New House

As I mentioned in my previous post, we have moved into a new house. We are very thankful to have found it, as it is very hard in Karori (and Wellington, and the whole country, really) to find warm, well-insulated houses. The climate here is much more mild than many places, but it gets plenty cold enough in winter to want good insulation and adequate heating systems. Unfortunately, the designs of many of the houses, especially rentals, do not reflect this, and we have spent a lot of time being cold in winter, even inside our own house. Uncomfortable as this is, the bigger problem is that uninsulated, cold houses are usually also damp houses, and this results in mould. Lots of it. As you can imagine, breathing cold, damp, mouldy air in your home does not support good health. It is a major public health concern in NZ, and something Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her government are working to improve. In fact, new regulations for insulation in rental properties will come into effect in 2019, which will be great. In the meantime (and knowing that even with improved insulation our old house would have problems), we have found a warm, insulated house with central heating (a rarity in NZ), and we are very happy with it. We moved in just in time for warm spring weather, so it was hard to notice the difference at first, but the last couple days have brought a cold snap, and we were delighted to discover that we noticed it was cold when we went outside, not when we got out from under the covers. Joy of joys!

Anyway, the house is better in many ways, and I'll show them to you.

This is the house from the driveway. I have always liked brick houses.

This is the view from just outside the front door. The mountains in the distance are actually on the other side of Wellington Harbour, and are called the Rimutaka Range. Of course it's hard to tell in the picture, but they're striking in person.

Also, notice that across the street is a green hill, which is very nice and makes you feel less like you're in a city.

This is that same view the other morning at sunrise. You can only get this view from the spare room inside, which is a pity, but it is pretty amazing.

This is a panorama of the back yard. It makes the deck look funny, but it captures the layout well. Our old backyard was pretty, but too steep to be very functional, so this will be greatly appreciated. I'll miss the stunning views from the deck, but the upside is that if I keep moving my chairs around, I can sit in the sun almost all day (this picture was taken in late afternoon). And the Guinea pigs will have lots of places for good grass to eat.

 

Just for contrast, this is earlier in the afternoon - I love the sun!

That's our garage in the corner. It is nice to have the car out of the elements, and have a easy place to store my bicycle.

This is around the other side of the house - good clothesline and a random little shed that I'm sure we can turn into something fun.

Moving inside, this is the spare bedroom. We haven't had an official spare bedroom in a long time, and never one this nice, so I'm excited.

If you come to visit, you can enjoy the beautiful views out your window. We do have a double blow-up mattress in addition to the single bed.

We now have a much larger, nicer bathroom. Also, a warmer bathroom is perhaps the best part of all, as I hated taking showers in a freezing cold room!

This is our bedroom. I am not a fan of the pink walls, but otherwise it is nice, and it's got two large closets, which is great. There is actually wonderful storage throughout the house.

This is one side of the lounge...

... and this is the other. I love the walls of windows and the glorious amount of sun that comes through! We've left that sunniest spot clear and it's where J and I do our exercises.

This is the kitchen...

... and the dining nook. It will be a tight fit when we have dinner guests, but it's comfortable for J and I, and we'll make do.

Behind those white doors are the washer and dryer and a laundry sink.

We also have a nice office room for J, but it's not set up yet (as his timeline for such things is different than mine) so if I think of it, I'll post a picture when he's arranged it how he likes it. So that's the house. We are thrilled with it. There is a downside, however, and that's the location. Well, downside might be an overstatement. There are positives and negatives. It is a 30 second walk from a bus stop, but that bus only runs limited times, and if you miss it, it's a 20 minute walk to the next closest stop (and very much uphill on the way home). It is technically closer to my work on my bike than our last house, but at a higher elevation, so more hills (remembering that my entire bike ride home is up serious hills). It's a similar drive to the grocery store, work, etc. So definite pros and cons.

Okay, so here's the real issue. The first time I rode home, I saw the the reason it was 5.9km (3.7mi) to bike instead of 6.7km (4.2mi) to drive is because there was a shortcut. How fun! Well... maybe not.

