Holidays

Boy, how fast these past three weeks have gone! Christmas and New Year's are already gone, and we're into a new year. The coolest thing that happened to us for Christmas was that we got some furniture delivered to us on Christmas Eve day! It was shipped from Australia when they closed down the Area Office there, and had belonged to the Area President. Susi takes care of us! Our flat actually looks pretty good now.

We were invited over to our supervisor’s house to spend part of Christmas day with his family. They just got moved back over here from Australia the week before, but were very well moved in and ready for Christmas. We had brunch with them and everything was pretty normal – until they brought out some sausage. It looked like pieces of fried breakfast sausage, so I took one. Yuk! It was dark brown, almost black, had the texture of sawdust, and absolutely no flavor. THEN we find out what it is – blood sausage or blood pudding. I didn’t know what was in it, but I knew I didn’t have to taste it twice. Later I googled it and found out it actually does have pig blood, and lots of lard in it. It’s a real delicacy they save for holidays, apparently. Hmmm. The British have left their mark on more than the language here!

Other than knowing it was Christmas Day, the rest of the day didn’t seem too Christmas-y. Too sunny and warm, and it seems like it just isn’t that big of a deal here. Hardly any decorations up anywhere, no Christmas music except in Church – just kind of a different holiday for us.

To tell you a little about our New Years, I’ll give you a little background first: In our roamings around the nearby bush we have discovered that a common local tree is called the puriri tree. It’s plentiful in the area; hence the name of the complex where we live – Puriri Park Retirement Village. There are 45 single story one-bedroom units, usually arranged in duplexes, which are owned individually by the residents. (By the way, the two vacant units are listed now for over $200,000 each - gulp!) Lovely little gardens and paths connecting all the little houses, kept up very nicely. They remind me of beautiful little English gardens, just overflowing with flowers.

Our apartment is upstairs above the community room. We are the first renters. Previously they had a 24-hour nurse who lived in the apartment, but recently decided that they needed to cut expenses, so let her go. It had to go before the “body corporate” to get approval for us to rent. Some of the residents were hesitant to put “Mormon missionaries”, and Americans at that, into the Village. They didn’t want us to be door knocking and strong arming the residents. Anyway, we’d been here two weeks, and hadn’t met anyone but the office people. The other morning as we were leaving, one of them, Kim, cranked out a window in the common room and asked if we’d like to join the residents in a little New Year’s Eve celebration. We thought it would be a great opportunity for us to get acquainted. So we took a plate of cookies (I always feel more confident with food!) and showed up just when the residents started arriving. We were introduced to each one as they came in. Probably about half the residents showed up, all women except for two men. Kim started serving up wine or punch, and these little old ladies started drinking. They were all very friendly to us, and got more and more friendly as the wine flowed. Eventually Kim brought out the food: white sandwich bread with butter on it, big fat kind of grey sausages, fried onions, and “ta-mahto sauce” (ketchup). Boy, they gobbled those things up like it was a feast! Like I was saying about the British influence here... In fact, there were a lot of British accents, even a real character of a German lady, and they say they also have a Swiss lady there. Of course, there were the ever-present New Zealand accents that we are still trying to get a grip on. They were a very friendly, chatty group, and eventually one of the women started playing old, old songs on the piano and everyone joined in singing. It was lots of fun. Burt, one of the very few men who live there, is a real character. He just turned 90, and recited from memory, “Gunga Din” for all of us, a very long poem, in his very British accent. After awhile he asked if we’d like to hear him sing, “Oh, Yes, We Hahv No Buh-nahh-nahhs” in Swahili, which he proceeded to do! From time to time he just broke out in a loud, deep, but very nice strong singing voice, even while we were eating. Everyone seems to love him. They were all beginning to get mellow from their drinks. When one lady stood up, someone asked her if she was going to sing for them. She replied in a rather astonished voice, “Sing?? I was just going to the toilet!” (They never say bathroom or restroom – it’s always the toilet. (sounds a little earthy I think).

