Easy Rider

Saturday

A new family has moved onto our floor. Mom Rachel has become one of Sherry's morning running (and post-run coffee) partners. Ro has started walking to school with Mariana (12) and Josiah (7). They recently moved here from Oz, and just got bikes to ride to school on. Thus, Ro needed a bike, since he's a lot more agreeable on the way to school when he's with other kids, as opposed to shuffling along with Sherry. Sherry found a nice Hot Wheels BMX-style bike at the Warehouse for what we thought was a pretty reasonable NZ$75...some assembly required. In hindsight, we could have had a bike shop put it together for half of what the tools cost.

Ro lending Mark some moral support for the bike assembly last night

Ro's MegaBlock version of the SkyTower

Mark has to work this weekend, and all he heard at work all day was "Sucks that you're working, it's gorgeous outside." Indeed, with cloudless skies and temps around 20 C, it felt like summer had come early. A nice change from the chill and rain recently. Mark thought Sherry was being a little overly optimistic when she told him to leave the training wheels off of Ro's bike, given that it's been nearly a year since he rode a bike except the tandem. The experiment lasted longer than Mark expected, but after an hour of frustration in which both of Sherry's ankles were sufficiently bruised, she gave up and put the trainers on. Once that was done, she literally couldn't keep Ro home, as he spent all day riding all over town.

Mmmmm...tastes like freedom!

Ro's first stop was Drury Park, where it seems every child in town had converged on the brand-new playground there. Ro's favorite piece of equipment was the Witch's Hat, or as Sherry calls it, "The Revolving Tower of Death." He also enjoyed riding his bike off-road on the as-yet unpaved paths at the park, including racing down a small hill like a mountain biker. Falls included.

The Witch's Hat claims another victim


Ro channelling Johnny Knoxville

After stopping home for lunch, Ro rode to Mt Maunganui Beach to cruise along the boardwalk. Sherry kept having to tell him to slow down, but that didn't stop him from skidding on the sandy wooden path, nearly careening into a family who fortunately saw him coming. The father, eyeing Ro's helmet, elbow and knee pads, told Ro, "Well, at least you're well-padded," to which Sherry laughingly responded, "Yeah, but you're not!" After playing in the sand for a while on the beach, Ro headed back to Drury Park, then through the City Centre, and finally home for dinner. He passed out cold at 7pm.

Cruising around the shops in Mt Maunganui

Back To Reality

Thursday

Mark's been working this week and we've stayed close to home. Ro started in a Year 1 class after his winter holiday; his new teacher is Mrs. Carr, and most of his buddies transitioned with him. Weird to think he's doing 1st-grade work when back in the States he wouldn't even be in Kindergarten yet. Just a few random pics from the past few days.

Our apartment manager Lindy found these crutches in one of the units and gave them to Mark to take to the hospital, but not before Ro put them to good use.

Ro at rugby practice

Ro passed out in time-out. Guess we know why he was ill. Therapeutic and diagnostic!

Ro perusing the dessert spread at Latitude 37

Ro & Mark enjoying a belated birthday dinner out

Snaggletooth In The Big City

Saturday

We were going to surprise Ro with our destination today, so we had to fend off repeated queries all morning. Unfortunately, he didn't take a nap on the rainy 2.5 hr drive to Auckland like he usually does, which would come into play later. With Sherry navigating us through the city, we made it to the Aotea Centre downtown without much fuss. Once we were inside the large complex, and surrounded by other parents and kids, Ro wasn't quite sure what was going on. We even bought him a souvenir t-shirt and light-up toy, and he still didn't realize what was about to happen. It wasn't until he saw the sign in the lobby and Sherry told him, "Do you remember that Scooby Doo show that we saw the commercial for? Well, this is it!" A smile crossed his face, and he did that little tongue-sticking-out thing he does when he's really juiced.

Ro finally figured out what was happening. Zoinks!

Scooby Doo in Stagefright Live On Stage was passable entertainment for adults, but the kids really liked it, especially when it came to the audience participation moments. For instance, when a spectre would be lurking close behind Shaggy, the kids would all scream out, "He's behind you!" in a giddy cacophony of concern. Blessedly, there was minimal Fred as the story mostly centered around Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby. Sherry thought Shaggy looked like he was on "P" (the Kiwi term for meth) because he looked so gaunt. Mark enjoyed the sound effects pulled straight from the old TV show; nice to know some things don't change, including all the bad puns.

