Moving Day

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Today we had to move all of our stuff upstairs to our new apartment. It's amazing how much crap you can accumulate in under two months. Our new place is bigger, with a better deck and an arguably better view. Sherry took Ro to his second orientation morning at Mount Maunganui Primary, and he seemed more comfortable this time around. She made a point of not following him outside to recess, to see what he would do. He had a great time playing - too good, in fact. He was the very last student in the whole school to come back inside after the bell rang. He claims he didn't hear the bell. Then he claimed he didn't know what it meant. Sounds fishy.

The view from our new deck, looking north towards Mt Maunganui and Mt Drury

Looking south at Coronation Park

When Sherry and Ro got back, we had a last lunch in the old place and went upstairs to check out the new digs. Mark had already moved most of our stuff upstairs by that point, including Ro's bath toys. Ro was ecstatic when he saw the bathtub - he's been forced to take showers the whole time we've been here. Although he had to leave shortly for his last afternoon at Kindy, he immediately stripped down, ran a bath, and splashed around to his heart's content. Meanwhile, Mark availed himself of the other key feature of the new place - a separate half-bath. Sherry busied herself organizing the kitchen, amazed by how much more cabinet space we have now.

Our new apartment interior. Not crazy about the ivory suede couches and a 5 year-old

While Ro was at Kindy, we brought his birthday presents up from the car (we had hidden them in the trunk), wrapped them, and hid them again for tomorrow. Then Mark began working on his taxes, which took well into the night. He did take a break to go to the Bay with Sherry and Ro after Kindy to try to catch some fish. Yesterday, they had gone down to the pier and they could see the water around the dock teeming with tiny fish, so Sherry bought a pole net today so Ro could try his hand at fishing. Alas, no luck catching any today (we all gave it a go), but we soon retreated to Pilot Bay Beach where Ro happily played in the sand.

Mark & Ro trying to catch a few fish

Ro carrying water with gritty determination

Sherry & Ro start construction

Ro with his finished "sandman"

While Sherry fixed dinner, Mark took Ro down to the pool, where Ro had a frightening experience. He loves hanging onto and swinging around the steel banister handrail that runs down the center of the wide staircase into the pool. Standing on the bottom step, his chin touches the water. Well, he was hanging onto the pole, bouncing up and down on the edge of the bottom step, when he managed to miss the step and lose his grip on the pole at the same time. Suffice it to say, he sank the extra ten inches to the bottom of the pool like a stone. Mark was watching all this from the other side of the pool. After a couple seconds of "Is he going to surface or not?", Mark realized he wasn't moving up or appreciably towards the steps, just sort of running in place with his arms flailed out to his sides, his soaked bucket hat bobbing in the water above him. Rushing over to him, Mark scooped him up so he could breathe and grab the pole. All told, he was only under for 6-7 seconds, but the screams and blubbering that emanated from him when he surfaced could probably have been heard across the bay in Tauranga. He calmed down remarkably fast, but restricted himself to the hot tub for the rest of the afternoon.


Fortunately, our new deck is big enough for a table and four chairs, so we ate outside tonight since the weather was so nice - not sure how much longer that will last since we're getting into autumn here.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

It was a rainy St. Patty's Day here on The Mount. To get Ro out of the house, we ran errands in the morning, then dropped him off at Kindy. Mark and Sherry hit Rosie O'Grady's pub for lunch to celebrate the holiday. Mark had the Limerick Lamb Shank which was excellent. Sherry on the other hand, had the Beef and Guinness stew, which sounded better than it was - the veggies and potatoes were barely cooked, and the whole thing wasn't hot enough. We sent it back so they could heat it up, but they forgot to bring it back out until we prompted them. At least the waitress was appropriately apologetic for the "muck up" and gave us a free round and a Death By Chocolate dessert.

