The Kirkpatrick's Trek to NZ

Easter in Bali

2011-05-23T14:44:00.003+12:00

Easter morning I again woke early, even before Colin and Liam. I snuck out for my morning walk. I was surprised by the heavy traffic on the tiny road past our villa to the beach. Motorbike after motorbike whizzed by. Some motor bikes carried families of four – dad driving with one baby in his lap and mom riding on the back sidesaddle with child number two, cradled in the crook of her arm, sandwiched between her and dad. Workers in pointy straw hats were already bent over in the rice fields along the way. They were tending the rice fields, cutting grass and re-tethering cows. I thought 6:30 am was early, but the world around me was wide-awake. Everyone seemed busy with the day’s work.

I was completely blown away by the beach scene. Thursday and Friday morning I had nodded to the occasional fellow beach walker. And, there had been a handful of surfers tiptoeing across the sand and paddling out to the breakers. But on this morning there were literally thousands of people up and down the beach as far as I could see. The beach access and sand dunes were clogged with motorbikes. The strangest thing was how calm, peaceful and quiet the scene was. There were so many people and so little noise and commotion. I started my walk down the beach weaving through family groups having breakfast picnics. Some people sat at the water line letting the waves wash around them. Children in hushed tones played in the shallow surf. Hundreds, may be thousands, of offering baskets dotted the beach in bright fruity and floral colors against the black sand. I couldn’t help smiling at the happy scene and everyone smiled right back with a small nod and Namaste gesture, which I returned.

Back at the villa, the staff explained that the beach gathering I witnessed was part of the Saraswati celebration. People including our staff, because they had to make breakfast for us, started heading to the beach around 4 am to participate in the cleansing ritual.

My walk to the beach was the highlight of the day, and one of the highlights of the trip. It was so powerfully happy and beautiful.

By the time I snuck back up to our guesthouse, Doug was just waking up and the boys were bouncing off the walls, ready to begin the Easter hunt. Each had found the end of yarn tied to their bed. Colin had blue and Liam’s yarn was green. Both knew the other end of the yarn was tied to their Easter surprise. Yarn crisscrossed the guesthouse and yard, out windows, over the balconies, across the pool, through the trees, under tables, and in and out of cabinets. So as the rest of the villa tried to sleep, the hunt began! We discovered at the end of the hunt that there were yummy, dark chocolate Easter ducks, instead of eggs or bunnies, in Bali.

The hunt and some pool time was the extent of our activity for the day. Our friends all took off for shopping and touring, but we hung by the pool all day, playing games and reading and napping. It was a perfect day.

By late afternoon, everyone returned for massages en masse and we headed to David and Jed’s for Easter dinner Indonesian style.

Pera Penataran Agung

2011-05-18T09:15:00.011+12:00

Day Two, we had a full group trip. We again jumped in our caravan of minivans. Natutu, a lifelong Indonesian friend of David and Jed’s became our car mate. Natutu has actually lived most of his adult life overseas and San Francisco is his current home, but he was much more knowledgeable about Bali than any of us and became our go-to-man for all questions on local geography, customs and trivia. We really enjoyed hanging out and getting to know Natutu! Though he doesn’t have children, he was a great sport traveling with our rambunctious family!

I am not going to give a lot of background info on our sightseeing because quite frankly I am a bit sheepish about my Bali knowledge. I was not as researched this trip as I usually am. None of us were. This trip snuck up on all of us at the end of a hectic semester. We were all in the mood to go with the flow and absorb the sight and sounds and to enjoy time with each other and our friends. We were learning about Bali on the fly. We luckily had an advantage of sightseeing with friends who shared their love of their home. But now I have definite thoughts on where and what I want to see and do if I am ever lucky enough to ever return to Indonesia with more time to explore. I will share these ideas in my last Bali post.

On this outing, we first headed east winding our way 3000 feet up the side of Gunung Agung to Pura Penataran Agung , described as Bali’s biggest and most important temple. It is actually part of a complex of over twenty temples.

Our friend David was actually at this temple in 1963 for the Eka Dasa Rudra ceremony, which is performed every 100 years to purify the world. David told a wild story of racing down the mountain with thousands of others and ultimately jumping in a stranger's vehicle to escape as an angry Gunung Agung erupted. The temple was untouched by the eruptions, however thousands of people in the surrounding areas were killed.

The day of our visit was Saraswati, a day devoted to the Goddess of knowledge, art and literature. Special offerings are made on this day for wisdom and knowledge. At first glance photographs may seem to show the temple covered with litter. Actually, the contents of thousands of small, square offering baskets were scattered everywhere as people stepped through them and stray dogs scavenged for treats. The offerings are beautiful. Most are little baskets holding flowers and fruit with an incense stick emitting tiny wisps of spicy smoke. Some are much more extravagant towers of treats and flowers. They are everywhere in the temple, but also in driveways, in shop doorways or on a rock at the edge of the beach all over Bali.

While much of the temple is open to tourists, some areas are open only to worshipers. The whole visit was a feast for the eyes with vibrant colors and views all the way to the ocean. David took the four of us into a small temple open to non-Hindus to take part in a prayer and receive a blessing. For our bookworm family Saraswati seemed the perfect day to be there.

On the way home we drove by Gunung Batur (Mount Batur), an active volcano. From the balcony at lunch, we could survey the lava fields wrapping around the base of the mountain. Unfortunately, the two calderas are obscured by clouds in our photos.

Natutu explained that Balinese cultural and society has historically linked to each family's ancestral village and that religion is deeply interwoven. However, at the same time the people of Bali seemed open and tolerant of other religions and people. At least based on the initial impressions of a tourist who was able to wander, photo and observe Saraswati celebrations within a revered temple.

Arrival in Bali

2011-05-16T16:38:00.014+12:00

So I am finally uploading the first installment of Bali photos taken the first day of our trip. Sorry for the delay in sending out pictures. Doug and I had a difficult re-entry to home life in New Zealand – he’s been experimenting unsuccessfully with hosting E. coli and I’ve had a sinus infection. We are on the mend. I have finally edited the photos and now can share our adventure with you in daily installments.

Arriving in a new foreign unknown country in an exhausted daze, feeling drugged and dopey and in a fog but trying to navigate through signs and cues in a different language with unfamiliar smells and cadences gives me a rush, a feeling of embarking on an exotic adventure full of unknown opportunities and new sensations.

Looking at Colin and Liam as we stumbled off our third airplane into a hot, humid Denpasar night about twenty hours after leaving Closeburn, I realized that traveling to a foreign country doesn’t have the same whiff of exotic to them. They’ve literally been doing this their whole life. It is their normal. They are so open to trying new foods and roll with sleeping slumped in chairs on or off planes. As a child I always ordered the safe and familiar fried egg over easy. Recently in Malaysia our family had a so much fun at a buffet seeing who could find the most interesting food to try. The boys – Doug, Colin & Liam – are much more adventurous than me. (Hmm, after watching Doug battle an intestinal monster the last two weeks, maybe I am the smartest one of our group.) Liam wrote the beginning to a creative writing piece that gives a sense to his reality. In the end, he felt his airplane piece fizzled out and he took his writing a different direction but I love his opening about airline travel and it is included at the end of this post.

On arrival in Bali, I was feeling fairly punchy. I had only arrived back to New Zealand from Boston Tuesday morning. I had no idea how to translate the local Bali time to NZ time, or Boston time. My body was just as clueless at deciding if it should sleep or wake. In fact, I actually did not even have the remotest idea which direction we were headed. Come to find out neither did Doug. I am usually the family’s well-organized trip planner/tourist guide. I have been preoccupied. I bought a book on Bali in the US but hadn’t been peaked inside it yet. Fortunately our friend Jed had said “just get to the airport in Denpasar” and he would arrange things from there. He did!

As we approached customs, a small woman approached us. She was wearing a baby pink suit though she may have been wearing baby blue. I just remember the suit looked like the color of baby clothes, which is important because we would have to find her in a sea of people later. The women asked if we were the Kirkpatricks and if she could have all our travel documents. We willingly gave her our documents and were swept past the customs lines to baggage claim. She returned to process our entry into Bali. We collected our bags. While we waited for the woman to re-appear, Liam announced he needed a bathroom immediately, took off to the far side of baggage claim and disappeared out of sight. A small voice inside my head noted that I had given away all our family identification, I had lost sight of my oldest son in a literally foreign land and that maybe I should take control of the situation. But then I decided to just sit and rest on the edge of the luggage cart. Both Liam and the customs woman returned.

By the time we exited immigration our family of four had swelled to an entourage of seven. We had the four of us, our customs woman and two porters. We only had five bags total for our family of four. Doug tipped the first porter thinking the two could share the tip but the first porter pocket the tip, smiled and pointed at the second porter. We’d been had but we were through arrivals faster than ever possible in NZ or the US so Doug paid up. I learned later from friends that we were really fortunate to fly through the arrivals process, especially on the Thursday night before Easter weekend. Customs can take several hours without a customs assistant.

Amazingly in the dense airport chaos our customs lady found our driver and off into the dark we lurched.

Traffic in Bali is like no other. Like many places, Bali traffic is manic and congested to a standstill and clogged with motorbikes on all sides. However, it is without angst and aggression. The horn is used in tiny polite beeps to warn motorbikes that you are approaching and passing. I have never been in such slow, patient and friendly traffic.

David and Jed organized a villa just down the street from their place for all of the New Zealand guests. Our friends were asleep when we arrived but staff greeted us with chilled wash clothes and fruity cold drinks we guzzled as we tiptoed past the other guest rooms to our two-story guesthouse just beyond the pool at the end of the walkway. We all showered away the airport grime and crashed.

As I always do in a new place, I woke with the first light to take an exploratory walk. And, as usual, I headed for the water. Walking briskly the ocean is nine minutes down the one-lane road. The waves are huge and crash thunderously onto the beach. I was at Echo Beach. Back at the villa, I googled Echo Beach to discover it is a popular surf beach which was obvious with all the surfers. I found the video below on YouTube. I also figured out we were in Canggu, northwest of Denpasar, about 20 minutes from Seminyak.

Sorry there aren’t any pictures of the boys from our first day. The boys wanted to avoid all travel. They skipped the trip to the temple to hang out at David and Jed’s and play in the pool with their giant water-loving golden retriever named Milo. They were in good hands with David and Jed as well as their staff. The boys rested, lounged in the villa, played in the pool and ate ham and cheese sandwiches and sodas. Doug and I with the camera headed out in our caravan of dark SUVs and minivans to brave the Bali traffic and visit Pura Luhur Ulu Watu.

Pura Luhur Ulu Watu is perched on the cliffs at the southern tip of Bali. It is one of several temples to the spirits of the sea. A Javanese priest first established a temple in this spot in the 11th century. Swirling seas and swells surround the temple’s peninsula and I felt respect and awe for this place that honors the spirits of the seas.

We were warned to remove hats, glasses, jewelry or anything a monkey might fancy. Monkeys wandered all over and around the temple. I had never seen a monkey outside a zoo. I discovered they are smart, sneaky and not necessarily cuddly. The first couple of monkeys were cute, like a mother monkey playing with its baby along an old stone wall. We ohhed and ahhed. Then we saw a monkey eat a guy’s hat. He was not giving it back. As we left the temple, we watched a human mother carrying her daughter. A monkey reached up, grabbed a pink croc off the toddler’s foot and then the girl’s hat right out of the mother’s hand. The monkey climbed up on the wall to finger its catch. The little girl started to cry. A man, trying to help, made a swipe to grab the hat. The monkey screeched and gnashed with huge, long and sharp canine teeth exposed. Nobody else dared approach the monkey. Finally, a savvy local woman came along and traded some fruit for the hat and croc. A stray dog bit Colin in Mexico several years ago and Colin went through the whole series of rabies shots. Rabies is rampant in Bali in the monkey and dog populations. I respectively watched the monkeys from a distance.

More tomorrow or very soon, if I get distracted. All you Grands, I promise.

Liam’s take on airline travel:

“Last call for Air New Zealand flight 5 to Auckland.” And once again, I am in the air. Seat 54 A currently is not the place to be. The tray table is slightly sticky, a reminder on a long gone apple juice. The seat has lost all its color from years of use. Smudges distort the TV screen. A lunch consisting primarily of rubber and plastic is slowly making its way down the aisle.

As I sit here chewing on particularly plastic piece of fruit, I watch one TV show for the third time in an hour, I smile. I picture stepping of this plane and seeing my family. I realize that school is over and I have a whole summer before me. Then the toddler in the seat behind me kicks my seat and I am jerked into the present.
Then the lights fade to be replaced by the constant drone of the engine and the buzzing of devices all around the plane. Two rows back a flight attendant cleans up dinner. I settle into a sleeping position. And my back hurts. So I move. Then I can’t fit my legs.

Many movements later, the lights come on. How the night passed I do not know. It seems days since I entered this long metal tube. I am tired and want to go to bed, but another meal, this time with the fragrance of the apple I found in my bag two weeks after I had lost it there. This is accompanied by a cheap juice in a cup that crumples as I hold it.

The TV shows a small airplane slowly moving in on a dot labeled destination. As the plane inches towards the end of its journey I just sit here staring at it. I would like to read my book to change to another channel or to listen to my IPod but I am slightly comfortable and too exhausted to move. Then the captain says our landing is delayed.

These boys don't know the meaning of cold

2010-10-04T11:55:00.004+13:00

We were on our way to Mt. Hutt for the South Island Championships several weekends ago but the races were cancelled. Gale force winds closed the ski field. We u-turned for home. The boys were disappointed but I was quietly relieved to avoid a six hour drive in the snow. The boys put on their togs (Colin w/ goggles) and raced outside for a jump on the trampoline - their version of a snow dance celebration! Afterwards they had hot baths, we popped popcorn, made a fire, curled up to watch a movie as huge snowflakes swirled around the house.

Day 5 - Cruise on Milford Sound

2010-01-18T12:40:00.005+13:00

We woke with sore muscles, but relaxed knowing that the big event for the day was a cruise on Milford Sound. We only had to walk downstairs for breakfast and then up the road about ten minutes to the boat terminal. Colin, Liam and I cruised Milford Sound with the Reed grandparents last February, but it was Doug's first time on Milford Sound.

In Fiordland, the mood seems to change dramatically with the weather. We cruised Doubtful Sound with the Kirkpatrick grandparents in April 2008, Milford Sound with the Reed Grandparents in February 2009 and then Millford Sound for a second time at the end of our Milford Track walk in December 2009.

With the Kirkpatricks, the day was wet and misty. The dark clouds never lifted. The whole world was wrapped in shades of grey and deep blue. Waterfalls flowed from every crevice. The water was inky, dark, and impenetrable. The sounds were a spooky, haunted, wild kind of beautiful.

On our recent cruise, the sun shone and the sound sparkled in vibrant colors. The water shimmered Caribbean blue. Green cliffs in the foreground popped against the deep blues of the distant mountains. Rata trees blossomed bright red amongst the beech. The sound looked ready for Christmas!

Our trip with the Reeds offered a mixture of both sun, cloud and mist.

The common question is which should I visit, Doubtful and Milford Sound? I think that there are two factors to consider. First, how much time do you have or want to spend? Second, how remote do you want to feel? Both sounds are stunning and breathtaking. There are fewer boats and almost no air traffic on Doubtful Sound. Doubtful feels more isolated and remote. To reach Doubtful Sound, however, requires a boat ride across Lake Manapouri and then a bus ride over Wilmot Pass. I think the roundtrip is about 8 hours. On Milford Sound there are several day trips, one is about an hour and a half and the other is about two to two and a half hours. There are also overnight cruises on both sounds. We did an overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound, which seemed worth the extra time and expense because the trip to the sound was so long. Out on Doubtful Sound late at night without lights or sounds of civilization, except for a few stars blinking between clouds, was magical. On the overnight trip, there was also an opportunity for a short kayak. When I return to one of the sounds, I would like to do a kayaking trip.

Day 4 - The Milford Track

2010-01-12T18:35:00.016+13:00

Wekas were the highlight of the Day 4. The first weka of the day was shy, poking under the bushes along the trail and completely ignoring us. We couldn't get a good look at it. I wouldn't have even seen it if another walker hadn't shown it to us. The next weka was just strutting down the middle of the trail, like a hunched old man. Lucy almost walked right up to it, but I glimpsed it over her shoulder ahead on the trail. Our two-family group madly snapped photos and at the same time tried to stay still and quiet. Our final weka of the day was hanging out on a bridge giving the impression that it was accustomed to the steady flow of walkers and wasn't going to change plans on our account. The weka reminds me of a Kiwi with a shorter beak.

Mackay Falls didn't have the raw power of the Sutherland Falls, but it had symmetry, sweeping lines and seemed to glow and shimmer in the early morning sun and mist. The kids were more taken with Bell Rock, but I spent our break gazing at the falls. Unfortunately, we didn't get a good photo of it.

Colin seemed powered by conversation. He walked and chatted with each person he met on the trail. He sped up to stay alongside, initiating conversations that seemed more free-association musings and questions.

I heard him ask one fellow hiker, "so, do you think I have drank enough water in my life to fill an entire car?'

Not waiting for an answer, he continued on about "how much better it was to hike in Milford with water everywhere than on the Lycian Way in Turkey where Liam almost died without water and the water was brown and dirty. In fact, my mom found a wasp nest in my bed."

Eventually Colin would slow down and fall behind his trail companion. But soon another victim would try to pass him and off he'd go walking at top speed in conversation again.

Several miles before lunch, Colin was running out of conversation topics and hikers when our guide Donna came along and suggested they try to come up with type of chocolate for every letter of the alphabet. Down the trail went Donna and Colin. "Cadbury chocolate." "Dark chocolate." "Extra dark chocolate." "Frosting chocolate." Donna also mentioned we were having chocolate mud cake for the celebration dinner at Mitre Peak Lodge, which helped to reinvigorate Colin.

Lunch at Giant Gate Falls helped all of us recharge. The fine mist from the falls kept the sandflies at bay and we sat at the edge of the pool across from the falls. We only had 3.5 miles to go, I encouraged Colin. Funny, on the trail Colin looked exhausted, but at lunch he immediately perked up and joined Lucy and Liam skipping rocks. I have no idea what Liam and Lucy were up to or discussing on the trail because they stayed out front and out of range of the parents.

After lunch, everyone hit the trail with renewed energy. Colin was chugging along, but by the last mile he started to resemble a weka. He was waddling along, muttering to himself or me. At one point, he missed a turned in the trail and started to disappear straight into the bush. Doug and I grabbed the back of his pack and turned him around. I walked the rest of trail hand-in-hand with Colin singing silly songs to pass the remaining miles.

I started the last day of the hike worrying how Colin would manage and wondering whether he'd be able to make the 13-mile (21 km) walk? His longest walk to date was 7 miles. Along the track there are mile markers that tick off each mile. Colin walked marker to marker. Even at the end, when he was stumbling along the last mile of trail, he insisted on carrying all his own gear. I was so proud of him.

Liam was an ox. He walked unfazed by distance or load. He ran the last couple of miles with Lucy and Donna. I am was proud of Liam too, but mostly I am hopeful he'll soon be carrying my load on our backpacking adventures.

Each arrival at Sandfly Point shelter was greeted with cheers and applause from fellow hikers. Seeking refuge from the sandflies in the shelter, we waited for our boat, commiserated about sore feet and joints, and celebrated with chocolate biscuits! Sitting in the back of the boat crossing Milford Sound under a huge blue sky was heaven.

Back to Day 3 on the Milford Track

2010-01-11T14:34:00.018+13:00

Sorry for the delay on pictures from Day 3 of the our Milford trek. We began the New Year by heading up north to kayak the Abel Tasman with American friends, Sarah, Morgan, Colly and Kyle Smith. Sarah and I have been friends since before I have memories. Morgan, Sarah, Doug and I all went to high school together. Both our families reconnected in the San Francisco Bay Area over 10 years ago right before our oldest, Colly and Liam, were born. The kids don't have many memories of each other, but I remember baby Colly in every detail. She was the first friend's baby I ever held. The Smiths are in the middle of an amazing family adventure traveling around the world. You can follow their journey on their blog. Sarah also already posted pictures and vivid account of our joint kayaking trip.