Snaggletooth in the Aotea Centre

After the show, we headed out into the City Centre, heading down Queen Street, the main street in the CBD (Central Business District). Looking for food, we detoured through a pedestrian mall and found what looked to be a decent Chinese restaurant on Elliott Street, judging by all the Chinese patrons inside. The Dragon Boat Restaurant proved to be very good, although they kept bringing around dim sum to us and we kept having to wave them away. How long does it take for them to realize we ordered off the menu? Although the dim sum looked fine, most of it was seafood, so Mark would have been eating it alone. Sherry was wise enough to pack a lunchbox for Ro, who happily ate a PB&J and some of our rice as we dined on the Gong Bo chicken.

Ro gives Sherry a smooch

A messy table...the mark of a good meal

After lunch, we walked over to Albert Park, an oasis of green in the center of the city bordering the University of Auckland. It had turned out to be a really nice day, and there was a wedding couple taking pictures in the sunshine. The park has been there since the 1880's, and there were a lot of huge, old, gnarled, exotic-looking trees that Ro loved climbing on. There was a gazebo-type bandstand that Sherry tried to shoo Ro away from, as it looked like a young couple there were P-heads getting tweaked. Mark thought they looked more like potheads, but Sherry pointed out that most stoners are paranoid and would never toke up in the middle of a busy park in broad daylight.

Who knew an old cannon was so much fun?


This tree looked straight out of the LOTR


The Old Arts Building at U of Auckland looked like it was from Rivendell

Ro stayed mercifully dry

Not sure what this sculpture was supposed to be (a sail?), but Ro loved climbing it

Mark in Albert Park, SkyTower in background

After spending a couple of hours letting Ro run around the park, we explored more of the CBD, heading down Queen Street towards the waterfront. Sherry stopped for coffee, while Mark had to stop in The All Blacks Store where we got Ro a jester hat to wear to the match tonight. He loved bobbing his head up and down to make the bells jingle! The Auckland waterfront isn't quite the hub of activity that Sydney's was; granted, it is the off-season here. Although nice, with lots of interesting-looking restaurants, it seemed mostly to be a place to go to get somewhere else. At the ferry terminal, you can hop a boat to all the different islands in the Auckland area, but they don't run nearly as frequently as the ones in Sydney. Ro had a blast just feeding the pigeons and seagulls, especially a poor pigeon with one leg that he took pity on. Ro would continually toss crumbs to "Stubby", with often less-than-ideal aim, only to have another bird swipe them away. By the time Ro ran out of bread, every bird on the pier was well-fed with the possible exception of Stubby.

Sherry on a pedestrian bridge near Albert Park

This sign always gets stolen, as it's the most popular soap opera in New Zealand

Sherry & Ro relaxing in front of the ferry terminal

Ro aiming his crumbs at "Stubby"

It was getting to be late afternoon, and there was a nip in the air. We knew we had to change clothes before the game, so we headed back up Albert Street (parallel to Queen) for a change of scenery. Ro was getting a little ill, and had to be carried most of the way. Supposedly, there was a bus we could take from near the Aotea Centre (where we parked - for only NZ$8 all day!) to the game, but we never did find which stop it picked up at. So, knowing the train would take us to the game, we headed back down Queen Street again towards the water to the Britomart Transport Centre. There is essentially no significant parking around Eden Park (the stadium), as it's in a residential neighborhood, so everybody takes public transport. To encourage this, the higher-ups wisely made riding to and from the game on trains and buses FREE if you show your game ticket. Alas, our tickets were at Will-Call, but it was still only a measly NZ$3.60 for all of us to ride. The train was very nice, although we were expecting something more like BART or the NYC Subway, when in fact they were real diesel trains! There's only one stop for the whole train system in the CBD, which seems a little idiotic; basically, it's just to feed commuters from the outskirts of town onto the local bus and ferry system. To hear the locals tell it, no politician can get elected (or stay in office) who's willing to spend the gazillions of dollars it would take to make it into a truly useful subway for getting around central Auckland.

See link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britomart_Transport_Centre

In Britomart, Ro adjusts his hat as Sherry waits to beam up!