Ro in his dragon costume during storytime at Kindy, his "girlfriend" Isobella on right

Sherry and Ro went to Blake Park yesterday on the way home from Kindy, where, as luck would have it, they were having registration for youth-league rugby. Ro wanted in, so she signed him up. He looked so cute in his yellow and green striped rugby shirt with a big #1 on the back; he wanted to sleep in it last night. Today while Sherry was preparing dinner, Mark took one for the team and took Ro across the street to Coronation Park to practice passing and tackling (we luckily had already picked up a souvenir rugby ball). They were the only people at the park, because the rain was coming down in sheets. Ro had a blast nonetheless, and strangely enough didn't seem to mind getting tackled (gently) in the mud. Actually, Mark needed to do little more than wait for Ro to run with the ball, run alongside him and bump Ro's shoulders with his hip, which would send him skidding across the grassy hill. When they were both getting tired of running around, Ro entertained himself by splashing through the puddles around the goldfish pond. According to him, at least, you can adequately wash your hands in a muddy puddle...lol.

Ro & Mark after a rain-soaked rugby session

After a quick rinse-off, it was into the hot tub back at The Anchorage to relax while Sherry finished dinner: meatloaf, green beans, and mashed potatoes...mmmm...comfort food. It will be interesting to see how Ro does on a real rugby field...the season starts in April and games are on Saturday mornings.

Baaaaaa!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Now that Ro's in Kindy, we're pretty much restricted to Fri, Sat, and Sun for trips out of town, so we didn't want to waste a beautiful Sunday hanging around The Mount, which we can do anytime. Geez, we're already taking paradise for granted. After many ideas were thrown around, we decided to head back to Rotorua to see one of the sites that we had hoped to see yesterday but ran out of time. Kris and Tracy had recommended it to us a few weeks ago - The Agrodome. Originally a part of the Osaka World Expo in 1970, it was started by a world-champion sheep-shearer of the time; the operation was then moved to NZ permanently and has become a North Island tradition.

Ro loved the giant wooden Kiwi bird; alas, it wasn't stable enough to climb

...but the sheepdog statue was

When we first got there, we browsed through the gift shop which sported the usual tourist trinkets, but also a bunch of wool-related items, including some beautiful merino sweaters. Sherry freaked when she saw the cheap prices...then realized those were the sizes. There was a little stable next to the Agrodome with some sheep and lambs that Ro loved petting before the show. He even told the lambs "No one's going to eat you here!"

Ro gets down to lamb's eye level

The Agrodome sheep show began with them bringing out 19 different sheep breeds onto the wings of the stage for the audience to come up and pet and take pictures with. The MC, a burly guy with a thick Kiwi accent brought the sheep up on the main stage one at a time, with a funny blurb about what made each breed unique. Yes, sheep-humor is more than the jokes you might expect, and it was actually pretty good. The MC had everyone in the audience identify themselves by nationality, and it was a pretty good mix. He looked a little surprised when he asked if there were any Filipinos in the audience, and Ro was the only one who piped up! Mostly, I think he did it to tailor his jokes to whoever was there, or more to the point, "at" whoever was there. Aussies (who Kiwis jokingly regard as lazy drunkards) and Americans (who they see as uptight and spoiled) were the target of most of the good-natured barbs.

A Dorset Horn and Sherry get acquainted

Ro chillin' with a Merino

The show then progressed to a sheep-shearing demonstration; the speed with which the MC cut the wool off was pretty impressive. Then they brought out their sheepdogs, which was the highlight of the show for Ro. The dogs would actually run across the backs of the sheep as if they were stepping stones in a pond. After the show, the audience was invited up on stage to pet the dogs and the sheep again.

A sheep about to get shorn

The Agrodome sheep show. Note the dog running across them

Outside, they soon brought the dogs out to show what they could really do, namely herding sheep through an obstacle course and into a pen. We then boarded a tram for a tractor tour of the surrounding farm. There were two trams, actually, one with the tour in Mandarin Chinese, and the other in English. There are so many Asian tourists here, sometimes we feel like we're at Disneyland. The farm tour wound past ostriches, emus, cattle, deer, and more sheep than we could count. There were kiwi and feijoa orchards, olive groves, and a stop to sample local kiwi juice and honey. The highlight of the tour, however, was when we got to mingle with and feed the llamas, alpacas and sheep.

Sherry and her favorite llama

By the time the tour ended, it was getting late, so we stopped in the cafe for some Hokey-Pokey ice cream to sustain us on the drive home until dinner. We were all craving burgers by the time we reached Tauranga, so we stopped at BurgerFuel, which Mark had gotten turned onto at work (the nurses get takeaway from there all the time)...think Char-Grill (for you Raleigh-ites) but with Red Robin's variety. They even have little cardboard burger holders called "Doofers" so you can keep all the ingredients in your bun as you eat without them squirting out the other side. And don't forget the kumara fries!

