Queenstown and Glenorchy - Remarkable Cities on a Lake

After several days of staying in Holiday Parks, and sleeping on thin cots in crowded rooms, everyone was excited to stay in a nice home when we arrived in Queenstown. The house actually exceeded everyone's expectations, providing a great kitchen and living spaces, a hot tub, and panoramic views of one of the most beautiful cities on the planet. Queenstown, with a population of about 13,000 and formed in 1863, is situated on the gorgeous Lake Wakatipu and surrounded by the Remarkables, a stunning mountain range. The town is the self proclaimed adrenaline capitol of the world, hosting the first bungee jump and the shot-over jet. It is known for the sports, adrenaline junkies, and some of the most beautiful views that New Zealand possesses! Here was the view from the deck off our rental home.

The downtown area of Queenstown is VERY touristy, at least for NZ.  It felt a little like Fisherman's Wharf in SF, but maybe from 30 years ago, before that lost its quaintness.  Lots of ways to spend your money, lots of shops, an actual Starbucks(!), street performers, and all set in a very pretty spot.  The waves of Take Wakatipu laps up to a beach just off the city center and the mountains rise up from the lake on all sides of town to frame the city.  Wow.  One evening, we went into downtown and watched a very PG-16 rated street performer swallow fire and juggle with fire, all with volunteer help from the audience.  We kept our distance.  After, we went into the Botanical Garden in town and saw lots of exotic trees (at least to us.)  Here is a picture of Anne and Sue in front of the monkey puzzle trees, a tree in which the male and female cones grow on separate trees.  Very odd looking.

While some people were downtown playing with fire, the girls, Jen, and Susan decided to hike up to the famed Basket of Dreams on top of Queenstown Hill. This hike traversed through a historical area, with informative signs about the history of the town, up to a viewpoint that allowed for a jaw-dropping view over the lake and Queenstown! The lights of the town (it was evening at the time) lit up against the lake, and the dark purple mountains with ominous clouds created a truly beautiful sight! The Basket of Dreams itself is a sculpture that wants you to "reflect inward on the passage of time and your dreams for the future."

The Following morning, we took a pretty epic (one might say stomach churning) drive along a narrow winding road that hugged the coast of Lake Wakatipu for about 30 or so mile to its northwest to the town of Glenorchy.  Unfortunately, the cloud cover was pretty low, so we could not see the higher mountain peaks surrounding us, but the road and the very blue lake were scenery enough.

Glenorchy is called "Gateway to Paradise" and we found it to be accurately described! It is the starting off place for the famed Routeburn Track - a three to four day Great Walk that goes from there to Milford Sound area, and though we didn't do any real "tramping", it was clear why the town is so well known!  It's small and quaint, with a load of history and lovely views!

We stopped in a small cafe, which not only had excellent coffee but a few very cute cats as well. The most interesting portion of this trip may have occurred out back, in the statue garden the cafe maintained. The family wanted a picture in front of one of the sculptures, so we asked a Japanese tourist to take our photo. We then were surprised when his entire group (of at least 20 people) came over and started snapping photos of all of us! They kept it up, taking candids and posed shots of each of us with various sculptures, making it hard to keep a straight face for good photos that we were trying to take of ourselves!  We estimate that this one tourist bus of Japanese people must have taken over 500 combined photos.  Of us : ) 250 or more of Lindsay alone, who they must have thought was very stereotypically Kiwi, but who of course is American. Heh.

After our adventures at the cafe, we went to the old Glenorchy port for a picnic lunch. The old train and storage building was transformed into a museum detailing the history of both the port and the formation of the town, and what they dubbed the "shortest railroad track in the world" - it was only about 100 meters in length!  This area, specifically the old building against the lake, created more beautiful views for everyone to enjoy.

What a fun day exploring the area.  In the afternoon, the girls went bungee jumping, which will be the subject of our next post.  

The Shotover Jet

Just outside of Queenstown there is a very scenic and narrow canyon carved by the Shotover River. This being New Zealand, full of adrenaline junkies and extreme sports, some enterprising person back in 1965 decided...why not take people on heart-pounding speedboat rides through this narrow canyon?  So the Shotover Jet was begun.  It is considered to be the first Jetboat ride anywhere in the world, and has become a very commercially successful and iconic "must-do" in the Queenstown area. Here is a picture from the spectator bridge looking down on a boat coming out of the opening to the canyon.