Ro was excited to ride the train, although our spirits dampened a little when we got off and saw that it was raining. Not hard, mind you, but just enough that you were expecting it to start pouring any second. People were selling stuff outside the stadium in their front yards, and we picked up a couple of flags (two for NZ$5) for Ro to wave around, which we later would come to regret. Although the train was packed with fans, we arrived early and the stadium was nearly empty. After brushing the collected water off our seats, we relaxed with our beers while Ro cuddled on Sherry's lap, sipping a Sprite. He was complaining of being cold, despite being bundled up warmer than any of us, so instead of hearing him whine, Mark told him to go run steps. Sure enough, he took to the idea and bounded off to go run up and down the bleacher stairs like it was his life's mission. After running a while, he started getting hot and then started progressively stripping off his clothes. First his hat, then his gloves, then his jacket, then his Ben-10 hoodie. He was about to take off his All Blacks shirt when we put a stop to it, as the stadium was starting to fill in and there were now too many people to run around safely. He also tripped at that point, mildly bumping his head on one of the seats, so we knew he was getting fatigued and hitting the point of diminishing returns.

Mark outside historic Eden Park in the suburbs of Auckland

Ro catching his fourth wind of the day and shedding another layer

Mark & Sherry at Eden Park. Sherry forgot our face paint at home :(

A quick self-portrait on a beer run

Eden Park is the largest sports stadium in New Zealand, and has been around since 1900. It's currently undergoing a major renovation set to be completed before the highly-anticipated 2011 Rugby World Cup, so the South Stands were virtually gone. We were sitting on the east end in the section known as The Terraces. It seems all the stadiums around here have distinct names for each separate section of stands. Unlike American stadiums, there's no internal concourse that runs all the way around, so to get to our seats we had to walk all the way around the outside of the stadium perimeter fence. Tonight there was a sellout crowd of 32,000 for the first Tri-Nations test match of the season, against our arch-rivals the Australian Wallabies. For those of you who think they should be named the Kangaroos, that's the name of the Australian rugby league team (this is rugby union, remember?).

See link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eden_Park

Pre-game scrum practice

The All Blacks execute their famous haka dance before kickoff.

See link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haka_of_the_All_Blacks

After a rousing NZ national anthem (Sherry was impressed that Mark actually knew the words), the game started off ugly, with the All Blacks falling behind 10-0 in short order. We clawed our way back, down 13-10 at halftime, but the crowd was still in good spirits. The rain had stopped before kickoff, the beer was cheap, and although a little windy and cool, it wasn't nearly as cold as the Chiefs games we'd gone to. Unfortunately, the seats were pretty close quarters once they were packed with people in their winter coats, so Ro was getting a bit restless. Just barely waving his flags or moving his feet (sitting on Sherry's lap) resulted in him hitting the people in front of us, despite our repeated pleas for him to sit still. For the sake of everyone's sanity, Sherry took one for the team and elected to watch the second half of the game from the concourse with Ro, where he could bounce around unfettered. It ended up working out nicely for her, as the rain came with a vengeance at the end of the game, soaking Mark and the rest of the jubilant crowd in the stands as we watched the clock tick down on the All Blacks dramatic 22-16 win.

Scrum!

A rocking Eden Park as the All Blacks clinch the victory

It took a little while for Mark to find Sherry & Ro on the crowded concourse. Sherry was afraid Ro would get swept away in the crowd, so she picked him up. Unfortunately, that put him right at cigarette height of a passing fan and his hand accidentally got burned. Mark took him to the toilet to wash it in cold water, then we started our slow egress from the stadium. Ro made a point of scolding every smoker he saw afterwards, "That's bad for you!" Ro was upset that we weren't taking the train back, but we saw the massive crowd of people waiting for it and realized we weren't getting on the next train, or even the one after that. And it still would have meant walking all the way back up Queen Street from Britomart to the car. So, we followed the smaller crowd bound for the buses and managed to hop on a bus pretty quickly. The boisterous, celebratory crowd on the bus was dropping a few too many enthusiastic F-bombs for our parental tastes, but Ro was too ill and sleepy to notice. Fortunately, the first stop was at SkyCity Cinemas, right next to the Aotea Centre. We were on the road in no time and Ro promptly passed out. We hadn't eaten much dinner since we had a big lunch and Sherry wasn't too enamored of the fried selections at the stadium, so we stopped at Mackers (Kiwi slang for McDonald's) on the way home for a caffeine jolt and some American-style grease to eat on the long drive.

No nap, remember?

