for the first few weeks, because the way scheduling worked out, he will still have to do some training here even after he's started his new job. So much for him not being away all the time. Oh well, that's just temporary. J has been dealing with quite a lot of stress at work lately, and he is excited to have a change of pace and a little more consistency. I think that this new job will suit him well, so I'm excited for him.

Update #3 - We have found a lovely house in New Plymouth that suits all of our needs wonderfully. It has a fully fenced in yard for Holly (and was one of the few that allowed dogs), and a spare bedroom for when friends come to visit (hint, hint). It is only 8.5km (5.2m) from Puketapu Kindergarten via a lovely bike trail along the sea, so it will be perfect for me. It is 35 minutes away from J's work, but we knew he would have a commute, and it's just a couple minutes from the main highway, so it's an easy drive. It has windows that actually seal and do not let the wind blow through, unlike our current house, so we should stay much warmer, which was my main concern in looking for a house! It is quite a lot more money than we're paying for our current house, but that's because housing is way more expensive in New Plymouth than Whanganui, and because it is a better house in a better neighborhood. So, we'll get used to the price, and enjoy the lovely house. I'll post pictures once we're moved in.

Update #4 - We are moving on Saturday, April 26th, which is SO SOON! We are very lucky to have J's job paying our moving expenses, so we can hire a moving company to load and unload all of our things. My back is very happy about that. However, we are a bit unlucky in that the 26th is the day after Anzac Day (a national holiday, but more on that later), so the moving companies are not pleased at the idea of working much that day. The closest we have come to a plan so far is that they will pick up our stuff on Wednesday or Thursday of this coming week, and keep it for us until Saturday, so that all they have to do that day is unload it. Which means that we will probably be in a hotel in the intervening time. I wouldn't mind that too much, except that Holly will probably have to be in a kennel, which is a pity for her. J is working diligently to work all of this out, so we'll see how he gets it planned.

Update #5 - Everyone at Noah's Ark is being quite lovely and caring about me leaving, which is both wonderful and painful. I will miss them a lot, and wish that I had had more time with them. I know that I will find time to visit, and it will be nice to have such a welcoming place to come.

Update #6 - After a very long dry spell of gorgeous, sunny days, the rain has come to stay. I heard on the radio this morning that we have already gotten three times the average rainfall for April, and we're only half way through the month! I have been happy to have some rain, but I am ready for some sun now. I believe we're supposed to get some this weekend, so that's good.

I am sure that there are lots more updates that I should be thinking of, but right now I'm thinking of a cup of tea and an early bedtime. It's so nice to have the stress of finding a job lifted off my shoulders, so I can truly relax.

Wellington with Dad

This will be my last post about Dad's trip, since I have finally gotten time to post all of the pictures. I'm a bit sad to be finished, as it has been fun reliving our adventures as I write about them. 

These are from the last two days he was here, which we spent in Wellington, before he flew out of the Wellington Airport.  

The first thing we did when we got there was to go up to the top of Mount Victoria. It is not really a very big mountain, but it is right in the middle of Wellington, so it gives gorgeous views!

You can see 360 degrees from the top (to which you can drive).

This is my favourite perspective. The idea of mountains (or really big hills) next to water is always beautiful to me, and I just adore the colour of the water here.

This is looking down at the city centre, where all the hustle and bustle goes on.

Starting from the top of Mount Victoria, Dad and I tramped (hiked) down a ways and then back up. J was still recovering from very long night shifts, so he took a nap in the car while we tramped. It was neat to walk through different kinds of trees, after spending time in the rain forests of the Whanganui River Valley.

Next, we wandered around the city centre, which was lovely as always. Dad was just as impressed as I had been with the floating silver ball, so he kindly took a picture of J and I in front of it.

This is a wonderful golden hippo statue across the street from the Te Papa museum, where we spent most of Tuesday. I have always particularly liked hippos (and my hippo puppet is my favourite teaching tool), so I was glad to see such a glorious hippo!

