Fiji!

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.