Taking It Easy

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Our second day in New Zealand was pretty low-key, as we were were still all recovering from the long trip. We spent most of the day at the motel pool, letting Ronan splash around. We're getting to know the innkeeper, Kris (who's a transplant from Canada), his wife Tracy (a native Kiwi), and their two sons Aidan (8) and Luke (5). Kris' mother Gwen (visiting from Canada) was hanging out with the kids with us at the pool for much of the day, helping Sherry referee the action in the pool. Ro is still hesitant to get in water over his head because he hasn't learned to swim yet, but we plan to remedy that soon given the ample opportunity for swimming this summer. The other kids don't seem to understand much of what Ronan says, and vice versa, probably because their Kiwi accent is very thick. Or, should I say, because Ro's American accent is very thick!

Ronan enjoying the pool

Our motel's web link: http://www.cocomo.co.nz/index.htm

Ronan is adjusting well, and although he says he misses his dog, he's already started calling the motel room "home." There are a few quirks to living here that we've had to get used to. Mark has found nothing but cricket, soccer and the Australian Open on TV as far as sports are concerned. He's looking forward to rugby season (the New Zealand All-Blacks are one of the premier teams in the world), and anxiously hoping the Super Bowl will be available on TV here. He starts his work orientation on Monday; hopefully it won't last too long since the game will start at what will be noon on Monday here! Ronan has had to learn to take showers, since there's no tub, but he seems to enjoy them, happily sitting on the floor of the shower playing with the hotel soaps as if they were ships at sea...lol. The different food is probably the biggest adjustment for him, but we're trying to ease him into it gradually. Sherry wishes there was an oven, but there is a microwave and a two-burner range. The fridge is just big enough for a few essentials, like milk, cheese, and Steinlager. Storage space is at a minimum, so our winter clothes remain in our suitcases. The handles on all the doors are set much higher than in America (?a child safety feature?), and none of us are enamored with the separate faucets for hot and cold water in the bathroom, which merely ensure that you get to wash your face with ice cold or scalding hot water. There's a laundry room with just a washer on site, but we dry our clothes on the line out back.

Our living room

Our kitchenette

Driving has been a big adjustment, as well. Of course, they drive on the left here, like in England. Most major intersections seem to be traffic circles. Mark is having to get used to judging distance on the left side of the car, as the driver sits on the right. But the biggest driving adjustment has been trying to avoid turning on the windshield wipers when he wants to use the turn signal - they're on opposite sides of the steering wheel from American cars.

The weather here is absolutely delightful. Tauranga and the region it's in (the Bay of Plenty) is the sunniest spot in the whole country. We've had our windows open the whole time we've been here. Most homes don't have (or need) AC here. There aren't even any screens on the windows, as bugs don't seem to be much of an issue. The hospital, the park, and the grocery store are all within easy walking distance, but the beach is about a 10 minute drive. We may try to move closer when we switch to our next residence.

Since we've been used to short winter days, we've underestimated how late it's been in the evenings. We walked to the store to pick up what we needed for dinner around 7:30 tonight, and didn't eat until 9. Sherry made an admirably good spaghetti dinner considering the limited kitchen facilities, and we're polishing off a great bottle of local Pinot Noir as Mark writes this. Hope to get out and start earnestly exploring Tauranga tomorrow.

A Long [Awaited] Journey

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

Sherry and Ronan met Mark at RDU airport to begin our long-awaited voyage. Sherry's mom Shela dropped them off, and after a mildly tearful goodbye our new adventure began. Married just 11 days prior, it all seemed surreal to us, like "This is actually happening!" After all the roadblocks we'd encountered trying to get our visas, and all the recent stress of planning a wedding and packing up our houses, celebratory Bloody Mary's were soon enjoyed on the plane.

Clowning around at the Dallas airport

Our first two legs of the journey, from RDU to Dallas, and then to LAX, were fairly uneventful. Ronan was mostly happy and well-behaved, with the exception of a minor tantrum when we confiscated his headphones when he snapped at us after we told him he was talking too loud with them on. Fatigue started to rear its ugly head at LAX, with some fussing about the food available (apparently the only acceptable grilled cheese for a 4 year-old is made with "square" cheese). We had a four hour layover, and Ro eventually passed out on the floor near the gate; it was midnight on NC time and he'd been up since 6am. Unfortunately, his nap only lasted about 15 minutes before we had to pick him up to get on the plane, waking him despite our best efforts not to. Much drama ensued.