Here is what happens about halfway through the shortcut. Oops. Maybe I can push my bike up the side. No, too steep. Okay, I'll carry it - it's not that many stairs.

 Oh, there are more stairs around the corner, and then a switchback of more stairs. Well, I've come this far.

Oh joy, more stairs! But I can make it, I'm almost there.

No, still one more set. But look at the heavenly light at the top!

Just to be clear, that was a total of 72 stairs. Big ones. With my bike and all my work stuff on it. Fortunately, I am a beast, and I did it. And have done it almost every day since, in both directions, because I am NOT biking a kilometer extra just to avoid some stairs. I have to carry my bike exclusively with my right arm, because my left rotator cuff is still very upset, but that just makes it all the more exhilarating when I get to the top. At least that's the theory. Sometimes the exhilaration feels more like fury and/or desperation, but I make it, and I'm going to be stronger for it.

One day more recently, I was at my friends' house who live on the other side of us in Karori, so I approached the hills from the other direction. Again, I was happy to find a shortcut, and again, it turned out to be stairs. I had actually walked up them once before, and thought they wouldn't be a problem, as I was now used to the 72 on the other side. Little did I know, there were ONE HUNDRED AND TWO of them! But I made it, and felt like a hero (albeit an exhausted, sweaty one) at the top.

So while I am being fairly successful at considering this a fitness challenge, I will admit that a house that is closer to work and/or in a flatter area would not have been unwelcome.

To end on a positive note, however, our friend Christophe showed me that right behind the charming little playground that is only three houses down from us (and is a nice perk itself) there is an entrance to a beautiful hilltop walking/biking trail. J and I explored a bit of it the other evening, and it is stunning. 

I associate these colours with autumn, but these are spring blooms.

This is a different angle of the same views we could see when we went walking up in Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park next to our old house. I don't think this path is actually part of that park, but it's all connected.

It's less impressive in the picture, of course, but the pinkish hills you can see behind the dark ones are actually the South Island! I think that's pretty neat.

So that's the scoop on our new house. Nothing is perfect, of course, but we feel privileged to live here, and are delighting each day in the comforts of a warm, cozy, beautiful home. 

Breaker Bay (a.k.a. Hurry Up, Summer!)

I know it is a bit strange to go from a post about snowboarding to a post about swimming at the beach, but spring has arrived in Wellington, if not yet up in the mountains. We're being rather picky and hoping for prolonged cold weather in the mountains and a very warm spring in our dear Wellington. So far, we seem to be doing well with both.

It is not, in actual fact, warm enough for us to contemplate swimming at the beach (although I'm sure some people are, and perhaps have been all winter), but I'm getting excited for warm weather!

These pictures are actually from last summer, from a completely glorious afternoon J and I spent at Breaker Bay, which is on the other side of Wellington. It must have happened during a particularly busy period when I had lots of other exciting things to share, because somehow it never earned a post. But I decided it would be a good way to welcome/encourage a beautiful spring.

We passed this just before we got to Breaker Bay, and I don't know if it belongs to someone or how it came to be here, but isn't it stunning? This is one of my current favourite vistas!

We strolled along towards Breaker Bay to find a good place to swim. Towards the left in the picture you can see a rock with a dark spot on it - that's actually a tunnel, which we walked through, and then where we swam is just on the other side.

We swam in our wetsuits, because even in summer, the ocean is freezing. I was freezing despite my wetsuit, and even J was a bit chilly. Meanwhile, there are people all around us swimming without wetsuits and not seeming cold at all! Wow!

Anyway, I was freezing, so after I peeled off my wetsuit, J buried me in the sunwarmed sand, and it was glorious. It baked me right back to toasty warm.

Oh yes, here is that tunnel through the rock I mentioned. It's quite a cool formation. We ended our afternoon at the beach when J announced he was hungry and headed off to find food immediately. I can't remember where we ate, but food after working up an appetite with swimming and sun is always the best.