Back to the Milford Track. Day 3 was my favorite day. We hiked up and over MacKinnon Pass, five miles up and four miles down. In the group briefing, the guide described eleven major and six minor switchbacks to the top of the pass. The kids kept close count of the switchbacks charting our progress up the mountainside. With most of our mountain pass experience in the Sierras and Rockies, Doug and I were pleasantly surprised how easy the climb was. We were used to gasping for air at high altitude, but the top of Mackinnon pass is only 1154 meters (3786 feet) high. The tundra-landscape, dotted with tarns, reminded me of the high alpine Sierras but greener in the valleys below. Clouds and mist passed and occasionally looked threatening, but we had a dry, windless day of hiking. We had heard the stories about the group two days ahead of us. They had to hike back down to Pompolona Lodge for a second night, because literally gale forces winds were whipping over the pass. A DOC ranger described parents holding kids down on the ground to keep them from blowing off the pass. Instead, our time on the top of the pass was civilized and calm. Our guide Sam had a thermos of hot chocolate waiting for us. We sipped and soaked in the breathtaking vistas in all directions. Our only worries were the thug-like Keas lurking around our packs, looking for something to steal.

The main trail down from the hut was still blocked by snow so we had to take an alternative route which seemed more of a stream bed than a trail, and on a rainy day would probably have been a waterfall. I carefully stepped down the rocks. The kids scampered down without the slightest hesitation. The last sight of Colin was his orange bump of a pack as he bunny hopped rock to rock down the mountain. I wasn't surprised that night when he told me the bottom of his feet were sore and bruised! Doug, like a gentleman, walked with me.

By the time we reached the lodge, Colin, Liam and their friend Lucy had finished a snack and drink. Colin was snuggled in the sun on the sofa in the main lodge. Lucy and her family joined the Kirkpatricks minus Colin for a walk to Sutherland Falls. Colin decided to stay in the lodge and conserve his energy for the final hike on Day 4.

Liam and I put on our swimsuits and planned to take a dip below the falls. I don't know what we were thinking. Sutherland Falls, if not the highest, is one of the mightiest waterfall in New Zealand. It sounded like a jet engine revving for take off as we approached. I don't think we got within 100 feet of the waterfall. It created a fury of wind and water. Even in our rain jackets we were soaked. We only have pictures that glimpse the falls from a distance to keep the camera dry.

The day ended with all of us passed out in our bunks just as the sun was setting.

Day 2 - The Milford Track

2009-12-29T18:01:00.004+13:00

The second day we we're making our sack lunches by 7 am and on the trail by 8. Between waking and hitting the trail, the clouds dissipated and blue skies appeared. Our group included about 30 walkers from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan. Once on the trail we all spread out. Some took off at a brisk pace and we didn't see them until the dinnertime. Most of us, however, leap-frogged along the trail, stopping to take photos and marvel at vistas and wildlife.

Colin and Liam took off ahead of us with their new friend Lucy, an 11-year-old from California. Doug and I walked quietly along, just the two of us. We were amazed. No more bribing with chocolate treats and energy bars at every rest stop. The boys and Lucy were gone, almost flying down the trail. We finally caught them, when they stopped to check out a magnificent, huge red beech tree. At that point with Lucy’s parents, we set some hiking guidelines. The kids could hike ahead but had to stop before all river crossing and forks in the trail or any other unusual features. With streams every few minutes, we decided they wouldn’t get too far ahead.

Day 2 was nine miles of easy walking, a warm up for the climb over McKinnon Pass on Day 3. It was also Colin’s longest day of walking ever! Most of the day we walked sheltered in the beech forest alongside the Clinton River. To reach Pompolona Lodge, we climbed into grasslands passing through many avalanche paths. The U-shape canyon walls loomed on each side and were striped with waterfalls.

Pompolona Lodge perched on the side of the canyon in the treetops was my favorite lodge. At night tucked in out bunk beds, Doug told us a “ghost” story of sharing a bunk bed with his brother Dan and of vomiting on Dan from the top bunk. We fell asleep to that cuddly image.

Holiday warm-up on the Milford Track

2009-12-28T15:09:00.012+13:00

With Doug traveling for most of the last month, we all wanted some time together. So at the last minute, we decided to kick off the holiday season with a tramp along the Milford Track. You can hike the track independently or walk the track as part of a guided Ultimate Hikes group. Reservations for independent walkers usually have to be made months to a year in advance. We booked just several days in advance with Ultimate Hikes. My sister had told me a while back about a new camping trend call glamping (a.k.a. glamorous camping). Walking with Ultimate Hikes is definitely glamping. All we carried was a change clothes, a few toiletries, our lunch and water bottle. Everything else was waiting for us in each hut. Along the trail the guides set up rest stops with hot drinks and soup. Each night our family shared a bunk room. There were hot showers. And sinks to wash hiking clothes and amazing drying rooms that dried our hiking clothes by bedtime. After a hot shower, we'd head to the lodge for a beer and snack to play games, chat and read until dinner.

The first day we joined our group in Queenstown for the bus ride to Te Anau. In Te Anau we boarded a boat to cross the lake to the trail head. I was feeling a little sheepish about the glamping. Worrying that I was softening my boys for "real" camping. Reminding myself that I had been an "A" camper in high school and didn't need to be babysat by guides.

We were heading deep into the Fiordland National Park. Our final destination would be Milford Sound, which has an average annual rainfall of more than 22 feet. I was actually amazed that Doug had agreed to the hike. Doug hates hiking in the rain and getting wet. But he succumbed to the lure of the wild lush landscape, abundant waterfalls, hidden lakes and U-shaped glacial valleys.

Rain was pouring down as the boat reached the trail head. All walkers pulled out their rain jackets. Almost everyone was off the boat and I had Colin and Liam zipped up in full rain gear. Doug was missing. I found him on the corner of the boat deck frantically pulling everything out of his pack. With round, panicked eyes he turned and gasped, "I can't find my rain jacket! It isn't in my bag." I didn't know what to do. I wanted to laugh or run far away. Instead, I prudently checked through the rest of our packs. No rain coat. In fact, we haven't found Doug's rain coat to this day! Doug took off at a very brisk pace for the first hut. Luckily the first day's hike was all of a mile. At Glade House, one of the guides magically appeared with an extra raincoat. I quickly changed my tune and decided that maybe a little bit of babysitting/coddling would be okay.

Merry Christmas!
With the holidays, we are thinking of our family and friends spread far and wide. We hope you the new year brings you laughter and peace.

NZ One

2009-09-05T00:06:00.010+12:00

Flying out of Queenstown early Monday morning, Liam and Colin were we seated right in front of NZ Prime Minister John Key. Liam introduced himself and Colin to Mr. Key. They chatted about their trip. Mr. Key was genuine and engaged with the boys and recommended some sites in Singapore that his own sons enjoy. As we were disembarking the plane, Mr. Key gave each boy a silver fern pin. Walking to our next flight Liam announced if he were old enough to vote he would vote for Mr. Key.

We decided that flying with Mr. Key was an auspicious beginning for our round the world trip, as if we had been flying on the NZ version of Air Force One.

Happy 9th Birthday Colin!

2009-08-07T08:58:00.006+12:00

Colin had two Birthday parties. First he took his best mate Cole out on the town. The played mini-golf, hung out in the video arcade and ate pizza and ice cream. (Unfortunately Liam couldn't join his brother because he was home with the flu. Bummer.)

On Colin's real birthday, he woke early to find the Easter Bunny had unexpectedly visited and set up a treasure hunt. It was a little out of season but Colin took it in stride. Liam was feeling better and joined in too.

Colin planned the meals for the whole day.

Breakfast: Happy Hens scrambled eggs, fresh baked croissants, and peaches (luckily, the hens started laying again this week)

Lunch: Black bean burritos

Dinner: Macaroni and cheese, big, greasy sausages (a salad was added for the rest of the family) and of course mint chocolate chip ice cream birthday cake (we had to have mint chocolate chip ice cream made at a local shop because it is not sold in local grocery stores)

We played Life and had friends over to share the birthday cake!

The big hit of the day were the Fart Bombs from Auntie Allison and Uncle Stephen!

Sugar Plum Possum Fairy

2009-05-31T11:27:00.008+12:00

One of our neighbors, Grant McMaster, is always telling tall stories to the Kirkpatricks. For example, he told me that chicken eggs are called bumnuts. So with my newly acquired Kiwi lingo, I asked the grocer where the bumnuts were and received a startled and confused look. I returned to Grant to discover bumnuts is a word coined by Grant's grandfather and used only by Grant and his grandfather. We are all wary of any information we receive from Grant. His stories sound authentic, despite their absurdity.

Colin and Liam have been planning a practical joke for Grant for months. To perform their joke they have been waiting to trap a possum. We still haven't caught one, but another neighbor aware of the boys' plans, who has also no doubt been the victim of a Grant joke, left a dead possum on the bench by our front door. The boys spent an evening creating a costume for their stiff creature dubbed the Sugar Plum Possum Fairy! Colin and Liam snuck down under the cover of darkness to Grant's house and positioned their fairy outside Grant's front door, terrified as the automatic garage light illuminated them. They ran all the way home. Once home they began to worry whether Grant would see the fairy possum that night. The suspense was too much for them. They snuck back to Grant's circling around the yard to avoid setting off the garage light. While Liam remained hidden in the bushes Colin raced to pound on the front door and then tore back into the bush with Liam. They didn't wait for the door to open. Grant is the type of adult that both fascinates the boys and slightly terrifies them. They love to hang out with Grant, but they can't read him. They can never discern the truth and seriousness from jokes and play with Grant.

Both boys wait expectantly with giggles and a bit of trepidation for Grant's retaliation. Colin peaks out the front door when he wakes. The boys say they are fortunate that they can stealthily pass Grant's house, shielded from his windows by the manuka, on their way to their hens. They aren't sure what Grant's next move will be. The suspense continues uncomfortably.

Another NZ farming-related story

2009-05-28T19:55:00.006+12:00

This is a deal nobody should miss.

Fallen lines spark cattle combustion

2009-05-28T14:45:00.005+12:00

News story and photograph today in the Farming Section of stuff.co.nz:

Wow, this is like some real life Far Side (Notice the cow on its back in upper right hand corner of Photo.)

Swimming with fur seal pups

2009-05-26T20:43:00.009+12:00

This weekend I left my boys to fend for themselves. I came home on Sunday and noticed the pizza boxes in the recycle bin. Liam gleefully reported, "We didn't eat any meals at home. We had pizza and Turkish kebabs and ice cream!"

While the boys were on the fast food frenzy, I was at the top of the south island, in Marahau, for a NZ UWC meeting. As a team building activity to start the weekend, we went snorkeling with fur seal pups in the Abel Tasman National Park. Snorkeling trips are not usually offered at this time of year because the water is a wee bit chilly (12 degrees Celsius or in the low 50s Fahrenheit). I wore two pairs of long undies and two 5 mm wetsuits. With the two wetsuits, I was warm and toasty and stayed in the water about 40 minutes.

The seal nursery was perfectly round rocky and shallow inlet of the Tonga Island Marine Reserve. A few of the inattentive moms lounging on the rocks above seemed to be the designated babysitters. The rest of the cows were off hunting. I felt as buoyant as a fur seal pup. I could barely submerge myself. While we bobbed in the nursery, the pups swam out to investigate. They reminded me of typical puppies - silly, playful and clumsy. One head-butted my stomach. I wished I had taken pictures, but I was lost in the moment rolling in the water with the pups.

If is going rain, could we at least have snow?

2009-05-21T13:55:00.007+12:00

It has rained every day for so long I can't remembered when it started. I am not sure how the ground here absorbs all the water. In California, we would have washed away by now. We live right on the edge of the snow line. Flakes fall and melt on contact with the ground or maybe in the air just above. The mountains are tipped in snow and then melt to green and browns about half way down to the lake.

We all have skiing on the brain. We were racing into Queenstown early one morning last weekend. As we zoomed past a car that was pulled over on the side of the road, Liam yells "that's Natalie and Goran!" Natalie and Goran are two ski team instructors that stayed with us last winter for a while. First Natalie from Canada, then her friend Goran from Slovenia. Eventually spring arrived and Natalie headed off overseas. Goran's mom, Lidija, came to visit. Lidija and Goran left as the season ended. It ends quickly in Queenstown. One day there's snow and the next it melts.

I guess just thinking about skiing and snow, made Liam think of our ski friends from last season. We miss them. As we drove into town, the air was cold and felt like snow. I u-turned to return to the parked car to see if we had found Natalie and Goran. As we slowed and pulled next to the car, I said Liam, "those guys don't look anything like Natalie or Goran!" They were two young guys with long hair in ponytails sitting on the back of their car at the edge of the lake, one of them strumming on his guitar looking towards the rising sun. We said hi and mentioned we had mistakenly thought they were some friends of ours. They smiled, nodded and kept playing.

Routeburn Hike - Day One

2009-05-20T21:04:00.004+12:00

Last Wednesday Mom, Colin and I (Pop had to work) went on an overnight hike up the Routeburn. The Routeburn starts a couple miles above Glenorchy and heads into the mountains, ending in Milford Sound. Mom, Colin and I went only for one night so we only went to the first hut about 4.5 miles from the trailhead. The hike was slightly uphill, which I thought was nice because we had large packs.

We left the car at 10:30, later than planned. We knew we had to hurry because a storm was suppose to come in at 1:00 or 2:00. The hike started with a bridge over a river and meandered through a beech forest, now and then crossing streams on swaying bridges. Around one third of the way, we met the river we crossed in the beginning. Walking along the river was amazing. The water was stunningly blue and there were many small waterfalls. We tramped up the river for what seemed like a century. Just about the time I wished I had not put all that weight in my pack, we crossed the river and emerged on a large, grassy plain enclosed 360 in snowy topped, jagged mountains. We knew we were close. The map showed the second river crossing was over two-thirds the way there. After hauling our bags another 25 minutes across the flats, we arrived at the hut. Yippey!

The complex consisted of 3 summer toilets (it is winter here in N.Z.), 1 winter outhouse, the main hut and the Department of Conservation personnel hut. Inside the main hut there was 1 kitchen (without running water) the main room (3 benches and 1 fireplace) and 2 bunk rooms (each with 5 bunks).

Free of the weight of our packs, we went down to the river and had lunch. It was the typical hiking lunch - cheese crackers and salami. It was a really good lunch due to the fact we had been hiking for 2 hours. That afternoon Colin and I played by the river while Mom napped and then did something, I do not know what. Before long the valley started to get dark, the sun blocked by one of the mountain peaks.

We tried to start a fire and failed. The only things we could get to burn were candles and some leaves Colin found. After the fire episode we prepared diner- freeze-dried beef stroganoff. Sounds great, doesn't it? Not. Once we added water it started to resemble brown mush. It tasted OK. To cap of our excellent dinner, Mom brought out the chocolate. Yum!

That night we slept in our sleeping bags, on foam mats, under the moon (we could only see it out the window though). I fell asleep right away.

Day 2 will be posted soon.

Happy Hens' egg blows away competition

2009-05-18T19:41:00.004+12:00

Happy Hens farmers Colin and Liam compared one of their eggs to a free range, organic store bought egg and determined their egg blows away the competition! See what you think.

Good on ya, mate!

2009-05-12T11:29:00.006+12:00

Parts of the video were shot above Moke Lake, over the hill from our house.

Colin has already been offered his first Speights. The farm manager said he earned one after a day's work helping with lamb tailing. I took his beer and gave him a piece of chocolate instead. Luckily Colin thought it was a fair trade.

No, Doug didn't get tattooed

2009-05-10T11:34:00.009+12:00

And, Carolyn has not perfected the round hickie.

Doug is seeing an incredible chiropractor in Queenstown for a ski injury. The chiropractor sent Doug to a acupuncturist who performed this suction technique. The photo shows Doug's back after the second round of suction. The first round of suction produced much deeper and more colorful bruising and covered his entire back. This time he got a half-back treatment. According to Doug, the suction is supposed to draw dried blood out of the muscle tissue which allows the body to flush out the muscle. Doug was skeptical at first, but now admits his shoulder and back are feeling much improved! Who would have guessed Doug would be a poster-boy for alternative medicine?

New Zealand Golf Open

2009-05-07T20:10:00.002+12:00

You most likely thought the we gave up the blog. We didn't. We just have not updated it. Now that we have started homeschooling we will post a lot more blogs. This blog is about the NZ Golf Open.

A few weekends ago Pop and I went to the New Zealand Golf Open which has been held in Queenstown the past 2 years. Both years it was played on a course owned by Michael Hill, owner of the jewelry store chain named Michael Hill.

We arrived on the grounds at around 11:00 AM. After eating a small snack we went and looked around the golf course. It was as well kept as the year before, which meant tons of spectacular water features. Also the grass was mowed so low it was like a well made carpet.

In 2008, Pop and I had discovered a spot were we where able to, with only walking a few feet, watch the golfers hit the ball in the hole and then we would watch the same golfers tee off on the the next hole. As well a having great views of the golf, we were able to collect a few golfballs. On that day alone I got 4 balls from the golfers Fisher of England, and Curtain, Bowdich and Jeffres from Australia.

This year, after wandering around the extensive golf course we ended up in the same place we had been at the previous year. This year I only had half the luck of the last year and I only collected 2 balls. However I was excited because Joe Daley, a U.S., golfer signed his ball before he gave it to me. An Australian named McKenzie gave me my second ball.

After the golf ball episode we wandered over the fresh grass-smelling course back to the food area and had lunch. We decided to have sushi, which was not the best but it was OK. After lunch we headed back out onto the course.

While we were watching a golfer hit a ball, behind us a loud roar erupted, as loud as if a jumbo jet had flown overhead. When I turned around I saw a crowd of people by a hole who seemed very excited. Later we discovered that a golfer from Wales had hit a hole in one on a par 4 course. Wow!

At that point we decided to go home because the heat of the sun on our face and shoulders was getting slightly uncomfortable. I am looking forward to next year and I hope to get more golfballs.

Now that my blog on the Golf Open is done I have a important reminder: keep posted for more blog entries.

Liam Kirkpatrick

Sunrises and Sunsets

2009-05-05T13:14:00.001+12:00

In this blog I will tell you what the view is like waking up and going to bed from our station in New Zealand. I think you will like this because there are some good-looking sunrises and sunsets. I did this blog so you could see what it feels like to be in New Zealand.

This morning I woke up to see dark gray clouds right above our house, and heard the heavy tipper-tapper of rain on the roof. Tonight I looked up to see one billion stars shining bright above my head.

This morning I looked out my window to see clouds being made orange by the blazing sun over the Remarkables. Tonight I looked outside the kitchen window to see a line of pink clouds across the Remarkables.

This morning I looked out my window and saw white clouds covering the peaks of every mountain and the lake almost glowing blue under the clouds.
Tonight I felt like I could see all the stars in the whole Milky Way.

This morning I had an early breakfast I looked outside and saw a faint orange glow behind the jagged Remarkables. Tonight I looked outside I felt I was looking a painting because the view seemed to have a faint gray glow around everything.

This morning when I woke up and saw a dim yellow light that seemed to be a liquid. Fluffy white clouds everywhere. This night the mice in the roof woke me up. I looked out the window and saw so many stars that it looked like it was day because there was so much light.

This morning I saw nothing but a dim blue light and no clouds. Last night I looked outside and saw no stars because there where dark black clouds everywhere.

This morning we went to the cattle yards. As we past Lake Kirkpatrick (my favorite lake), we saw lots of steam rising from the lake. Tonight I looked up and saw 400,000,000,000,000,614,568,073,570 stars.

The end.

100% By Colin Kirkpatrick

Sailing - Lake Wakatipu

2008-12-17T20:00:00.009+13:00

I clicked on our blog link and was stunned. We haven't blogged since 16 December.

