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.

Dad is Here!

My wonderful daddy arrived at 11:00 last night, and I drove to pick him up in Wellington. For having just done 30 hours of traveling, he was surprisingly energetic, and we had a lovely time talking on the drive home (2.5 hours).

I am still working on fully accepting moving to New Plymouth, but I am already feeling much more positively about the whole thing, and have decided to simply not worry about it while Dad is here. Actually, I am going to take him up to New Plymouth for a day trip, and I think that that will be a positive way to explore the city.

He is staying for almost three weeks, and we are so excited to have him! We are going to do all kinds of fun stuff, including train rides, festivals, hikes, museums, canoeing, and who knows what else! J is taking some time off at the end of his stay, and I am taking days off here and there throughout his stay, and we'll just have to piece together the rest. But it has already been wonderful, and I am so thrilled for all the fun stuff that we are going to do together!

I don't know how much I will be posting while he is here, but I will make an effort to get pictures put up after our adventures. My camera broke today (of all days), but J and Dad are letting me use theirs, so I'll be fine. I have been meaning to replace my camera anyway, so it's on Dad's and my to-do list.

It has already been interesting seeing Dad's reaction to driving on the left side of the road, and I am eager to see what other things he will be surprised by, and to experience his unique reactions. It will be interesting to see what things we are already so used to that we think of as normal, but that will be new and different to him.

Moving to New Plymouth

Well... surprise! We're moving again - not to a new country this time, just two hours west to New Plymouth. Still, a fairly big move, and rather out of the blue, as far as I'm concerned.

So... what's the story, you ask? Well here it is.

J, being naturally amazing and intelligent, has been promoted! Starting at the end of April, instead of driving around to lots of different meat packing plants to inspect/audit them, he will be the Supervising Veterinarian at one plant. It is a great promotion in general, and an amazing compliment to him that it happened so quickly, but the very best part of it is that he will not have to work evenings, nights, or weekends any more! Yay!!! It has been so hard these past few months to have him always at work or sleeping when I am home, and unable to even hang out on the weekends, because he is working and/or still on a nocturnal schedule. It will be so absolutely wonderful to have him home in the evenings, so we can get back to cooking dinners and eating together, or reading together, or just being able to be together and talk about our days. I am truly looking forward to that.

New Plymouth is slightly bigger than Whanganui - 53,000, as compared to 43,000. However, New Plymouth has a lot more suburban areas, and when you include the whole area, there are 74,000 people. If you look on this map of the North Island, you'll find New Plymouth on the south-western corner. (Whanganui is in small print, between New Plymouth and Palmerston North).

New Plymouth is famous for being an extremely bike-friendly city, and it has a beautiful boardwalk that runs all the way up the coast. The city is built right on the coast, so most of it is just a few minutes from the beach. (Whanganui is very close to the beach, but is actually built around the river, so the beaches are a little way out of town). People in Whanganui keep telling J and I that there is a lot more to do in New Plymouth than here - concerts, festivals, events, etc. In fact, there is a festival of lights that runs for several months every year that is apparently quite stunning. The beaches are great for surfing, and on the west tip of the island, just south of New Plymouth, there is a beautiful mountain, on which you can ski/snowboard. The resounding opinion of people in Whanganui is that we will absolutely love New Plymouth!

So... I should be happy, right? I should be jumping for joy... but I'm not. I think I will eventually, but not yet. Selfish as it is, and spoilt as I know I am for complaining about something so wonderful... I don't want to move again. I don't want to quit my job that I love and start a whole new job search. I want to stay and enjoy the hard work I have put into building relationships at Noah's Ark, and I don't want to face more time being useless and unproductive. I just barely got over that here, just barely got to the part where everything was going right, and now I have to start all over.

Of course, as I keep reminding myself (with varying degrees of success), I am not back to square one, because I have a job for the next two months, and can be looking for one in the meantime. I am hopeful that I will have something set up by the time we move, but I am also trying to be realistic. Like Whanganui, New Plymouth has no ECE job postings at the moment, so I will just have to see what comes up. I will be making a trip to New Plymouth in the next few weeks, and I will go to the Kindergarten Association there and start making connections. I find the mere thought utterly exhausting, but I will do it, and it will be fine.

I am thankful that my colleagues at Noah's Ark have been supportive and understanding of the situation. I feel like I am letting them all down, but they are being wonderful. They are genuinely sad that I'm leaving, which makes me feel appreciated, but also makes me feel guilty. But I know I would be devastated if they didn't care that I was leaving, so this is the better option.

In conclusion, this is really wonderful news, and some part of me knows that, and the rest of me will get there eventually. I know that it will be okay, and I know that whatever happens, I am so proud of J for doing so well and being recognized for it, and I will be so happy to have him home with me, in any town!

Biking Along the River

I realize that my blog has been rather mundane lately, and I apologize for this. Today's post is rather on the unexceptional side as well, but at least I have pictures!

I bike to work every day, which I have always enjoyed doing, but is particularly nice in Whanganui, since I get to bike by the river for a little less than half the trip. It is 6.5km (4m), which is about a 25 minute bike ride, if I take a fairly quick pace but don't kill myself over it. 

After biking through a bit of Whanganui East, I get to this train/bike bridge, which I find quite charming. Unfortunately, it is a bit narrow when I have to pass someone, but everyone is polite about it, so it works out.

This is the view from the bridge, looking down the river towards the city centre. As I have mentioned, people make fun of the Whanganui River because it is very full of silt and therefore quite brown. I find, however, that on a sunny day, it is still sparkly and reflects the blue sky in a very pretty way.

This is looking back towards Whanganui East. I like the old-fashioned design of the bridge - it reminds me of the old bridges in Kansas.

Once over the bridge, I bike down a path that runs next to the river, but is quite a ways above it, giving beautiful views. You see what I mean about the river being beautiful. No reason to fuss about it being full of silt!

After I turn off the river path, I go across most of the town to Noah's Ark, which is on the other side of the city centre. I find that it is a lovely bike ride, with only one decent-sized hill, and adequate bike lanes/paths on almost every road. Plus, unlike Kansas or Ottawa, it is very unusual for the weather to be bad enough that I can't bike. I have been caught in the rain a few times, but never more than drizzle, and I don't really mind that. I feel very fortunate to be able to enjoy an environmentally friendly way to get to and from work.

Also, the more I bike, the more I notice how many Kiwis are biking or walking. It seems that a great deal of parents walk their children to school, and many older children walk or bike with their friends. I am glad to see people taking walking and biking seriously as modes of transportation.