And here is the tunnel from the other side. I think that is so beautiful and fascinating!

So, in summary, I'm ready for beach season again.

Also, we moved into a much nicer house this week, and so my plan is to share pictures of it in my next post, by which time we should be all unpacked and have it organized the way we'd like it. Moving has been unusually stressful (which is perhaps another prompt for my desire for time at the beach), but we are over the hump now and ready to enjoy our new house.

Snowboarding Videos

For my birthday last week, J gave me the wonderful present of a GoPro camera. I proceeded to attach it to my snowboarding helmet and to have a fabulous time recording our exploits on the mountain this weekend. It was less fun trying to figure out to upload them and then remembering that Blogger has still not figured out how to let me post videos. But anyway, several are ready now, so I thought I'd share them with you (by linking you to Facebook, which will allow me to post videos).

#1 - Magically clear track all the way down (on Mount Turoa) https://www.facebook.com/emma.l.mercier/videos/pcb.10156631957434395/10156631939274395/?type=3&theater
This almost never happens, as the slopes are usually very busy, so this was a special treat.

#2 - Big crash (on Mount Turoa)
https://www.facebook.com/emma.l.mercier/videos/pcb.10156631957434395/10156631955514395/?type=3&theater
I only had one crash this weekend, due to my increased balance. However, due to my increased confidence, the rare crashes I do have are more dramatic. No injuries from this one, but I was dizzy for a moment, and you'll see that I had to check my GoPro and clean my sunglasses, which got a bit wet as the snow hit my face.

#3 - Following J (on Mount Whakapapa)
https://www.facebook.com/emma.l.mercier/videos/pcb.10156631957434395/10156631956934395/?type=3&theater
All these videos are from my perspective, of course, but the focus of this one is J, of course. Doesn't he do a great job? We have similar skills in many ways, I just do everything faster than he does, as he tends to be more careful and focused on avoiding falls.

#4 - Last ride of the day (on Mount Whakapapa)
https://www.facebook.com/emma.l.mercier/videos/pcb.10156631957434395/10156631941614395/?type=3&theater
I went a bit faster than usual on this run, because I was cutting it a little close to catch the shuttle down the mountain. But it was super fun.

Hopefully these videos are fun. It's a bit weird watching them from my perspective, since you can't see me actually snowboarding (although sometimes you can see my shadow, which is cool), and they're very bumpy, especially on the icier parts, but still, they're kind of exciting. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

64 Trees

Since my last post, about being very busy snowboarding, we have not gone snowboarding, because instead, I've been busy trying to heal my shoulder after a bicycle crash. Which, to be clear, is way less fun than snowboarding. I have been trying to rest it, and have kept it in a sling for two weeks, but it's not really getting better, so I'm off to the doctor tomorrow to see what I should do. In the meantime, I will limit my typing today, as it aggravates my shoulder for some reason.

This amazingly beautiful creation was given to me by one of my children and her family, when she turned five and went to school this week. It was made by her grandfather, who likes to collect and classify wood from trees around NZ. There are 64 different trees represented in this chessboard, if you can believe it! I think it is stunning almost beyond belief, and can't believe such a precious gift was given to me! It was their intention, and is mine, that I will share it with the children and use it as a teaching tool, but I will also treasure it personally. I feel so honoured when families share such meaningful things with me.

I'm hoping you'll be able to read this; they thoughtfully included a chart to show which type of wood is which. Most of them have beautiful Māori names. I haven't had much of a chance to study them yet, but I fully intend to, and will hopefully write a post at some point with what I've learned.

Please do let me know if you can't read the names, and I'll try to figure out a better way to share them.

I'm going to go back to resting my shoulder and reading. Cross your fingers for good news from the doctor tomorrow!