A jetboat operates with two engines, both water propelled and with a lot of horsepower.  It goes fast, turns on a dime, and can do 360 degree spins.  So, as our kids said, it is basically just like our 1978 Lund boat with 7.5hp engine that we have at our cabin in Perham, MN.  Minus the fishing rods and tackle. Right.  Here's a shot of our boat. We are in the second and third rows.

As we waited our turn, the passing boats seemed to zip by pretty fast, but it is only once you step in the boat and start your trip that you fully appreciate the thrill. The ride was very high speed and we seemingly came within inches (OK, probably feet) of the canyon walls. And, then with a slight warning by the driver, we would do crazy 360's, sometimes in the canyon, making you feel as if you are surely going to hit the rocks. Here is a one minute snippet of our video we took. It includes some of the narrow canyon passes, and finishes with two 360's.

As you could hear, there was lots of shrieking and screaming and whooping, mostly from Jen.  Imagine 25 or so minutes of that, with three or four separate passages through the narrowest parts of the canyon, and you hopefully get a picture of how thrilling it was.

Nonetheless, we seemed to be in no great danger.  The professional drivers on staff all seem to be young, male, handsome and unafraid of danger.  In other words, just like Pete.  Errr, anyway, our driver, Nick, was a fairly long tenured driver, and we assume one of the best.  We saw him in pictures with various famous celebrities and royalty (including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - William and Kate - you may have heard of them) that he had taken for a ride.  We assume that if they trusted royalty with Nick, we were pretty safe.

Here's a last pic as we got ready to dock at the end of the ride.  If this blog was able to upload pictures with better resolution, you would see seriously funny looks on all of our faces.  What a fun day!

Impossibly Blue Lake Tekapo

On our first full day on the South Island we drove west out of Christchurch and toward Lake Tekapo, a glacial lake situated in the higher altitudes just East of Mt Cook and the heart of the Southern Alps on the South Island.  Described as a lake of extraordinary blue color, we were expecting quite a sight.  And we got it.

From NZ tourism... "The amazing turquoise blue colour of Lake Tekapo is created by "rock flour" - the glaciers in the headwaters grind the rock into fine dust. These suspended particles in combination with the sunlight create Lake Tekapo's unique water colour.

We took a few short walks around the lake's edge, and near the Church of the Good Shepherd, which is an iconic church built in 1935 and is often referred to as the "most photographed building in NZ." Here is a great shot of the girls, and of the church.

We also drove up to the top of the hill that overlooks the lake, and to a famous astronomical observatory called Mt John Observatory.  More pictures of this impossibly blue lake ensued

and then it was off to dinner and some rest before our last outing of the day, late night stargazing.

As the presence of the observatory would indicate, Lake Tekapo area is known as one of the finest stargazing places in the world.  Who knew they rank these kinds of things?  Anyway, for what its worth, apparently we now need to travel to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile so that I can top Lake Tekapo (#2 on the world's best stargazing list).  According to Mr Kristian Wilson of Earth and Sky Education...

most of the areas in the Northern Hemisphere had too much light pollution which prevented good stargazing, whereas the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve, of which Lake Tekapo was part, had used special shields and lightbulbs for 30 years to point the light downwards in order to preserve the night sky.

Mr Wilson said being surrounded by mountains which kept the low cloud away and made the stability of the night sky clearer and sharper because it was further away from the ocean also made Lake Tekapo a perfect location for stargazing.

We waited until dark (10:30 PM or so it started to get dark, and by 11PM it was much better) and drove back to the hill above town.  We were unable of course to take any pictures of the night sky, but lets just say that our parents, from Birmingham, AL and Gillette, New Jersey saw a few more stars than they are used to seeing!  Jen had a star finder app on her iPhone that allowed us to identify stars and constellations we were seeing based on where she was standing and pointing her phone.  That was cool.  So the grandparents had a great opportunity to see the Southern Cross and other Southern hemispheric constellations, and the "magellanic" clouds, which are vast sections of the milky way clustered together so closely that they appear to be clouds.

What a pretty spot! Here is one final shot of all nine of us!

How many sheep could a sheep shearer shear if a sheep shearer could shear sheep?

Peter was fortunate to have made the acquaintance of a sheep farmer here in Wanganui.  OK, that is not entirely accurate.  He has met about 10.  But, one of them, Paul, was the father of one of the kids he coached, and was kind enough to give Pete and Lindsay and both sets of grandparents a personal tour of a farm and sheep shearing operation.  

It was very informative about something that is so obviously an integral part of the Kiwi identity and culture. 

