Crossing Guard

Steven has taken on a new responsibility at school.  Each Wednesday morning, we arrive early and he mans the road guard station.  He also runs the crossing after school.  To be selected, he had to write a few sentences about how he'd be responsible and I had to approve his application.  Jack and I wait in the car for 15 minutes while Steven does his duty.

Signs out!

A&P Show

The Saturday that we hosted Thanksgiving, Jack and I took in the A&P show.  It's pretty much a county fair.  We didn't stay very long, but we watched some of the lumberjack contest.  We also went over to the petting tent and Jack got his puppy fix.

Bubble Boy

We had fun and left before it started to rain.  Steven and Laura stayed home, which was just as well.  The wind got up and kicked up a lot of dust which would have given Steven's eyes trouble.

Thanksgiving

We had an early Thanksgiving at our house with some fellow ex-pats and our South African friends.  It was good fun hanging out and chatting.

Watching for guests

Gifts and food

What's in a Name

One of the burning questions we had after arriving was how to pronounce the name of the town where we live, Hawera.  As it turns out, it's complicated and it depends on who you ask.

If you ask a Maori person, the usual answer is ha-WED-ah.  A person from English descent will usually pronounce it HA-wer-ah, with the last two syllables run closely together.  I normally use the Maori version unless I get a confused look from the person I'm speaking to, at which point I switch to the other version.

Our running joke is that you can pronounce it pretty much any way you want and somebody nearby is bound to correct you.

Weekends at Home and Parks

The past two weekends, we've spent at home in Hawera.  It's been a welcome break in the travel action and we've had some low stress family fun as well.  On the 15th of November we took in our first movie at the local theater.  It's a small place with only two screens, but the theater seats were nice and comfortable and there was no crowd.  We watched Interstellar.  I liked it.  Laura and the kids, not so much.

Hawera has several nice city parks.  King Edward park is about five minutes away and it has plenty of stuff to keep the kids busy.  The park also has a lovely rose and several other flower gardens.  Steven and I kicked the rugby ball around and Jack amused himself with the ducks and the playground equipment.

Signal cannon in King Edward Park

Lots of flowers

Jack and the ducks

Last weekend, we visited Naumai park on the east side of town.  It has a duck pond and a few walking trails.  It's nice and sheltered, so the wind isn't much of an issue there.

Naumai is near the city cemetery, so we walked over and had a look.  Laura found a potential relative.

A Riley

A flying club pilot

I chased the kids out of the house to King Edward yesterday.  We fed the ducks and played hide and seek.

Left Side Driving

One of the initial challenges of living in New Zealand has been the
transition to driving on the left side of the road.  We toured around
Auckland on the city bus and didn't attempt driving in the big city,
so our first experience driving was in Hawera.

The first thing I noticed is what in aviation we call negative
transfer.  Negative transfer is when behaviors and habit patterns
learned on other aircraft either don't apply or are down right
dangerous when transitioning to a new airframe.  My first dose of
negative transfer happened before I even began driving as I tried to
climb into the driver's seat of the airport cab, thinking it was the
front passenger seat.

It never occurred to me how deeply ingrained control location was
embedded into my muscle memory.  Right drive cars are backwards in
every respect.  The blinker is on the right side of the steering
column, the gear shift is on the left side and you have to look up and
left to cross check the rear view mirror.  I turned the wipers on
fifteen times going for the blinker that first day and I kept reaching
into the door panel to find the shift lever.

The driving part isn't all that bad once your established in your
lane, but errors creep in insidiously.  I have to think very careful
pulling into or out of parking lots and I'm routinely on the wrong
side when driving between cars in a parking lot.  The times that I've
wound up on the wrong side of the road have been when I'm distracted
with the kids or some such or I've just pulled out of a car park (NZ
term for parking lot).

The creepiest manuever is making a right turn across traffic.  I know
in my head that the traffic I have to worry about is ahead and to my
right, but I have this nagging feeling that I'm going to get speared
from someone coming up from behind in the right lane.

Fortunately, most of the unease with left driving has subsided.  Some
intersections still give me pause, but driving around Hawera is
routine.  The next thing I worry about is flipping my head around when
we get back home.