Taranaki Falls Walk, Tongariro National Park

As many of you know, J and I enjoy snowboarding as often as we can in the winter. We have to make hotel reservations several weeks in advance, as every accommodation anywhere near the mountain fills up. This means that we can't pick weekends based on weather, and we just enjoy snowboarding in whatever conditions we end up with. Unfortunately, it is often rainy or windy, and last time we went it was pouring rain, which we were okay with until my waterproof coat failed, and I got soaked. Oh well. This time, as we drove up the mountain, we were delighted to see that it was sunny, not windy, and just all-around stunning. Wow, finally some good luck!

See? This is on the way, and you just couldn't imagine a more snowboarding-ready mountain.

Well... perhaps our good luck was too good to be true. Apparently, lots of people do choose to come to the mountain at the last minute based on the weather, and all of them and all their friends noticed that it was the perfect weekend. As we got closer to the ski field, we saw a big sign saying that the carparks were full, so you'd have to take the shuttle. No problem. We got in line for the shuttle, and then were told that no more shuttles would be taking people up, as the mountain was too crowded. So... no snowboarding for us. Unbelievable. We learned later that this often happens on the first nice weekend of the snowboarding season, but after that even sunny days are more reasonable, so that's encouraging.

In any case, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day in a different way, and did the Taranaki Falls Walk. I'd done part of it with Aunt Susan when she was there, but such amazing experiences don't get old, and it was a fantastic time. J is not as enthusiastic about stunning scenery and lovely hikes as I am, but he did have a delightful time teaching me about the lichen we saw as we walked. Who knew lichen was so fascinating? (Well, J did, obviously, but now I do too). 

This is at the beginning of the walk.

I'm not sure why exactly, but I find this picture intensely striking. That's Mount Ngaurahoe with the snow on it, and Mount Tongariro next to it.

This will be a repeated feature of these pictures: Check out the amazing colours in the grasses!

I love walking next to a stream, as the sounds are so peaceful and invigorating at the same time. (Incidentally, I just learned that the smell of oranges is like that too).

At first, I thought this was Taranaki Falls. I was quite pleased with it, as it is a huge, beautiful waterfall, but there were bigger things to come.

The grasses aren't the only things with fabulous colours. The rocks contribute as well. 

Even on a tiny scale, there are just so many fascinating colours, shapes, and patterns.

This is Taranaki Falls, for real.

And up closer.

Looking back along the river at the bottom of the falls.

This is looking towards Mount Ruapehu (where we would have been snowboarding) but you can't see it as well as the others.

I've made this picture extra big, because what I love about this view are the many layers of hills as you approach the horizon. Unfortunately, they're quite hard to see in the picture.

This is my favourite picture to illustrate the colours I keep going on about.

This is getting towards the end of the walk, which is a loop. It only takes about 2 hours, and doesn't have too many steep climbs, which is good. I still have a sore knee, and 2 hours is about 1 hour and 45 minutes longer than I've been walking lately, as I'm trying to help it heal. However, I've been encouraged to try some walking in my new orthopedic shoes, and I'm pleased to report that the pain in my knee, which is constant, stayed stable during the whole walk, which is very impressive and a major improvement over the intense pain I have been getting after just a few minute walking.

We did get to snowboard the next day (after getting up very early and still getting stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the way up), and it was glorious. I'll post some pictures soon. On a related note, since we're spending a lot of weekends out of town, and since I'm finding it hard to make time to write blog posts (as evidenced by the lack of one last weekend), I think I'll shoot for posting every second weekend for a while. I still enjoy posting, but I am short on "free" time, and I am trying not to overcommit myself any more than I already have.

Our Prime Minister

This post is going to be short, sweet, and not actually written by me. I almost never share "viral" pictures or articles, but this one came to my attention on Facebook, and it made me really proud, and I wanted to pass it on. I am so honoured to live in this country for so many reasons, and this is now definitely one of them. I highly recommend that you Google Jacinda, because she's doing lots of great things.