According to Wikipedia…”Sheep farming is a significant industry in New Zealand. According to 2007 figures reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, there are 39 million sheep in the country (a count of about 10 per individual). The country has the highest density of sheep per unit area in the world. For 130 years, sheep farming was the country's most important agricultural industry, but it was overtaken by dairy farming in 1987. Sheep numbers peaked in New Zealand in 1982 to 70 million and then dropped to about 30 million.^[1] There are 16,000 sheep and beef farms in the country which has made the country the world's largest exporter of lambs, with 24 million finished lambs recorded every year.^[2]”

Sheep farms visually dominate the landscape of much of the countryside of NZ, and specially in the hills and valleys of Turakina and Rangitikei, which are the areas just south of Wanganui. So we drove about 15 minutes south to the town of Wangaheu in the Rangitikei valley. Pete had asked for the address of the farm and told him we could just meet him there, but Paul insisted that we just meet him in the “town” center, which consisted of a community center, an old church, and a school grounds.  We then proceeded to follow Paul on some dusty dirt roads for 10 or so minutes to a beautiful farm in the hills above town. We were glad to have an escort as we are pretty sure this farm is not really on google maps!

Paul led us up into the sheep shearing operation and we watched as 3 guys sheared the wool from the sheep and then 2 or 3 girls separated the wool good from bad.  

We learned more about sheep and sheep farming from Paul, and from the owner of the shearing operation (a very friendly Kiwi who has a daughter in the USA playing tennis on a scholarship) than we could have really learned from Wikipedia.  Such as…

You cannot shear sheep when they are wet, not because it is difficult, but rather, because the wool must be dry in order to separate and process.  So…in relatively wet countries like NZ, the operation has a vast underground pen that is covered and can contain thousands of quite tightly packed sheep, who stay inside to dry before being shorn.  

Wool from sheep used to be the main product that a farmer sold from sheep, but with the proliferation of synthetic fabrics, it has become a by-product (lamb meat being the most valuable commodity).   So, they barely earn any money from selling the wool.  However, shearing is still a vital and integral part of making the sheep as valuable as possible to the farmer.  That is because un-shorn sheep become, in the words of the farmer we talked with, “lazy” and they just want to sit or lie in the shade.  So, farmers want their sheep shorn a few weeks prior to processing them so that they will go eat and fatten up for what he called “their one way trip into town.”  He estimated that even if he had to outright pay more to shear his sheep than the wool was worth, that it was still better for him to do so. The extra weight the sheep gain once they are shorn more than makes his money back.

Wehat makes the wool as valuable as possible is the sorting that the girls did on the floor of the operation.  They separate the parts you cannot use (hindquarters and lower legs) from the parts you can, and do one more separation of the very best quality wool.  He actually whispered this to us because he said he wasn’t sure the girls were aware that they were so valuable, but…we think they knew : ) 

As for the title of the post, how quick is a sheep shearer? In a word, fast!  A sheep would take a little over one minute to shear using electric shears. We asked permission to videotape for a bit, and Paul got their best shearer to do one quick for us - he said he was otherwise “just sort of cruising”. We are pasting the video below, and it took the guy 57 seconds from bringing the woolly sheep out from the back to sending a rather nekkid looking sheep back down the shoot, despite being interrupted by someone in the middle. 

Paul said it was typical for a shearer to do about 300 sheep in an eight hour day.  They are paid $1 per head that they shear, so it sounds like a decently rewarding day, but…wow, you have to be in some kind of shape to do this kind of work 300 times a day!  Paul said that they keep national records and that occasionally someone will attempt the record for number of sheep sheared in a day or in a certain time period.  The number we remember was something like 800.  Sounds like a fun day : )

There are also competitions that are held at county fairs and sheep exhibitions, and a lot of the guys we spoke with (including Paul) had participated and won those competitions.  There are divisions in those competitions in both electrical shears, and old fashioned hand shears (pretty sure there was some nostalgia in Paul's eyes when he talked about those hand shears).   

Another interesting thing was to take a look at the rams in the outside paddock.  Compared to the sheep they look quite large, at least double the size (they typically weight over 150 pounds).  But, they too need to be shorn from time to time. A shearer typically gets $3 per head on a ram (triple what they get for a sheep) but the shearers aren’t too fond of having to shear those big guys, who are strong and a bit on the grumpy side.  It looked tough enough to wrassle and shear the sheep to be honest.  Paul said he didn’t do the rams anymore, or if he did, he had them sedated, which costs him a little per ram but, he figured it was a good tradeoff.  Here is a shot of the rams.  

Good luck with that!

And here is a picture of both sets of grandparents with Lindsay in front of some of the shorn sheep in their paddock.