An Early Birthday

Friday

We had a relatively quiet week at home, letting our livers recover from the Cook Islands. Ro lost two teeth this week, and now looks like a real snaggletooth. Sherry picked the boys up some toy foam swords, which they've been putting to good use in the evenings, and it keeps Ro out of Sherry's hair when she's cooking.

Ro actually let us pull his tooth out with dental floss

Reading Sunday comics sent by Mark's parents

En garde!



Ro mounts a double-bladed attack

Mark's birthday isn't until next Wednesday, but he'll be working then, so we decided to celebrate it today. Sherry went all-out with the meal, making a roast leg of lamb, mashed kumara, steamed broccoli, and apple pie from scratch. Ro was about to jump out of his pants all through dinner, anxious to open Mark's presents. Since we're going to the test match in Auckland this weekend, it was an All Blacks themed birthday, with cuff links and boxers, and a gorgeous black-and-white pic of Mt Maunganui to hang in Mark's office when we get home.

It looked so good, Ro wanted to eat Mark's food

Ro wanted cake but got outvoted

No, Ro, they're too big for you


Ro reading his card to Mark

Back To The Future

Monday/Tuesday

After a short night's sleep, we were up at o-dark-thirty to catch the shuttle to the airport. About a dozen other bleary-eyed resort guests were waiting with us in the open-air lobby. The damp morning air was (to steal from Wayne Knight) so dewy sweet, you didn't even have to lick the stamps. Once at the airport, we stuck our bags on a trolley (like Auckland, they're free, unlike in the US) and Mark waited in the long line of island tourists waiting to check in for our Air New Zealand flight. Meanwhile, Sherry headed straight for the coffee stand. Ro was still moping about, constantly asking, "Where's Kelsea?"

Even Bear-Bear and a Sprite couldn't console a lovesick, sleepy Ronan

Cappucino time!

We got to Customs and had to turn right around because we hadn't paid our departure tax yet. Fortunately, there was a Westpac bank kiosk in the airport to collect our NZ$125 dollars ($55/adult, $15/child). They've got quite a racket going! We thought we were the last people to board the plane, but it turned out they were waiting for a tardy hotel shuttle, so we didn't need to run across the tarmac after all.

Ro found a friend on the lawn outside Customs

Sunrise at Rarotonga airport

The seats in the plane were in a 2-3-2 configuration, so Mark took a window seat while Sherry and Ro sat behind him. Thankfully, Ro passed out shortly after we took off. Mark watched This Is Spinal Tap (one of his favorites) and episodes of a funny Kiwi sitcom Diplomatic Immunity, while Sherry watched Fargo (we'd already seen most of their good new movies). On arriving at Customs in Auckland, we double-checked to make sure we didn't have any fruit after our fiasco last trip. We had briefly entertained the idea of hitting the Auckland Zoo or other such place, but Ro wasn't in any sort of mood for that, so we just headed for home. The cold wind hitting our faces as we emerged from the terminal was a rude awakening back to reality after our all-too-brief stay in paradise.

Catching some well-earned shuteye

The first time we noticed the genitalia on the Maori gate at Auckland airport, similar to all the images of Tangaroa

Ro enjoying the moving walkway

Sherry outside the international terminal

We were all hungry on the way home (it was the next day, after all), so we stopped in the little town of Ngatea to eat at a cafe and get some caffeine in our systems. Ro was in rare form, whining-wise. Nothing was right. We tried to be understanding, since we'd pushed him pretty hard this weekend. Sherry was happy to take the creme fraiche off his plate for herself, but we finally gave up trying to reason with him when he uttered, "There's too many blueberries on my pancakes!"

Ro wrapping himself up with a chain outside the cafe

We had driven past it multiple times before, and we had promised Ro that this time we would finally stop at the playground in Waihi with the big rocket-shaped slide. Although storm clouds were looming, we were happy to let him run around for a while and burn off some energy. The rainy drizzle finally got too heavy, and in the interest of avoiding a soaking-wet, cold, unhappy kid we called it quits on the park and headed for home. We had nothing in the pantry for dinner, as we'd tried to use up most everything before the trip, so Sherry headed for the market while Mark entertained Ro. After dinner (pasta, salad and a bottle of wine), we put Ro to bed early, relaxed, and started editing all the pics from our winter holiday.

Ro at the Waihi playground

Ro's getting a lot better on the flying fox

A scary-looking tree in Waihi