Well we're back - This post about spring sailing was written 17 December and I found it today sitting in my "List of posts." I guess I never posted it.

Colin and Liam are taking sailing lessons at the Wakatipu Yacht Club.

The pictures are from the first lesson. Liam seemed to catch on immediately zooming around the bay. Colin and his mate traveled with the water current more than they sailed with the wind. They were so far away with no signs of returning that the rescue boat went to retrieve them and towed them back to the dock. Luckily Colin found the wind in subsequent lessons. Both boys can capsize and right their boats. In fact, capsizing is the highlight at the end of each lesson. The water is freezing, almost literally. All the kids wear wetsuits!

Spring is here! Sunshine, long days and warmth - finally. My condolences to the northern hemisphere that is freezing right now. Not much you can do about it, except head south, way south!

(Reading the last couple of lines of this entry, I realize one reason the blog went on hiatus. Summer is fleeting. Our first Queenstown summer I didn't understand the frenetic panic to play in the summer's warmth and sunshine. When our second summer began, I understood the urgency. Summer here is short and elusive. Warm days are precious. I couldn't get myself to stay inside the house and sit at the computer. Every warm summer night I headed outside to walk, ride, weed the veggie garden or just sit and watch night arrive late. Now in May, frost already dusts the paddocks in the morning and the mountains have first coat of snow. It is dark early and getting colder outside.)

Koromakawa - Days 4 and 5

2008-12-16T22:12:00.004+13:00

I can't believe a whole month has passed since my last post.

Since we are on the road for the holidays in four days, I don't have time to write a full description of the rest of our Koromakawa adventure right now. I thought I would at least get the rest of the pictures uploaded.

Day 4:

Day 5:

It was a blissful stay with the most generous, truly friendly people.

Koromakawa - Day 3

2008-11-16T20:16:00.004+13:00

We were land bound on Day 3 with high winds on the sea. We had a relaxing day of reading and games - Yahtzee, Monopoly and horseshoes. Doug and I even had an afternoon nap. The boys, who have been resistant to napping since birth, quietly read while we dozed. Waking up from a lazy afternoon nap, listening to the wind and water was absolutely delicious.

After we returned home, we read a news story in The Southland Times that a New Zealand woman was shipwrecked during the storm, not far from where we we staying on Ono Island.

We voted as Kiwis and Americans this week

2008-11-09T20:44:00.014+13:00

Wow! I won't attempt to articulate the feelings of elation and hope we feel with Barack Obama's victory. I have spent lots of time reading to myself and to Colin and Liam much more eloquent accounts that express feelings being experienced by myself and by people all around the world.

Far away in NZ, the Kirkpatricks are feeling proud to be Americans. I read this article posted in the New Zealand Herald and it definitely resonated:

Suddenly, it may be cool to be American again - 06 Nov 2008 - NZ Herald: International and World News

The day after the U.S. election, Liam got off the bus beaming. He has felt, on some level, under a dark American cloud at school. The comments have been off-handed, but even Liam at 10 can understand that they are definitely not pro-American. He has sensed the frustration and anger that people here have felt towards many of the current US policies. We have explained to Liam that his friends and classmates mimic what they hear at home and that these comments are about U.S. politics and policies and are not directed at him or us personally. In class this week, he was called on to share his understanding of the significance of Obama as president-elect of the US. Liam told us during dinner that he explained to his class about the Civil War and slavery, then went on to describe the civil rights struggle. He also tried to explain the U.S. presidential election process. His class spent part of two consecutive days discussing the U.S. election. I would say they were the happiest two school days in the last year for Liam. He felt proud to be an American for the first time in his New Zealand classroom. I never expected this profound reaction from Liam at age 10.

I've been asked if New Zealanders are interested in the US election. Kiwis avidly followed the campaign and election day. People ALL over our world as well as New Zealand, celebrated Barack Obama's election as the 44th president of the United States. All of our local papers as well as the NZ Herald carried front page stories and pictures of President-elect Obama. As soon as the race was called Kiwi friends started to call and congratulate us. Here's another article in the NZ Herald:

Paul Holmes: Lincoln's legacy continues - 09 Nov 2008 - NZ Herald: International and World News

Crazily, we also just voted in our first NZ election. Yesterday NZ elected a new prime minister, Mr. John Key of the National Party. We just became eligible to vote on our one year anniversary in NZ at the end of October. We have been following election campaigns in two countries.

Our family toast at dinner on Wednesday, 5 November (NZ time), after watching Barack Obama's speech

- Here's to hope, change, and peace...

Day Two - Snorkeling with Manta Rays

2008-11-02T09:10:00.009+13:00

On Day 2 we all had a first-in-a-lifetime experience - swimming with manta rays! It was absolutely amazing and overwhelming. They were huge with a wingspan of two meters. They looked almost prehistoric, but also graceful. They seemed to fly by us in the water with wings flapping in slow motion.

The mantas and coral reefs reawakened my awe of the natural world. Underwater, the creations and creatures are more fantastical and vibrant than my wildest imaginings. Unfortunately we didn't have an underwater camera and I am stuck sharing my limited verbal descriptions, instead. I had been disappointed with the reefs we visited on the Blue Lagoon Cruise, but the reef off Koromakawa was truly the best snorkeling I have ever experienced. We were just inside the Great Astrolabe Reef.

I saw a reef shark glide by and tried to follow it from above as it wound silently along the reef until it turned and disappeared into the deep blue depths beyond the reef. Glide, however, is not the correct word to describe its movement. The shark is powerful and purposeful, dark and streamlined. I want to say sinister because of its dark profile and scary movie personality. I wasn't scared though. I was captivated and awed.

The boys did great. Colin stayed in the water until his little body couldn't stop shaking with cold and his lips were blue. Liam followed everywhere. I had explained to them that reefs and coral are fragile, that we could watch and observe but that we couldn't touch. I also threw in that coral cuts are VERY painful and heal slowly. I told them the story of being dragged over the reef crest in rough conditions doing research years ago. I had hung onto a brain coral (Diploria sp.) waiting for the tidal surge to ease to escape without scraping across the fire coral (Millepora sp.). I had cuts from armpits to hands, which scabbed like a delicate, intricate tattoo. With my warnings in mind, the boys carefully paddled the reef without mishap.

We floated above witnessing the magical coral garden. We observed that the fish only venture a short distance from the safe hideout in the reef. The reef is a city with many small neighborhoods and most creatures stay in their own neighborhoods, like people.

Koromakawa - Should we share this paradise?

2008-10-28T21:55:00.007+13:00

Doug and I have debated whether to share our find, or keep the Koromakawa Resort as our own secret paradise. Koromakawa was absolutely the perfect vacation spot. As soon as we arrived, I was scheming to extend our vacation. Before I could organize and prolong our stay, the newlyweds that stayed at the resort prior to our arrival booked a return for the day of our departure. We decided it was bad karma to try to compete against newlyweds who traveled 30 hours from Sweden to Fiji. In the end, we also decided Karin and Spence are the most gracious hosts and deserve all the praise and support we can offer.

If you're looking for bright lights, shopping, or a nightlife beyond stargazing, Koromakawa is not the spot for you. If you are looking for warm smiles, horseshoes on the beach, naps swaying in hammocks between palms, sandcastles and peace, Koromakawa is heaven on earth. Not only is the stay luxurious, it is also eco-friendly with wind and solar generated power. However, unless Spence gives you a tour of his system, you would never guess that you are living completely off the power grid.

We stepped off the plane in Kadavu, as Spence, our host, and Johnny grabbed our bags off the tarmac, and we walked out of the airport across the road, waded into the water and onto Spence's boat. As Johnny sped out of the bay towards Ono, Spence reached into his cooler and brought out a fresh fruit platter and cold drinks. Yum!

The boat ride to Ono was about an hour and a half. We didn't see any other boats, but caught glimpses of villages nestled in the dense tropical greenery along the coast. Our first glimpse of Koromakawa was just a thatched roof peeking through the trees, just feet from the waters edge. Karin and the entire resort crew were on the beach singing a welcome song for our arrival. The Fijians' singing and dancing were highlights of our stay.

The boys waded to shore, said their hellos and took a few quick sips from their coconuts then immediately started their first sandcastle, only stopping for an occasional swim until I made them rinse off for dinner.

Right before dinner, we joined Karin and Spence and their Fijian staff for a kava welcoming ceremony with more singing and dancing and then a delicious dinner of fish that we chose from the fisherman on the beach that afternoon. Kava tastes to me like muddy, earthy tea. We were warned that it was a strong, maybe bitter taste, but I actually liked it and Colin seemed to develop a taste for it! Right after drinking a bowl, my tongue tingled like when the dentist numbs your mouth and then the novocaine starts to wear off. We were taught the custom is to clap once, raise our bowl and say "bula" to the group before drinking, drain our bowl, and then clap three more times. The bowl is then refilled and passed to the next person. We laughed and clapped along with the Fijian's songs. Kava is a mild narcotic and Karin predicted we would all sleep well, which we did.

Fiji!

2008-10-27T08:33:00.010+13:00

Winter in Queenstown was long, much longer than a Denver winter, or at least it felt longer. The days were actually warmer than in the Rockies, with less days at freezing temperatures. People in Queenstown like to gloat that you can ski in the morning and golf in the afternoon. In fact, there were even days that it was warm enough to go horseback riding. Our house, however, was cold, not quite freezing but it felt like it. It is reminiscent of a barn with whitewashed mud brick walls, big wooden beams, a peaked roof and wind whistling through cracks and crevices. The breeze inside the house on windy nights is strong and consistent enough to blow out candles on the kitchen table.

Kiwis keep their homes, restaurants and shops much colder than Americans. So we tried to go local and bundle against the frost. In our house, we have underfloor heating in most rooms with an additional wood burner in the kitchen and fireplace in the family room. Doug's office, however, is far from the fire and doesn't have the underfloor heating. By June Doug could see his breath most mornings as he logged onto his computer. We went out to purchase a heater for his office. Doug was explaining to the salesperson that he had an office that was about 14 degrees in the morning (which would be about 57 degrees Fahrenheit). The saleswoman replied, "Oh, that's not too cold. You really don't need a heater." Doug and I burst out laughing. We were trying to purchase a heater and the saleswoman was trying to talk us out of it. She was making us feel like wimps and lost the sale. We walked out of the store and we went next door where we bought an electric heater.

Once we received the first electric bill, we decided to turn off the underfloor heating. Doug was shocked at the cost and I felt guilty about the power usage. Liam and Colin seemed unaffected by the temperature. I started a layering campaign and bought a wardrobe of silk and polypro long undies. Doug and I wore knit hats round the clock. I've come to the conclusion hats really do keep you warm! We decided to use this winter to study the heating and insulation shortcomings of our new home. We are currently in a winterizing the house campaign adding insulation, weather stripping, stuffing gaps and retrofitting doors and windows.

To adjust to the conditions, we also reorganized our house. I moved my office up to the toasty loft, next to the wood stove pipe. We used the loft as our hang out spot. If we had guests over, we circled the kitchen chairs around the wood stove in the evenings. It felt very pioneer chic. Doug gained lots of chopping experience and the boys hauled wood every day after school. First one up in the morning lit the wood stove.

When we arrived a year ago the whole town seemed giddy with their enthusiasm for spring, more enthusiastic than I remembered spring fever in Colorado. It reminded me of the ecstatic spring thaws in Maine, where it really freezes solid. Maine is colder than Queenstown, but Queenstown suffers dramatically from the lack of sun. The days are short. The sun was barely peaking over the mountains on the far side of the lake at 10 am. The town is in the shadow of the mountains except for midday. The playground in the primary school gets barely a couple hours of direct sun a day in the winter. Our house had direct sunlight from mid morning to mid afternoon. My new friend in Bob's Cove, the next bay over from our house, was explaining to me that each fall her husband gets depressed with the coming of winter because they almost completely lose the sun for the entire winter. Last fall I thought she was exaggerating. Now I get it. Luckily we were up on the sunny ski fields much of the winter.

When spring break arrived and Doug looked just about to start up work again, I suggested to Doug that a break to the warmth, ocean and water was just what we all needed. Amazingly Doug agreed. He even admitted for the first time winter was a little too long for him too! At the last minute we booked fights to Fiji, which is just three hours from NZ.

We barely had time to plan a trip and knew nothing about Fiji. Usually I like to plan (or not plan) my own adventures but this time we contacted Destination World listed in Conde Nast as Fiji/South Pacific specialists. I told them our dates and that we wanted quiet sandy beaches and snorkeling. We really didn't care about anything else. They planned a fabulous itinerary for us.

Because we took so many pictures on our ten day vacation, I have grouped them to limit the number of photos in each slideshow. This first slideshow includes pictures from our first night in Nadi and then a three night cruise with Blue Lagoon Cruises through the Yasawa Islands.

We had to spend our first night in Nadi because flights from NZ arrive too late to catch the cruise on the same day. Nadi is not somewhere I would choose for a vacation. We stayed at First Landing, which was quiet. They even put us in a villa with a private pool. Dinner at First Landing was served at tables on the beach and the boys started building sand castles in the dark waiting for their food.

While both Doug and I have always lifted our noses at the idea of a cruise, we actually really enjoyed this one. We spent the days swimming and playing on incredible beaches and the group was small, especially since the boat was only half full. The crew was great, especially with Colin and Liam, the only two kids on board. The cruise director said they had about 15 kids the week before our trip and another group of children the week following our trip but that our week was a quiet one except for my two boys. The cruise usually has more children during the Australian and New Zealand school holidays and is quieter at other times. We were the only Americans on the cruise. We cruised with Australians, French, Swiss, Brits, Canadians, Kiwis and Fijians. Our last night was the international competition. We were unsure whether we should compete with the Kiwis or as Americans. In the end we competed as Americans and sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Doug introduced us explaining that October in the US is the season of presidential elections and, more importantly but much less entertaining, the Baseball World Series. We didn't bring down the house, but luckily we let Colin and Liam carry the show and we had the "cute" kid factor to get us through the performance. The Fijians put the rest of the nationalities to shame with their dances and songs under the stars on the beach. One Indo-Fijian woman performed a beautiful solo song and dance to end the evening.

Our One Year Anniversary

2008-10-25T15:08:00.009+13:00

Today is the one year anniversary of our arrival in New Zealand. The task of describing all my thoughts after a year in our new home is too daunting to tackle in one blog entry.

Some quick thoughts we've shared at the dinner table the last few days:

1. All four of us have worked hard in different ways to root ourselves into our new community and to make new connections.
Doug - playing and coaching sports and his local investment group that he meets with monthly.
Carolyn - volunteering at school with sausage sizzles, Shelterbox, skiing, Tournament of the Minds and in the boys' classrooms, also with the NZ United World College Trust based in Queenstown.
Liam - sports, school extracurricular activities like Chess, Tournament of the Minds and the Family Arts and Variety Show.
Colin - school, Chess and joining the Queenstown Alpine Ski Team.

Being in school five days a week and in sports lots of afternoon, the boys are our cultural consultants/ambassadors. Liam helps with vocabulary and grammar. Learned is spelled learnt. Hair along your forehead is a fringe, not bangs. Colin is our pronunciation guru, especially with Maori words. In fact, he has discerned two acceptable pronunciations of Maori: Mar-ree or Mao-di. He was once again instructing Liam and me on the way home from school on Friday.

2. Sometimes this move feels like a reality show idea or social experiment - a family of four picks up and moves to a location where they don't have a single friend, acquaintance or connection...watch while they try to settle into a their new life.

3. Each of us decided that even if we were able to roll back the clock and decide whether to do this move, knowing what we know now, we would still choose to move to NZ, and particularly Queenstown.

4. Though there are few new lessons/challenges:
Doug - Working from home - setting up a space/time that is quiet and uninterrupted by the rest of the household. Missing the interaction/stimulus of his colleagues.
Carolyn- Having Doug home ALL day ;-) Building a new social network. Discovering that I am no longer a teenager, unafraid to jump on any horse.
Colin - Colin has learnt (several times) that in a less supervised world, kids tend to work things out their own way. For example, if you throw a snowball into a bigger kid's face, he will pound you into the snow with more force than you threw your snow ball. Experiential learning/natural consequences in their most basic form.
Liam-Being a minority/outsider for the first time and feeling different and singled out from the others. Liam has learnt that people from other places sometimes base first impressions on stereotypes. Liam has experienced that Kiwi classmates think Americans eat tomato sauce (ketchup) on everything, talk with squeaky American voices, and all love George Bush.

5. What Colin, Doug, Liam and I miss most are our family and friends.

Colin and Liam also miss the Logan School. Liam says he would never complain about anything at Logan if he was there again. He would keep small challenges in perspective when he compares them with some of the bigger challenges he's experienced in his new school. Both boys know Logan is a remarkable place and draw on their Logan foundation every single day. I too miss Logan - my colleagues and students and the most remarkable learning environment I have ever encountered.

Doug missed work (crazy, huh?). I am not sure how or why in these tumultuous economic times. (He just started back doing what he did in Denver but doing it from here and happy to be involved again).

8. We have been welcomed and included by so many new friends - dinner parties, road trips, ski trips, bonfires on the beach, hikes, walks, movie nights, birthday parties, book clubs, investment clubs, sports teams.

9. Sometimes all the new experiences, connections and friends is a little overwhelming. Even just remembering where and when we've met everyone is a challenge, as everyone is a new acquaintance.

10. All of us have more new projects going than we can manage.
Doug - figuring out NZ/US tax laws, life on a sheep station
Carolyn - horses again, gardening, NZ UWC, school volunteering, raising chickens with boys, composting/worms, helping out on the station (like halter training Alpaca), studying Pilates again
Colin & Liam - Happy Hens business and newsletter, raising a little lamb (which means more afterschool chores)

That is why blogging has fallen off for me. I have had trouble focusing as I have so many new things going that I can't seem to fit it all in day. I have decided that maybe I don't have to do everything all at once and in the first year, which is probably a reasonable idea considering the first year ended yesterday.

11. Despite Doug's raised eyebrows, we've added more than one animal a month:

-already had one dog that immigrated from U.S.
-Santa brought a kitten
-Carolyn got a horse
-Colin and Liam adopted 12 hens and a rooster
-yesterday the farm manager delivered an orphaned lamb born early in the day (more details coming from Liam with pictures). The lamb spent last night in the kitchen in a dog crate with the cat looking in from the top and the dog looking in the side.

12. This year plus period (13 plus months) is the longest stretch of time all of us have been out of the US. (Doug may have been out for this long as a child in Iran but he can't remember. Grams, do you remember?)

13. Until we went to Fiji this month, none of us had been on an airplane since arrival in NZ (11+ months). We've seen a regular stoplights twice, in Christchurch in February and in Auckland (on the way home from Fiji) this month. There has been so much to explore at home and locally that we haven't even felt the urge to leave the Wakatipu Basin.

Tonight we head out to the Queenstown Jazz Festival with new friends, Cath and John, to celebrate John's birthday and our anniversary. Their daughter Hebe is Liam's classmate and friend. Hebe's going to spend the night at our house and help take care of the lamb.

Happy First Anniversary Eleanor and Brett

2008-10-25T13:37:00.007+13:00

Several nights ago Doug and I were just drifting off to sleep when Doug quietly mentioned that it was Eleanor and Brett's wedding anniversary. Long time readers may remember our unplanned participation in Eleanor's wedding on the Greek isle of Lindos. Their actual anniversary date was October 12, I believe. Amazing to think that a whole year has whirled passed since their wedding and our travels through Europe.

A year later, snuggling under our down comforter on a chilly, early spring night here in New Zealand, we could clearly conjure up the feeling of that magical, late fall wedding night, where we sat in our courtyard, with its pebble floor still warm from the sun-baked day, overlooking the bay twinkling with sailboat lights, sipping wine and listening to a string of wedding toasts to Eleanor. We also toasted Eleanor and her groom and then we danced to their music that spilled over our villa wall. In fact as we climbed down the stairs to our outside bathroom, we could peek over the wall onto the bar's veranda and see their guests partying away. The music and celebration continued all night as we tried to sleep. We even had the opportunity to meet some of the wedding revelers just before sunrise as we stumbled along the cobbled lanes to the main square to catch our taxi to the airport.