Dad had run upstairs for his harmonica and came down and played some songs for them, and got several rounds of applause. I think they’ve lost their fear of “those Mormon missionaries”. Dad won them over. They’ve invited us to come back one Saturday night a month and join them for fish and chips, and he has to play for them when we do. One of the ladies that Dad was charming admitted to him that they have been referring to us as “The Feet”. I guess on Saturday mornings when they’re down below us, they can hear our floor creaking, which it does really badly. Since they’ve never seen us, they just called us “The Feet”. She said they can’t do that anymore because now we have faces. It was a very fun afternoon for us and I think they have lost their hesitation about us.

Our second celebration, later on in the evening, was with the other senior couples. The Area Medical Director is an old Canadian cowboy-kinda doctor, just as down to earth as they come. They live in a high-rise building on the edge of Auckland harbor, and have a great view of the harbor and the central city across the water. In fact, the picture on the top of our blog shows just about the same scene as they see from their apartment. The view from the Sky Tower is 360 degrees. Ever since we’ve been here, it’s been lighted up in red and green. We all took some finger food and hung out there until the set off the fireworks from the top of the Sky Tower at midnight. Dad got a couple not so good pictures, but you get to see them anyway.

This is the view of the Auckland skyline across the harbor from their apartment window.

For whatever reason, when the fireworks were going off, our pictures got fuzzy, but it was really very pretty. Sorry you can't see much of it.


Here’s a little trivia about the Sky Tower. It’s a little over 1,000 feet high, and you can see it from just about anywhere. We can actually see it out our dining room window. The claim to fame is that it’s the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. Well, bungy jumping originated in New Zealand. So one of the things you can do from the Sky Tower is the Sky Jump – a leap of 630 feet in 12 seconds. The other thing is that it has a ring around it, about 18 inches wide, that you can walk on – the Sky Walk. Of course, you wear a harness that’s attached overhead, in case you misstep! On a clear day you can see about 50 miles from the Tower. New Zealanders are risk takers, so there is also a bungy jump you can take from the Harbour Bridge, as well as climbs up, under, around and over the bridge.

Our view of the Sky Tower from the dining room window of our flat.

These two pictures were taken from the edge of a "bush" we went exploring on New Year's Day

This one includes the Harbour Bridge as well as the Sky Tower. Both are Auckland landmarks. The fat part of the tower is where the Sky Walk is, and where the fireworks were set off.

We spent New Year’s Day exploring another “bush”, this one called LeRoy’s Bush. Although it’s only about two miles from Smith’s Bush that we told you about before, it’s a totally different place. A “bush” is just a natural, wild place, like a forest or woods. Smith’s has enormous, tall trees, with very little undergrowth, where LeRoy’s has almost tropical growth. Lots of huge ferns, tiny little ferns, dense undergrowth, a little stream, and then as it leads down to a little bay, a marshy area. It actually was the warmest day we’ve had yet, and that, coupled with the dense undergrowth and water and steep climb down to the bay, made it the most humid day we’ve had since leaving Houston.

This is a great, old puriri tree - all of it is one tree - which has twisted and put down roots and made arches, such as the one Dad is standing under.

This track through this tropical gully went up and down through a very lush, dark forest. Most of the track is a wooden walkway and stair. The wood is covered with chicken wire or plastic mesh so that walking is less dangerous when the wood is wet - which is alot of the time, because it rains frequently here. Hense the lush growth and beauty.

We ended our walk through the bush down on the beach of a little bay. What should we find there but a real live Jonathan Livingston Seagull, looking as if he were just posing for us to take his picture!

The day after New Year’s is also a holiday here, so several of the senior couples went to see the movie, “Australia” on its opening day. We enjoyed it a lot. I was particularly interested in the aboriginals (not aborigines!) because at the moment we have a humanitarian project going on in Alice Springs, Australia, where some missionaries have set up a program to help aboriginal children to learn to read English in hopes of giving them a better chance in the modern world. After watching the movie I wonder if we’re not invading their lifestyle and culture. If they can and want to retain their way of life, who are we to impose our ways on them? I don’t know how I feel about that.