Anyway, before leaving the farmer then got his working dogs out and moved the sheep from this pen and out to the fields.  It was very cute, so we posted the video of that below.  Check out the sheep gamboling (high jumping) as they made their way from the pen, past the barking dogs, and out to the hillside. Very funny.

Thanks again, Paul! That was a fun day trip!

Mud, geysers, colorful pools, hot rivers (and some very bad smells) - NZ's thermal area

After leaving the cave area of the Waikato, we ventured into the thermal area in the central part of the North Island and stayed three nights in Taupo.  Our rental home was just a short walk from the crystal clear Lake Taupo, which lies in the caldera of what geologists believe was a supervolcanic eruption about 27,000 years ago.  It was a great location from which to explore the numerous thermal areas around both Taupo and Rotorua, and also the aqualicious rivers (I just made that word up) around Taupo.

Our first day out of town we drove towards Rotorua and went to the Wai-O-Tapu thermal park just south of Rotorua.  The drive through a countryside dotted with steaming and hissing craters was both entertaining and pungent. 

Prior to entering the park, we went to the "mud pool" which was just off the highway. Comprising an area roughly the size of a baseball infield was a large grey mud pit that was obviously boiling hot.  Walking on boardwalks that kept you safely from harm (but still pretty close to the action), we strolled around and enjoyed the sounds and sights, though perhaps not the smells.  It is hard not to be amused by the intermittent plops, hisses, gurgles and belches that this mud pool makes.

Next up was a trip to the Lady Knox geyser, a geyser that the park artificially sets off every day at 10:15 AM by putting a special bar of soap into the top of the geyser area.  Apparently the area used to be a logging area and this particular geyser location is at the source of a natural spring that the loggers would use to bathe. And after one inquisitive or bored logger put some soap into the geyser, a reaction occurred that caused the geyser to erupt. One thing led to another and…now that the area is a thermal viewing park complete with admission price, there is a whole amphitheater built around the geyser and a park guide comes out on stage precisely at 10:15 every day and explains about the way that the geyser works and then he drops soap into the top, and the crowd ooohs and ahhhs as the geyser begins to foam and then bubble, and finally begins to shoot water up 50 or more feet in the air for a number of minutes.  We happened to be there on a pretty busy weekend day on the holiday break, so we only had about 500 or so of our closest friends jostling for positions to watch the geyser, but we managed a few pictures.  The first is of the guide in-soap-inating the geyser, and the next is after the eruption.

Finally it was onto the main Wai-O-Tapu park, where we walked a 3k loop, seeing and smelling the various thermal springs, fumaroles, geysers, mud pots and oddly colored pools.  It was an odd walk, as one moment you are walking past a hissing and belching fumarole like this one… 

and the next moment you are walking past Flying Pan Flats, which is water that sounds like a giant bowl of rice krispies, popping as if the water is boiling off a hot fry pan. 

This is a terrific shot of Champagne Pool, one of the most famous of the colorful pools in the parks. 

This is Devils Bath, which was probably our collective favorite.  It looks like the stuff that Jack Nicholson (the Joker) fell into at ACME chemical in the first Batman movie.  Yes, it really is that color.

Our olfactory was glad to put this one behind us, but not so much our eyes.  What a beautiful, odd and stinky place! Here is a shot of everyone with Champagne Pools behind us.

Our next day we explored the Taupo area and had our first experiences with ridiculously blue rivers - something that became almost mundane on the South Island.  (We say almost, because we never got sick of all of the abnormally aqua blue rivers on the South Island - seemingly each one.)  Our first stop was Huka Falls, which is a series of waterfalls on the Waikato River as it exits Lake Taupo.  The canyon is narrow and scenic, and the volume of water rushing through the rapids is enough for a cool picture, but it is the color of the water that makes this such an amazing place.  Here are our favorites, including one of the famed Huka Falls Jet boat which raced around in the foam under the waterfall.

Lindsay!

After Huka, we went to see the Aratiatia hydro-dam water release, which was very Kiwi.  Downstream of Huka Falls the Waikato River is dammed and used to generate electricity. Every two hours or so, a massive amount of water is released down a tiny canyon.  From our viewing point a half mile or so down the river from the dam, we could see the water begin to fill the upper basins of the canyon with this delightfully blue water, continue to build up and then watched as it raced down the canyon in a torrent.  The first picture below is of the canyon prior to the water being released, and the second is of the canyon filled and starting to cascade.