Gettin' Down Out of Town

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Mark had to work another 5-shift week this past week, so we apologize if the blog has gotten short shrift lately. Several of the nurses at work recommended The Luge near Rotorua as a good kid-friendly activity, so with a day off we headed south to see the sights there. Rotorua is about an hour inland from Tauranga, but it's still considered part of the Bay of Plenty. It's most famous for it's geothermal activity and numerous hot springs (every motel seems to have one) which are said to have healing properties, although some find the sulfur smell in town disagreeable. The whole area is one big ancient volcanic caldera, which has filled with water creating Lake Rotorua, with Mokoia Island in the middle that used to be the cone.

Boarding the gondola at Skyline Skyrides

At the western edge of the lake is the town of Ngongotaha, where there are a bunch of touristy attractions - including the first-of-it's-kind Luge (several more have been built worldwide since). There's a gondola that you take up to the top of the mountain, which has great views of it's own, but nothing beats sneaking a peak at the beautiful scenery as you're trying not to crash in the sharp curves on the luge track. Saying Ro was in his "happy place" on the luge is an understatement - he was absolutely giddy...and just a little bit petrified. Unfortunately, you have to be six years old to ride alone, so we were restricted to tandem rides. Probably just as well, as it takes a fair bit of arm strength and coordination to control the thing just right. Of course, you can just ride the brakes all the way down, but that's no fun, is it? Mark and Ro got braver with each successive run, passing people at will by the end; Ro had to be taught not to taunt people as we passed them...lol. You have to start on the "Scenic" (i.e. beginner) track if you've never done it before to learn the ropes, but after our first run, Ro was all about the Intermediate track which is steeper, with banked turns for higher speed, and a few stomach-churning drops. Tandem riders aren't allowed on the Advanced track. Ro also enjoyed riding the ski lift back to the top, even though he didn't quite get the concept of hopping on and off the thing at the right time. Sherry, meanwhile, was content to savor some precious quiet time alone, sunning herself on the balcony overlooking the track, sipping on a "flat white" coffee, and doing a little shopping in the gift shop. We've finally gotten around to buying postcards and stamps for our wedding thank-you notes...now we just have to find the time to write them.

Sherry with Ro enjoying his first gondola ride

Ro ready to fly down the mountain

Ro on the ski lift between luge runs

Mark & Ro finishing a run. Sherry bought this one

Sherry with her boys. Lake Rotorua in the background

None of the pics Mark tried to take on the luge really came out well due to the vibration and jostling (and need to constantly pull back on the handlebars to make the thing go), so for an idea of what it's like in action, see link: http://www.skylineskyrides.co.nz/rotorua/

After taking the gondola back down to lake level, we drove into Rotorua to see the famous hot bubbling mud pools and steaming sulfur ponds. Californians, imagine the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles times ten. No fake prehistoric creatures here, though. There had to be at least 20 or so "hot spots" that were fenced off around the park, some big enough to cover a baseball infield, and others not much bigger than a manhole. About half of them were actively bubbling and steaming (and stinking, as Ro kept pointing out), and apparently the active ones change every day with new ones cropping up all the time (a few were only fenced off with plastic netting and orange safety cones).

Sherry at a boiling lake in Kuirau Park, Rotorua

Ro & Sherry ambling through Kuirau Park

Ro & Mark at a "hot spot" in Kuirau Park

Across the road from the hot spots were a kiddy splash pool and some free public hot pools that you could actually dip your feet in without burning them off. Imagine the hottest hot tub you've ever been in, then add five degrees. Needless to say, they were a little too toasty for Ro's liking. The Maori families sitting around the edge of the hot pool cracked up at Ro's reaction upon sticking his feet in the water.

Ro realizing this isn't a regular swimming pool

After an impromptu "shortcut" through some very rural, picturesque forestland, complete with winding gravel roads and one-lane bridges, we finally got home around dinner time. Too tired to cook, we finally tried the Chinese "takeaway" place down the street. Alas, there's no such thing as Sesame Chicken around here, much to Sherry's dismay, but she and Ro contented themselves with some fairly decent pork fried rice. Mark enjoyed what was roughly the equivalent of House Lo Mein, only the noodles were somewhat different. Television options are pretty limited here (Mark is in college hoops withdrawal), so we found ourselves watching the New Zealand vs India cricket match after dinner - our "Black Caps" won!