We feel Eleanor and Brett are kindred spirits because we know last October was the beginning of an adventure full of new experiences and challenges for them as it was for our family. We hope that Eleanor and Brett had a year of laughter and wonder. In honor of our unusual connection, we invite Eleanor and Brett to spend their fifth anniversary here in New Zealand. We offer our guest house to our favorite bride and groom. Of course, you're welcome before your fifth too!

We said good-bye USA one year ago today

2008-09-17T20:42:00.005+12:00

This has been the most whirlwind year. It feels both longer and shorter than a regular, 365-day year. An old friend chatting with Doug on the phone last weekend asked if he could roll back the clock to one year ago, would he do it again, would he still quit work and move across the world to New Zealand?

This evening at dinner all four of us pondered this question. We agreed that there are things, especially our family and friends, that we miss. There are also some things each of us would have done differently. However, given the choice, we all agreed we would still choose to move.

In case you're wondering, we're as settled as we're ever going to be and are ready for visitors. Hint, hint... Each season has been amazing. The time to visit just depends on what you want to do and see.

The Aros' Visit - Day 5

2008-09-14T20:14:00.005+12:00

By Liam

All of us got ready fast that morning because we were not driving to the mountain to go Heli Skiing but the Heli Ski Company was driving us. We all had just finished getting ready when the van pulled up in front of our door.

The whole drive was spent gazing up at the mountains we would be skiing on. We headed out to Glenorky, a town at the end of the lake surrounded by towering mountains. We stopped at the Glenorky airport, a field and a small Ski Dive shack.

Before the helicopter arrived we had a quick safety briefing and put on our little things so if we got in the avalanche we could be found.

Soon the small speck of a helicopter appeared on the horizon getting closer by the second. We split into two groups, the Aro family and the Kirkpatrick family, each with a guide, and decided the Aros would be first to go up the mountain. We all huddled around our group’s backpack as the helicopter roared in. The wind whipped around our faces and into every open space (including your mouth if you opened it).

The operation of boarding the helicopter went fast because all the Aros had to do was get on while the guide loaded the skis.

After dropping off the Aros, the helicopter came back to pick us up and blades whirling, landed right in front of us. We loaded just as fast as the Aros and soon we were off. Mom, the driver and I were in the front with Pop, Colin and the guide in the back.

Getting off was easy. All we had to do was crawl out of the helicopter while the guide got our skis. We all crouched in the snow until the helicopter left. I would like to note the pilot did not stop the blades for take off or landing, we just got in and out with them spinning.

I was expecting deep powder but I did not expect it as deep as it was. It was like 2-3 feet deep. The hardest part was not letting your ski tips get stuck under the powder. If you did (which I did many times) you would flip over in the snow.

The runs where long and we got to do four of them, which I thought was pretty cool. The first run seemed to take the longest because I was still getting used to it.

As we pulled up at the bottom the helicopter emerged into sight, whirling up clouds of snow. Since it was our second time boarding it was easier than the last. This time, Colin and Pop rode in the front with the driver.

Once again we landed on a ridge, but on a different run as to get fresher snow. At the end of this run we went down a ridge about 15 feet wide. If you were to go off the ridge you would fall off a cliff. Yikes!

The third run got quite icy at the end, which I did not expect at all. On this run we went down as far as we could, to where the grass started.

Going up to do our fourth and last run I realized how hungry I was, though I was able to comfort myself with the fact we would be eating lunch at the end of the run.

On the run I took a pretty bad fall. My ski got caught under the snow and I pulled a summersault. It would have not been so bad but when my ski went under it got caught and the summersault made my ankle go into a painful position.

The lunch was good. We got to have soup, sandwiches, tiny-pies and dessert! Mind you, this is on a mountain in the middle of nowhere.

The Aros did two more runs while we (the Kirkpatricks) went down to the van.

After the Aros had finished their two runs and we were halfway home, Mom told us when we got home we would have to hurry and get ready to go out to dinner. And then to Colin and JP she added no monopoly.

That night I was so tired at dinner I can hardly remember it.

The Aro Family’s Visit in Queenstown with us, continued again and again

2008-09-07T12:11:00.009+12:00

By Liam

Day 4

The next day Colin and JP woke up early, as always but this time before long Gracie and I joined them.

Colin was obnoxiously eager to get on with the day because we had waited for JP’s visit to do his special birthday activity. We were going jetboating and Colin knew it, which explained why he was excited.

After a quick breakfast we started of to Glenorky, where the jetboat was to depart from.

We lucked out and were able to get one whole jetboat to ourselves, though we had to wait while a Japanese tour-group left!

Before I knew what was happening we had boarded the jetboat and were slowly chugging out into the lake. After some crazy spins our jetboat diver turned around and sped off towards the Dart River.

We zoomed up narrow passages, around tight corners and under low-hanging trees, all the while the driver talking about the jetboat that had run aground the other day or something in the same idea.

The drive was a scenic three hours (which I knew) and when the driver stopped and said we could go no further I said “It can’t have been one and a half hours already!” His reply was “it has”. Colin, Gracie, JP and I all let out disappointed moans. Nooooooooooooo!

On the drive back we stopped for a quick walk up the river. Going up the river we saw a couple trout, and big one’s too!

As we spun around a large bend after boarding the jetboat again and I realized we were back on the lake with the dock getting closer by the second. As we approached the driver pulled a last couple spins and then pulled up at the dock.

We said, "Thank You" to the driver and then made our way through the tiny town to our car. We had decided to eat dinner at “The Cow” in Queenstown, which meant a 40-minute drive.

All of us ordered pizza and soon we where all falling off to sleep at the table in the restaurant. As soon as we got home we went to bed all with one thought on our mind, the next day we were going Heli Skiing!!!

A Kiwi Father’s Day

2008-09-07T11:55:00.002+12:00

Did you know that it is father’s day here in N.Z.?
Well it is, so I am writing this Blog for Pop.

I learnt this vital information just yesterday.

Right now He is up on the Ski field, taking Colin to Q.A.S.T. I don’t think he knows it is his special day so I want him too.

I just wanted to let him know how much I love him and that I think of him when he is not with me.

So anyway, Happy Father’s Day Pop!

The Aros Visit continued again

2008-08-30T18:35:00.005+12:00

by Liam

Day 3

I woke up that morning in a silent house, but just to make sure I no one was awake I crept into the playroom and sure enough Colin and JP were half way through a monopoly game, which meant they had been up a while. Colin has amazing luck in Monopoly and had to play easy on JP in their game because he was winning by so much.

They were so into their game they did not hear me so I said “Good Morning.” Both of them jumped up and ran off to Gracie’s quarters screeching, “Now we can wake her up!” Poor Gracie!

A couple of seconds later a happy JP And Colin marched out of Gracie’s room, followed by a tired looking Gracie. I could tell I had a crazy week ahead of me, a really crazy week.

Suddenly the loud thump of someone coming down the stairs disturbed my thoughts. The person coming down the stairs turned out to be Mom coming to wake us up.

“Coronet Peak today,” She reminded us. Coronet Peak is the main ski mountain for Queenstown and it is the one that Q.A.S.T. operates on. It was Monday so we were missing school but then again, school skiing is on Monday so all I missed was a 2-hour ski lesson and Colin missed a day with Q.A.S.T. which he gets millions of so it wasn’t that bad.

I was amazed at how long it took to get ready for the day and in the car. One thing was for sure; it was faster than the previous day.

The drive to Coronet was much faster than going to Treble Cone. In less than and hour Mom, Gracie and I were (the rest of the crowd was at home and Mom had to help with the school skiing which meant getting up early) on the mountain, skis on.

Gracie and I followed Mom and her little group of school skiing kids around a while before going off on own. It was fun getting to show someone around instead of getting shown around by my friends. Coronet Peak is a small mountain and it is safe to ski there without an adult.

Before long the other car reached the mountain and we got a ring on the walky-talky.

Since the Aros (minus Gracie plus Colin) had not skied yet we started with a warm-up run.

On the chair I asked Colin what he did with JP. As I was guessing his replied was “Monopoly.”

Straight afterwards we took a run down Back-Bowls; the hardest run on the mountain that is not that hard. Coronet is easy compared to the ski fields in Colorado.

Mom and Wendy left early while the boys, plus Gracie sped around catching a last couple runs. Before long we too decided to leave.

That night 0% of the kids wanted to go to bed but when we finally did, we fell asleep in seconds.

The Aros Visit continued

2008-08-21T10:50:00.003+12:00

by Liam

Day 2

The creaking of my door awakened me that morning. It was Mom, waking me up. I asked her what time it was. Her reply was 5:30 AM! Then I remembered that we were going to Treble Cone (a ski mountain in Wanaka). The drive was about two hours and we had to be there at nine so that was why we were up so early.

We all were rushing around like madmen that morning, trying to be ready in time, which we did, but just barely. I went in the boys’ car with Ed, Pop, Colin, JP and myself. In the girls’ car there was Mom, Wendy and Gracie.

To get to Treble Cone we had to go on extremely curvy roads (most roads in N.Z. are curvy) so by the end of the drive both Gracie and I where rather green.

Colin’s Q.A.S.T. group had only 2 people that day including Colin and we are good friends with Colin’s instructor, Natalie, so JP, Gracie and I got to take free lessons with her for the day.

We did a couple of warm-up runs before inspection time. Inspection is where you get to go over the course slowly, to see hard turns, icy bits, fast corners, etc.

After inspection we got one more run in. We pretended we were going through the gates, red gate, blue gate, red gate, blue gate, red gate, blue gate.

Going up the chair I realized it was finally time to race! We would get two goes, and the time from both goes would be added together to make our final time. I would guess there were about 40 racers, 5 in each category.

As we pulled up to the racecourse a voice yelled “Colin Kirkpatrick you are next up. Colin?”

Soon Colin was swishing down the course, going between the gates, tucking when he could.

JP’s turn was not long after Colin’s. I thought my turn would be close to his but it wasn’t. After waiting a couple of years it was my turn.

Standing in the starting gate is a tense thing. I learnt in all the many races that it is important to go fast when going through the gate. On this certain course I leant that you shouldn’t go to fast out of the gate because I slid off the course and had to lose a lot of speed to get back on. There was a really fast turn in the course so I could gain a lot of speed back on it. The end of the course was flat and straight so it was necessary and possible to tuck on it.

I finished my first run with 39 seconds. By the time I reached the bottom of the course, Colin, JP and I where all starving but we still had to wait for Gracie to do her run. After a decade or what seemed like one, Gracie reached the bottom. Between Gracie and I there must have been 11 racers.

Before you could say “abracadabra,” all four of us where sitting at a table with energy bars in our mouths. We each managed to have a cup of water and an energy bar before we had to go to the racecourse for our second run.

I forgot to say, from the beginning of the race onwards we all had our jackets off to go faster when racing and the jerseys were too tight over our jackets so we were cold.

Within a couple of minutes I was in the starting gate again. This time I knew about the hard first turn so I was able to go faster on that and I knew that the course would be icier. Also I was able to get into a better tuck at the end. With all the things that were easier I was able to cut I second off my score and complete the course in 38 seconds!

Our results for the race where all not that good, Colin did the best of us for his age group.

The drive home and dinner that night was fairly uneventful except for the fact we went out to dinner.

The Aro Family’s Visit In Queenstown With Us

2008-08-20T12:13:00.004+12:00

by Liam

Day 1

My eyes cracked open to see sunlight streaming in from my window. I have to go to school today I thought, my mind only half awake. Then suddenly I remembered, it was Saturday and the Aro Family was arriving in Queenstown to spend a week with us.

The Aro family was on our list of our close friends in the states. We became friends when Colin met JP, the youngest Aro, in their first year of preschool. Then Ed, JP’s dad started a soccer team with Pop (my Dad). We all went to the same school, The Logan School, and my last year there I was in the same class as JP. Also Mom taught Gracie at Logan one year.

The morning passed slowly, partly because I could not wait to see JP and partly because Colin was at Q.A.S.T. (Queenstown Alpine Ski Team). I spent the day helping Mom get ready for their arrival and playing in our basement.

Finally the time came for us to leave. Yippy! The fifteen-minute drive into Queenstown seemed to take fifteen hours. When we pulled up at the school, our meeting place, Mom announced that we were 3 minutes late, pretty good for us.

We knew their car had a ski-rack on top, so with a quick glance around we could tell they weren’t there. Seconds later I spotted a car with ski-racks driving toward the school. Yesss, I thought, it’s them! But then the most disappointing thing happened; the car drove past the school. As it drove past us, I looked in and I could tell, for sure, that it was not them.

After waiting what seemed like a decade, a car with ski-racks pulled up. Wendy, JP’s and Gracie’s Mom, waved at me from the front seat of the car. At last they were here!

As soon as the car pulled to a stop JP jumped out, and ran over to me, all happy and excited. After JP and I said hi, JP’s first question was, “Where’s Colin?” I told him Colin was skiing and pointed out the mountain he was on.

The first thing we did was walk up to Café 111 and ordered lunch. 111 here is the equivalent to 911 in the U.S. Since they had all day breakfast almost every one had a second breakfast.

After a brief lunch we went to rent skis for the Aro family. That went fast too and before I knew it we were driving home.

When we arrived home we took all of JP’s and Gracie’s stuff downstairs. Gracie would sleep in my room, Colin and JP would share Colin’s room and I would take Mom’s meditation room. Soon Colin got home and joined us downstairs.

Dinnertime came before long and soon all eight of us were huddled around the dinner table eating soup.

It was sad when dinner ended and we had to go to bed. We tried to get in another 15 minutes playing but all efforts failed. As I lay in my bed drifting of to sleep, I could hear JP and Colin saying last good nights to each other and I could hear the cat, Ollie, enjoying the mess in the playroom. He can be so loud, but I was so tired I fell asleep anyway.

What I'm up to

2008-07-30T10:59:00.002+12:00

By
Liam

I am home sick today like I for the last 3 days. I have a very high fever so I have been hanging low. Finally now I am on the mend and am getting better

Not much is going on here right now for me. It is the second week in school since the holidays over which I did Q.A.S.T. (Queenstown alpine ski team).

I loved it but still I was really tired by the end of each day so I did not do the Q.A.S.T. program for the rest of the year. My teacher, Michey Greg was awesome (but a little crazy). Basically every jump we saw we went over. I caught good air multiple times.

Also recently I have been making boats out of cardboard and coated them with saran wrap to make them water proof. My first boat was made around last December. Since then I have made four or five models, each one different than the last. My first couple capsized and sank so I had to fish them out, but my last few have floated. My last one was the only one to come out of the water unharmed. As a safety precaution I always attach a string to the boat so they can’t float away or if they sink the string could also be used to get them out.

This is a slide show of the launching of my most recent boat.

The chicken business is doing well. We are getting 2~4 eggs a day now. I can’t wait until summer when we will get the amazing 5~6 eggs a day. Some days we let them out for a run around. I wondered what they did until today as Mom and I where leaving the chicken coop after letting them out to have a little run, we spotted them in a group sitting in the dirt. A few members of the party where digging. Mom and I think they where having a dirt bath which it say they do in one of our chicken care booklets.

I can’t wait to visit the states because I miss every one so much. It is hard living without family and close friends although I am making friends here.

I am getting used to life here in N.Z. The long and tiring bus ride to and from school is finally become part of my agenda. Also I am getting used to taking care of the chickens and helping Mom feed the ever-hungry horses.

Right now for sports I am doing indoor soccer and skiing. Even though I am not doing Q.A.S.T. I am sure I will get lots of skiing in with school skiing. For school skiing we take 6 Mondays in this term and spend them skiing at one of the two mountains in the aria. Also for skiing I will get to ski a lot with Colin doing Q.A.S.T. because we will go up the mountain a lot.

Ski time in Queenstown

2008-07-26T12:40:00.006+12:00

Colin and Liam did the Introductory Programme of the Queenstown Alpine Ski Team (QAST) over the Term 2 break. Break was a full on ski adventure as the they skied twelve of the sixteen vacation days. Liam's coach was Mitchey Greg. Mitchey is a long time member of QAST and a member of the Freestyle National Team. Liam says "Mitchey likes to jump and go fast!" Liam also says she's an Olympic hopeful and the 18th best skicross female in the world. Colin's coach was Antoine Galland, a ski racer from France. Antoine and Colin seemed a perfect fit. I could always find Colin's group on the mountain because Colin has perfected a loud chirping sound that carries across the snow field. Antoine seemed unfazed by the shrill sound. Colin came home each night describing his ski day with a heavy french accent. Colin started in Anne-Flore Aufrere's group and then moved up to Antoine's group. Before he left Anne-Flore's group, he made sure they too could do the lizardy-cricket chirp. There were two loud groups chirping away at Coronet all break.

The last day of the Introductory Programme was the Coronet Interfield Race for junior skiers (ages 5-13 years) in the southern districts. Both Colin and Liam raced. It was an icy, steep course from my perspective. One mom crashed on the course coming down to the base between the races and was taken down the mountain on a stretcher. My heart went out to her. It could have easily been me!

Liam did a spectacular wipe out losing a ski on his first run. He was proud that he raced right to his edge and didn't hold back. When he reached the bottom, we went into the Heidi's Hut for a protein bar and hot chocolate. I looked across the table at Liam once he removed his goggles and helmet and he was a pale shade of greenish-grey. He was not looking good. He whispered, "I'm feeling sick, like I could throw up." We rushed out of the hut and onto the snow just in time. After loosing his hot chocolate and bar, Liam decided to call it a day and we headed down the mountain.

Colin had two great runs down the course. He placed sixth out of 22 boys in his age group. Two teammates and three boys from Cardrona skied the course faster. There are some fast seven and eight-year-olds in New Zealand!

Luckily, Doug videotaped the races, so I could see Colin's runs and Liam's wipe out. Now I am sharing them with you:

Colin has joined the full season QAST Junior Programme and for the next six weeks will ski Saturday, Sunday and Monday with the team. Then he will continue skiing with them every weekend until October.

Liam decided that QAST was too much of a time commitment for him. He's going to do the School Ski Programme the next six Mondays and ski with his friends on the weekends or pursue other activities.

I will be a parent volunteer with the School Ski Programme. All students (Years 4-6) head up the hill to the ski field for Monday skiing for the next six weeks. The students will be split in groups by ability and will take a lessons and have some free ski time with their parent volunteer. I am hoping I can keep up with my group on tomorrow!

This week in New Zealand

2008-07-26T11:10:00.005+12:00

There have been a couple of news reports that have amused us this week.

First, there was a story about the nine-year-girl named "Talula Does The Hula from Hawaii, " who was placed under court guardianship so her name could be changed. Some other names of New Zealand children mentioned in the article included Number 16 Bus Shelter, Violence and twins named Benson and Hedges. Interestingly, Liam even has a classmate named Tinkerbell.

The second story was about a $5,000 reward being offered by the Auckland University Students' Association to any Auckland University student who makes a successful arrest of Condoleezza Rice during her visit to New Zealand this weekend. The New Zealand Herald reported that the students' association said the arrest would be for Rice's role in "overseeing the illegal invasion and continued occupation" of Iraq under the Geneva Conventions Act and Crimes of Torture Act. While the reward has been withdrawn, the students' association says it still supports a citizen's arrest.

p.s. I am sorry if Liam's radio broadcast starts whenever you log onto our blog. It doesn't play on my computer but seems to launch for everyone else. If you have any ideas on how to disable the autoplay, please let me know. I am clueless. I am a dangerous user in that I have successfully placed the audio file on the blog by copying instructions from a website but I have no idea how to adjust the settings...

Giraffes can't dance

2008-07-24T10:55:00.006+12:00

Liam and a group of students from Queenstown Primary School performed a skit at the Family Arts and Variety Show during Winter Festival in Queenstown. They created a skit called "Giraffes Can't Dance," based on the children's book by the same name written by Giles Andreae. It was one of my favorite books to read to Colin and Liam when they were young.