Finally, we went to the towns natural hot water river, where a natural hot spring river flows into the freezing cold water of the very same Waikato River.  It was amusing to take our parents, since they had not experienced a hot river like this before.  We knew what to expect a bit from having been here before and having gone to Hot Water Beach for instance, and also having experienced one in Costa Rica.  The hottest spot was the waterfall where the hot river entered into the river, but all three girls, plus Pete, got a hot shower before leaving.  Here is Lauryn in the hot waterfall.

Some of the pools that the waterfall drained into were just as hot, but then as the water mixed with the river water, there were some not as hot (but still pleasantly hot) spots and then some pools that were just nice and warm.  But, step over a few feet and you were in a very cold river, like Kendra and Lindsay here.

Here are Jon, Susan and Joe having a relaxing soak in the hot river. 

What a fun couple of days in Taupo and Rotorua!

A Spelunking Good Time

The first destination for our tri-generational caravan was the Waitomo Glowworm Caves, which came highly recommended from pretty much everyone that we asked about it. Our guide book, "NZ Frenzy," also spoke glowingly (so punny) of the caves. Truly, it did not disappoint.  Located in a small town in the Waikato region, which is in the West Central part of the North Island, the caves were about a 3 hour drive from Wanganui.  We stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast called the Waitomo Guest Lodge and at night we walked across the street and enjoyed delicious food at a brew pub called Huhu.  In the morning the B & B owners scurried around and brought us small plates of toast with every imaginable spread,  the "highlight" of which was Vegemite, which is some kind of heinous delicacy of a veggie-vitamin paste. (You may remember it from that Men at Work song.) We all sampled it and enjoyed watching other people's faces pucker or gag.  Apparently one should only put the thinnest possible scraping, and (important) ONLY AFTER first applying a generous spread of butter to the toast so that all the little nooks and crannies are filled in.  It was unusual but is apparently all the rage in Australia!

Anyway, back to the caves.  We had two tours planned: the first at the Glowworm Caves and next at Aranui Caves, which do not have glowworms but are instead deep caverns filled with striking stalactites and stalagmites.  

Glowworms, or Arachnocampa luminous, are found exclusively in New Zealand.  We had already seen them on three occasions now, though this was actually the first commercialized instance.  Glowworms are the larvae stage in the lifecycle of an insect which eventually grows to be about the size of an average mosquito.  Its tail glows because of bioluminescence, which is a reaction between chemicals given off by the glow worm and the oxygen in the air. This reaction produces a pale green-blue light that attracts insects who then get stuck in sticky lines that the glowworm hangs to attract its food.  The glowworms are only found in caves because they require damp dark places where their light can be seen.

Waitomo Cave is extraordinary in that a river flows into and through the cave, making a perfect place for a massive colony of glowworms to reside.  The local Maori people knew about the existence of the caves for some time, and then an English Surveyor named Fred Mace did more extensive surveying in 1887, exploring the cave with a local Maori chief.  They floated on a raft by candlelight where the stream goes underground and into the cave.  And, wow, I can attest that it must have been quite a sight back then, because it still is today all these years later.

The caves are managed and run by extremely friendly local Maori who really knew how to run an awesome tour.  We descended into the cave and learned about the different geological features, and then at the deepest spot, saw glowworms on the bottom sides of the low underhand of the cave where it sits just above the water.  Unfortunately no pictures are allowed to be taken, but we snagged this photo off the internet...

Next we went for an eerily quiet and very dark boat ride through an underground river cave, the only lights being the constellation of beautiful glowworms all around and dangling within inches of our heads. We exited the boat where the river flows INTO the cave, and then had a lovely couple of short hikes around the various streams and small caves in the vicinity before our second cave tour, which was just a 5 minute drive away.

The Aranui Caves is dry (no river) but quite amazing to behold with its deep caverns filled with colorful stalactites, stalagmites, flowstones and decorative formations.  There is little life deep inside the cave but just inside the entrance is a colony of cave wetas, which are insects unique to NZ that date back to prehistoric times. They are closely related to crickets and locusts and their name translates roughly from Maori to mean "the ugly one."  (They reminded me of that Indiana Jones movie where the woman reaches into a crevasse and then when she pulls it out she is covered with giant crawling bugs.) We were allowed to take photos (no glowworms in these caves). Unfortunately Jen was not with us and so we lacked our skilled photographer, and I did my usual very mediocre job.  Here is a picture from outside the cave, and then a couple within (and we hope to add more once we get some from the grandparents).