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

Sunday, March 8, 2009

After a hearty breakfast of steak & eggs, we set about climbing Mount Maunganui. Sherry & Ro had done it before, but this was Mark's first time. Ro was sandbagging a little at first, but he soon found his second wind as we lured him on with small dispensations of candy and snacks, taking frequent breaks. The steeper and more dangerous the trail, the more he seems to like it, and he'll bound up the rocks like a jackrabbit. But give him a wide, paved, leisurely path and he shuffles along at a snail's pace.

Ro & Sherry starting out on our climb

Spotting a praying mantis along the way

Ro always finds a way to make things more diffic...uh, fun

At the top, while we enjoyed the view, Ro entertained himself by digging in the dirt, climbing trees, and scaling the scaffolding around the geological survey marker. The kid is unreal, still not tired of climbing after scaling a 232m peak. Mark equates the effort of climbing it to roughly that of climbing Mt Pisgah (for you North Carolinians). There are a couple of different trails you can take up The Mount, and we hiked up the steeper (and shorter) one, then went down the longer one that Sherry and Ro had climbed the first time. The longer, less steep trail, is actually a gravel track that can be accessed by emergency vehicles (4wd only, of course).

Mark on top of Mount Maunganui

Ro climbing the geologic marker as storm clouds roll by. Probably not a great idea in hindsight

Ro showing off the interesting piece of dirt he dug up. Note how close Pilot Bay is to the Pacific Ocean

Sherry on top of The Mount. Our apartment building is in the (slightly blurry) background

Ro & Sherry chillin' out

Everybody say cheese!

When we got home, Sherry went grocery shopping; since Ro had been such a trooper, Mark took him down the street to get some ice cream and watch the Maori kids diving into Pilot Bay from the pier. Dinner was a tasty "made up" creation consisting of local beef sausage, wild rice, bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and, of course, plenty of kumara - even Ro asked for seconds!

Ro making short work of his vanilla cone

Ze Pig, Boss! Ze Pig!

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Sorry we haven't done a blog entry in a while. Mark was busy working all week, and Sherry and Ro have settled into a routine. Ro goes to Kindy on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday afternoons, as well as Wednesday morning. He's off on Fridays. On Thursday morning, we went to the open house at the primary school he'll be attending, along with a half dozen or so other Kindy kids who'll be turning five this quarter and moving up to the big school. They got to do some arts & crafts, pet the guinea pigs, and enjoy play time with their future classmates. Ro, of course, ditched his class at recess and gravitated to the big jungle gym where the big boys play. Apparently the grade levels don't have staggered recess, so the whole school is basically on the playground at the same time. The facilities are actually pretty sweet; there's a huge jungle gym, a (fenced-off) swimming pool, cricket field, basketball and volleyball courts, and a sandbox hut.

Sherry trying to adjust Ro's bike helmet before their first ride. Note the Princess cruise ship in the background

Ro's likely going to learn some very hard lessons very quickly. One big bully of a kid called him "diaperhead" and poked him on the head, but Ro was undeterred and continued playing with the big kids. Well, not so much "with"..."among" is more like it. He's used to having jungle gyms to himself recently, and inadvertently kept getting in people's way, especially the kids trying to use the "flying fox" (zip line).


Today we stayed close to home, walking down to Pilot Bay (you could probably throw a frisbee from our balcony and hit the water), where a fisherman had caught a loon with his hook. Sherry, ever the Good Samaritan, held the bird's beak shut so it wouldn't bite at the guy while he removed the hook. Ro was pretty freaked out by the agitated bird, and chose to watch from a respectful distance. Mark had slept in after a long week, and met Sherry and Ro at the bay later where a local FM station was hosting a "Birdman" competition, involving people trying to fly various non-aerodynamic contraptions off the end of the pier, competing for both creativity and distance. A homemade hang-glider won the distance competition, and a large pink pig ("And Pigs Might Fly") won for originality. Mark's personal favorite was two blokes dressed as Mario & Luigi (from Super Mario Brothers) trying to fly an oversized mushroom with disastrous results. It seems odd living in the hub of local activity, as none of us have ever really lived in a tourist mecca before.