Liam was one of the giraffes and did the final voice over in the skit. At the beginning of the skit, there were some technical difficulties with the soundtrack, but the kids remained composed and calm. It was a big night because the show was in the Memorial Hall with a full house.

Bedouin Colin

2008-07-24T10:40:00.006+12:00

Recently Colin has taken to wearing he pajama bottoms on his head. We now call him Bedouin Colin.

Big Snow - First Day of Winter Break

2008-07-20T16:48:00.005+12:00

We had our first big dump on 5 July. I went out for a drive to take some photos. The return drive was a bit of a slip and slide experience so I left the car and hiked home for the chains, which I should have had in the first place. Doug hiked back to the car with me. Along the way, we passed Ben, who was bringing his sons to our house to play in the snow with Colin and Liam. Ben's car was perpendicular to the road in a ditch. We practiced with the chains by helping Ben puts chains on his car then he drove us up the hill to our car.

In the evening, I had to take Liam and Colin to a ski camp meeting which meant riding down to the main road with chains, taking the chains off, driving to town and back and then putting the chains on again in the dark to get from the main road back up to our house. I was missing the city life of Denver as I lay on the frozen muddy ground feeling the ice melting into my pants as I tried to clasp the chains behind the tire. The next day was the same procedure to go skiing: chains off at main road, chains on to get from main road to ski field, chains off on the way home to drive through town and then chains on to get up to house. We are getting speedy with chains but are considering snow tires like we had in Colorado. I think, because big snows are infrequent and the snow season is shorter, few people have snow tires here. We will give the chains a try, but I am checking out the snow tire options!

Even with all the chain drama, I was thrilled. The vegetation seemed completely at odds with the winter wonderland. Big palmed, tropical-looking plants blanketed in snow. Little green birds (finches?) flitting from one icicled stalk to another.

In the Middle of the Flock

2008-07-16T09:37:00.003+12:00

The Kiwis are flying in the middle of the Peck em Owls Fantasy Baseball League flock going into the All-Star Break. We're #6 in the field of 10 teams, with 53 points.

I'm definitely not happy with the 1st half performance of my team but I'm cautiously optimistic going into the 2nd half. The main source of disappointment to date has been injury, particularly among my top draft picks. Six of my first eight draft picks have spent time on the DL (injury list) this season. All of the my top three picks, Jimmy Rollins, Alfonso Soriano & Carlos Pena have spent substantial time on the DL and they've all put up weak numbers when they have been playing. I've had to be pretty scrappy with my lineup which resulted in a league-leading 56 player changes (mainly picking up players from the free agency list), well above the 2nd most active team which had 19 player changes.

Right now I'm shooting for a 3rd place finish which I figure will require me to pick up 15-20 points. If my top three draft picks can stay healthy (Soriano is still on the DL but should be back in the lineup in a week; Rollins & Pena both currently healthy and were playing well going into the break) and can just get their production back up to their historical averages, then I think I can close much of the gap with the head of the flock. My pitching numbers will also have to improve a lot but right now I have quite a bit more remaining starts from my starters than all of the competitors above me, allowing me to close the gap in strikeouts & wins and improve my ERA & WHIP.

Go Kiwis!

Taking Orders for Happy Hens

2008-07-12T12:31:00.009+12:00

Below is a scanned copy of the first Happy Hens Newsletter since the recent change in ownership:

Liam and Doug did a cost analysis last night and determined that the chicken feed cost per dozen eggs is NZ$8.64. Ouch. Given these costs and the current average egg production of two eggs per day, Liam and Colin can expect to make NZ$0.23 per day if they sell each dozen for NZ$10.00. As Liam noted, "That's 11.5 cents for each of them a day and less than a dollar profit a week." Liam was stunned by the numbers. While Liam is a bit nervous that customers will balk at this high price for eggs, he remains optimistic that egg production will increase in the warmer weather. He spent the evening on the phone with the our neighbor, who is also a poultry farmer, seeking advice on cheaper sources of chicken feed than the local pet store. This afternoon Colin and Liam investigated egg prices at the grocery store. Prices ranged from NZ$5-11, depending on the size and farming methods (free-range, organic, conventional). Happy Hen's has a threefold strategy at the moment: to hope for an increase in egg production as the days lengthen, to try to reduce feed costs, and to market their superior product and service using their newsletter.

First day of skiing at Coronet Peak

2008-07-04T09:32:00.004+12:00

Thursday night we were all sad and just wanted to be together, so we declared Friday a "Family Day." When we are looking for a some relaxing time, full of laughs, we ski together. We wanted our day to be about celebrating our family, in honor of Quent.

We did laugh and celebrate. Doug told many stories about his cousin Quent. Many were classics that the boys and I already knew by heart, but still love to hear over and over. Quent once lit his parent's room on fire, then carefully shut the door and went to sit quietly next to his mom. Aunt Cheryl immediately knew something was suspicious even before she smelled smoke, because Quent never sat quietly beside her. Another time, Quent, who at the time couldn't see over the dashboard, drove the car out onto the frozen lake behind the house. Aunt Cheryl had just dashed in the house to grab something. She returned outside and the car and Quent were gone. Then she was chasing Quent and the car across the lake, praying the lake was frozen solid. My favorite story is about a young Quentin racing towards Grandma Brown with two identical ice cream cones, one in each fist. Just as he reaches Grandma one ice cream topples out of the cone and onto the ground. Quent looks at his Grandma with pity and says, "Oh no Grandma, I dropped your ice cream!" Quent was a legend in his own time in the Brown and Johnson families.

We continued to laugh when Colin fell off the ski lift. I was trying to lift him onto a particularly high chair and he are slipped from my mittened grasp and landed face down as the chair mowed over him. Luckily he was flat on the ground and not hurt. The liftee plopped Colin back up on the chair and reattached his skis while we all sat in humiliation. I wanted to shout, "We are not complete amateurs. Colin's been skiing since he was two and I've never dropped him off the chair." But, I knew the lift line had already formed their opinion and my American accent would just confirm we were tourists.

Our third run of the day, we were so excited to be on the snow, we had the exceptionally stupid idea to have a family race to the base of the lift on a mountain we barely knew. Doug and Colin were out of sight before I finished my first turn. Liam, ever the gentleman, waited for me. We didn't even know which run Colin and Doug took. And, there was no sign of either Colin or Doug once we reached the lift at the bottom. We decided they were either trying to make another run before I reached the lift or they had ended up at a different lift. We waited and waited. Finally, after our toes were frozen, we saw two dazed Kirkpatricks both holding their right shoulders slowly skiing down the hill towards us. We couldn't even gloat and rub in our victory. Colin says he caught air twice, but the second time he just flew threw the air with his arms out front until one caught the snow. He lost his skis and his goggles were around his neck by the time he came to a stop. Doug too tried to fly like Superman but with the same success as Colin. We made a group decision to take the rest of the day a wee bit slower as none of us have actually skied in 13 months. We agreed maybe a few more exploratory, warm-up style runs would help us get our ski legs back.

When we got home, showered and warmed, Doug was checking out the Coronet website and the "Shot of the Day" included Doug, Liam and Colin. The caption was "Little ski bunnies enjoying another fine day up at Coronet Peak." The photographer was trying to capture three adorable little girls dressed in matching pink snow suits making perfect turns behind their mother. The Kirkpatrick boys just got caught up in the scene and it's fun to have a record of our first day on the mountain.

Quentin was in our hearts and thoughts all day.

Colin's been busy too!

2008-07-01T22:31:00.007+12:00

Check out his Room 23 Blog to see what he's been up to at school the last few weeks. Colin talks about the invention he researched in the Friday, 6 June entry. The following Friday, 20 June, Colin and a group of his classmates did an entry on the ShelterBox Fundraiser. Room 23 wants to be the classroom that raises the most money!

Oh, Doug is mentioned in the 2 July entry. During Book Week, Doug read the first chapter of "The Day My Bum Went Psycho" to Colin's class. As the name might suggest, it is a book on a subject that seems to particularly amuse and interest young boys. It's full of bum humor! Colin has also read the second book of the Bum trilogy, "Zombie Bums from Uranus." The names and topic seem awful to me, but Colin laughed out loud through both books.

The big event in the Middle School was the Middle School Performance. Colin's class performed their version of STOMP.

Colin is one of the myriad of lights in the dark for the opening performed by the entire Middle School:

Watch the drummers to find Colin in STOMP. Also, Colin is the little body that races across the back of the stage at the end of the performance:

Okay, at the production I did find Colin, but I can't find him in this clip of the closing performance. Let me know if you find him. It's like looking for Waldo, except Colin's wearing a nondescript, all black outfit. I think he's somewhere in the middle of the crowd:

ShelterBox Fundraiser at Queenstown Primary

2008-06-29T21:17:00.061+12:00

Liam and I (Carolyn) have been busy the last couple of weeks. We are working on a fundraiser at his school, Queenstown Primary.

Over several weeks of soccer games, an idea developed as I chatted with another soccer mom, Rosie Thompson. Rosie was definitely the instigator, and the creative force. We were talking about the devastating disasters that have recently occurred in China and Myanmar. She said that she wished that she could help, but with young children jumping a plane for a far away land was not a possibility right now. I agreed. Then Rosie told me about a charity that provides emergency aid called ShelterBox.

ShelterBox assembles large plastic boxes that hold a 10-person tent, sleeping bags, a stove which runs on anything combustible, cooking equipment, water containers and tools. Each box is designed to provide basic shelter and supplies for a family of up to ten people for at least six months. The boxes are shipped anywhere, anytime as needed.

As we talked, I started to think about successful fundraisers at our previous school in Denver. I had a feeling that this ShelterBox program would capture the imagination of our Queenstown students. Rosie and I presented the fundraiser idea to the principal. He chatted with the faculty to ensure their support. Then, Rosie and I met with the senior students to share what we had learned about ShelterBox and to see if the senior students would be interested in organizing a fundraiser to raise money for a box. The students also expressed their worry for people struggling in the aftermath of recent disasters. Immediately and enthusiastically, they wanted to help. Two volunteers from each classroom were selected to assemble the organizational team.

From that moment, the students took over the project. First they named themselves The ShelterBox Kids. They worked most lunch times for several weeks. They made posters and donation boxes for all the classrooms. They broke into two groups. The first group contacted local media, including radio and newspapers, to describe their fundraiser and to ask for coverage of the event. The second group created an informational presentation that they shared with the entire school and many parents at a Friday Assembly. Doug videotaped the presentation. Now all Queenstown Primary students are asking family members, friends and neighbors if they can do a few chores to earn gold (i.e. $! & $2) coins for ShelterBox.

The community support in Queenstown is incredible. Ferg from Classic Hits 90.4 FM had the kids on the radio the morning after they contacted him. The newspapers visited campus several times to meet with the students. Parents continue to offer help. I have realized in a smaller town, the entire community works to support the kids. Everyone seems to be a parent, grandparent, aunt or neighbor of at least one student.

Liam and fellow students, Isabella and Merida, made an early morning visit to the radio station.

Click the triangle to hear the broadcast:

Below is a copy of the article in the Otago Daily Times and a photo of the ShelterBox Kids.

p.s. The blog entry is several weeks overdue because it required technical know-how beyond my capabilities. I have finally figured out how to upload audio and video, even if the presentation is less than elegant!

In loving memory of Quentin

2008-06-26T21:58:00.006+12:00

Quentin, you were one of those rare people who didn't have a mean bone in your whole body.

We love you and miss you.

Carolyn and Doug have new sport for their 40s - The Luge

2008-06-25T09:15:00.006+12:00

Photo: Carolyn chasing Doug down the luge in Queenstown. Doug's exhibiting mature behavior appropriate for his age. He nearly ran me off the track and into the grass to pass me on the corner. Doug may be getting older, but he still loves speed!

Doug joins me on the other side of 40 today. Yeah! I think I am more excited than he is to have his company in the 40 and over club!

Luckily the snow arrived yesterday just in time for Doug's 40th. There's not much else I could give Doug for his birthday that he'd enjoy more than his first ski day of the year. Well, at least, nothing I'll mention on this blog...

p.s. I think Doug was happy to be able to walk when he woke today. He's recently joined an indoor soccer league after not playing on a team since college days at Rice. He and the other senior guy on the team both "offered" to play goalie as their lungs started to burn chasing the teenagers up and down the field. The other guy pulled his hamstring which secured the goalie position. Doug stayed on the field and scored a hat trick!

Doug almost gets dipped

2008-06-18T20:45:00.007+12:00

Doug and I took some time out the other morning to help with sheep dipping. It was a messy job. Within a few minutes we were covered in organophosphate spray as the sheep leaped or stumbled off the ramp, splashed through the dipping trough and shook themselves dry in the every-ewe-for-herself mayhem. The first sheep sank to the bottom only to surface when the crowd thinned. The top sheep tried to run for safety across the heads of her comrades.

Doug and I alternated between two jobs. The first job was dunking each panicked sheep paddling through the trough. We had to make sure each sheep was completely submerged. No dry heads allowed. The other job was working the gates between the draining pens and then shooing the sheep out to the paddock.

At one point I heard a yelp in the midst of the baaing and turned to catch Doug sprawled over the dipping trough, his feet on the near side and his hands on the far side. He'd slip and almost dipped himself. The rest of the "professional" ranchers seemed to enjoy the spectacle as much as I did.

A little later we had a frantic moment as one ewe thrashed madly trying to unleash herself. Somehow she had gotten the rope on the plug in the bottom of the trough wrapped around her leg. By the time we freed her, she had literally pulled the plug on the dipping trough. All of us stood and watched the valuable chemicals draining away. There in the bottom of the trough was a little pesticide-logged trout. Doug ran and found a bucket in the shearing shed. As we refilled the trough with fresh stream water Doug caught one more trout. We were thrilled. We had wanted trout for our pond.

By lunchtime, Doug and I both remembered some pressing work that we needed to get done at home and said good-bye to the dipping crew. We headed home with our two trout sloshing in a bucket between my legs, thankful to only be occasional, part-time farm hands.

Early Exit

2008-06-18T09:14:00.006+12:00

It was looking good for a Rice Owl victory over the LSU Tigers, with a 5-0 lead going into the bottom of 7th. Then LSU chipped away with single runs in the both the 7th and 8th. In the disastrous 9th, LSU put up four runs to secure the victory. There will be lots of inward reflection on this one as several of the LSU runs came on Rice's three committed errors. Also, Rice's esteemed coach, Wayne Graham, appeared to have made a bad decision starting the 9th with Cole St. Clair who had entered the game way back in the 7th, and then compounded it by leaving him in when he got into trouble. Well, there's always next year...

In a Hole

2008-06-17T09:25:00.005+12:00

The Rice Owls baseball team has really dug itself into a deep hole. Yesterday that got their heads handed to them, 17-5, by the Fresno State Bulldogs, my cousins Curt & Quent's alma mater. Now in order to make it into the finals, Rice will have to win its next four games. Tomorrow the Owls start their climb out of the hole by playing Louisiana State University.

Go Owls!

Full Circle

2008-06-14T08:32:00.006+12:00

It's been a year since we started this big adventure. Doug & the boys started things off with a road trip to Omaha to see the Rice Owls baseball team play in the College World Series. After an eight hour drive through cornfields, they stopped by the Omaha airport to pick up Doug's father, Don, and then immediately headed to the stadium to catch Rice's win over Louisville. To kill time before Rice's next game two days later, they hit the surprisingly excellent Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and the Strategic Air and Space Command Museum. The next game was against University of North Carolina, and resulted in another Owl victory. With Doug needing to get back to work, they all returned home with the hope of returning the next weekend to see the Owls play in the finals. Unfortunately, North Carolina beat them in the next two games and the repeat trip was never made.

Well, it's College World Series time again and the Owls are back. This is the Owl's third year in a row and it's fifth in seven years to make it to Owlmaha. We won't be making the long road trip this year but we will be following the Owls on Rice Radio.

Go Owls!

Alpine Aqualand

2008-06-03T19:08:00.005+12:00

Finally the bell rang for our early, before swim lunch. I was one of the first people out of the cloak bay. I raced down to where the rest of the seniors (5~6 graders) were eating lunch. Everyone was talking about going to the new swimming pool 15 minutes from Queenstown, in Frankton.

By the time lunch was over I was bursting to go. Room 19 (my class) lined up to get on the bus. The drive seemed to take days, but we got there. The first thing we had to do before going in the pool was listen to the lifeguards talk about safety. Boring! Room 19 was the last class to be let in the pool too!

The pool consisted of 2 water slides, 1 fast and 1 slow, a fast flowing lazy river, 2 mounted water guns and in the adult pool a 20-foot, blow up, white sausage thingy-mabob. As there were 125-175 kids there in 7 classes, rooms 10 and 11 went on the slide for 30 minutes then rooms 18 and 19 (my class) went on the slide 30 minutes and, last but not least rooms, 20, 21 and 22 went on the slide for 30 minutes.

While rooms 10-11 went on the slide I raced my friends Sam and Mathew around the lazy river again and again. I found the way to go the fastest was to run with your legs on the bottom and paddle in the water with your arms. It was the most fun lazy river I have ever been on.

Time went so fast I could hardly believe it when the teachers said it was our turn on the slide. When I got to the top of the slide I hopped in the fast line. The line was so long I could not see the slide. Finally it was my turn to go! I held the bar and waited for the Go light to turn green. Suddenly it did! Whoosh, I flung myself into the cool water of the slide and zoomed down it. It was really fun. The beginning was light but it got fairly dark at the end. Before I knew it I was in the splash down pool at the end. I could hear someone screaming like mad behind me so I got of the way quite fast.

It was really hard not to run going up for my second slide. I decided to try the slow one, so I hopped in the slow line. It was slower but 3X as long. I managed to get 3 or 4 slides on each one before our time was up. Each time the slides seemed to get better.

After our turn was up I played with my friends Mitchell, Matthew, Sam and Yasin. We played around the gun. It was great fun diving down to come up and get shot with the icy, cold water of the gun.

I hadn’t tried the sausage thingy so I tried it. You had to get on it, which was hard because tons of people were trying to do it and it would spin. Once I almost made it but I splashed back into the icy water again.

Next thing I knew the teachers where saying “time to get out.” Nooooooooo. I reluctantly walked back to the lockers and changed. Soon we all piled on the bus and sped back to school.

I ran to my classroom, grabbed my bag and sprinted down to the parking lot were Pop was waiting to take me to soccer, but that is not what this story is about.

Typed and written on paper by Liam

Exploring Wanaka, Tourist-Style

2008-05-31T11:01:00.009+12:00

One of the great bonuses of having guests is that we get out and do touristy things. We spent a cool, blue-sky day traveling over the Crown Range and exploring Wanaka with Grams and Grandpop. The grandparents’ visit hit the peak of fall color.

We stopped for some pictures along Lake Hayes, drove over the Crown Range and then had a lunch at the Cheeky Monkey Café in Wanaka. After lunch we parted ways. Doug and Don went to the New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum. Marcia, Colin, Liam and I headed to Puzzling World. We decided to pit age against youth. Liam and Colin were one team and Marcia and I were the other team. We raced each other through the maze. It took us most of an hour. Youth dominated age. Liam and Colin won by about 5 minutes. Then we explored the crazy exhibits, like the tilted room.

Doug and Don picked us up from Puzzling World and we head out for late afternoon wine tasting at Rippon Vineyards. As the grown-ups sipped wine, Liam and Colin played hide and seek. While we were sitting outside the tasting room, enjoying our wine and gazing over the vineyards in the late afternoon sunshine, a harrier swooped down and got entangled in the netting draped over the vines. Only one young woman was working in the wine tasting room. She and I put on some big leather gloves and she grabbed some clippers. We walked down towards the flaying harrier. Luckily, at the last moment, the harrier shook itself free and flew away. Phew! I had no idea exactly how we were going to free it without getting scratched and clawed. It looked big and fierce.

p.s. If any of our friends in the United States want to enjoy some Rippon Vineyard wines or other Otago wines, our new neighbors own Station Imports, a wine importing company that brings wines from the boutique vineyards of Central Otago into the United States. When Andy and Penny aren’t here in New Zealand, they are in Colorado Springs just down the road from Denver, our old home. Strangely, their daughter is attending Colby College in Maine and majoring in Biology/Environmental Science as I did. We discovered this connection at a Christmas party and even found we had some of the same professors (who were much younger in my day).