Our favorite part of the Aranui Caves was a huge cavernous room deep underground named the Cathedral.  Our guide told us that it had terrific acoustics and to try it out.  The girls sang what I thought was a fairly robust and lovely version of the recent pop hit "Say Geronimo".  But I realized that they had not really belted it out when our tour guide took his turn. He let loose a booming yet tuneful rendition of "In the Jungle" that set our ear drums vibrating!  It was LOUD!

Visitors from the Outside World

We were very fortunate to have both the Bloomers and Jeans visit from late December to mid-January.  After spending a couple days recovering from the 24 hours of travel (the Bloomers original flight was delayed and then they almost missed their connecting flight due to a delay) the grandparents were really to go. We first did some sight-seeing around Wanganui, including a tour of the hospital where Jen works.  Then we traveled for five days around the North Island (wish we could have had more time to show them the sights.) Then we spent another ten days touring around the South Island.  After their departure from the South Island back to the states, our family took an extra week on the South Island.

Our style of travel was pretty classic-three generations zipping around the windy roads of NZ in one large white 12 passenger van! We saw everything from glow-worm caves, to volcanic thermal parks, to mountainous rainforests strewn with countless waterfalls, to penguin and seal sanctuaries on picturesque beaches.  We stayed at holiday parks, home rentals and hotels, and ate at roadside stands, bakeries, and the comforts of our own "homes".

two of the generations in the van (the middle generation was in the front seat)

It was picturesque, inspiring, invigorating, exhausting, awesome and unforgettable.  And most of all, we are amazed at the fact that our parents made this trip across the world to see us. It was great to see them and re-connect with home.

Over the next several weeks, we hope to blog every day or so about all of our destinations.  In so doing, we hope our descriptions, videos and pictures live up to the adjectives we just listed.  For now, a quick toast to our parents and to the trip!

at beautiful Lake Tekapo, South Island, Jan 2016

Merry Christmas, errr, Happy Super Bowl Pre-Game, Card

Being a little late to send out a Christmas 2015 letter, we are instead submitting our first (and likely last) Happy Super Bowl Pre-game Card.  We're having a wonderful time in NZ. As we had hoped, the move has slowed down our hectic pace of life and allowed us to become closer and more spiritually centered as a family. We feel so blessed that God has made this trip possible.

Even though it may not be a tourist destination, we are enjoying living in Wanganui. It is a lovely town of 40,000 people located on the western coast of the North Island 3 hours north of the capital city of Wellington (which is at the southern tip). Our rental house backs up to the Wanganui River and is centrally located to work, schools and the downtown area.  The weather was chilly when we arrived (40's) and we struggled a bit with the whole lack of central heating (Jen went right out and bought a used down coat) but now that it is summer, it is quite temperate (60-70's and sunny).

Jen can't believe 4 months have already passed since arriving in NZ! Her highlights include:
-living in a small town where everyone knows each other (and is often related to each other as well)!
-waking up every morning to the beautiful view of Whanganui River out the back window
-taking care of complex and interesting medical patients (vs. her job in the states where she increasingly felt like either a triage doctor or a chronic pain doctor). And no EMR here is a bonus!
-spotting the elusive kiwi bird while walking as quietly as possible through a pitch dark forest
-spending time relaxing with the family, traveling around NZ, and playing golf with Pete
-experiencing the laid-back and friendly Kiwi attitude. People just don't get worked up about things. "Oh no doctor, I don't want that! I'm much too old for goodness sake. I wouldn't want to be a bother!" is a typical response when Jen asks patients if they would ever want to be put on life support.

Wanganui Hospital

Pete loves the low key lifestyle here and is doing his best to blend in.  Highlights include:
- spending maybe 20 minutes a day total in the car, 30 on a busy day.  everything is within a ten minute drive, ten and a half if there are three cars at the roundabout at "rush hour".
- fishing for kahawai at this crazy scene on the Whanganui River Mole.  At low tide, anglers compete for space amidst the rocks and crumbling pier and then whoop and holler as they try to bring this awesome fighting salmon-type fish up onto terra firma.
- playing in the weekly foursome group on Friday at Wanganui Golf Course - equal parts competition, comradeship, tradition, and typical Kiwi laid-back casualness.
- playing the part of travel agent and driver extra-ordinairre - in Oct we did a two week trip around the North Island and we just returned from a 3 week trip with both of our parents around both islands.
- walking or playing golf with Jen and playing family games most every night with Jen and the kids

at Franz Josef Glacier, Jan 2016

Lindsay's 2015 highlights:
- biking to school everyday (except when it's raining, and still doing it anyway)
- going barefoot and getting to climb trees at lunch and tea time at school (although this gives her parents nightmares about how dirty her feet are)
- playing proper "football" for New Zealand talent center and going undefeated with her U11 team
- running at the citywide track/field .  The first heat of the 300 meter dash was classic - she won the heat by about 40 meters, bursting over the tape, only to learn that you just have to finish in the top 4 to qualify for the semi-finals.  Slightly embarrassed, our determined and ahh, slightly competitive child went on to win that event as well as the 80 meters
- making new friends especially ones that have pets since she no longer has a dog
- getting to see the hobbit holes at Hobbiton (no real live hobbits spotted however)
- using Google hangout so that her NZ class could talk to her Colorado classmates