Ro wielding his dagger-shaped driftwood

The eventual winner takes flight

Luigi & Mario take a dive. Apparently mushrooms don't fly well

Neither do pigs

Ro captaining the salvage of a Birdman plane that the rescue boat dumped on the beach

Sherry and Ro went for a bike ride later this afternoon, only to get caught in a rainstorm. Their tandem bike is quite a scene, and they constantly get compliments of "sweet bike!" from other riders as they take their usual loop route up to The Mount and along the boardwalk. Sherry uses the bike to pick up Ro from Kindy when Mark has to drive to work in Tauranga - it sure beats waking Ro up in the middle of the night to go fetch Mark with the car.

Sherry & Ro embark on a rainy ride

Sherry and Ro came home to a nasty surprise - the power had gone out! We quickly realized the down side of living in a secured building, as they couldn't get into the gated garage, and the elevators didn't work either, so we couldn't bring the bike up to the apartment. Fortunately, Lindy (the lady at the front desk) let us walk the bike through the lobby and leave it in their storage area. Ro had a PB&J for dinner, and just as Sherry and Mark were contemplating the possibility of eating the same thing, the power came back on! Sherry heated up the delicious baked spaghetti that she had prepared ahead of time yesterday, and we enjoyed a leisurely dinner while Ro watched Underdog (he calls it "Thunderdog").

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Sunday, March 1, 2009

After the storm yesterday, we were all eager to get outside in the sunshine. So after Sherry whipped up some pancakes for breakfast, we ambled across the street to Coronation Park. There was a veritable retirement-village's worth of silver foxes playing bowls at the lawn bowling club next to the park, a game we don't fully yet understand. Mark's retirement-age patients all seem to play, however. Anytime they suffer an injury, they're sad because they won't be able to lawn bowl.

Mount Maunganui Bowling Club

The ducks who are usually at the park must have taken shelter from the squall elsewhere yesterday, because they were nowhere to be seen. We did, however, spot a freshwater eel (about 1.5 feet long) in the goldfish pond which Ro thought was really cool.

Sherry by the waterfall at Coronation Park

We then walked a few more blocks to the beach, where Ro busied himself climbing whatever treacherous-looking rocks he felt he could manage. He got braver as the afternoon went on, even "cliff diving" after a while...actually just jumping from a few feet up a rocky outcrop into about a foot of water, but he liked it enough to do it at least ten times.

Ro with Motuotau Island in background

Ro in mid-air "cliff diving"

Ro hangin' ten with a surfer statue along Maunganui Road

We were all getting hungry by that point, so we actually took a chance on the one Mexican restaurant in town. It doesn't look like much from the street, just a sign pointing down an alley, but we were pleasantly surprised to find it opened into a bright, sunny courtyard, with colorful umbrella tables and even toys for kids to play with. Mark got the lamb fajitas (we are in NZ, after all), which were delicious, as was Sherry's veggie burrito. Ro stuck with his usual rice & beans, but managed to clean his plate despite all the distracting toys.

Sherry taking a break at Mundo Mexicano

Tracy was kind enough to bring Sherry's bike by The Anchorage in her SUV, since it wouldn't fit in our Camry without taking the front wheel off (and we have no tools). We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool and the hot tub, playing with Ro. We're slowly teaching him the basics of swimming, and he finally trusted us enough today to willingly put his face in the water and blow bubbles. At this rate, he should be swimming by the time he's in high school...lol.

For dinner Sherry made our first "repeat" by popular demand, a pasta salad with kalamata olives, tomatoes, and Australian haloumi cheese. She's becoming quite the baker now that she has an oven, making banana muffins for dessert. Fortunately, Ro has been pretty agreeable (for him) to expanding his horizons when it comes to new foods, past his standard noodles, PB&J, and yogurt. He even wolfed down a pastrami sandwich yesterday! Mark was so proud, a tear came to his eye. Stage Deli, here we come! Mark especially enjoyed the relaxing weekend, since he starts five shifts in a row tomorrow, his "tough week" on the monthly cycle.