Happy Trails

2008-05-30T09:36:00.003+12:00

While the Grandparents were visiting, we spent lots of time hanging out with the horses.

Liam and Colin wanted to show off their cowboy skills to their grandparents. Both boys have gained lots of confidence. Now all they want to do is charge around at top speed. Ruby, the Clydesdale cross, is huge, but good-natured. Out on the trails she generally heads where they boys want to go, unless she sees something good to eat. When she reaches down for a bite of grass Colin holds on to the reins, pinwheels forward with his legs pointing straight up in the air. Once Ruby finishes her nibble, she raises her head and Colin rights himself in the saddle. He’s laughing the whole time.

Grandpop (aka Don) was especially taken with the horses. Don didn’t mention to me that he hadn’t actually ever really ridden a horse before until he was in the saddle. (Note to self: Always ask about experience level first.) Don grew up on a farm in the country so I just assumed he was an old pro. Even after all these years, I learning about my father-in-law. He and Ruby headed out on the trail and became fast friends immediately.

Don and I rode out towards Moke Lake and stopped at an old hut. Marcia, Doug, Colin and Liam came out to join us for a mid-afternoon cup of tea. We took the saddles off the horses and turned them out in a small paddock next to the hut. We were lounging in the sun when Doug leaped up and yelled, “Watch out!” A mountain biker had come along the track behind the paddock and startled Ruby. From a standstill, Ruby leaped right out of the paddock almost into Doug’s lap. Almost every outing with the horses seems to reaffirm Doug’s opinion that my equine friends are big, crazy, and unpredictable and maybe out to get him. Ruby swerved around Doug and charged out into the field beyond the hut. I assumed she would high tail it for home jumping all the gates along the way. Colin and Liam had already left to run home. I was envisioning Ruby barreling down the track right over them. I just hoped they had the sense to dive in the bushes. As I went to find her bridle wondering how I would catch her, Ruby came trotting back to me. I opened the paddock gate and she ambled back inside the paddock. I had heard rumors that Ruby could jump over anything, but I thought I was hearing exaggerated horse stories. Now I know, Ruby girl can jump!

I am riding Poppy now. I have kept quiet about my new horse until I was fairly certain this relationship was going to work. I am leasing Poppy for the winter. She is a beautiful 15.1 h, dark bay Thoroughbred mare. She is silly and full of energy, but (so far) has no buck or nastiness. She and I are having lots of fun. I decided leasing for a season is the perfect option. There is the option to buy Poppy next spring, but no commitment if this relationship doesn’t work out for the two of us. So we’re in a committed relationship for a season and then we’ll see how we’re doing together.

Nine Days

2008-05-29T12:08:00.005+12:00

Nine days until Coronet Peak opens!

We missed the 07-08 Ski season in the northern hemisphere.

We are ready for the 2008 season in the southern hemisphere! We have our ski passes. Colin got new boots yesterday and Liam got new skis. We've dusted off the rest of our gear. We joined the Wakatipu Ski Club on Coronet and the boys are signed up for Queenstown Alpine Ski Team (QAST) Junior Programme. We've had some snow and are ready for more!

In addition to Coronet in Queenstown, we have The Remarkables opening 21 June. Also, there is Cardrona, between Queenstown and Wanaka on top of the Crown Range, opening 27 June. Treble Cone in Wanaka opens 30 June.

Our pass covers Coronet and Remarkables and another smaller ski field, Ohau. We plan to check them all out our first full season here, but will probably spend most or our time at Coronet and Remarkables.

swish, swish

p.s. Feels like winter's coming - I've got a wicked head cold, ugh.

Hello. Sorry for the disappearance the last week.

2008-05-20T22:09:00.005+12:00

I have been distracted as of late.

The weekend before last we were invited to dinner by Liam's classmate, Hebe, and her family. At dinner I learned that Hebe's father is the Project Director for the NZ United World College Trust (UWC), which is working to establish the next UWC here in NZ. I wasn't very familiar with the United World Colleges, but I was familiar with Kurt Hahn, the founder of Atlantic College which was the first United World College. Dr. Hahn also founded Outward Bound. In addition, Round Square, a world-wide association of more than 60 schools, was inspired by Dr Hahn's educational philosophy. Dr. Hahn once said, "I regard it as the foremost task of education to insure the survival of these qualities: an enterprising curiosity, an undefeatable spirit, tenacity in pursuit, readiness for sensible self denial, and above all, compassion." I learned the power of this approach to education while teaching at The Athenian School in Danville, CA. Athenian is a Round Square School. I never expected to make this connection here in Queenstown. I was just going over to the house of some new friends to get to know one another.

To make a long story short. I am now volunteering with the NZ UWC. I met John on Saturday night and by Wednesday I was in his office finding out how I could help establish our UWC in New Zealand.

A few other notes:

1. Tonight I burst into tears as I was helping Colin fill out his reading log when I realized that today is 21 May 2008. I first kissed Doug 23 years ago tonight. Sounds like a cliché, but time flies. How did we get from the bank of the Sespe River to a hillside above Lake Wakatipu? Colin looked perplexed, wondering what could possible be that wrong with his reading log?

2. Doug wants to share the vermin count update:

Mice: 16
Rats: 0
Possum: 6
Hedgehog: 1

I am just thankful for zero rats (knocking on wood as I write). I'm coping with the mice, possums, and hedgehogs.

Overnight Cruise, Doubtful Sound

2008-05-12T20:07:00.007+12:00

The photos don't capture the wild, isolation of this place. There are no roads beyond Deep Cove. Seven meters of rain a year is hard to imagine until you enter the cove. Every inch of the mountains is covered with vegetation or waterfalls, but there is no sediment. Soil just washes away. Huge trees cling with interlocking roots to the moss-covered, rocky cliffs. There are tree avalanches. If one tree loses its hold, a whole mountainside of intertwined trees can come crashing down into the water. We were fascinated. It was incomparable to any place.

I am not a fan of cruises and usually think that traveling with a big group of people on a small boat sounds claustrophobic, but this cruise was the perfect length and three generations of Kirkpatricks were entertained the whole time. The incredible scenery captivated us throughout the cruise. We started the afternoon with tea and big, homemade muffins. Doug, Liam and I went out for a kayak. Marcia, Don and Colin took a tender craft ride. After time in the water there was a late afternoon soup to help us warm up. The rest of the afternoon and evening the boys ran around on the decks, usually right out on the bow. When they were finally cold and windblown, they joined Grams for board games in the main cabin. Don chatted with the captain, swapping stories and discussing navigation instruments and technology. Marcia (a.k.a. Grams) made a new friend with a fellow passenger. The boat anchored in Crooked Arm for the night. There was a great dinner and slideshow. After tucking the boys and grandparents into their cabins, Doug and I snuck out for a little star gazing between the clouds. It was completely dark except for a single light from one other boat in the distance and even that light disappeared from time to time as the fog drifted across the arm. The darkness and the cold, wet night seem to send everyone else inside and we had the bow to ourselves for quite a while. It was romantic if you like light drizzle and wispy, spooky clouds like I do. The cabins were small but clean, cozy and quiet at night. We woke when the boat's engines kicked on. As we dressed and headed down to breakfast, we started our cruise homeward. The highlight of the morning was watching a pod of bottlenose dolphins splashing about in the early morning light. By lunchtime we were back in Manapouri, and I hadn't had time to feel trapped on a crowded boat.

Colin and Liam write

2008-05-07T20:17:00.009+12:00

Today Colin and Liam had their first student/parent/teacher conferences for the first quarter of the school year at Queenstown Primary School. In their Learning Journals they both included pieces that they wrote this fall. Colin wrote about his Outdoor Education Week and Liam wrote about hiking the Lycian Way in Turkey on our trip through Europe. The Lycian Way hike appears to have been an important experience for Liam because he has written several pieces about it. Both boys enjoy writing, like their Uncle Matt and Grandy!

Outdoor Education Week, by Colin:

The Lycian Way, by Liam:

Vermin count update:
Mice: 16
Rats: 0
Possum: 5
Hedgehog: 1

p.s. Doug did a little research and found out that New Zealand has approximately 4 million people and is estimated to have at least 60 million possums. With these numbers each person needs to trap 15 possums to rid New Zealand of this invasive, forest-devouring pest. That means, to do our fair share, our family has 55 possums to go...

Happy 87th Birthday Great-Grandpa!

2008-05-06T19:45:00.003+12:00

Dear Great-Grandpa,

We were so busy with Grams and Grandpop that our Birthday cards to you will be a wee bit late. Our cards are in the mail to you so you can keep them forever, but we wanted you to see them on your birthday so we posted them on the blog.

We hope you have an awesome birthday. We wish we were all together like in Las Vegas. We miss you!

Love,

Liam and Colin

Hike to Lake Sylvan

2008-05-05T21:12:00.006+12:00

Our visit with the Grams and Grandpop was busy and we haven't had time to edit and upload many pictures. Now that the house is quiet (and a little lonely) without grandparents and with both boys back in school, we have some photos ready to share. Hopefully we will entice a few more friends and family to visit!

Out beyond Glenorchy, right near the Routeburn Track, we hiked through a beech forest to Lake Sylvan. The day was cool, but once we disappeared into the forest we were sheltered from the wind. After about 45 minutes of meandering through the dense moss covered trees and over a series of footbridges, we emerged from the forest onto a rock outcrop overlooking Lake Sylvan. The lake glistened in the midday sun, especially to our eyes adjusted to the dark forest. Layers of mountains in the distance faded from greens to blues.

I first drove out to Glenorchy August 2006 and immediately called Doug to tell him that I wanted to move to Glenorchy. Doug had learned not to get too excited, because I had called him almost every night of my reconnaissance trip to say I wanted to move to that night’s locale. However, I was truly taken with Glenorchy and, in the end, we moved just thirty minutes away. I now have a map of the area and am planning many more adventures into the wilds of this area.

Good-bye Grams and Grandpop

2008-05-05T18:40:00.013+12:00

We said good-bye to Grams and Grandpop at the Queenstown Airport this afternoon. All of us were teary eyed and sad, but laughing hard as we sang

Ooo eee, ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla bing bang
Ooo eee, ooo ah ah ting tang
Walla walla bing bang...

Grams taught this song to Colin and Liam. Now all of us have it stuck in our heads! Here's a version, in case you don't have this song stuck in your head yet.

As we get ready for bed, we are thinking of you, Grams and Grandpop. You should be in Auckland, getting on the flight to Los Angeles. Sleep tight and we'll talk to you on your Tuesday.

Lots of love,

Carolyn, Colin, Doug and Liam

Photo: overnight cruise on the Fiordland Navigator, Doubtful Sound, 25 April

Wakatipu Moonrise

2008-05-05T09:48:00.006+12:00

photo by Doug, evening, 20 April

Matt - Way to go!

2008-05-04T08:15:00.013+12:00

This weekend my baby bro, Matthew Parker Reed, receives his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from University of Alaska Anchorage. We have yet to read his thesis and Matt, ever the modest guy, tells us nothing. Through his girlfriend Jamie and Mom, however, we keep reading the impressive comments by reviewers including the dean of the UAA graduate school and author Ron Carlson. Matthew also just received an award for the best thesis of the year.

We all worried, especially Mom, because Matthew didn't speak until he was two years old. He seems to have complete mastery of the English language now!

Today on the far side of the world, we celebrate your accomplishments Matt!

Much Love,

Carolyn, Colin, Doug and Liam

p.s. Message to Uncle Matt from Colin and Liam: The snow started this weekend, so get your skiing bum down here right now!

The Waterfall Hike

2008-04-30T10:02:00.010+12:00

After almost a full year without winter, we can sense that it is approaching. We are experiencing all the classic signs: fiery colored leaves, pumpkins, cool frosty mornings, and darkness arriving earlier each day. The weird part is that these signs are appearing in April, not October. The male Kirkpatricks are doing snow dances and counting the days until ski season. I am not as anxious for cold weather. I just want to be outside hiking or riding every free moment.

The photos are from a recent hike up to the waterfall above our house. At first the boys decided it was too cold to swim. Then, at the last minute, they jumped into the icy pool, screaming and laughing. Doug and I had already tested these glacial waters on my birthday so we watched with amusement remembering the bone aching cold.

Vermin count update:
Mice: 16
Rats: 0
Possum: 3
Hedgehog: 1

Liam, Grams and Carolyn make the news

2008-04-26T21:37:00.007+12:00

Yesterday Liam, Grams and I were interviewed at the Anzac Day service in Queenstown. Today we were in the Otago Daily Times. Despite the fact Liam and I were identified as Texans, seeing ourselves in the paper was fun!

Anzac Day 2008

2008-04-25T20:07:00.006+12:00

25 April is Anzac (Australia & New Zealand Army Corps) Day. For you Americans out there, think Memorial Day. It's a day to remember the New Zealand and Australian soldiers who fought in the bloody & protracted battle in Gallipoli, Turkey during WWI. It has also become a day to remember Australian & New Zealand servicemen and women who have been fought in subsequent wars, most recently Afghanistan.

Our New Zealand friend Judi invited the four of us and Doug's parents to attend the morning ANZAC memorial service here in Queenstown with her. It started out with a parade, led by a bagpipe corps, from the waterfront war memorial to the town memorial hall. Military vets, active military, their spouses and widows, a few transport vehicles from WWII and, finally, us civilians, weaved our way through the closed main thoroughfares of Queenstown. In the town hall, the service was led by the head of the local veterans group, the mayor and a chaplain. Although we have no relatives who fought for Australia or New Zealand, the meaning of the memorial was very familiar to us Americans. The ANZACs have fought for many of the same causes as the Americans during the 20th & 21st centuries, including WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and and Afghanistan. Australia, New Zealand & the US were geographically removed from these conflicts but they all took a stand against what they thought was right. The hymns and prayers were similar. Some of the songs were the same too, except they changed the words to "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" to something about "God Saving the Queen" ;-). After the wreaths and poppies (poppies are a symbol of Gallipoli where poppies flourished) were laid, the ceremony was concluded with the firing of a WWII-era canon.

Seeing the Australian and New Zealand veterans marching with their medals today helped make our emotional visit to Gallipoli seven months ago that more vivid in our memories. It's tough to know what's going on in the heads of kids, but I think Colin and Liam understood most of the messages they heard.

Photos from hike to Sam Summers' Hut

2008-04-21T20:42:00.005+12:00

The poem, with unknown author, was on that table in Sam Summers' hut. I took a photo of it because I too always have questions when I explore crumbling ruins. This area of New Zealand is so reminiscent of the gold and silver mining in Colorado. The characters of the mining era fascinate me. I too try to imagine the people and what their daily tasks must have been.

The trail winds through a beech forest along the river. Water falls cascading into deep clear pools. The pools were so deep and clear, they were irresistible. I even convinced Doug to take a plunge. It may have been in honor of my birthday or the fact that I said we would return on his fortieth in the dead of winter for a swim if he didn't join me on mine. Neither of us stayed in long as the water was freezing - barely melted snow! Jolie seemed unphased by the water temperature.

The day was magical. I even discovered my first fairy ring.

Friendly forty-year-old cowgirl looking for ...

2008-04-18T21:56:00.005+12:00

This is the first blog entry I’ve dreaded writing, but Doug broke the ice for me and announced to the world that I am 40. So far being 40 is going fine, not half as bad as I have been envisioning the last couple of months. First, I had always envisioned throwing myself a huge bash with all my dearest life long friends. We don’t have many life long friends in Queenstown since we only arrived five months ago. Instead, I spent a magical day hiking with Doug followed by a silly evening celebrating with Doug, Colin and Liam. Just before I fell asleep I listened to a CD made by my cousin Bruce and sent to me by my Auntie Jean. It was a digitized recording from about 39 years ago of my grandparents. They are talking to me. My granny is feeding geese from the boat and describing each goose to me. My grandpa tells me stories, Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs, with his own colorful, less than traditional, descriptions. My grandparents rise early one autumn morning and put the recorder on the deck of the boat so my mom in faraway California can hear them jump into the cold Cape Cod waters. I could hear them splashing into the water, laughing and whooping. I was mesmerized by their voices, ceaseless laughter and commotion. I wondered how my mom felt listening to this same recording long ago and again more recently. Now I am the daughter that has moved far away with the grandchildren. Whoa - that’s more than enough of a trip down memory lane, even for a fortieth.

Poor Doug. He needs lots of support or relief after the last couple of months with me. Two events collided simultaneously in my life. First, I turned forty. Second, I have had a bumpy re-entry into the equine world. Remember a blog entry I wrote over a month ago about my new horse? Remember, how excited I was to have a horse once again? Well, that horse and I had a wild ride to say the least. The first vet visit, my sweet new horse spent most of the time on her hind legs, pawing the air with her forelegs. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and assumed that the alpaca were putting her on edge. But every bush we passed seemed to hide a lurking horse murderer. Okay, I thought I’ve handled many a crazy horse in my day, I can handle this one too. Then, I realized the relationship wasn’t going anywhere after three full-on, hunch-backed bronco bucks out of nowhere sent me flying literally head over heels through the air until I landed flat on my back. I lay in the dust with the wind knocked out of me and realized that I am too old for such a wild ride. I did get back on, but I knew that our relationship was over. The trust had been broken. Several days later, my new bronc returned to her former home. I think it was the first time that I have actually felt TOO OLD for something that at one time had been so natural. Riding during my teens, I never worried about falling off, getting thrown or flying through the air. I just wanted to race down the trail bareback with the wind streaming past. Now, I do worry. I think about my two boys, blah, blah, blah… For some crazy reason, I had assumed I would return to the saddle like I'd never left. Doug had to put up with my morose mood.

My horse left, just before my birthday. I admit that I have been a crazy woman. I think I have just wanted to prove to myself that I have lost the cowgirl in me. I have been looking, with more caution, for that perfect horse and driving all over the countryside to see prospective horses. I feel like I have been serial dating horses.

Just a week ago, my second new horse arrived. Over the winter, I am leasing a thoroughbred mare. She is fourteen years old and a dark bay. Based on our first few rides, she and I seem like a much better match. She could care less about the alpacas. She still has lots of go, but so far (crossing fingers) she has kept her four hooves closer to the ground. I am optimistic, however, I am taking this relationship slower. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

I feel like posting a personal ad: Friendly forty-year-old cowgirl looking for an energetic, but sensible, equine friend for long rides in the hills.

Note on the hedgehog death

2008-04-18T21:08:00.004+12:00

Carolyn writing now: We did not intentionally kill the hedgehog. It seems to have died of natural causes, not by a run in with cat or dog or trap. It may have found some poison in the rat bait station. We like the hedgehogs and didn't mean to cause harm to any of them!

SIX

2008-04-18T20:27:00.007+12:00

That is the number of days it took US Air & Air New Zealand to get Doug's parents their last bag. And that doesn't include the two day delay caused by American Airlines flight cancelations. Oh, and one of their suitcases was beaten up so badly that it can no longer be used. Air New Zealand did do the right thing by agreeing to replace the suitcase (unfortunately with a bag of Air New Zealand's choice) and by reimbursing Doug's parents for the clothes that had to buy while waiting for their suitcases to be delivered. Note to self: don't check that bag unless you absolutely have to.

Vermin count update:
Mice: 11
Rats: 0
Possum: 2
Hedgehog: 1

Doug's Parents Arrive...

2008-04-16T06:13:00.002+12:00

But half of their luggage doesn't. When they arrived a bit late into Auckland Saturday morning, only two of the four bags came off the conveyor. By the time they cleared immigration, customs, agriculture inspection and then filed the lost baggage claims, their connection to Queenstown was long gone. Luckily, the next flight was only two hours later.