Lest you think all we do is play, we do go in to the office every day it’s open, but this time of year, that’s hardly ever! December through February is their summer, the kids are all out of school, and everyone takes “annual Holiday” in conjunction with Christmas and New Year’s. And why not? The day after Christmas is “Boxing Day”, which is a holiday, and they take the day after New Year’s Day just because they took the day after Christmas. So coupling your annual leave with all those legal holidays, you can get a darn good vacation out of it. And most everyone in the Church Office Building is on leave right now. Our supervisor, as I said, has just come from Australia, and is on leave until January 12, so we really haven’t been trained. We’re figuring out what we can on our own, but we won’t really be up to full speed until after he’s on board finally. Actually, I'm ready to settle down and get busy! The other thing about us being out and about so much is that it doesn’t get dark until 9:15 at night. So there’s plenty of daylight after we get home. Of course, that means we don’t start settling down until after dark, which makes it late by the time we get into bed, and that darn alarm goes off at 5:30. Dad takes off for his run around the lake or down the beach, and I try to get a couple mile walk in. We still are at work by 8:00. In fact, we’ve decided to start walking to work as well, in order to try to get a little more exercise in. So the first morning we did it, it sprinkled a little, and on the way home, it was a regular downpour. And Dad was wearing a wool suit. No, the pants aren’t knickers, but they sure don’t look very good!!

I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t admit to my stupidity, now would I? It still takes both of us watching out for Dad to drive, but he’s getting much better at it. The metric system is still a challenge to us, though I tried making some cookies and after about three minutes, smoke was pouring out of the oven. I’d set it at 350 – what was the problem??? Do you know what 350c is instead of 350f?? Like, broil! It never occurred to me that I had to convert that, too! Then I tried to make some banana bread and it tasted SO nasty we couldn’t eat it! Come to find out, my stupid measuring spoons include a ½ tablespoon, which I had used in place of ½ teaspoon. Who ever saw a ½ tablespoon measure?? Three times the salt and baking soda can sure ruin the outcome :o( After a zillion years of cooking, it’s a little frustrating. I’m having a hard time making anything taste good. It’s next to impossible to find things that taste like I’m expecting them too. I’ve thrown out a $6 jar of mayonnaise because it tasted like glue, really! At least the milk is good. It comes in l-, 2- or 3-litres, and in standard, light or trim. Cheese is pretty dry. But fresh vegetables and fruits are pretty good. We get them at a Korean stand across from the office. Little by little we’re learning to find what works and what doesn’t. However, I’m missing American food more and more….

Okay, this weeks vocabulary list:
NZ.................................................................... American
Petrol............................................................... gas
Mo-bile............................................................ cell phone
Ring..................................................................to call or phone
Torch............................................................... flashlight
Pie cart............................................................ like a roach coach
Lounge............................................................. living room
Loo.................................................................... bathroom
Pegs.................................................................. clothes pins
Ice blocks......................................................... popsicles
Chicken............................................................ chicken (My grandma talked about baby chookies)
Biscuits............................................................. crackers
Crisps............................................................... potato chips
Chips................................................................ French fries
Capsicum......................................................... bell pepper
Courgette........................................................ zucchini
Kumara........................................................... sweet potato
Sultanas.......................................................... raisins
Right as rain or good as gold........................ no problem or I’ll take care of it
Lovely or brilliant.......................................... great!
Good on you................................................... good for you
Pram................................................................ stroller
Dummy........................................................... pacifier
This was good. A sign on the Relief Society table said you could drop things in the basket for “New mums and their bubs.” (Now is that where the term Bubba came from??)
Quite nice, or right........................................ when you don’t know what else to say
Hosing down.................................................. raining heavily
Shingle road................................................... gravel road
Sealed road.................................................... paved road
Fortnight........................................................ 14 days or two weeks
Rough as guts ................................................incomplete, a draft (this sounds really crude spoken in a very proper English accent)

Okay, long and tedious again, I know. Aren’t you glad we alternate weeks so you don’t have to hear it from me each time??? Thanks for sharing our fun with us!