When we were walking along Oriental Parade (the big walkway by the harbour), we met this wonderful dog, standing in front of an outdoor cafe. He was very stately and calm, but also very willing to accept our attention. It's hard to tell from the picture, but he is also huge - definitely weighs as much as I do.

As we stared to walk on, I noticed that the sign on the cafe looked quite a bit like our new canine friend. I asked one of the employees, and he said that we had indeed met the "owner," Bernie, and that he liked to hang out there and keep an eye on things. I think that is just charming!

For our last meal together before Dad flew home, we went to Viva Mexico, which was highly recommended by our friend Jonny, and which is also the only Mexican restaurant I have heard of in NZ. It was delicious, and we had a lovely time.

J and I were very sad to see Dad go, and are already looking forward to all the fun we will have next time he comes! Thanks for coming to visit us, Dad!

I will find time in the next few days to update you on how everything is going as far as moving is concerned, but the short version is that things are progressing well.

Bridge to Nowhere (with Dad)

Ever since we moved to Whanganui, people here have been saying, "You have to do the Bridge to Nowhere!" Apparently it is THE thing to do in the area, but it has taken us until now to actually do it. Which worked out perfectly, because we got to do it with Dad, and it was the perfect thing to do with him.

So here's the (very shortened) story of the Bridge to Nowhere. After World War One, the government decided to divide up the Whanganui River Valley for farming (sheep) and sell it to the returning soldiers. 

This is a picture of the way the valley was divided up. Each settler got a huge chunk of land, but they had to clear it themselves. Considering how incredibly lush and thick the forest is and how steep the land is, that is no small task.

At first, the only way to get to all of these places was to take a ferry up the river, which took days and days, and then you had to haul stuff up the steep side of the valley. So when they decided to farm it all, they started building a big bridge up high in the middle of it, so that they could get supplies to and from the farms. Unfortunately, what they found out, eventually, was that even if you did manage to clear all the land, erosion started to wash away whatever you put there. In addition, right about that time, wool prices plummeted, so what little chance the farmers had of making a profit for all of their hard work disappeared. So, just as the bridge was being finished, all of the farmers moved out of the area, and the tropical forest took over. Resulting in.... The Bridge to Nowhere!!! I have pictures of said bridge, but you'll have to wait until the part of the story where we actually get there.

Here we are, about to start our adventure!

Anna and Ollie came with us, too, which was wonderful! We are quite the crew!

The first step of the journey involved this jet boat, which took us an hour up stream to the bottom of the hike to the bridge. The guide was really nice, and he stopped every so often to tell us about interesting things along the way.

The water was so still sometimes, it was hard to tell where the land ended and the river began!

It happened to be our guide's birthday that day, so he cousin (who lives in a lodge in the middle of the forest) jumped aboard at one of our stops and gave him a chocolate cake, which he shared with us for lunch. Lucky us!

At the end of the jet boat ride, we did a 45 minute hike through beautiful tropical forest. We loved how this tree grew completely sideways, but turned so that it's leaves still reached for the sun.

And now, without further ado, The Bridge to Nowhere!! As you see, it is a big, concrete bridge, with thick forest and small, dirt paths on either side. Tah dah! Quite beautiful, actually, and a very interesting mix of types of beauty, which I like.

This is the view from the bridge. You can see, the river is a long way down from there!

J on the bridge.

A pleasant break for lunch, complete with tea and coffee from very effective thermoses that our guide lugged up.

After lunch, we went back downstream a little ways in the jet boat, but then were unloaded into canoes and kayaks to meander back ourselves. Perfect.

J and I shared a canoe, as did Anna and Ollie, while Dad zipped around in the littlest and most maneuverable kayak I have ever seen.

Anna and Ollie.