Rugby

Steven is playing touch rugby with his school and is having fun with it.  Practice is on Tuesday and games are Thursday.  Games are played on a large open field near a school on the northern end of town.  It's a lot like little league sports at home, with heaps of kids, cars and parents.  There's no parking lot to speak of at the field, so everyone parks on the roads in the surrounding neighborhoods. 

Also, there are no bleachers so we all huddle on the sidelines.  I say huddle because it has been cool and really windy every game.  The wind has been our constant companion since we arrived and it hits hard on open ground.  Every game, we think it can't be that bad at the game.  Every game, we regret not dressing warmer.

Rainbow

We had a late afternoon shower about 10 days ago and I grabbed this panoramic shot.  I like the photo, but I think the rainbow looks a little flat on top, which is a distortion artifact from the panorama algorithm.  Still, pretty cool.  It reminds me of sunspots you see when flying above a cloud layer.

Pin-hole Camera

Our last morning in Wellington, I noticed a pattern in the sunlight streaming through a gap in the hotel curtains.  Realizing what was going on, I snapped a few photos of my impromptu camera obscura. 

Projected Image

View from the window

Wellington

Wellington is our most recent trip and we mixed a little business with pleasure.  Laura found the New Zealand ALSO website (Advanced Life Support for Obstetrics) a year or so ago and began making arrangements to teach the course sometime during our stay.  She got that chance this past weekend and met a dedicated group of instructors and made some new friends.  The students were a mix of midwives and obstetric residents.  Midwives deliver most of the babies in New Zealand and she met a few with several decades of experience.  Money is tight in the New Zealand ALSO program and we got word at the end of the course that this might be the last time it is taught here, which would be a shame.  Friday night, we had the traditional pre-course dinner with the other instructors at Floriditas Cafe.  Jack sat by Ian, the course director, and we all had a good time swapping stories.

Jack getting a hand from Ian

While Laura taught during the day, the boys and I explored the city.  Wellington is very compact and we walked most of the time.  On Saturday, we hit Te Papa (natural history museum) and rode the cable car from Lambton Quay up to Kelburn village for a look at the city.  The hike down from Kelburn to the hotel took a little longer than expected, to the boys' chagrin, but we made it. 

Cuba Street

Outside Te Papa

Jack suggested a selfie in the museum

Scotty the T-Rex

Jack watching kayakers

View from Kelburn

A cable car

Another Kelburn shot

Sunday had us eating a cafe breakfast at Soho Brown's on Cuba street, then up to the Zealandia wildlife refuge where we joined an interesting tour.  The boys were great on the tour, but weren't happy to learn that we would have to retrace our steps to get back to the car.  There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but again, we made it out alive. 

Wellington has a great cafe scene

Attentive and polite

Before humans landed on New Zealand, there were no mammals.  Many of the native birds lost their ability to fly and the big ones, like the Moa, were hunted to extinction.  One species thought to be extinct was the Takahe, but an isolated population was found on the south island in the Fiordland region and a breeding program has brought the numbers of the bird to near 300.  There are two old birds at Zealandia.

Takahe

The boys have learned to like Indian food on this trip, which is a pleasant side-effect.  Here they are monkeying around at Zaika.

Jack with his new dew

Sign for the cable car on Lambton Quay

Laura finished teaching on Sunday and joined us on Monday for a highlight of the trip.  We took a  tour of the Weta Workshop in the Miramar section of the city,  just east of the airport.  Weta is the special effects company that built the props for the Lord of the Rings.  We had fun posing with the trolls and seeing a bunch of movie artifacts. 

Up close and personal

Fighting Uruk-hai

Helmet to my left is Sauron's messenger

We continued the LOTR theme with a stop at the airport terminal.  Weta has installed some large sculptures in the terminal including Gollum and Smaug to greet arrivals. 

Smaug in the Wellington airport terminal

Gollum fishing

Gandalf rides an eagle

Next we went to the top of Mt Victoria for a view of the city and then down the slopes to find a filming location from the first movie in the LOTR trilogy.  That was fun, but the area isn't as green and lush as it was 15 years ago during the filming.  Too many tourists tramping over the area, I suppose.

Yet Another Dog

Pan of Wellington

On the trail of Hobbits

GET OFF THE ROAD!

Strolling on Lambton Quay