Lauryn's 2015 highlights (and a couple of ironic sad moments within):
- qualifying for the state championships for nordic ski racing in both disciplines (!) but then being unable to get across Loveland Pass to actually compete in the Classic style race due to a blizzard : (
- playing on the varsity soccer team at Evergreen HS - the team was the top seed in the state tournament (!) but lost in the quarterfinals
- making the NZ regional "football" team for the central district...(all good here)
- Adventure racing at the national championship for NZ and kayaking in the bay off beautiful Great Barrier Island, but their raft flipped, emptying everyone into the ocean and giving her hypothermia
- "having the easiest school year since fifth grade, no, maybe fourth"...but having to wear a very proper school uniform all the same.  (her parents like the uniform very much)

Kendra's 2015 highlights:
- playing the role of Mrs Rose and being in the ensemble of Hello Dolly!
- graduating from Lakewood HS and receiving her IB diploma!
- gaining admission to Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, but then taking a gap year...
- trying to figure out what someone is ordering when they speak in Kiwi slang/mumble at her new job at Cafe Mint, a cool coffee shop and restaurant downtown.
- making friends by bringing guacamole to a youth group event for Faith City Church. Her friends thought she had brought the greatest dip of all time.
- fulfilling her inner nerd's greatest dream and visiting Hobbiton, and then getting an actual leaf off the tree that stands above Bag End.

The girls, near Arthur's Pass

Go Broncos! And...our best to you for the remainder of 2016.  Peace and love to you all.

Moraki Boulders

Extreme Sports, Kiwi Style

We had heard that New Zealand is a haven for extreme sports enthusiasts, and we can confirm that this is true.  First signs of this might have been the public parks, any of which have these terrific "flying foxes" - zip lines that are completely accessible without warnings or official monitoring to the public.  Here is a video of Jen taking the flying fox at our local beach park.  This particular biplane is probably 60 meters in length, goes over a flowing river, and, though it's not exactly dangerous, the thought of having one of these zip-lines non-regulated in the US is laughable given some of the inherent risks.

Then, as summer thankfully began to come around, we started hearing the sounds of motorbikes from the motorbike track in the hills across the river, and seeing increased speedboat traffic on the river.  It wasn't until after Christmas that we really got a good taste of this thirst for speed, however.

First, on Boxng Day, was the international motorbike race called the Cemetary Circuit, which has been taking place annually since 1951 and attracts the best motorcyclists in the world!  The Circuit is a 1 and a half kilometer track that is so named because it circumnavigates the town Cemetery as well as parts of downtown.  There are numerous small hills and hairpin and S turns on the track, and it makes for a very challenging and tight track for the riders.  There were eight race classifications.  The race started with the locals category where everyone from Harley's to dirt bikes to crotch rockets raced around.  There was a "pre-1989 bike" race and even a F1 Superbike race, which featured the world's fastest motorbikes, which can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/hr (60 mph) in 2.5 seconds!  It was really fun to watch those guys on the longest straightaway, during which the riders had to lean way forward just to make sure their front wheels didn't come too far off the ground from all the force of the acceleration.

Our favorite classification were the two sidecar competitions - classic sidecars (think 1950s motorcycles) and also Superbike Sidecars (crotch rockets with a super sleek sidecar).  The driver races at top speed while his sidekick throws himself from side to side on the car, leaning fully out on either side to help balance the bike and keep it from tipping as it careened around tight corners.  To put it simply, these guys are totally nuts.  At one point we saw a bike almost tip, then realized it had no passenger.  Later, we asked a race volunteer what had happened, and she said rather matter of factly that the passenger had been lost on the previous turn, but he was OK, not to worry, and he would be back in the next race.  Uhhh. OK. Jen got more great pics of the sidecars as well.

Two days later was the speed boating championship in the Wanganui River, but we all decided to take a pass on that one.  The brochure showed speed boats airborne and in very compromised positions, so I can only assume it was as classic as the Cemetery Circuit.