It was wonderful to relax in the beauty of the river. We were on the water for a about 6 hours of non-strenuous paddling and awe-inspiring beauty. In between these calm parts, there were some pretty exciting rapids, which were very fun as well. 

Dad's quote of the day (from Frog and Toad) - "There is nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

Dad under a natural awning. The picture doesn't do justice to the impressive overhang, but it's still cool.

After a solidly beautiful day, the clouds rolled in as we were getting close to being done. Notice the little patch of blue holding on there? Well, soon it was covered up, too, and it rained. J and I had already capsized our canoe in some rapids, and therefore couldn't get any wetter, and everyone else had raincoats, so the rain wasn't really an issue. In fact, it was very beautiful on the river and in the forest. I didn't take and pictures for fear of damaging my camera, but trust me, it was stunning.

In conclusion, the Bridge to Nowhere trip utterly lived up to people's descriptions, and provided us with a very exciting and wonderful day. I am so glad that J and I got to share it with Dad, Anna, and Ollie. 

Virginia Lake Birds with Dad

I'm sure you are tired of reading that I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long, but it continues to be true. This week was very busy, full of lots of different responsibilities and early mornings, so blogging never quite got to the top of the list. But here I am.

As you might remember, there is a lake in Whanganui called Virginia Lake, and it is very beautiful. I took Dad there in the hopes that we would be able to see a pūkeko, because they are my favourite Kiwi bird so far, and I managed to see one when I went with Kirsten back in October. Little did I know what avian adventures would find us this time!

There were so many birds! I have just posted an excerpt, but I think I got the exciting ones. I apologize in advance - I am not knowledgeable about birds in any part of the world, and certainly not in NZ. I have tried to find out what kind of birds these are, but I may be wrong!

I believe that this is the biggest goose I have ever seen! Fortunately, they seemed comfortable with people, because Dad and I agreed that we would not want to get in a fight with one!

A Cormorant, a.k.a. Shag, a.k.a Kawau drying its wings.

 Front view. Funny, for a bird that lives and fishes in the water, its feathers do not look like they appreciated getting wet. It would be exhausting to hold your wings like that!

A coot, out on land investigating a seed that I dropped. They float in the water like ducks, usually. Notice its feet - not webbed like a duck's but waves of flat "fins" sticking out from each toe, and a very pretty blue. Also, it's a bit hard to tell in the picture, but they have bright red eyes that are quite startling and very beautiful!

I'm not sure, but I think there are some cormorants/shags/kawaus on these branches, as well as one that I just don't know what it is...

This is zoomed in on the bird to the far left of the picture above - anyone know what it is? When we saw it, Dad and I both thought that its beak looked like a pelican, but it's hard to tell that in this picture.

Black swans. I had never noticed the beautiful waves in their feathers that make them look ruffled before! I was embarrassed to find that I wanted to compare them to potato chips - sorry, swans!

Okay, you get three pictures of pūkekos for three reasons...

#1 - They are my favourite Kiwi bird.

#2 - We saw about 15 of them, including one time when they had us surrounded!

#3 - As we were admiring their extremely long toes, Dad said, "I bet with those feet, they could walk on water lilies!" I scoffed and said I couldn't imagine that they were light enough for that. Then we rounded a corner and came upon a stunning little lake covered in water lilies with... you guessed it... a pūkeko walking right across them! WOW!!!!!! It was worth being wrong just to be that impressed and to see how beautiful it was walking on the lovely lilies.

Last, but not least, we stopped and had lunch by the water and shared some with the ducks. This one made friends with Dad, even jumping up (like this) to grab the food before anyone else could. (Also, I'm very proud of this action shot.)

After a while feeding the duck, the geese decided that they needed to get in on this action. They came as a whole group, jumping out of the water and sending the ducks scurrying, until there were only geese. This particular goose leaned right up against me, and would have taken food out of my lap if I had let it.

Unfortunately, we learned later that you are not supposed to feed the birds. Oops. At least it was an innocent mistake!