Getting the luggage back has been like pulling teeth. Auckland blames LA, LA doesn't answer their phones, Air New Zealand blames US Air, US Air blames Air New Zealand, etc., etc. One of the two bags did make it to us on Tuesday and we're hopeful the remaining bag gets here today (Wed).

Rotisserie, after all these years

2008-04-12T06:06:00.006+12:00

16 years ago, just before the Mosaic web browser was starting to take off, Doug played a season of fantasy baseball with a bunch of friends from Rice. Don't recall who won it but I do remember it being a huge amount of work for Larry. Somehow poor Larry was appointed league manager, so everyone called him weekly with their starting lineups. Then on Sundays, he took a good part of his whole day inputing all of the stats from the Sunday sports section into a spreadsheet to track the scores. Funny, we didn't play it the next year...

Fast forward to 2008. The Internet and ESPN has automated everything. The Rice boys of summer are back and playing fantasy baseball again. My team, the New Zealand Kiwis (like my insignia?), is imploding and it's only the second week of the season. My 8th round pick lost his starting job, my 13th pick got sent to the minors, I accidently picked the wrong guy for my 20th pick and my 21st pick was suspended for failing a few steroids tests. They're all gone but the troubles aren't. Over the last few days, four of my players went in for x-rays/MRIs. Even though I'm having a tough time putting nine healthy guys on the field and those that are healthy are hitting a measly .240, I'm still in contention. I'm tied for 3rd out of the field of 10.

You can follow my suffering here.

Something Special in the Air

2008-04-11T10:18:00.002+12:00

We're getting our first visitors from the US this week - Doug's parents. The last time they visited us which was while we were in Denver during Christmas 2006. After several days of cancelled flights, the result of a huge multi-day snow storm in Colorado, they finally decided to make the two day drive. All in all they were four days late, just barely beating Santa to our house.

Well, wouldn't you know that they were going to have bad luck again. They were scheduled to fly from Austin to Los Angeles on Tuesday with American Airlines, before catching an Air New Zealand flight across the pond. Instead, American had to ground all of its MD-80s to re-inspect wheel well wiring. Of course my parents were booked on an MD-80. Two days later, they we're able to get out of Austin on a US Air flight to LA via Phoenix. If all goes right, they'll get here on Saturday morning.

Player of the Day!

2008-04-10T20:11:00.004+12:00

The boys had a big soccer day last Sunday. Both had games against the top of the league tables and both came away with records of 1-1. OK, the games scores were like kissing your sister, but they, individually, came away with great performances. Liam played an awesome defense, clearing the ball left & right. Colin played goalie for his first time & was all over the ball like a cat on catnip. Colin also put up his first Kiwi goal by sprinting half of the field with the ball & putting it in past the goalie up close. Colin walked away from the day with the trophy for player of the day for his team!

Carolyn Turns 40!

2008-04-08T20:53:00.003+12:00

I can't believe that my lovely Carolyn recently turned 40. It just seems like yesterday that we met for the first time. It's been a few years since she was last carded at a bar, but she's still looks like that teenager I met 25 years ago.

Without any longtime friends within 7,000 miles, we didn't throw Carolyn a big bash, over the hill party. Instead, Carolyn & I took a wonderful hike up a canyon near our home (the picture is from the hike) while the boys were at school. When the boys got home, we all drove into Queenstown for dinner (or tea as they say here). Then it was back home for homemade blueberry pie and presents. The following night we celebrated again, this time with another couple with whom we've become friends.

Happy Birthday Carolyn!

It's autumn, so it must be time for...

2008-04-04T16:55:00.005+13:00

Soccer!

Cricket is now a distant memory.

For the next couple of months, our Sundays will be spent at the weekly Central Otago soccer fest. All soccer-playing kids in the region converge on one town to play two games each Sunday. We're now in week 3 of the season and the games will take place in our very own Queenstown this weekend.

Colin is playing on the Queenstown Villans and Liam is on the Queenstown Rainbows. After years of coaching Colin's teams, Doug has moved to coaching Liam's team. Colin's Villans are 2-1-1 and you can track their progress this season here. Liam's Rainbows are 3-1 and you can track their progress this season here.

Vermin count update:
Mice: 8
Rats: 0
Possum: 2

Liam and Colin answer immigration questions from Logan Classmates

2008-04-03T21:17:00.017+13:00

A recent photo of Colin and Liam at the Wanaka Airshow. Colin is still wears his Logan School fleece everywhere.

Kyla and Lindsey’s class at the Logan School is studying human migration and immigration. Because Colin and Liam are former Logan students that have recently immigrated, Kyla and Lindsey asked if the boys could answer some questions developed by students in the class. We read the questions that Lindsey emailed and I typed as Colin and Liam answered the questions verbally. We had hoped to video-conference with class, but there were technical difficulties and bad weather in Denver. I found the boys' thoughts and observations interesting. Maybe, you will too.

What did you have to do to immigrate?

Colin: We had to pack up all our stuff and say our last good-byes to Jolie our dog and take one last look at our house.

Liam: We had to pack up everything we had except for a couple books and three pairs of clothes. We had to say good-byes and we had to get a visa.

And what did you have to do with your dog?

Colin: We said good-bye to Jolie, and then we left her with our grandparents for a long time. When she arrived in New Zealand she was all calm until she saw us then she jumped up and down.

Liam: Jolie, our dog, spent three months we us having shots and tests. After we left, she stayed with our grandparents for another three months. Then she spent a month at a quarantine kennel where we could not see her. She had to take three plane trips: one plane from Texas to California, then to the north island to the quarantine kennel and finally to us on the south island. It was helpful to get a cat, which made us less homesick for Jolie.

What did you take with you on your moving process to New Zealand and why?

Colin: When we were traveling we brought some books and a few toys and games (the Rubik’s cube, Battleship, playing cards, journals, camera, and coloring pens and pencils).

Liam: On our way to NZ we took a trip through Turkey, Greece and Thailand. On that trip, we brought some books to entertain us, three pairs of clothes, and our camera. The rest of our stuff, likes toys and furniture, came on a slow boat to NZ. We did not see our stuff for five months.

What are the main changes about your life in New Zealand? What is the same?

Colin: I have different friends. I live a longer distance away from school. My school is different. My work is very different. I do worksheets, not like Logan. We have a much bigger playground. People don’t behave as well and there are more people per class. My house is a lot bigger. I live on a sheep station, not like in Denver. I take a school bus to school and walk to the bus stop. I play different sports like cricket.

People are very nice here like in Denver. I have my dog here. I have many of the same things here, but they aren’t in the same place, like my bed and toys.

Liam: School is the biggest change. The classes are bigger and not many students concentrate. Another change the town is a lot smaller which means we see our friends every day and it is a lot safer. Also, we have to take the bus, which is forty-five minutes. Life in NZ is outdoorsy, which I like. We live by a huge lake.

Here are some words and phrases that I have noticed that are different:

NZ word............................US word
togs..................................bathing suits
jandals..............................sandals
tea....................................dinner
bum..................................bottom
cuppa................................Cup of tea
good on ya.........................way to go (great job)
good as gold......................good idea
good as.............................great
mate.................................friend
playtime............................recess
maths................................math
learnt.................................learned
centre................................center
autumn (never use fall)........fall
lounge...............................couch
biscuit...............................cookie
morning tea.......................snack time
funny as............................really funny
fast as...............................really fast

Things that are the same as Denver are that people are quite nice. There’s a supermarket. A lot of people ski.

Is there anything you miss about the USA like leaving friend and family?

Colin: I miss Logan school and how few people there were in class and how behaved they were. And I just miss having my old house and my family so close by. I miss my teachers and my friends at Logan.

Liam: Yes, I miss my family and friends. To see family we will now have to travel about sixteen hours on a plane. For the first two months in school, everyone made fun of me and I did not have anyone to play with. Still people make fun of my accent. People say American accents are squeaky.

Were you nervous about moving? What were you nervous about?

Colin: Yes, I was nervous about moving. I thought it would be hard making friends in my new school when I enter in the middle of the year. I was nervous we wouldn’t find a good house or that we wouldn’t find a house that I like. I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to see my family and old friends that much.

Liam: I was nervous about having no friends. I was nervous about school and being bullied. Everyone said in America there are bullies, not NZ. I was worried about not having family around and getting homesick. The time I was most nervous was driving to the airport. That was one of the scariest times of my life because I was leaving my home.

What is your new school like? Do you have new friends? Is it big?

Colin: I have lots of new friends. The school is very big because there are so many students. Recess is very wild with so many kids playing outside. There is Pet Day where everyone brings their pets to school on the same day. Also, my class has a blog that can see (qps-rm23.blogspot.com).

Liam: Yes my school is very big! There are six hundred kids and my class has thirty kids. Two to four classrooms are in each building spread around the school. We are allowed to play in between them and on the field during playtime (recess). The play space is a big as at least four of the Logan big fields. A lot of people know the Maori language and we are learning a little Maori too. I have a lot of new friends. At school we have P.E. (or what you call MYG). We have music and bible class. We will get to ski every Friday for eight weeks in the winter. Yeah!

What is it like in New Zealand? Weather? Landscape? People?

Colin: In New Zealand it is usually sunny and sometimes rainy and cold. It rarely has thunder and lightening. People are very nice. They pretty much always want to play with you. It is very beautiful. You can see the lake from my house and there are many mountains. And we can see an island called Hidden Island from my house. There are lots of lakes. There are lots of birds and sheep. There aren’t any stoplights or big buildings.

Liam: NZ is a lot like Colorado. There are a lot of giant lakes. Instead of forests there is bush, which is as tall as me and as dense as a wall. People are extremely nice. Most kids are a little tougher, but I fit in. The highways are two-laned and very curvy, which equals carsickness. The steering wheel is on the opposite side of the car and we drive on the opposite side of the road. The weather has been a lot like Colorado except it doesn’t get as hot in the summer and not quite as much snow in the winter. It is fall here right now. There are a lot of tourist things like jetboats, steamboats, gondolas, paragliding, bungy jumping. Paragliders land on the school field every day. The gondola starts a hundred meters from school and goes up the hill above the school to the Luge.

Why did you immigrate to New Zealand? Why did you move so far away?

Colin: We moved because we liked it so much in New Zealand. We liked all the lakes, the farms, sheep and birds that sing sweet songs. We are learning Maori culture and about a new place to explore. I’m getting to see many things that I didn’t think existed, like lots of different kinds of birds like the kiwi bird.

Liam: We moved because we liked it here and it is a lot like Colorado except the towns are smaller, which is nice. We moved so far because NZ was the place we wanted to be and my parents wanted me to live outside the US. Here we are near skiing, the beach, farms and school.

Kirkpatricks on the Lam(b)

2008-04-02T20:23:00.009+13:00

April Fools. Sorry if you believed we were moving on before you had a chance to spend your next vacation visiting us here in paradise. Rest assured, guano covered islands are not in our future...

You may remember when we wrote several months ago that we had come across a Lake Kirkpatrick near to where we live here in Queenstown. We didn't know much about how it got its name but one thing we were pretty sure of was that we were not the first Kirkpatricks to live in the area.

Well, now we know a little bit more about the Kirkpatricks who proceeded us here in Queenstown. We learned from our new neighbors that the area we're living in was first settled by the Kirkpatricks back in the mid-1800s. They used the land to raise sheep and named it Closeburn Station after a village and castle back in Scotland that that was associated with the Kirkpatrick clan. The Kirkpatricks lived in a house next to Lake Kirkpatrick that no longer stands. Evidently the Kirkpatricks sold the station over a century ago.

Last week some relatives of the Closeburn Kirkpatricks made an unannounced visit to our house. They were on vacation down from Auckland to see the Warbirds Over Wanaka International Airshow and decided to drive around the land that used to be owned by their long lost ancestors. The wife, who has no Kirkpatrick blood, is an avid genealogist and just had to see the area. They were shocked to see the name "Kirkpatrick" on one of the mailboxes so of course they had to meet what had to be some distant relatives. They got their second shock, and a bit of disappointment I'm sure, when they heard our American accents. Nevertheless, we invited them in for coffee and tea.

We learned from them that Closeburn Station was settled by the brothers Kirkpatrick back in the 1850s. We also learned why they immigrated to New Zealand - one of the brothers was on the run after killing someone back home in Scotland. I imagine he was pretty safe from Scotland Yard down here! Then, of course, came the question from our new friends about the reason for our family's migration to New Zealand.

We still don't know if we're related to these New Zealand Kirkpatricks. But if we are, we learned from our new friends/relatives? that we would also be related to the most famous New Zealand Kirkpatrick - Ian Kirkpatrick.

Vermin count update:
Mice: 5
Rats: 0
Possum: 2

The Kirkpatricks Move On

2008-04-01T21:04:00.009+13:00

While we've really enjoyed Queenstown, we realize that it's a little too crowded and touristy for us. We want our boys to experience what it feels like to truly live on the edge of the world. We haven't told anyone yet, but we've been exploring some of the outer New Zealand islands. The Bounty Islands look the most promising option, especially since we heard back from the New Zealand Immigration Service that they are trying to repopulate the islands with humans and would help sponsor our relocation and distance learning for the boys. Doug boats out next weekend to test his new satellite Internet service and diesel generator. Another option is Campbell Island, where the New Zealand Meteorological Service is looking to sponsor someone to maintain their weather equipment. We still hope to have lots of friends and family visit wherever we ultimately land.

The Boys do Warbirds!

2008-03-30T20:03:00.009+13:00

Easter Weekend is a five day event down here in the Otago region of New Zealand. Like much of Europe, New Zealand takes Friday and Monday off for Easter. Throw in an Otago Anniversary Day holiday celebrated on Tuesday and you get a magnificent five day weekend. Colin, Liam & Doug kicked it off by attending the practice day of the biannual Warbirds Over Wanaka International Airshow on Friday.

The boys saw a lot of planes up close and got to talk to several US Air Force pilots who run the C-130 shuttle flights between Christchurch, NZ, McMurdo Station and the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. There were a lot of cool planes, ranging from WWI biplanes to the modern C-17 cargo aircraft, but it was the T-28 Trojan that really excited the boys. Doug's father learned to fly in this plane nearly 50 years ago and it was the first time that Liam & Colin had seen one.

Over 100,000 attended the show this year - not bad for a country of only 4m people (only 1m of which live on the South Island). It seems that everyone & their mother is a pilot down here, so maybe it's not so surprising after all. It was a really good show so if you're thinking of visiting New Zealand in two years, try to time it with a stopover in Wanaka over the five-day Easter weekend.

Vermin count update:
Mice: 3
Rats: 0
Possum: 2

Oh No Something Killed The Easter Bunny

2008-03-24T20:43:00.013+13:00

Photograph taken by Doug on Easter morning. Clouds hide the mountains.

We celebrated Easter this year with a treasure hunt all over the neighborhood. Liam and Colin rode their bikes frantically from one clue to the next. The Easter Bunny left an egg next to each boy’s bed with the first clue that said,

Are you awake?
Shhh- for your parents’ sake

When you hear them talking,
Get dressed for biking or walking

Then find Mom and Pop,
It‘s time to hippity hop!

Amazingly, the boys didn’t come up until around eight when Doug and I awoke. But when they arrived in our room, they were dressed and ready to head out the door. As we were riding our bikes down the road following one of the first clues, Liam stopped his bike and pointed at something on the side of the road. When I caught up with him, he looked up at me and said, “Oh no, something killed the Easter Bunny.” I wasn’t sure if he was trying to be funny or was truly distressed. The huge rabbit sprawled in the grass was definitely dead. It was technically a hare, I think, but I decided not to share this extra info and I tried to bike on quickly before Colin noticed the dead Easter Bunny too.

By the time Liam and I saw the dead Easter Bunny, I would have to say I was already desensitized. This Easter week I have seen more dead rabbits (and hares) than any other week in my life. One more dead rabbit on the side of the road didn’t seem that big a deal, except that was Easter morning. Our neighbor had been out rabbit hunting several nights earlier. Doug and I were walking by his truck the following morning and he asked if we wanted to see his catch. I was expecting a fish or something, but started getting suspicious as I got closer to the truck and realized the bed was buzzing with flies. I peered over the side to find a mountain of dead rabbits and hares. I tried to act cool and nonchalant, like all my friends in Denver kept piles of dead rabbits in the beds of their trucks. I do understand the problem, though. Our area is overrun with rabbits and there are few predators to control them. I guess a night of rabbit hunting provides both entertainment and pest control. Now Doug, Colin and Liam want to go rabbit hunting. However, I am not yet desensitized to the idea of my sons hunting. We’ll see.

Kiwis seem to have a different relationship to Easter Bunnies than Americans. In the United States, images of cuddly, soft bunnies appear in stores and on TV right after Valentine’s Day. Maybe the bunny images are just the result of the increased commercialization of holidays in the U.S. In New Zealand, there are chocolate bunnies and Cadbury eggs, but entire stores are not plastered with bunnies and ducklings and other pastel spring animals. Another reason might be that we are heading into autumn. Halloween, not Easter, marks the season of rebirth when we experience baby animals and all new things.

There is one local Easter tradition that I don't think Americans yet celebrate. The annual Great Easter Bunny Hunt takes place at Alexandra in Central Otago, just down the road from us. The NZ Herald Tribune reported hunters bagged 16,121 bunnies in twenty-four hours this weekend. Who knew there were so many Easter bunnies?

Doug asked me to give you the vermin count:

Mice: 2
Rats: 0
Possum: 2

I promise no more entries on dead animals for a while, unless Doug sneaks one. Instead, maybe next entry, I can update you on how successful we were at overhauling the septic system and cleaning its filters today. I guess we're just adjusting to life in the bush.

Vermin Count, Day Three

2008-03-21T07:08:00.001+13:00

The count after three days:

Mice: 2
Rats: 0
Possum: 1

Vermin Count

2008-03-20T15:03:00.003+13:00

The count after two days:

Mice: 2
Rats: 0
Possum: 0

Doug Declares War on the Vermin

2008-03-17T11:40:00.005+13:00

New Zealand was free of furry pests, I think, until the Europeans showed up. Without big mammalian and airborne predators, they have flourished to this day. We may be living in paradise, but we are sharing it with a lot of mice, rats and possums. The temperatures are beginning to drop and that appears to be driving them to seek the warmth of our house.

After much consultation with the locals, I've got a plan to fight back. Good ol' fashion mice traps, mice/rat poison and a wicked snapping possum trap are now part of my arsenal. May the battle begin...

Broken Mommies

2008-03-14T15:26:00.009+13:00

This week Auntie Joyce (aka one of the crazy aunties, by my childhood and Colby friends) sent me a story written by her mom, my granny. According to Joyce the story was written over 40 years ago. I am guessing it was written about events that happened at least 50 years ago. I decided to share the story with you. I realize that two generations later I am doing exactly as my granny did. I write to record the events of my life with my young family. Like my granny, I am amazed, amused and baffled by my children and their interpretation and encounters with the world as they grow.

I am fascinated and treasure any photos, memories and stories about my maternal grandparents. To me, they are shadowy, almost mythical, members of my family. My granny passed away when I was four and my grandpa followed her by the time I was six, I believe. My sister was a newborn when my granny died and my brother was not born when my grandfather died. I feel lucky because I am the only sibling that knew my granny.

All I have left is a series of floating images, like a drawer loosely filled with miscellaneous old photos. What I remember most clearly is my grandparents laughing in their long narrow kitchen. They always seemed to be laughing. I remember a bottom draw in that kitchen full of forbidden sweets. I can feel the weight of that drawer as I pulled on the handle and peered inside looking for an icing covered cookie or a Twinkie. I remember a red and white checked facecloth hanging at eye-level in the bathroom. I can see a big closet near this bathroom full of Granny’s clothes. I remember going for walks to Petruzzi’s vegetable stand and to the store by the lake that seemed to sell everything, including ice cream. I remember being in my crib in the room with pink, or maybe yellow, walls. I can feel my fingernails scraping animal stickers off that pink wall behind the crib. I can see Granny peaking around the door at me in my crib. I remember the big party the day of Granny’s funeral and I stayed the day with my other grandma. I am not sure whether or not all my memories are of actual events. I suspect some are stolen from photo albums or were actually heard on audiotapes sent by my grandparents after my family moved to California. I know without doubt that my grandpa made me the safest-scared you could be. I definitely remember waiting in his chair in front of his T.V. for him to return home from work, listening for the door to open, trembling with nervous excitement for him to discover me in his chair and then tickle-attack me until I relinquished the seat. I would get that same feeling when I bobbed in my life jacket next to my grandparents’ sailboat and Grandpa Shark would come from the deep and pull me under the surface.