"This is The Prime Minister Of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern. She's 37. She's the youngest female Head of Government in the world. She's also the first western woman to give birth while in this position of power. 2 days after the baby was born - with midwives, standard in NZ hospitals - she introduced her to the country during a press conference on the nightly news. It was really lovely. She named her Neve Te Aroha. Te Aroha means "The Love" in Māori. It represents ALL the names that were submitted (upon her request) from various tribes throughout the country, and was her attempt at capturing them all.

This is her and her partner, no, he's NOT her husband (gasp!), walking to the press conference. He's TV fishing show Host Clarke Gayford, and HE will be staying at home with baby Neve when his lady goes back to running the country in 6 weeks. Clarke sports a snazzy sweater he picked up at the op-shop (second-hand store) in Gisborne, and thinks its just kinda logical and he gives up his day job to stay home and look after the baby.

A week after the birth on July 1st Jacinda introduced a $5billion Families Package that she'd drafted on the floor of her friends house in Hastings - long before her pregnancy. It's based on the knowledge that the first few years of a babies life are the most important. The package gives an extra $60 a week to families with new babies, and an extra $700 to families for winter heating costs as well (it's cold as hell down there in the winter). It also increases the Paid Leave for new parents from 18 weeks to 22 weeks. She announced the details via Facebook live, from her couch, right after she'd finished breastfeeding the baby. Because Kiwis. Some of the most down-to-earth, no-drama-having, just-do-it kind of people you'll ever meet.

And because Women. We really do know how to lead, and to do it well."

Rarotonga Part 6: Cultural Experiences

Whenever we go to a new place, we like to learn about the local culture, and do our absolute best to be conscientious tourists. We weren't always sure of the best ways to do that in Rarotonga, because it felt like there were more tourists than locals on the island, and everything seemed so dependent on tourism. But we did our best, and we did learn a lot about the local culture, which was wonderful. It would be ridiculous to try to share it all with you, but I've selected some highlights.

On our Jungle Quad Adventure, our guide told us about this tree, called an Au Tree. It is used for many medicinal purposes, and our guide showed us how you can mash up its leaves in your hand and after just a minute, you can squeeze out liquid, which is very helpful if put on cuts or sores. 

This is our guide, who also told us about this ruin. Apparently, a missionary came here and started constructing a church. The local leaders were supportive of this, until they found out that they were also building a crematorium behind the church. It is a very important part of their belief system that people return to the earth after they die, and so cremation is inappropriate to say the least. The church was therefore never completed on this site, although the missionary did find another location where the local leaders allowed his church and crematorium. It's sad, but unsurprising, to hear that even after realizing that his practices were inconsistent with local beliefs, he still continued his plans.

On our first stop on the Progressive Dinner we went on, our host took us around to his backyard, and showed us lots of interesting things, including this above-ground umu. An umu is an earth oven, where traditionally they would dig down, make a fire, put volcanic rocks on top, and once they were hot, cook their food wrapped in banana leaves. The banana leaves turn from green to brown during the cooking process, and keep the food nice and moist. Our host told us that they discovered that they could do the same thing with a heavy metal bowl inside this chemical container, and they're enjoying using that as well as the two underground ones they have. It reminded me of living with the Lubicon Cree tribe in Northern Canada, where we often saw traditional practices mixed with a "make use of whatever comes your way" attitude, resulting in very similar mashups.

Our host then showed us a way that coconuts are used. You take a coconut that has sprouted a new tree, bury it on the beach, and then cut the sapling off. The tree knows it will need to regrow, and so it puts more energy into creating food for the sapling, which is the flesh inside the coconut itself. If you do this over and over, the coconut gets more and more full and delicious, ending up, after multiple cuttings, like candy.

He said that they wouldn't usually break one open before cutting it several times, but he wanted to show us the process. It's hard to see in the picture, but there is a metal stake sticking up from the ground, which he used to break open the outer shell.

Underneath are hairy fibres called husks, which he pulled away. A coconut you would buy in the store has the outer shell and the husks removed, but he said once you get rid of those, it can't grow, so you'd always plant them whole. He seemed a bit sad to have used this one up in the demonstration, depriving it of its potential to grow.