The calm before the storm at LAX

The name of the first flight steward who greeted us was Mark Hill, which Mark thought was a good sign for the trip, but alas it was not to be. Ro was pretty much inconsolable for a good hour or so, much to the chagrin of the stewardesses (is that still a PC term?) and nearby passengers, so much so that they offered us various juices, food, and "medicine" to make him sleep. Had it been chloral hydrate, we might have taken them up on it, but alas, it was merely Panadol, the Kiwi equivalent of Tylenol. He kept crying "I want mommy!" and couldn't (or wouldn't) comprehend that he had to sit alone in his seat with his seat belt on (and not on Sherry's lap) for takeoff. By the grace of God, he finally fell asleep for a good six hours, although Sherry made a SportsCenter Top 10-worthy catch when he rolled off the two seats he was lying across and started to plummet to the floor, buying us another 2 hours or so of peace. The service on the Air New Zealand flight was outstanding, the food was actually pretty tasty for airline food, and everyone had their own individual TV monitors with an endless supply of programming, which made keeping Ro entertained much easier once he woke up.

Watching a spectacular sunrise over the ocean, we landed in Auckland after 12 hours. It was the morning of Jan 30th, and we started our journey on the morning of the 28th. The whole process of getting our bags and going through customs was very civilized and efficient, with free hand carts everywhere for people to carry their luggage around. The are only two terminals there, international and domestic, which you can take a shuttle between, but we were so tired of sitting that we elected to take the 12 minute walk. It wound outside through a garden with lawns and trees that Ro loved to climb on.

Mark and Ronan outside the Auckland airport

Ronan burning off some energy between terminals

Mark had to leave Sherry and Ro at the airport in order to take a taxi to meet a representative of the Medical Council of New Zealand to complete his final paperwork to have a job in NZ. Fortunately, Ro befriended some other kids in the terminal and mostly played happily while Mark was gone. The short flight we took from Auckland southeast to Tauranga was on a prop-driven pond-hopper, but Ro was thoroughly transfixed (and so were we) by the picturesque countryside and coastline below. The friendly flight attendant plied him with "lollys" and coloring books as soon as we boarded, and Sherry joked to me that "maybe his reputation preceded him."

Maxine, a representative from the hospital met us at the Tauranga airport (although calling it an airport is generous - it's more like an air room, and the baggage claim conveyor belt looked about as long as my parents' couch). We followed her in our rental car to the Colonial Court motel, a quaint little place with a friendly innkeeper. Seems sort of like the places you used to see on Route 66. Certainly not lavish, but clean and quite comfortable. There's a small pool, and even a children's play area complete with a tire swing and a full-size trampoline (with no safety net - I guess liability suits aren't that common here).

Colonial Court Motel, our home for the next month

Sherry finally getting to relax in our new backyard

After a rather expensive visit to the grocery store, we set about exploring the city. There is an awesome park just down the road with a HUGE jungle gym, an enormous fountain that several little Maori girls were swimming in, a train, a climbing wall, kids playing cricket, and coastline on the bay that surrounds Tauranga. We were there at low tide, so Ro had fun looking at all the shells and wading through the muddy puddles and sand. We even saw a Maori family grilling the clams and mussels they dug up right there in the park.

Ronan wading through the estuary

Girls playing in the fountain

Sherry pushing Ronan on a zip line at Memorial Park

We drove around for a while looking for a place to eat. We were all tired of fast food after too much time spent in airports recently, so we settled on an Irish pub on The Strand (the strip of clubs and restaurants along the water) called The Crown and Badger. My Fish & Chips were excellent, but Ro refused to eat more than a nibble of his "Breaded Hot Dogs" that looked like mini-corn dogs, which he usually loves. I tasted them and realized why - they were actually breaded Vienna sausages...lol. However, there was a pretty decent live band there, playing mostly classic rock n' roll cover tunes, so Ronan preoccupied himself by dancing along to the music. But, when a nice older Kiwi lady wanted to dance with him, he got shy and cowered behind Sherry. It was hysterical watching him follow several tween girls there around like a puppy dog. It was pushing 10pm by that point (4am North Carolina time), so we finally called it a night, and we all promptly passed out once we got home.