My mom shares many stories of her parents with me and my siblings. My aunties and great-aunt add even more color and detail to my memories of Granny and Grandpa. Great-aunt Eleanor wrote me long letters and each one had a story about her sister, my granny. My favorite is the story of when my grandparents returned home from their honeymoon to find they had lost their jobs. Instead of looking for new jobs, they promptly left on a second honeymoon. This type of story adds to the mythical, romantic images of my grandparents that I conjure up in my imagination.

In a dream, I brought Doug to my grandparents’ house. We drove to East Brookfield, Massachusetts and I somehow found the house. The house looked long ago abandoned. It was worn and in need of paint. We entered and I led Doug straight upstairs. I opened Granny’s clothes’ closet door. Strangely it was still full of her clothes. For some reason I walked right into the closet and pulled Doug in behind me. I realized I had never noticed that the closet was actually quite large and there was an area rug below a big window. The window was too dirty to see out to the world, but the light that filtered through it the filled the room with yellowy, hazy glow. Slowly my eyes adjusted and I could see a chair in the corner. Granny was in the chair. I couldn’t believe it. I was overwhelmed. Finally my granny could meet Doug. She couldn’t understand why I hadn’t brought Doug to meet her sooner. It didn’t make sense to me either. All these years we’d missed and she here in her home in the closet all along.

She said, “Wait a minute.”

Then she disappeared between the clothes into another room in the closet. She came back with Grandpa. He was there too! He too met Doug. I knew they would love him. Then Doug and I had to leave. I didn’t want to go. We still had so much to share. The closet just seemed to fade back and away. I couldn’t keep up as the closet retreated.

I was so sad to realize I was dreaming. Never had a dream felt so real to me. And despite the introduction being only a dream, I felt a true sense of calm and completeness that Doug had finally met my grandparents and that they knew him.

Last night I printed out the copy of “Broken Mommies” that Auntie Joyce emailed to me. I read the story to Colin and Liam. After the boys went to bed, I sat and examined my copy of “Broken Mommies.” I want to understand each word and scribble. At the bottom of the second page, Granny wrote, “Good Cooker, Good Looker – See Good” The last word is crossed out. What do these words mean? What was that last word she crossed out? I try to decide whose handwriting looks like Granny’s handwriting, one of my aunt's or my mom's? I still have so many questions.

Slowly, I run my finger across the words that Granny wrote.

Carolyn faces a personal challenge

2008-03-12T20:52:00.005+13:00

Outdoor education week presented me with one unexpected, personal challenge. I think I met this challenge, but I am not certain I should be proud or that I should share the details of it with you…Oh well, here it goes...

As my family and close friends all know, I am a tiny bit phobic of germs in general and public restrooms in particular. I am the crazy woman that opens the door to the rest room with her shirtsleeve and turns on the tap with the paper towel. Taking my boys into a public restroom, I repeat the mantra I learned from my mother. “Don’t touch anything, don’t touch anything, wash your hands.” As I repeat the mantra over and over on each trip to the restroom, I know that I need to stop. I want to stop because I know that I am instilling this same phobia in my sons, as my mother did to me and her mother did to her. I just can’t to stop myself. Some personalities seem more susceptible to this influence than others. My mother was more so than her sisters, just like her mother. I seem more susceptible than my siblings and I am worried Liam might be vulnerable too. Colin, luckily, does not seem affected in the least.

On Hikoi Day during the boys' Outdoor Ed Week, we had a few minutes after returning from Skyline gondola for bathroom breaks and to eat our snacks before the Maori lecture. I ran to use the restroom in the main school hall. When I entered the restroom wearing my sunglasses, I could barely see. I tucked my glasses into my shirt and rushed to do my business.

Someone hadn’t flushed before me, but I thought to myself, "Be a good environmentalist, save water and flush after you pee. If it's yellow, let it mellow."

As I turned to flush the toilet, my glasses slipped off the front of my shirt, splashed into the toilet bowl and sank.

I said, “S#?t!” and thought, “Now, what do I do?”

I had two choices. One, I could walk out of the bathroom and pretend I hadn’t worn sunglasses that day. But we had an afternoon of walking around in the bright sunshine. Also, they were an expensive pair of sunglasses that I really liked. I didn’t know if I could find another pair of them here in New Zealand.

I went with my second choice. I took a deep breath, plunged my hand to the bottom of the bowl and grabbed my glasses. I turned on the faucet without a paper towel because there weren’t any and, at this point, I was beyond caring. Then, I discovered the soap dispenser was empty too. I rinsed my hands and glasses in lukewarm water. Holding my dripping glasses with my wet fingertips at arm's length, I left the restroom. I needed soap and decided the administrators' bathroom would be my best option. Thank the goddess, the administrators had soap, towels and hot water. By the time I returned to the school group, they were heading into the main hall for the lecture. I had missed snack, which was fine with me, because I had completely lost my appetite.

When I got home I soaked my glasses and hands in Purell, washed them both again with soap and hot water, and finally took a shower, without my sunglasses.

My family, you should be proud of me. Maybe, just maybe, I have broken the phobic cycle.

p.s. I offer a picture of a clean and radiant rainbow, also taken during Outdoor Education Week, as an antidote to this disgusting blog entry. If you look really closely, you can see a hint of a double rainbow!

Carolyn and Doug head out for a night too

2008-03-11T19:17:00.002+13:00

When the boys left on their overnight camping trips, Doug and I realized we had a night to ourselves! We too headed out for a little adventure, up to a fishing hut to “camp out.” Unlike the boys, though, we had running water, a bed and a cozy fireplace. We went for a great hike, grilled steaks under the stars and snuggled next to the fireplace. I had big plans for a morning hike, but instead slept like a log until 10 am, which is the latest I’ve slept since we arrived in New Zealand.

On our late afternoon hike, we tried to take a shortcut across a boggy area and ended up thigh deep in water and muck. I was leaping tussock to tussock, feeling like I was going to make it across until I looked back to see Jolie flaying in a deep, water-filled hole with just her head visible. I turned back to rescue her because Doug was too far away. By the time I pulled the eighty-pound Jolie out of her pit, we were both soaked and covered in foul-smelling muck. We were a beautiful sight as we returned to the hut.

Without a phone at the fishing hut, I was nervous that, in an emergency or if the weather turned ugly, the boys would return to find us gone. We packed our neighbor’s numbers in the boys’ packs so that if one or both boys headed home early, they could call our neighbor to drive out and get us. Luckily, all went smoothly on the trips.

This year I just feel more Kiwi

2008-03-10T16:26:00.007+13:00

I wrote this entry in 20 February and somehow it was saved in draft form. I don't think it was ever posted. If you've already seen it, I'm sorry and please ignore.

As I drove the boys to school on the third day, Colin said in the most wistful voice, “ I miss my old life. I miss my school, especially my teachers and friends.”

All I could say was, “I know.” I was glad I was driving and facing forward where Colin couldn’t see my sad, wet eyes.

Now, two weeks into school, the mood has completely changed. Both boys have made friends. Colin has a core group of boys, some from his new class and some from last year’s class. He says he always has at least one friend to play with at recess. Liam has a new best friend, Scottie. He’s going to Scottie’s birthday party tomorrow after school. Liam noted this is the first time in New Zealand he has been invited to a friend’s house first (before he has invited the friend to our house).

This morning, waiting for the bus, Liam explained, “This year I just feel more Kiwi.”

Note: The photo has nothing to do with entry. Doug took the photo Monday evening (18 February). In the early mornings and evenings, low thin clouds stretch along the lake. They mesmerize us.

Outdoor Education Week

2008-03-08T11:56:00.015+13:00

This was Outdoor Education Week at Queenstown Primary School and the theme for the week was challenge. Liam and Colin have both been discussing challenges in their classrooms and setting goals for personal challenges. The entire school spends the week on outdoor adventures, experiencing many personal and group challenges first hand. Both boys had incredible, adventure-packed weeks. Doug and I tagged along on several of the days, too. The whole community seems to get involved. Parents join outings as helpers. All tour operators in town give huge discounts for the students and parents. Parents shuttle supplies in their cars, boats and helicopters. All week long, the first question when greeting someone around town is "What trip is your kid on today? "

From the outside the week looks like a logistical nightmare. Students in the school are divided into groups A, B, C, and D. Siblings are placed in the same groups and each group includes students from the Junior, Middle and Senior Schools. Some days of the week all of Group A went on outings together and older and younger students were placed in buddy pairs. On other days, the groups subdivided by age for separate outings. The same teachers stayed with the same students all week. As a Group A Middle School Student, Colin was with one set of teachers and as a Group A Senior School Student, Liam had another set. Colin and Liam both went on overnights on the same night to different locations. While my explanation of the logistics may seem convoluted, Liam and Colin each came home Friday prior to the trips with individual programmes for the week. The programs outlined their daily itineraries and equipment lists. Colin and Liam knew exactly what to bring, where to go and who they were with every day of the week.

Not knowing exactly what to expect, we arrived early Monday morning for the first day of Outdoor Education Week. The air was cool, one of the chilliest mornings yet and the campus was teeming with activity. Every classroom, empty room, playground and meeting area seem to have a group of students, teachers and parents preparing for the day. The campus is tucked right against the mountainside, so the sun arrives at school late and the groups meeting outside clustered around the few sunny spots trying to absorb to heat. Teachers conducted roll calls and gear checks. Parents were briefed on their duties. Students organized their gear, donned sun hats and slathered sunblock. Buses and cars were loaded with supplies and students. Other groups headed up the gondola and still others headed off campus on foot.

Both boys went on overnight camping trips on Monday. Colin went to Bannockburn and visited the Kawarau Mining Village. He even did a little gold panning. Colin slept in a tent with two buddies, but said that he was up most of the night with snoring and loud breathing all around him. Liam camped on Pigeon Island in Lake Wakatipu. Liam and schoolmates took jet boats out to the island and their tent, or the marquee as Liam calls it, was delivered by helicopter to the island. Liam, forty-seven schoolmates, his teachers and the parent helpers all slept under the marquee. Both boys returned Tuesday afternoon exhausted but thrilled with their trips. They were talking at the same time all the way home as they tried to recount all the details of their overnights.

Wednesday, Doug joined Liam, Colin and the rest of Group A on the hike to Lake Alta. It was a cloudy, drizzly day. Group A felt lucky to have finished their overnights between rainstorms. Liam and Colin were two of eight kids out of Group A that made it to the summit of the hike and Colin was proud to be the only Middle School student who reached the summit.

I joined the boys for Hikoi Day on Thursday. Hikoi is a Maori word meaning a journey or march. In the morning we had a Maori welcoming ceremony, a powhiri, in the school hall. Then we rode the Skyline gondola to visit Kiwi Haka, where we watched and participated in traditional Maori songs and dance and traditions. We returned to school for a talk on Maori history of Queenstown and surrounding areas. Liam and Colin were fascinated by the stories we heard. After a picnic lunch we head for Queenstown Gardens for a lesson on flax weaving. Liam made a headband and Colin and I made flowers. For the Kirkpatricks, the whole day was a learning experience because we know so little about the Maori culture.

Friday, Colin took the Earnslaw Steamboat across Lake Wakatipu to Walter Peak Station and then hiked to Table Bay. Colin’s favorite part of the day was singing songs on the Earnslaw on the way home. They sang songs like, “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” and “Oh My Darlin’ Clementine.”

Liam spent Friday climbing Ben Lomond. He rode the gondola up to Skyline and then the hike began. Liam was a bit nervous about whether he would be able to reach the summit on the Ben Lomond hike. He carefully packed his bag with all the required gear as soon as he was home from school the day before the hike. We made a high-energy lunch and put snacks in pockets he could easily reach during the hike. The moment I saw him at the end of the day, knew he had made it. He looked exhausted, but was all smiles.

Friday night we toasted all the adventures and challenges of the week as we chowed on burritos and ice cream.

Cats always seem to find the best seat in the house

2008-03-05T09:54:00.003+13:00

And, they seem to assume the best seat must be for them. Ollie has claimed the sheepskin as his spot. He heads for the sheepskin in the chilly early mornings before the sun warms up the house and at night, if he hasn't snuck onto someone's bed.

4WD Trip through Central Otago

2008-03-04T21:00:00.005+13:00

We took part in the annual Closeburn Station 4WD trip last weekend and spent three days touring dusty back roads through Central Otago, our new backyard. Every vehicle in our caravan, after the leader, was lost in the cloud of dust churned up by the car in front. But when the dust settled and the wind was in our favor, the sights were amazing. The grasses and tussocks on the hillsides are turning brown. The landscape looks soft and muted. A few wild flowers still bloom, especially along green slopes of the lazy summer streams. Actually some of the streams were still quite deep, which we discovered trying to cross them. Strangely, the open ranch lands of Otago remind us of our old stomping grounds in Park County, Colorado. Both locales are rich with legends and ruins from their gold rush days. We spent the first night at the Vulcan hotel in St. Bathans. The Vulcan Hotel is supposedly haunted. None of the Kirkpatricks saw the ghost, but one member of our party switched rooms in the middle of the night. The second night we stayed in a nondescript motel in Omarama. The trip was a fun opportunity to get to know some of our new neighbors. In fact, they all got to know a side to Doug I don't even know! I took Colin and Liam back to motel for bed. Doug headed out to the local pub with the rest of our group (not to return to early morning). It was Karaoke Night at the pub. I learned at breakfast that Doug treated our group, and many other Kiwis, to a few songs. Unfortunately, I was snoozing back at the motel and wasn't able to recored the event.

I can’t remember our Denver house!

2008-02-28T21:13:00.003+13:00

Below is an exchange I overheard between the boys in early January. I quickly scribbled it down but forgot to post it in a blog entry:

Liam announced in a panicked voice at breakfast yesterday, “I can’t remember our Denver house!”

Colin started a verbal tour of the house for Liam, “Remember the playroom was in the basement and your bedroom was next to the kitchen…”

“Oh, yeah. Okay, I remember,” Liam, said with a big sigh of relief.

The boys feel in between worlds. I guess I do too. They left their Colorado friends, family and school, but don’t yet feel settled here. Both boys have met some friends and had a few playdates, but still feel like the new boys on the outside of the group. I could feel Liam’s panic when he couldn’t remember his Denver house. Denver is still home in his heart, because Queenstown is not. Every person and experience is viewed in comparison to life in Denver. I keep reminding both boys that Queenstown will not be Denver. Queenstown will be a new experience. Someday life will feel normal here. And, when it does feel normal, we probably won’t even realize it.

Colin's class has a blog

2008-02-26T20:40:00.006+13:00

Colin's class at Queenstown Primary School has a blog. You can check out what's going on in his class, if you want.

The photo shows Colin and some of his new buddies having a lunch break on yesterday's hike.

Colin's class and the rest of the Middle School classes hiked the Skyline track, straight up the hill behind the school. The students are getting prepared for Outdoor Education Week (next week). Both Colin and Liam will be going on overnight camping trips with their classes. Liam is going to Pigeon Island in Lake Wakatipu. According to Liam, he is traveling to the island by jet boat and his supplies are being airlifted to the island by helicopter. Colin is going to a camp in Bannockburn. They are both excited. Parents are invited to join the trips. Both Colin and Liam suggested that Doug and I could come on some of the day trips during the week, but they wanted to do their overnight without parents, just like at Logan. Colin did let me come on the Skyline hike today.

Duckling update

2008-02-19T08:35:00.007+13:00

Our two remaining ducklings out of eight are almost all grown up. Their baby fuzz has turned to the mottled brown adult feathers. They splash and motor around the pond, quacking loudly, sometimes with Mommy Duck and sometimes just together. They can even fly right out of the water now. We sit and watch them as we eat dinner.

I love to travel, but there is also something magical and soothing about sitting still in one place and watching the season pass. The sun rises later. Mornings are darker and cooler. The yard and hills are fringed and splotched with browns. The light and colors are softer, less neon, than when we arrived in late October. The sounds too seem more muffled without the bleating lambs that accompanied our arrival to New Zealand.

I await the change to fall with some sadness. The boys are back to school and the weather will get colder. But, then thoughts turn to visions of crisp snowy mountains and skiing! We haven't had winter in a year with the timing of our southern migration.

In my day I had to walk five miles in the snow up hill both ways to school…

2008-02-18T22:21:00.008+13:00

When Doug and I announced to the boys they were going to take the bus to school, they were thrilled. They have never taken the bus to school. The excitement fizzled when they realized they had to walk from the house down to the paved road to reach the bus stop and then up the hill at the end of the day.

Liam announced, “It is simply too far to walk.”

Colin said, “I won’t remember where to go.”

We countered Liam’s objection by calling Auntie Allison. She went over to Ojai and walked our childhood route. Which, like this one, was downhill to the bus and uphill home. Then I walked the boys’ route. The two routes took roughly the same amount of time. If Auntie Allison and I could do it, so could Colin and Liam. Allison also told the boys that she had to make it to and from the bus stop on crutches. I can remember watching Allison hobble up the hill after school with crutches and her big pack. I don’t remember taking her pack for her. I guess I was not that thoughtful of a big sister. Allison seemed to be on crutches for long stretches of elementary school. Maybe that’s where her incredibly strong arms developed?

To solve Colin’s objection we had several practice walks to the bus stop then home again. The route would be simple if I let them walk down the road through the station, but I won’t. The road from our house to the bus stop is a narrow, windy, slightly wider than one-lane dirt and gravel track. Cars, and especially trucks, come around the corners too fast. Instead, I have found connecting back tracks through the bush and sheep paddocks to reach the bus stop. After several round trips both boys were still reluctant about having to walk to the bus stop, but at least they were confident they could find their way.

For now Doug and/or I walk with the boys. Jolie needs the exercise; anyhow, I usually walk every morning. Two trips a day should help her drop the quarantine bulge and it can't hurt me while the weather's nice.

After the first day on the bus Liam was indignant with the inefficiency of the bus route. Liam explained how bus leaves the primary school and does a loop that reaches about half way to our house and then returns to town to pick up the high school students. With the high school students and remaining primary kids it does the same route again and then continues further out of town past our house. Liam says he wasted 30 minutes having to return to town for the big kids. We explained that if we drive the boys, we use gas, a round trip takes us 40 minutes, and we have to do two round trips a day. So either Liam has to waste time 30 minutes or we waste one hour and twenty minutes plus gas. Liam finally conceded, “True. It’s the best for most people, just not for me.”

To break up the walk each day we pass through our neighbors’ driveway and check to see if the chickens have laid any eggs. Now Liam and Colin want chickens. After the early morning wake-ups in Greece and Turkey, Doug has banned roosters and burros. We’ll see about the chickens. We suggested that the boys offer to take care of our neighbor’s chickens for a while.

The little kids sit at the front and high school kids take the rear of the bus. Because we are near the end of the line, there are only a handful of kids when Liam and Colin board the bus. As the bus pulled away Doug and I both noticed in the last row a morose, goth-looking teenager dressed in all black. His/Her hair was bleached blonde with a patch dyed turquoise. We cracked up. We could have been looking at one of our classmates a generation ago. Being a morose teenager looked so tiring, almost unbearable.

Domesticated Bliss

2008-02-16T22:01:00.006+13:00

Saturday was the one week anniversary of Jolie's arrival. She and kitten Ollie are becoming buddies. I walked into the kitchen after lunch to find this scene. Both were sound asleep before I snapped the photo.