(I apologize for the blurry picture, but it was getting dark. Also, on a side note, there were lots of chickens around, and they seemed to be competing for the best places in the trees to roost for the night, because they were being rather boisterous, making it hard to hear him.)

When the broke open the inner shell, it looked like this. We got to taste the foamy stuff in the middle, which was interesting and mild in both texture and taste. Apparently, as you cut off the sapling more times, that inner part gets harder and sweeter, more like candy.

This was our host at the second location for the Progressive dinner. All three of our hosts talked about the importance of owning land on Rarotonga, and how difficult it is. Our first two hosts had married someone who owned the land they now lived on, and the third's family had been there for generations. Only natives of Rarotonga are allows to own land, so even Cook Islanders from the other 14 islands can't buy land there. This was on our last night, and it made me think of a nice lady we met who had been living on Rarotonga for 30 years, but was originally from Australia. She must either be renting or have married into a native family.

Our resort has a weekly "Island Night" where you can sample traditional Rarotongan food (see my last post) and learn about traditional dances. This man was the host of the evening, and as he walked by our table, he stopped and asked if we wanted a picture, which of course we did. His traditional clothes were amazing.

The dances and music were beautiful, although we were disappointed to see a "Discover Paradise" advertisement for our resort centre stage behind the performers. Commercialism detracts greatly from the celebration of a culture, and that was not the only thing about the evening that felt much less authentic than we would have liked. We tried to focus on the music and dancing and not worry about the rest. If we ever go again, we will find a tradition performance in a more authentic setting if we can. (We should have known this already, but I guess we just didn't think it through.)

The women dancers did lots of hip and arm movements, and the men did more with their legs and especially their knees. The traditional dance outfits were beautiful, especially the women's headdresses. Many parts are made from various parts of the coconut and coconut tree, as well as from flax (as is also true in NZ).

 

You can see a bit in the background on the right of the wooden pa'u, which are traditional drums. Drums are the central sound in all the music we heard, with ukuleles joining in with the melody. In almost every song, the beat started out reasonable slowly, and there was often singing along with the ukulele melody. Then, about 2/3 through, the beat would suddenly become very fast and the drums would be proportionately much louder. The dancers' movements would become much faster and more staccato. This would continue for the rest of the song. It was fascinating to watch the change, and both styles were beautiful. 

If you click on it to make it bigger, you should be able to read these plaques, which we noticed at the Punanga Nui Market, and which celebrate the ongoing positive relations between Rarotonga and NZ.

This is Tuoro: Nga'i Reranga Varua (Departure Point of Spirits). It is locally known as Black Rocks. According to the plaque up by the road, "It marks the boundary between the districts of Te-Au-o-Tonga and Puaikura. The abundant black rock in the area, from which it derives its English name, is basalt. It is estimated to be 1.9 million years old. 

"Tuoro" means to proclaim, or to challenge by calling out loudly to, as a sentry who challenges anyone approaching. Tuoro is believe to be the place where spirits of the dead leave Rarotonga. Those spirits ascend a pua tree and leap from it to commence their journey back to their ancient homeland, Avaiki, to the west. Similarly, the Māori people of Aotearoa (NZ) believe that Cape Reinga, in the North Island, is the departure point for the spirits of the Māori people to Hawaiki."

Tuoro is a very beautiful place, and it was lovely to explore. We went past it at dusk (when the first picture was taken), and then I went back the next day to explore further. When I got there, a person was flying a kite shaped like a bird from the top, and I found that very poetic, because it was like spirits taking off for Avaiki. In several of the beautiful Māori pūrākau (legends) I read with my children, the spirits of characters take the form of birds. I don't know if the person flying the kite saw the symbolism or not, but it was a lovely moment for me.

This concludes my posts about Rarotonga. It was an amazing trip, and we both really enjoyed our time there. I don't know if we will go back, as there are so many other new places to explore, but it is certainly a very special place.