At any rate, this must have given our girls a bit of a taste for adventure.  In a subsequent post, we will detail some of their own extreme sports adventures...bungee jumping in the place that lays claim as the original bungee jump, and taking the "Shotover" jet speedboat bouncing and twirling its way through a narrow river gorge, both of which took place down in Queenstown on the South Island.  Stay tuned for more posts...

The Powhiri: the Jeans are officially welcomed to the District Health Board

One Friday in mid-November, our family finally had our much anticipated welcome, or powhiri, to the local District Health Board.  The powhiri is a Maori ceremony, and signifies that we are now part of the Health Board's community in Whanganui.  The hosts who welcomed us consisted of a large group of local leaders from the health board and also the surrounding iwi, or Maori group.  In addition to our family, three other health providers and one of their spouses took part in the welcome, and we had two sponsors - Maori women who work for the Health Board - to help guide us through the ceremony.

This was our first occasion to get dressed up since our arrival - women and girls had to wear dresses or long skirts, and men were to wear slacks and a nice dress shirt or jacket.   Here we are looking our best.

We met outside the health board marae - community meeting hall - on site at the Hospital, and were briefed a bit about what we were about to take part in, and then the ceremony began!

The powhiri can typically begin with a challenge from the local iwi to the visitors but ours began with what is typically the next stage - the karanga, or welcome call.  An elderly Maori woman came to the front of the marae and began to sing to us in Maori.  Our sponsors responded with singing of their own and we walked (the women first, followed by the two men) solemnly and deliberately up into the marae where the welcoming group was positioned inside.

Taking a seat opposite them, we were welcomed by an older Maori man who's name was Uncle John.  He spoke at great length in maori, and gestured about and must have been quite funny because the people who understood Maori were laughing.  Finally his welcome came to an end.

Our group had to have a representative who speaks for the group, accepting the welcome and telling why we had come.  Pete took on this role for our group, and at this point he gave his speech, which was simple and to the point.

At this point, a couple more formal speeches (the whaikorero) were made, and then we sang some traditional songs (waiata) all together in Maori.  We did our best, but only Lindsay really did well, since she knew one of the songs, having memorized it at school!  Then we did a sort of receiving line, in which we did the hongi, or pressing of noses.  Typically one presses the forehead to forehead first, followed simultaneously by a nose to nose press, signifying a spiritual coming together of the two people.

There were of course curveballs thrown at us on the receiving line, some more embarrassing than others.  For instance, some of the people receiving us were Euros and DID press noses, while other Euros did NOT (all of the Maori DID.)  Also, some of the people did the hongi and then followed that with a kiss on the cheek.  Anyway, there was definitely a lot of awkward lean-ins at times, but we did our best to just go with the flow.

After that welcome, we all made personal introductions, a basic statement of who we are, where we come from and anything else we wanted to add.  The Maori people usually use this time to name their own personal mountain and River that they identify with, usually based on the iwi that they come from.  So, for instance, Uncle John being from Wanganui and the Wanganui Valley, identified with the Wanganui River and Mt Ruapeho as those are the areas of sacred meaning to his iwi.

We all gave great introduction of ourselves, and we were very impressed with how confident and well spoken our kids were.  Kendra was so eloquent, Lauryn was very funny, and of course, Lindsay sounded a "little" precocious.  Jen expressed her appreciation at the friendly atmosphere and collegiality of the Hospital and Peter expressed his delight at the town of Whanganui, and said that "our" river was the Bear Creek and our mountain was Mt Evans, both of Evergreen, CO.

The most humorous moment of the welcome was "the latecomer," a female health worker who came ten minutes after the start of the ceremony and so wasn't briefed as we had been on the process.  So, she didn't know about the receiving line or the hongi.  So when Uncle John stood to receive her (with all eyes watching) and leaned forward to press noses, she looked a little alarmed and confused and backed away, turning toward us with a nervous expression.  After about ten seconds, she seemed to figure it out and pressed noses, but then, thinking this is what you did with everyone, proceeded to try that out on the people who merely shook hands or kissed cheeks.  We were glad we had arrived on time to get the lowdown, and relieved we didn't have an audience watching us make our way through the receiving line!

Following the welcome, the powhiri ended with the sharing of food, or "kai".  This is an expression of acceptance and lifts the atmosphere from a feeling of sacredness and returns it to a more informal feeling.  So, we had "tea" with the whole group and sat down to talk.  They served coffee and tea and had plates of sandwiches, fruit and treats, all very traditional Kiwi fare.

Thank you for the welcome to the Health Board!  We will never forget it!